Welcome ! Forums In what ways do business learners differ from others

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  • #4836
    admin
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    Add your contribution of around 500 words.

    #181440
    Yasamin Etemad
    Participant

    Business learners have different motivation from other learners as they have a specific goal in mind and learning the language plays a very important part in their career and life. As a result, they tend to be more motivated. An important factor to consider when teaching business learners is that they usually have a limited time and need to improve their language in a short period. It is therefore important to focus on language that is related to the learner’s business/ work so that they make the most out of each lesson. Finally, their interest in the language is mainly related to their profession and this can be used as a guide to make the sessions more relatable and beneficial for the learner. Focusing on language that is related to their profession will increase their interest and motivate them.

    #181532
    Mario Rivabene
    Participant

    Business learners do not differ from others having regards to them
    motivation because the motivation is different for any learner. My feeling, is that each person is unique and unique is the motivation he, or she, has concerning the approach to the new language. Completely different is the matter of the
    time they can spend in learning a language. Several times people who learn a language for business use have not enough time to spend in it. This is not due to their interest or anything else but to the real purpose of studying: business. They have to study while working and many times these people consider the new language as a part of their job or worst consider learning a new language itself a job, giving it as little time as they could.
    This last consideration, besides being a problem for the trainer is a topic related to the
    interest in languages that could change if the learner considers the learning as a part of his job or a job or a thing he is doing to improve himself.

    #182380
    Justyna Czubak
    Participant

    Business learners learn different because they normally have a different goal and learn motivation. Thye have less time. but the deadline and the time pressure is also a good motivation. They have also a better understanding for what reason do they learn and in which concrete situation they will use a learnt language .

    #183801
    Funda Akkaya
    Participant

    I think that business learners are more motivated than other learners since, for example, business English communication skills are essential for getting ahead at work; learning business English will help them work more effectively and open up new career opportunities. Business learners have limited time since they work. A trainer should plan lessons by bearing in mind that business learners’ time is limited. It is important to plan lessons which will include business vocabulary and terms. Business learners differ from others in terms of their interest in languages. Learning several languages will open up new career opportunities for them. All in all, business learners are more motivated, their time is limited, so trainers should help them to improve their language in short period of time, and they are interested in languages.

    #184161
    Manon Dercourt
    Participant

    Business learners are different in the sense that they cannot afford to waste time on everyday topics that they may not necessarily be useful. Their objectives are often very specific, answering emails, communicating by phone, writing reports. It is therefore necessary to focus more on learning writing and appropriate scenarios. Business learners have less time and often need more concise and rapid training in order to retain as much information as possible in a minimum of time.

    #184276
    Shayan Asgari
    Participant

    In business English classes, it is important for learners to pay attention to the purpose of attending these classes. Why they attend these classes and why they want to learn English. I think the goal here is not separate from motivation, and everyone’s motivation is to achieve the goal for which they attend classes. Time is of the essence for all participants. Because each participant has their own business opportunity and the use of language serves their goals and motivations. Each of them may not have much time, so each class should be held in a completely coherent and planned manner and should be similar to the life text of the participants in the class. Therefore, the teaching method should be such that in addition to creating interest for the learners, it also approaches their goal and instills in them a sense of success.

    #184325
    Patricia Warren
    Participant

    Since each individual learner has his/her own personal characteristics and attitudes, and conducts business in a variety of contexts, it is not so easy to make generalization about the differences between business learners and other types of learners. However, business learners are adults and it might be expected that they have stronger instrumental/extrinsic motivation than integrative/intrinsic motivation as they need to learn a language to succeed in the workplace and earn money both for their company and their own personal survival. Some business learners may have a genuine interest in the target language, particularly if they have to travel to or stay in the destination where the target language is used. It should be noted that business learners are likely to be confident in doing business in their own language but be fearful of making presentations or negotiating deals in another language. This situation may motivate them to take learning more seriously but it may also lead to stress.

    With regard to time, compared to students who are studying for a university degree in a language or retirees who are learning a language for interest, some business learners may have less time. Nevertheless, other business learners, who are exposed to the language at work on a daily basis, have the opportunity to practice reading work related documents, writing emails and reports and listening to and conversing with speakers of the target language in the workplace. This situation is likely to assist them in learning the language.

    In general, many learners, including business learners may not be particularly interested in the process of learning another language (as they would just like to be proficient in it) but they are likely interested in being able to communicate in the L2. Although business learners will also have to learn the 5,000 to 10,000 most commonly used words in a language like other learners, they are likely to be more interested in learning vocabulary related to business and the specialized words in their own businesses, the language used in socializing in business settings, negotiation and presentations.

    #184333
    Gabriela González
    Participant

    I believe that business learners DO differ in some ways but NOT as a whole. To begin with, we have to take into account that they are just learners, like the rest, like every other student attempting to learn a new language. For this reason, we cannot treat them as a different batch of learners or as if we should teach them in a very different or specific way. The method is going to be the same for every class and for every student. Nevertheless, some things change like I mentioned at the beginning. I believe that the only difference is the type of English we’re expected to relay. This type of English is specifically focused for a very specific purpose: businesses, broadly speaking. Its like they have a really determined target as to why they are learning English and what for. However, we should not take the rest of the students for granted, the fact that a student is taking GPP lessons DOES NOT mean that they lack a purpose or a focus. NOT AT ALL. Its just a matter of perspective in a way that we remain our minds open for every student and their needs irrespective of the type of course they’ve chosen to learn. In the end, they all have different needs and they are all different learners that come to inlingua for ONE SINGLE PURPOSE: learning a new language, and I believe that’s all that matters.

    #184549
    Elmira Ahmadova
    Participant

    Motivation is an individual notion because every learner has their own motivation and the style they motivate themselves. That’s why I don’t think that is motivation that differs business learners from others. Of course, their aim might be different.

    Business learners need to spend more time on learning vocabulary because they are required to learn business vocabulary besides general. They need to learn more academic writing types. For example, business mails, articles, reports and so on. Naturally, the style and structure is completely different from a typical letter.
    For example, a learner who needs to pass a university exam or a level needs to spend overall 2 month, or a traveller who wants to travel to an English speaking country needs to spend 3 month in order to make himself/herself understood. However, business learners need more time to learn different structures and grammar and plus terminology.
    Even people with good English need to learn business English because they feel it is unethical to speak to a partner with general English structures or vocabulary.

    With regard to time, in my opinion, in this case, language learning is a necessity not a desire.

    #184686
    michela meneghesso
    Participant

    Business learners are generally more motivated than other learners due to the fact that they need to learn or improve the language for a specific goal: use it on the job. I have found that this category of students are much eager to learn, precisely because they must fulfil an urgent need, communicating in the business context.
    Sometimes it can be very hard for them to initiate the learning process if they have never studied English, but this is true for other types of students as well.

    As for the time, it depends on what position the student covers inside the company. There are more flexible students and there are busier ones, who are able to cut just 60/90 minutes a week out of their extremely busy schedule and nothing more. In this case it is especially important to use all the time you have available to make the student practice as much as possible and maybe do some tasks that would be normally assigned for homework, since they would not have time to complete them outside of the lessons.

    With regard to the interest in languages, again it depends on the individual. Some people just need to learn English for business purposes and are not interested in the language while some other students have always been fascinated by it or passionate about it but they have never had time or the chance to practice outside of work.

    #184714
    Estefanía Torres
    Participant

    Business learners are different from other learners in many different ways. First of all, business learners have specific objectives related to their work. They often need to comply with their job requirements, which forces them to learn a new language in order to fulfill their role’s responsibilities. On the one hand, that could drive motivation because they want to grow in their companies by having better qualifications, allowing them to apply for better positions. On the other hand, the pressure exerted by their superiors to comply with the language requirement can demotivate them because they don’t feel committed to their learning, so they just want to finish a course to comply. It’s a double-edged sword. These issues lead us to talk about time. Courses for business people are generally paid by their companies. Then, business learners only have specific slots in their agendas to attend class, which would inevitably be a challenge when it comes to company groups, not everyone has the same availability, even when they were supposed to have it since they enrolled with their own specifications of the schedule. We could think they would do better with their my.lab completion since they can enter the platform whenever they want, but unfortunately, this is the exception rather than the rule, which refers us back to the motivation problem. So, in my experience, we as trainers have to find a way to motivate and engage business learners so they commit themselves to improve their language skills. None of the issues above pose a problem when we deal with one-to-one business learners because they are often taking a course for self-improvement, here, motivation always finds time, even though these learners are usually the busiest.

    #184886
    Paloma Piqueras Lis
    Participant

    Business students differ from others because they do not seek to acquire the target language in a general way like other students. Their motivation and interest are focused on pursuing a goal and, for this, they need to learn a specific type of vocabulary, focusing exclusively on their profession. However, to be able to speak a language correctly it is obvious that it is also necessary to use all the structures of the language properly.
    In addition, these students study the language for a shorter period of time than the others, since it is something specific and not general, as mentioned above.

    #184930
    Sinead O’Brien
    Participant

    Business learners differentiate from other English learners in a few ways. Every learner has different motivations goals and objections for learning a language. Business English learners have very different motivations than a teenager learner English. Business English learners are generally older and have set goals and targets in mind and know that without improving their English they will not reach these goals and this motivates them in a strong way. There are usually set specific targets and or areas of speech or skill sets that Business English learners need to focus on in order to be successful in their careers.

    Another factor is time, generally Business English leaners have a shorten or specific time frame in which they need to learn a set skill set. The time frame can also help to motivate them.

    The other major factor is the interest, Business English learners can have a different interest because the purpose of language learning is driver by the factor of their career.

    #184947
    Gabrielle Gold
    Participant

    I do not believe that Business learners differ that much from other learners’, they are both goal orientated, each learner learns a new language for one reason or another, and all hold a certain level of motivation. The motivation differs from each learner depending of personal reasons.
    I guess I could say business learners are much more impatient to obtain language proficiency because it is a fundamental tool needed for their business or to work well and be prosperous within their work sector; having an extra skill in anything is always a plus and gives learners a chance to become much more successful. Speaking English well could be one of the companies main requirements for hiring an individual, that sets them apart from other candidates.
    I do believe that Business learners are more time orientated and would like to progress at a faster rate than a leaner who wants to learn a new language just for personal interest, or curiosity. Business learners may actually have less time, however this can depend on how learners learn in general.

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