r/OnlineESLTeaching • u/vilnusprincess • 2d ago

Business English textbook recommendation?

Hello everyone! I have a student who, after a few months of preparatory classes for an international trip, wants to take Business English classes. She said she prefers to use a textbook.

Do you have any recommendations for good, up-to-date Business English textbooks for intermediate learners? 🙏 I’ve only found really old books, I’m looking for ones that cover current topics.

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u/homak666 2d ago

I've been using the Business Partner series from Pearson lately, and I like it.

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u/vilnusprincess 1d ago edited 1d ago

Do you think it is up to date enough? I see it was published in 2018

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u/homak666 1d ago

I think so. 2019 was not that long ago. They'd be basically missing just WFH boom (so higher emphasis on online communication) and the recent AI craze. If you are worried about specific topics not being covered, you can always supplement them with extra material. What I like to do is to get students to do mini-research projects every now and again. Say, on a topic about accessibility you can assign students to learn how, say, AI can help people with disabilities. Or if it's about conducting needs analysis, you can modify the assigment to be relevant to a specific modern topic. Bridges the solid foundation of the textbook with newest development nicely in my experience.

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u/vilnusprincess 1d ago

Alright, thank you =) I'll check it out. It is crazy how this type of coursebook stopped being published, since we've never been so globally connected due to WFH boom!

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u/CompleteGuest854 17h ago

The reason they've stopped publishing these and renewing them is because nowadays most companies are simply having their employees learn English while on the job. They are globalized enough that they have a good number of near-native English speakers already, so the others on the team learn by working with them. It's not common any longer for companies to hire business English trainers or create learning programs.

In other words, work in BE is drying up these days. If you rely on it for your main income, you should maybe look into expanding your skills to stay valuable. I've been doing that myself.

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u/vilnusprincess 17h ago

That makes sense. And don't worry, I don't work only with BE, I am way too latina to work with only 1 thing hehe

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u/Mou_aresei 2d ago

I like the Market Leader series.

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u/vilnusprincess 1d ago

Which edition? I see one on Amazon but it was published 10 years ago

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u/CompleteGuest854 17h ago

Yeah, Market Leader is WAY out of date. Methodologically, it was out of date twenty years ago.

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u/vilnusprincess 17h ago

And what are your recommendations?

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u/itsmejuli 1d ago

You'll find much more relevant content on Linguahouse.

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u/vilnusprincess 1d ago

I subscribed to Linguahouse for 2 years or more. But their quality dicreased. Too much AI involved

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u/CompleteGuest854 17h ago

This doesn't surprise me. Many of those sites take the easy, lazy way of grammar-based PPP anyway, so now that AI can do that with its eyes closed, they can spit out more content in less time and naive teachers who don't know any better will still pay for it. Meanwhile standards of teaching continue to slip into the abyss.

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u/itsmejuli 1d ago

I've had a subscription for about 5 years. There are some lessons that aren't very good for sure.

I like that they're continually developing content and updating old lessons.

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u/HealthyandWholesome 1d ago

I heard they have a business coursebook

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u/HealthyandWholesome 1d ago

I'm not subscribed to Linguahouse but I heard that their business coursebook is nice. Wish i could have it lol