Course Information

Course Information

Course Description and Objectives

This is a course in Business English intended for students with high intermediate level of English. Most probably the participants will be in their first year at University with no job experience and limited knowledge of business lexis.

The course has three main objectives:

to raise students' awareness and interest in certain aspects of business and thus encourage them to do further self-study in order to expand their knowledge,
to improve students' communication skills - both formal and informal. For this purpose students will be encouraged to express opinions, participates in role-playing, use formal methods of written communication such as memoranda and business letters. They will also have a chance to go for a chat in the café and contribute in the topic of the week,
to encourage the students to use the Web resources to enhance their English learning.

Course Organisation

Course Structure

The course is divided into eight units, each built around one main topic. The topics are:

1. Team-Building

2. The Manager's Role

3. Decision Making

4. Top management - Planning and Strategy

5. Advertising and Marketing

6. Entrepreneurs and Small Business

7. Franchising

8. Business Ethics

The units have following structure:

Pre-reading activities

They range from expressing an opinion on a given issue, completing self-analysis questionnaire to taking decisions on a controversial problem. The aim is to provoke some brainstorming and thus lead students into the topic.

Reading

The texts included in this section provide only brief information on the topic. In order to expend their knowledge in this area, students will have to do a lot of self-studying in the local or virtual libraries.

Post-reading activities

These are divided into three groups.

Comprehension - directly related to the text for reading: true and false exercises, filling in tables, taking notes.

Language focused tasks - gap-filling, phrasal verbs.

Follow-up activities - field studies, team building, role-play, SWOT analysis.

Surf-the-net - students will be given a site to explore with a specific task in mind.

Assignments

Almost each unit contains a written task. Some of the tasks will be to write a memorandum, CV, Covering letter, business letter, guidelines how to work in a multinational team, article to a magazine on corporate culture and others. Individual feedback will be provided.

Deadline will be given for all activities and assignments.

Course Instructors