I taught Business English for years to companies like Siemens, Bayer, DHL, and even the local government of North Rhein Westphalia when I lived in Germany. In that time I had a lot of experience meeting people in different industries, different jobs inside those industries, and even different kinds of specialist scientists.

So, what did I learn? I learned what business English students need, and just how many "experts” there are online offering bad advice. That’s why I’m here to share the warning signs with you.

Red Flags for Bad Business English Teachers and What They Mean

I’m going to show you some red flag behaviour I have seen from real business English teachers.

Your Teacher Never Leaves the Textbook

The old-fashioned style of teaching English is to get one textbook and to teach every student every page. If my teaching experience has taught me anything, it’s that most people already know the English vocabulary for their job, and that’s most of what Business English textbooks provide.

No single textbook will have what you need to teach every employee at every company. Everyone’s job is different, and because of that everyone needs different things. So, to make sure you learn what you need to, a good Business English teacher must leave the textbook!

Your Teacher Offers ‘Accent Training’ but Can’t Name The Accent.

It’s extremely common for people to offer accent training, but when asked they are unable to tell you what accent they are teaching. England does not have one accent, it has closer to 80. Some of these are more common to learn and easier to understand, but each of them has a name. My accent is called “Estuary London”, which is one of the easiest English accents to understand. Many ‘accent trainers’ online have very poor English accents. If you aren’t sure your teacher is teaching you a good English accent, try using Youglish. Here you can search for English vocabulary and hear it pronounced by various English-speaking people, you can even search for UK, US, and Australian accents. Listen to some example videos and see if this sounds anything like your teacher. It’s also important to ask yourself - do I need to lose all of my own accent, or is it more important to be understood? My advice to most clients is ‘Keep your accent, it’s part of who you are. You only need to soften it so your English is easy to understand’.

Your Teacher Calls Themself an Expert With No Qualifications

Your teacher should have many years of teaching experience, teaching qualifications, and ideally experience living in an English-speaking country if they are calling themself an expert. It’s common for teachers to teach online with no teaching qualifications and to say they have a degree from a university with an English name. But, is that an English teaching qualification? Where is that university actually located? I have seen teachers with a degree in art from an Indian university and no teaching qualifications calling themselves expert English teachers.

Wrapping Up

How can I be wrapping up? I’m only halfway through the article! Well, I realised I had a lot to say on the subject so I am splitting the article into 2 parts. So check back in next week for more Business Builder and we can look at the last three red flags. Just remember to be careful when you choose who to pay for lessons, because that money could be better spent on someone who can teach you the Business English that is useful for you, not just whatever the next section of their textbook teaches.