What is a good "getting to know you" warm-up for teaching EFL to business exec's?
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As long as they have a common language, you could try "the doughnut" :- split everyone up into groups of 3 or 4. Try to mix the people up so they are not in a group with people they know well. One way to do this is to randomly hand out coloured sweets. Each group is made up of the people who got the same colour sweet. Give each group a large sheet of paper and get them to draw a doughnut shape (a large circle with a smaller circle inside) on it. They split the doughnut into as many sections as there are people in the group. Explain that they need to talk to the others in the group and that each of them needs to discover one thing that is unique about themselves. They write this in their section of the doughnut. They also need to discover something that everyone in the group has in common. They write this in the centre circle (the doughnut's 'hole'). If they all work for the same company, try to encourage them to think of something different to that. When everyone has had a chance to do this, each person feeds back to the main group, introducing another group member, and the person who goes first also says the groups name and what they all have in common, for example "we are the red group. We are all people who would rather read a book than watch TV. This is John, he likes to DJ in his spare time." etc.
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Try learning to communicate in English.
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theres a good site with all the business planning tools on for free.\nwww.businessballs.com\n\nIts really good and it has little funny quotes and ice breaker ideas. If you can make people feel relaxed then they are more likely to feel OK to speak up.
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Most of us have a hard bragging about ourselves and that is what a good self-eval. is all about. Start by listing things that you think that someone who had watched your work all year would say about you. Use one-word comments to start with. Put down both good and bad. Use paper if you just set and think it does not mean anything. Then once you have a list turn it into sentences both good and bad. For example if you had put efficient. Write down I make good use of company time by doing my work in the most effective manner. If you wrote down do not understand part of my job write down I need more instruction in ______ the web sites that I have found all seem to be looking for you to buy a book. You can do this yourself. Just think about what you would say about yourself if you were another person. Relax and use your imagination. Try to make yourself look good but always include some things you need to work on. In those areas, include a plan for how you are going to fix them. For example: I am not good at using MS Excel but I have gotten a book that I am studding to improve my skills.
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I assume you are in the USA? I am a teacher in Australia and have tried this here: Several methods worked for me, mabe they will for your too.\n\n1 Through Official Channels\nIntroduce yourself to the education authority in the areas you want to do business. Pester their public relations officer for an interview and come equiipped with references to: Substatiate your good character (police clearances etc to prove you are not a criminal.) and references to confirm the value of your product/service to the teachers AND the students (target both here).\nRemember all you are after is the authorities approval - you won't get it but conversely, their failure to stop you approaching teachers, amounts to an endorsement by default. What you are after is being able to approach Principals and say honestly that the Authorities are aware of your actions. (Kind of a default reference)\n    If you are extremely lucky, and sufficiently impress the Education Authority's representative, they can supply you with a list of facilities that fit your market, so be specific what type of schools etc. you want access to.If they don't - don't panic - read on . . . \n\n2. Professional Development\nThis is a totally different marketing strategy - you want access to teachers proffessional development meetings. This will come through the Principal personally and you will address a staff meeting. To win this one you need to use the "Snowball Effect" - you win one Principal over, then after you have addressed that meeting you use that as a reference for approaching the next principal. Now your credibility has increased 100% - repeat the whole process again. After each seminar/meeting, ask the Principal if he would "have any objections if you used him as a reference". The wording there is vital - you want a "Yes" from someone who cant get through the workload they have now - so you don't want them to feel they have to do anything extra, that you'll do the work and all they have to do is say yes.\nAfter a dozen or so successes, the professional grapevine will market your seminars if they truely are value for money.\n\nHere teachers have a Gazette that is used to advertise vacancies. This tells you the school, address, Principals name and phone number - for you it could be a goldmine if you can get one (hint - even an old one that the staff at a school doesn't value any more :-)
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1) Brainstorm.  Start with a list of everything that you can think of that you may want to include in your speech.  This is a stage where you generate ideas, so turn off your censor/editor and WRITE EVERYTHING down that you can think of.  Even if your ideas are dumb, they may help you think of other ideas after you have something written down.  Set a time limit for brainstorming so that you have to think quickly.  try 2-5 minutes.\n\n2) Pick your best idea and start with that.  In a speech, it's good to start with something unusual, something memorable, funny, etc.  Don't start with the boring stuff.  You want people to lean in to listen.\n\n3) If you're trying to think of an approach to start, you could begin with:\n\n--Your first impressions of the two teachers.\n--Accomplishments that people may not know about the teachers.\n--Statistics about how many students they've impacted, or some accomplishments of the students they've instructed.\n--Point out/remind people of a lovable/quirky trait about the teachers.  Like a common phrase they use or their trademark green sweater and purple tie, who knows?  (Be careful not to offend) \n\n4) After you have a rough draft of the speech, read it out loud.  If it doesn't sound like you're having a normal conversation, edit it so that it sounds like you're talking to someone.\n\n5) Rehearse the speech to a person who doesn't know the teachers.  Ask for honest feedback about areas that could be improved/shortened/lengthened.\n\n6) Rehearse the speech to a person who does know the teachers.  Ask if it's a speech that honors them, and again honest feedback for improvement.\n\n7) More ideas on brainstorming:  When I was a writing tutor, I often had to get students to brainstorm on a topic that they felt stumped on.  I'd ask them some questions about their topics similar to the following prompts.\nTry any of these prompts to get you going, and freewrite about them:\n\n--If each teacher was a color, what color would he/she be and why?\n\n--What would your grandmother have to say about these teachers?\n\n--Name some traits about these teachers that you wish you had.\n\n--Name some things about these teachers that most people don't have.\n\n--Why could this teacher never be replaced?\n\n--List some things about these teachers that students may not know.\n\n--If the teacher was a character from Shakespeare/Bible/Dickens/ (other classic literature), who would he/she be, and why?\n\n--If the teacher was a character from The Real World/The O.C./Survivor/Desperate Housewives/(Other popular show), who would he/she be, and why?\n\nGood luck on generating ideas!
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If you are getting ready to teach English, then someone already taught you English at the college level.  There are a couple things I can pass on to you that really helped me when I started teaching: \n\n1. Think back to your student years. Remember what seemed difficult / boring to you. Remember what it was your teacher did or said to make you feel good about yourself and finally "GET" what he or she was saying.  Remember what it was like to sit in front of your teacher (and never forget that feeling). \n\n2. Start from the beginning.  Do not assume everyone knows something.  Teach to your slowest student (in the form of a review).  Even the brightest students forget the basics.  \n\n3. Make your students write.  You can talk about the rules all day.  They can pass illiteracy tests, comma tests, and fragment tests all year, but can they WRITE without using fragments?  \n\n4. When you grade their writing, no matter how horrible and hopeless a paper may seem, kill your first reaction to mark it up and tell the student his or her paper stinks! Think of at least three good things the student did.  Start with praise and go for correcting ONE or TWO things, for a start.  We learn better when we are praised for what we do properly.  \n\n5. Your students will do what you tell them to do.  When you get 50 papers back, and none of the papers are what you asked for, then, you didn't explain, in plain terms, what you wanted from them.   They are like pets: they want to please you.  They want the  A.  So, before you assign a paper, sit down at the computer and list everything you want an A paper to be.  When you know what you want, they will know. \n\n6.  Set the rules from the first day.  TELL them what you expect (behavior, homework, tests, etc) and MEAN IT.   When they know the rules, it is fun to watch the creative things they do to break them!\n\nYour question is very broad, and I could write a fifty page essay in response.  In fact, there are several thousand books out there in the library and collecting dust on shelves that try to answer your question  (The author, Peter Elbow comes to mind first).   There are many theories, and I did, indeed, take some of my philosophies from the greatest of them; however, the ones I am passing on to you are the ones that took me years to perfect--or, so I would like to think, right?    But, the most important piece of advice I can give is this:  Take English personally.  Be offended when it is misused.  Stand up for it.  Love it.  When you teach a one-hour class and you are exhausted at the end of that hour, you REALLY TAUGHT ENGLISH!    (One day, you will experience this and say, "Wow! She was for real!" ) \n\nBut, for now, see if some friends or faculty have a syllabus from which you can work for the first sememster or two.  Get a feel for the organization, then get creative with a syllabus of your own.  \n\nGotta Love It!
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Your lesson plan should detail the following:\n\nStudents: age and ability; intermediate etc\nAim: e.g. asking the time\nAssumptions: (what the students already know) e.g. numbers\nMaterials: e.g. projector, blackboard, paper cut outs, toys\n\n\nYour lesson plan should break down your lesson into sections and provide you with a brief on each section .. e.g...\n\n1) Explain how the Present Simple Tense can be used. That the present simple can be used for things that are true in general, ............ blah blah ,  Give examples such as “my favourite food is …”, .......... blah, blah (5 minutes)\n\nIf you are teaching Business English to students in a marketing company, then you will set tasks or the use of verbs in marketing (in context with how the language will be used) or it could be contextualised in the sense of the local community, social setting etc.
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First answer is a good reference.\n\nAlso do consider the following:\n\nFirst of all is your appearance, you must be looking sobar, thorough and study oriented.\n\nYour conversation must be gentle and without pause. Speaking to fast is not teacher like.\n\nYou must have a thorough knowledge about hand books, and teachers' guide books for the texts your are going to take up as a teacher.\n\nYour knowledge of the subject must be good but what is more important is your way of elaboration of the topics you know. \nIt does not much affect if you do not answer few questions of your subject. \n\nImportant is that what you know is very clear in your mind and you can well explain to those who do not know.\n\nThe interviewing people must be having much more knowledge than you but you are supposed to talk in a way as you are giving a lecture on a new topic to your students.\n\nIf you do not know any thing state openly.\n\nGood luck to you.
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It sounds like you already have written the speech.\n\nTo simplify the process, you need an introduction, a body and a conclusion. \n\nIntro: you introduce what you want to say. In your case, even greetings and why all are present. \n\nIn the body: tell them what you want them to do or know. Do you want them to get to know each other. Build relationships, enjoy the evening, have fun, etc. \n\nThen conclusion: re-phrase the body into an action statement. Have a great time.\n\nNo need for overt jokes. Covert jokes however can work. If your company is known for being strict on policy and procedure, create a factious policy and assign a number and include it in the speech. He could say something like, " in your hand book on page 33 (if yours is only 32 pages) it says specifically, all employees are expected to have fun at such gatherings or what ever.
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My interviews improved immeasurably after two things. The first was doing a mock interview and being filmed while doing so - watching it back was excruciating but gave me a huge amount of things to improve on. The second was practice, practice and more practice. You can guess what sort of questions they're going to ask you about (previous jobs, your background, why you want this job, what you do in your spare time etc). If the job has key competencies or skills listed you can guess what they will ask on those, too ("tell me about a time when you had to demonstrate leadership", etc). Come up with answers to those questions - not ones you have to learn word for word, just some key words or phrases you know you have to drop in. Have an opening sentence ready so you have more thinking time. And get friends to do practice interviews with you - it doesn't have to be formal, it could be 20 minutes over coffee or in a bar, but as long as they're asking new questions you will get used to thinking on your feet.\n\n\n\nOne trick I've used often, is simply to say "I'm sorry, I'm a bit nervous" if I stumble a bit or freeze. Always seems to break the chill a little bit, and sets everyone at ease. But then, I'm not applying for positions involving public speaking.\n\n\n\nDo all the homework that greycap suggests. Prepare as well as you can. Make sure you're rested, accentuate the fun part of having the interview (sic), etc.\n\nAnd then after having done all that say to yourself "I'll do my utmost to get the job, but not all is lost if I don't get it".\n\nThe reason is that there are factors outside of your control in doing an interview; there's a certain aspect of luck, of the match between the organisation, the interviewer and you.\nBut more importantly; this realisation will put you in a state of mind that enables doing well and being as self confident as you can.\n\n\n\nSmile. Lean back in the chair. stretch. You're at ease because you know our stuff.\n\nBefore the guy asks you a question, ask him one, about the business, but one me can't give a canned answer to. No, "How many offices do you have", more like "what problem are you trying to solve by hiring me" -- then smile "or whomever you do hire" -- now bigger smile, like you both know he's going to hire you.\n\nLet him give this answer, which will be in great detail. Nod appropriately. When he finishes, nod slowly, like you're absorbing what he had to say. Pick from what he wants your best qualities, incline you head to one side (it looks humble , and like you're thinking), smile, and explain your strengths that fit what he wants.\n\nThen apologize for going on at length, and say "but I know you have a lot of questions for me". Then the "normal" interview starts, but you've taken charge in a very diplomatic way.\n\n\n\nUse an overall interview checklist to organize yourself for each interview. If you don't forget anything, you won't be stressed walking in. That's half the battle.\n\nPractice your two minute drill, preferably in front of a mirror. You also need a prepared "two minute verbal summary" [PDF file linked] of yourself in mind for every interview. Use it to reply to questions about why you are looking for the job, what you've done in the past that is related experience, what your goals are, etc. If you have good statements that you've written and believe to be true about yourself, you can deliver them with confidence, and by rehearsing them, keep them at the ready in your mind. If you don't already have a practiced 2 minute summary, you should write and edit one immediately, and aim to practice it for at least 20 repetitions a day, until you can deliver it perfectly, word for word as you've written it, naturally. Most people decide that you are confident or nervous in the first two minutes afte
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Just speak from your heart. Try to think of a main point to make, and then some supporting points. Start with something to get their attention, then end with a summary of what you spoke about. \n\nPractice in front of mirror a few times, don't memorize word for word, just memorize an outline.\n\nMake eye contact with a few people around the room.\n\nTry to avoid saying um...\n\nYou'll do great!
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For marketing an ESL school I have a couple of suggestions but they are based on my knowledge of the country I live in (Japan) so they may not apply to you.  Please use these ideas at your own discretion.\n\n1. Set the school apart from others by offering something other schools don't have.  i.e. custom designed software for the students that no other school has.  (I happen to make that)\nhttp://prodigycreator.com/e_index.html\n\n2. Hold events at your school that are really fun! Events like an open house where anyone can walk in and talk all day and get to know the teachers.\n\n3. Provide a home stay service for your students at affordable prices.\n\n4. Provide English story corrections via email.  i.e. they send in a short made up story via email and get a native teacher to correct it as a kind of free service for the students.\n\nOK, I think that may be a few ideas that you can work with.  If you're interested in talking about more ideas I think I might be able to come up with some.  Just contact me.\n\nRegards,\nDarrin\ndwong@prodigycreator.com
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I would bring some age-appropriate materials to give them a sense of how our language mixes with our culture.\n\nSomething like a menu from McDonald's or KFC would be ideal as they are most likely well aware of may items on the menu in their own language.\n\nYou could also introduce them to some American summer camp ideas like different camp foods, games and classic sing-along songs.\n\nThe key is to engage them as directly as possible and encourage them to interact utilizing the language as much as possible.\n\nIn terms of "what" you should teach, I think it is prudent to see where they are coming form.  Many of them may already have a basic understanding of English.  Context may be the issue there.  If they are staring with NO vocabulary, start with the conversational basics.
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Watch the news and practise how they speak. Start takling to well spoken people that'll help you
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Read "The Articulate Executive" by Granville N. Toogood (yes, that is his real name). An excellent book for fine tuning communication and leadership skills in the work place or whatever situation in life.
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The ability to communicate in English would be a good starting point!