How to teach English for specific purposes online

To teach English for specific purposes online, start from your student's professional context, not from a generic syllabus. Map out the vocabulary and situations they face in their field, run live classes around real texts and terms, and send the lesson review afterward to lock in what came up.

English for specific purposes is English applied to a concrete goal: reading articles in your field, understanding documentation, taking part in a meeting, writing a technical email. That focus changes how you plan and run the class.

Start with the student's goal

The first class is a diagnostic. You need to know what the student does and where their English breaks down.

Ask what they read, write, and listen to in their professional routine. A researcher needs to read papers; an analyst needs to understand requirements; a salesperson needs to negotiate over email.

That map defines the vocabulary and texts that enter the class. English for specific purposes is not meant to cover the whole language: it covers what the student actually uses.

Work with real material in the live class

A specific-purposes class pays off more with authentic material: an excerpt from a document, an article from the field, an email the student actually received.

In Noladi's live classroom you share your screen and use the collaborative whiteboard to highlight terms, build lists, and take notes alongside the student. You can drag a PDF or a slide onto the whiteboard and build the reading in real time.

A flow that works well:

• Open with a short text from the student's field
• Pull out the new vocabulary and record it on the whiteboard
• Practice using it in sentences tied to their professional context
• Close with an applied situation (reply to an email, summarize the text)

Send the class back to lock in technical vocabulary

The weak spot of English for specific purposes is term retention. The student sees a technical word in class and forgets it before the next meeting.

Once the class ends, Noladi generates the review automatically: a transcription of the class, new vocabulary sorted, and speaking stats. The student revisits the meeting through the panel, with your branding, and goes back over the terms that came up.

Because the vocabulary stays recorded class after class, you track the student's progress in their field without keeping a separate spreadsheet.

Organize recurring classes without losing context

English for specific purposes tends to be ongoing: the student advances within the same topic for weeks.

In Noladi you create the student's bookings, including weekly recurring ones, and tie each class to a prepared lesson that already loads the whiteboard with the right material. That way you pick up where you left off without building everything again.

The class still runs live by video call in the browser, with nothing for the student to install, the way they would in Google Meet and Zoom, but with the whiteboard, the review, and the history all in one place.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between English for specific purposes and general English

General English covers the language broadly, focused on conversation and grammar for any situation. English for specific purposes narrows the content to a practical goal, such as reading technical texts in the student's field or communicating at work. In a specific-purposes class, the material comes from the professional context, not from a standard textbook.

Do I need to be an expert in the student's field to teach English for specific purposes

No. You teach the language applied to the context, not the technical field itself. The student brings the material and the knowledge of their field; you structure the reading, the vocabulary, and the communication in English. Working with real texts the student provides handles most of the specificity.

How do I track a student's progress in English for specific purposes

Through the review of each class. Noladi records the transcription, the new vocabulary, and the speaking stats for every meeting, and the student reviews it all through the panel. Because the vocabulary accumulates across classes, you see the progress on the terms from their field without tracking anything by hand.

If you teach English for specific purposes online and want to run the classes, send the review, and organize your schedule all in one place, check out Noladi at noladi.app/teacher.