March 2026 · ESP
IT professionals use English daily: reading documentation, writing code comments, participating in Agile ceremonies, giving technical presentations, and communicating with international teams. Their English needs are specific, practical, and immediately applicable.
IT workers read and write documentation constantly: API docs, user guides, README files, technical specifications, bug reports, and release notes. Teach clear, concise technical writing: use active voice, present tense for instructions, imperative mood for procedures ("Click the Settings icon"), numbered steps for sequences, and consistent terminology.
Practice activities: Rewrite poorly-written documentation, write setup instructions for a familiar tool, create a bug report from a scenario description, peer-review each other's documentation for clarity.
Most IT teams use Agile methodologies. Essential vocabulary: sprint, backlog, user story, acceptance criteria, stand-up/daily scrum, retrospective, product owner, scrum master, velocity, burndown chart, epic, MVP (minimum viable product), technical debt, blocker, impediment.
Practice Agile ceremonies in English: run a simulated stand-up meeting ("Yesterday I worked on..., Today I'm going to..., I'm blocked by..."), write user stories ("As a [user], I want [feature] so that [benefit]"), conduct a retrospective discussion.
Code reviews require diplomatic, constructive language: "Could we consider using...", "What do you think about...", "This might be more readable if...", "Nice approach! One suggestion:..." Teach the difference between direct criticism ("This is wrong") and constructive feedback ("Have you considered an alternative approach here?").
IT professionals often present at team meetings, conferences, and client demos. Teach: structuring a technical presentation, explaining complex concepts simply, handling Q&A, and using visual aids effectively. Practice: lightning talks (5 minutes), demo walkthroughs, and architecture explanations.
No, but learn basic concepts: what an API is, what frontend/backend means, how Agile works. Your students are the domain experts — you teach the language. Ask them to explain their work to you; this is excellent speaking practice.
Critical for IT. Teach: writing clear Slack/Teams messages, email etiquette for distributed teams, video call best practices, and asynchronous communication norms. Focus on brevity and clarity.