Written by John Hughes.
I’ve always had a theory that the real reason Business English is called ‘Business English’ is because the student learns English while the teacher learns a lot about business. One-to-one lessons with high-level managers are especially good for learning about different management theories, so the last 18 years of working in ELT has also been like my own personal MBA.
One business theory that’s always struck me as relevant to both manager and teacher is the Deming Cycle. Deming is probably most famous for his work on quality and TQM, but his ‘cycle’, which defines the process of management, is still massively influential on basic management training and certainly applies to what English teachers do in the classroom.
Here’s the basic idea:
Plan > Do > Check > Act
