Business English course plan built around your real job
Your English is good enough for daily life but not for leading a meeting, negotiating a price or writing to a client without worrying. This prompt has your todo.is agent design a business English course around your role and your industry: an 8-week syllabus with lesson goals, phrases, role plays and a real task each week.
The prompt
- Create a business English course plan for [WHO IT IS FOR], who works as [JOB AND INDUSTRY]. Current level: [LEVEL]. The course runs for [NUMBER OF WEEKS] weeks with [HOURS PER WEEK] hours a week. Cover the situations that matter most for this job: [KEY SITUATIONS]. For each week give: a goal, the key phrases and vocabulary, one grammar point that serves the goal, a role play, a writing task based on a real work situation, and how to check progress. Add a placement test at the start and a final task (for example a 10-minute presentation or a mock negotiation). Give me the syllabus as a Word file and a one-page overview as a PDF. Then, each Monday at 8:00, send the week’s lesson materials by email.
What to change
- [WHO IT IS FOR]: E.g. "me", "a sales team of 6", "a new engineer from our Seoul office".
- [JOB AND INDUSTRY]: E.g. "account manager in logistics", "software developer at a fintech startup", "hotel front-office manager".
- [LEVEL]: E.g. "B1", "B2 but weak in speaking".
- [NUMBER OF WEEKS]: E.g. "8" or "12".
- [HOURS PER WEEK]: E.g. "3". Include self-study time if there is no teacher.
- [KEY SITUATIONS]: E.g. "client calls, writing proposals, leading stand-ups, negotiating prices, small talk at conferences".
Example result
- Business English for an account manager in logistics
- Level B1+ · 8 weeks · 3 hours a week · final task: a mock price negotiation
- Week 1: Introductions and small talk
- • Goal: introduce yourself and your company in 60 seconds; keep small talk going
- • Phrases: "I look after our key accounts in…", "How's business on your side?"
- • Grammar: present simple vs present continuous for routines and current projects
- • Role play: meeting a new client at a trade fair
- • Writing: a LinkedIn-style intro message to a new client
- Week 2: Writing clear emails
- • Phrases: "Just a quick update on…", "Could you confirm by Friday?", "Please find attached…"
- • Grammar: polite requests (could, would you mind…)
- • Writing: a delay notice for a late shipment, with a new date and an apology
- Week 3: Phone and video calls
- • Phrases: "Sorry, you broke up there", "Let me just recap…"
- • Role play: a customer calls about a damaged pallet
- Week 4: Describing processes and numbers
- • Vocabulary: lead time, freight, customs clearance, on-time delivery rate
- • Grammar: the passive ("The goods are loaded at…")
- • Task: explain your delivery process with a simple chart
- Week 5: Meetings
- • Agreeing, disagreeing politely, interrupting, summarising actions
- Week 6: Handling complaints
- • Acknowledge, apologise, explain, offer a solution, follow up in writing
- Week 7: Negotiating
- • Phrases: "If you could commit to…, we could look at…", "That's a bit above our budget"
- • Grammar: conditionals for offers
- • Role play: a client asks for a 10% discount on a one-year contract
- Week 8: Final task
- • 10-minute mock negotiation by video call, then a follow-up email summarising the agreement
- Checking progress
- • Placement test in week 1 and the same test again in week 8
- • A short recorded call in weeks 1, 4 and 8 to compare fluency
How to do it with todo.is
- Copy the prompt and describe the learner, the job, the level and the situations that matter.
- Paste it into todo.is on the Today screen; for team courses, attach the job descriptions.
- Download the syllabus (Word) and the overview (PDF), and get each week’s materials by email.
- Adjust as you go: "week 3 was too easy, make it harder" or "add a week on presentations".
Tips for a better result
- Build lessons on real documents: attach an anonymised client email or a meeting agenda and ask for a lesson based on it.
- Put speaking first. Most professionals who struggle in business English can write well but freeze in meetings.
- Add a short daily drill on WhatsApp between the weekly lessons, such as one phrase and one quick question.
- For teams, ask for a separate track per level so B1 and C1 learners are not in the same exercises.
business English course plan: FAQ
- How long does it take to improve business English? It depends on the starting level and practice time. Most learners need many hours of practice to move up a full CEFR level, but job-focused practice makes you more confident in your key situations much sooner.
- Can HR or L&D use this for a team? Yes. Describe the team, attach job descriptions, and ask for a course plan per level, plus a placement test to sort people into groups.
- Does it include materials, or just a plan? Both. You get the syllabus, and each week your agent writes the lesson: phrases, a dialogue, exercises, a role-play brief and a writing task.
- Can it prepare me for a business English exam? Yes. Name the exam, and your agent checks its current format on the official site and adds exam-style tasks to the plan.
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