Hey, it’s Robbie.

I hope you’re having a great summer.

We’ve been having an unusually hot one here in Dublin.

And speaking of things heating up…

Actually, no. I have absolutely no idea how to segue from the weather into Business English.

(Yes, my segues still need some work.)

Anyway…

When I first started teaching English online in 2020, I spent far too much time planning lessons.

I’d create something for one student, teach it once, and then start almost from scratch for the next one.

After a while, I realised I couldn’t keep planning like that.

Two changes made the biggest difference.

The first was narrowing my focus.

Instead of trying to be the “general English guy” for everyone, I focused on learners who wanted to improve their English for their careers.

The second was building lessons around things they actually needed to do in real life.

Not just “improve your speaking.”

Things like:

• Prepare for an important job interview.
• Contribute confidently in an English-speaking meeting.
• Give a presentation at work.
• Handle a difficult conversation with a colleague or client.

That changed the way I planned.

I could start with a real situation and ask:

What does this learner actually need to be able to say and do when this happens?

Then I could build the lesson backwards from there.

The language became more relevant.

The practice became more realistic.

And the learner could see exactly why we were working on it.

It helped on the business side too.

When students could see a clear connection between what we were doing in class and something that mattered in their career, it was much easier for them to understand the value of the lessons.

And every now and then, if I was lucky, I’d get a message like this:

I started to notice another benefit too.

I didn’t have to reinvent the lesson every time.

Once I had a useful lesson built around a real situation, I could teach it, notice where learners got stuck, improve the activities, then adapt the examples and practice for the next student.

So the lesson got better each time I taught it, while the amount of planning I had to do usually went down.

That became a big part of how I built my Business English materials.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve gone back to two of the situations that kept coming up with students and given both lessons a major update, using what I’d learned from teaching them over the years:

Job Interviews and Business Meetings.

Tomorrow, I’ll take you inside both and show you what I changed, why I changed it, and a few ideas you can borrow for your own lessons.

If you’d rather skip the planning and use the finished versions, Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) is running a sale tomorrow, and both lessons will be included. I’ll send you the links then.

Talk tomorrow,

Robbie “still no better at segues” Kane

P.S. I’m curious about this one. What’s the work situation your students most often ask you for help with?

Interviews? Meetings? Presentations? Something completely different?

If you’ve got a sec, hit reply and let me know. I read every response.