How To Write Corporate Training Materials

By Evan Frendo

If you teach English in a corporate context, or are a writer looking to create bespoke materials for specific clients, this module is for you.
Drawing on twenty years of experience of writing language training materials for use in a corporate context, Even Frendo explores the issues that are unique to corporate training.
He starts with a guide to the kind of issues that writers/trainers need to discuss with the client at the beginning of a project and stresses the importance of understanding the particular needs and expectations of a company. He goes on to describe techniques for researching discourse practices within a company: for example, recording and transcribing, work shadowing, interviews and anecdote circles. He then shows how to interpret the data gathered, and feed it into the writing process.
With the help of practical tasks and case studies of materials-writing projects Evan Frendo has been involved in, this module provides an invaluable guide to producing corporate training materials that will teach the employees the English they need, and delight all the stakeholders.
This module forms part of the ELT Teacher 2 Writer training course. The training modules are designed to help you write better ELT materials, either for publication, or simply to improve the quality of your self-produced classroom materials.

• Language: English
• Publisher: ELT
• Release date: Nov 2, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311558190

Book preview

HOW TO WRITE

CORPORATE TRAINING

MATERIALS

Evan Frendo

TRAINING COURSE FOR ELT WRITERS

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A Lexicon For ELT Professionals

How ELT Publishing Works

How To Adapt Authentic Materials

How To Plan A Book

How To Write And Deliver Talks

How To Write Audio and Video Scripts ⸕

How To Write Business English Materials †

How To Write CLIL Materials

How To Write Corporate Training Materials †

How To Write Critical Thinking Activities ⸕

How To Write EAP Materials †

How To Write ESOL Materials †

How To Write ESP Materials †

How To Write Exam Preparation Materials

How To Write Film And Video Activities

How To Write Online Materials

How To Write Graded Readers

How To Write Grammar Presentations And Practice

How To Write Primary Materials

How To Write Pronunciation Activities

How To Write Reading And Listening Activities ⸕

How To Write Secondary Materials

How To Write Speaking Activities ⸕

How To Write Teacher’s Books

How To Write Vocabulary Presentations And Practice ⸕

How To Write Worksheets

How To Write Writing Activities ⸕

Our paperback compendiums

⸕ How To Write Excellent ELT Materials: The Skills Series

This book contains the six titles marked ⸕ above.

† How To Write Excellent ELT Materials: The ESP Series

This book contains the five titles marked † above.

For further information, see eltteacher2writer.co.uk

How To Write Corporate Training Materials

By Evan Frendo

This edition © 2021 ELT Teacher 2 Writer

www.eltteacher2writer.co.uk

Contents

About The Author

Introductory Task

1 Why Corporate Training Materials?

2 Understanding Needs And Expectations

3 Investigating The Discourse Practices Within The Company

4 Exploiting Your Data

5 Producing The Materials

6 Putting It All Together

References

Glossary

Commentaries On Tasks

About The Author

Hi. My name is Evan Frendo, and I call myself an ESP professional, which is my way of getting around the fact that I do various jobs within the ELT industry. Primarily I am a teacher, but I also work as a teacher trainer, a materials writer and a consultant. I have a Diploma in Teaching English for Business from London Guildhall University and a Masters in Teaching English for Specific Purposes from Aston University. Before I got into ELT I was an engineer in the British Army for 11 years.

I have written several coursebooks for mainstream publishers. I have also been writing language training materials for use in a corporate context for around 25 years. These writing projects have ranged from producing worksheets for use with my own classes, to writing department-specific materials for other trainers to use, to managing up to 20 writers at a time working to very specific briefs and deadlines for large multinationals. I have spent many hours observing meetings in different companies, hours in recording studios working with actors and technicians, and hours sitting at my desk trying to meet tight deadlines. Increasingly, these materials are designed to be delivered online. Writing corporate training materials can be challenging, particularly when a client has a very clear view of what they want. But the rewards can be wonderful, not only because of the pleasure which comes from doing a job which people appreciate, but because the financial compensation can be much more generous than when writing for mainstream publishers.

In a way, this book is a summary of this experience. Of course there will be some overlap with themes and topics which will be familiar from other ELT Teacher 2 Writer titles, particularly How To Write Business English Materials and How To Write ESP Materials, but my aim is to focus on these themes within the context of corporate training. If you are a teacher who works with employees learning English in a corporate context, or a training provider who sends teachers to work with corporate clients, or a writer who has worked with mainstream publishers and is now looking to branch out into writing for specific clients, or even a training manager in a company who is interested in improving the in-house training package, then this book is for you.

Introductory Task

Read these training objectives from in-company training courses. Sometimes the company will produce objectives like these, and sometimes you will be involved in writing them. They are much more specific than those normally found in published materials. Why do you think this is?

1. At the end of the course the participants will be able to send and receive emails requesting and clarifying information about potential partners’ scope of supply, without guidance or supervision.

2. The unit will review and practise the language associated with daily scrum meetings, i.e. describing past accomplishments, predicting future accomplishments, and talking about impediments. Participants will take on Product Owner, Team and Scrum Master roles as appropriate.

3. The trainee mechanic will be able to read and pronounce correctly the readings from typical machine shop tools, such as micrometre screw gauges and Vernier callipers, with 80% accuracy.

Now think about the sorts of materials / information a trainer might need to achieve these objectives with a class. Make notes, and then read the commentary to this task here.

1 Why Corporate Training Materials?

Aims

This book aims to take you through a typical process for writing ELT materials for use in a corporate training context, and give you an insight into the tools and techniques you need in order to write them yourself. We will look at what happens in a kick-off meeting, how you can investigate the discourse practices within the companies, and things you need to consider as you write the materials. We will finish off by looking at six case studies and some sample materials, and consider what we mean by best practice in this context. If you work in a business English or ESP context, you will already be familiar with many of the issues we need to consider, but there are also various issues which are unique to corporate training.

We have already seen that in-house materials can help a trainer target specific language areas which are not covered by commercially available materials. Later in this section we will discuss just what it is that makes corporate training materials special, but before we do that, let’s look at what we mean by language training in a corporate context.

Corporate training

Let’s imagine you are a training manager (or HR manager, or department head, or simply the person responsible for training) in a company somewhere in the world. Like so many others in this age of globalisation, your main issues are coping with change and reacting to the often conflicting demands of your company. There is never enough time or money to do what you would like to do. English language training may be a small priority on your list of things to do, but it is always there, nagging away. You meet some other training managers