How to Teach a Corporate English (EFL) Conversation Class

In many countries in the world, teaching EFL (English as a Foreign Language) in a corporation is becoming very popular. Corporations all over the world are realizing that, in order to compete in business, their employees have to be able to speak English. I recently took a new job teaching corporate English at the Bangkok offices of a large American company in Bangkok. I teach around 70 Thai employees every week and we concentrate mostly on English conversation. I teach all levels of corporate English from beginner to high-intermediate, but they all have the same requirements - that they learn to speak English better than they can at the moment. But how do you teach English conversation skills in a corporation?

In Thailand, like in many other countries, Thai people have very good reading, writing and listening English skills. When it comes to speaking in English however, this is when they have problems. So I have devised a list of beginning topics that will cover a one hour corporate English conversation class that is held once a week for three months. This list emphasizes social more than business English, as this is often what corporations want their employees to learn when they take an EFL class.

Week One - Introductions and Personal Information - This is an introduction class for both students and trainers. The goal is to make the corporate employees feel more self-confident speaking English and to assess the approximate skill level of the students.

Weeks Two and Three - About Your Company - Speaking about the company - What does their company do? What do they like about their jobs? What do they not like? What problems or challenges do they have at work, especially when they have to speak English? This is a good section for employees to learn some business vocabulary as well as for the EFL trainers to learn about the company they are working in.