One of the terribly limiting perspectives that language schools have on teaching is the idea that they need a syllabus that clearly shows what content you’re going to do and when. I have a problem with that, because, while this might work for students at a language academy whose objective is to get an official certificate, it doesn’t reflect the needs of a business.

I’ve been teaching English at companies for over twenty years now and I have hardly ever been asked to teach classes that would prepare the staff to pass a specific exam. More often than not, companies are interested in enabling their workers to improve their English in general and when you speak to the staff themselves, very few people are actually interested in getting an official certificate.

So, why is that? This happens because a language certificate is usually a means to an end: graduating from university or getting a job. Once you’ve been taken on by a business, there is no longer a need for you to prove what your level of English is. But, naturally, as an active employee and a life-long learner who wants to do better and better, you want to maintain your knowledge and improve it if you can.

Assuming you don’t need to prove anything and your English is advanced enough, your situation as a language learner becomes very different. Your motivation for learning English changes, and, as a consequence, so do your objectives in this context. Basically, you can now focus on very specific areas of your English that you’d like to improve and you’re in full control as to what you learn.

Language schools may often be afraid to recognise this change, because it means that they can’t rely on books or their standard staff to teach you English anymore. After all, no book is going to be specific to your needs and teaching you will require someone who not only has experience working in a business context, but also someone who understands your business model and your value proposition. It would also be a bonus if the person teaching you was actually passionate about your business. It’s just a bonus, but it helps.

As there is no published material you can rely on to serve your client’s needs, this new model of teaching is based entirely on the content provided by the learner, where feedback takes centre stage. It’s a model where the teacher plays the role of a critical observer who has the language and business expertise to provide their client with highly relevant language help; a model which requires the teacher to be fully involved and go beyond the red. 

And, again, such services are not something that many language schools will be able to provide if they rely staff whose main area of expertise is teaching general or academic English. Few schools pay their teachers well enough to require such a high level of commitment to their clients. After all, how could you even ask a teacher to record personalised audio files or maintain an on-going shared feedback sheet reflecting the whole history of the learning process if you pay them €20 per hour?

Any language academy that wishes to be seen as providing very high quality tailor-made service to their business clients, needs access to the kind of expertise that enables them to deliver such service and they  need to be prepared to pay a premium rate for it. The same is true for businesses who want to organise language classes for their employees. Contracting a language provider who doesn’t understand your business model or value proposition, is like going to eat out in the first restaurant you come by and choosing the first dish on the menu: risky and quite likely not to live up to your expectations.

You can say a lot of things about the big players in the world of English language teaching, but whatever you think, you have to agree that these people know how to create a need among their clients and fill it.

My favourite example of this is the young learners’ exams. Did you know that if your child is between six and 12 years old, they can do a special official exam in English? That’s right. And it’s not even one exam, but actually three separate exams. You’ve read that correctly: your child can have three official language certificates that are recognised around the world before they even go to secondary school. 

Sadly, at least from my perspective, this last part together with peer, parental and school pressure makes a lot of parents fork out hundreds of euros so that their kid can get an official certificate that they would never actually be able to use in their life. Ever. Why? Because the level of English that your child needs to possess to get all the three certificates is not even intermediate (B1). In fact, it’s quite significantly below that level.

And you may say (or repeat what you’d been told by your child’s English teacher) that the most important part of this exam is that the child has an experience of doing an official exam and is getting used to how these exams work. Yeah, except that these exams, especially the first two ones are almost nothing like the official exams that your child will actually need to take in the future, and, frankly, because their level is so ridiculously low, they have close to zero practical value.

So how come the young learners’ exams are such a huge business these days? Well, as I said, Cambridge created a need no-one knew they even had and they offered a perfect solution. They’ve succeeded in creating a self-perpetuating business model fuelled by parents’ pride and insecurity, the schools’ drive for prestige and the fact that the little human being taking these exam usually takes no part in the decision to do those tests. Works like clockwork!

Do forgive my rant, but it actually illustrates a point I wanted to make: business English is really similar to those young learners’ exams. We have somehow been made to believe that we need to learn this very special English when we’re in a business environment, dealing with clients or working at a company. And that’s simply not true. At least from my perspective, it isn’t. Let me explain.

Business English is simply English. There’s nothing special or unique about it. It doesn’t need a special title or books that specifically teach you how to use it. It’s simply English that you adapt to be successful in the context of your work. 

I’ve worked with a variety of companies and I can tell you first hand that the English one company needs is going to be different, sometimes even vastly different to the language another company needs. Consider the basic difference between a services and a product company. On the one hand, you might have a niche consultancy firm helping negotiate high profile deals; while, on the other, you may be dealing with a business selling kitchens on the phone. Do you really think the English they need is going to be the same ‘Business English’?

Sure, there is going to be an overlap in the vocabulary and grammar structures that both of these businesses need, but there is also going to be a big chunk of language which is simply different. Calling both of them business English is misleading because it doesn’t recognise the very different needs these entities have. 

And what about small talk? While learning the language that’s specific to your work context is necessary, what about those situations when you’re building a relationship with your clients talking about life in general? Will learning ‘business English’ enable you to have such conversations. No, it won’t. You’ll need to know the language in general as you talk about politics, sports, your family life and a whole host of other subjects. Business English is a misleading term, because it sells you the idea that this is the only thing you need to be a good communicator at work.

If you agree with me on this, the idea of having a book that teaches you how to use English at work is quite ridiculous. No text book out there is not going to be able to meet your specific language needs. Don’t let anyone tell you different! Sure, you can use it to complement your learning process and to learn some basics, but you’ll only be able to master the real stuff that is specific to your business by learning with someone who understands your business model and your value proposition. 

In short, when choosing a language school to do classes at your company, choose wisely and go for someone who is not going to be confused when you talk to them about your channels or client segmentation.