Advanced Business English

Home Institution: Alecu Russo Balti State University

Course pre-requisite(s): B2 or higher in English on the European CEFR

Course Overview

Business English skills are essential for every person who wants to excel and achieve career success. This course is designed as a practical one meant to help learners improve their business English vocabulary as well as grammar in order to enable them to communicate effectively in English in professional settings. In particular, the activities are designed to develop the learners’ interview skills, business correspondence skills as well as to increase their awareness of business topics and issues. During the course, the learners will be helped to acquire the appropriate language for everyday business contexts such as: telephoning, introducing/describing a company, requesting and getting job-related information, making presentations, organizing meetings, emailing, writing a cover letter, requesting/confirming a service, writing various business letters (e.g. reminder letters, personal business letters, etc.). Similarly, the learners will be encouraged to express their point of view on the following topics: setting smart goals, dealing with psychological issues hampering career success, facing the challenges of remote work, building relationships, team building, and dealing with people at work.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course learners will be able to:

expand business English vocabulary;
use the appropriate language for business contexts;
understand and prepare business correspondence;
understand business style, grammar and usage, and mechanics;
deepen their knowledge related to current job-related issues;
make a strong start;
distinguish between various skills one should develop to be successful in their career;
determine the skills you need to develop in this course;
identify the purpose of planning in one's professional development;
set your own SMART goals
understand the role of various factors influencing the present work-environment.

Course Content

The course consists of five topics. Each topic will be covered in two days.

Topic 1: Setting SMART goals

The learners will be encouraged to identify the 3 sets of basic skills they need to succeed in their career. They will listen to a TED-talk on the importance of passion in one’s career. They will discuss the importance of being passionate about one’s job. Similarly, they will read some passages from Richard N. Bolles’s book What Color Is Your Parachute?’

Topic 2: What can stop you from achieving success?

This topic aims to introduce to learners the psychological factors hampering a person’s career success. The learners will be encouraged to read and discuss articles on what procrastination is and how to manage appropriately one’s time. They will also watch a TED-talk related to the subject matter discussed and write their comments on it. Similarly they will revise the necessary vocabulary to make business phone calls. Tips related to writing a cover letter will also be dealt with while covering this topic.

Topic 3: Hard times call for…

The purpose of this topic is to raise the learners’ awareness of the importance of soft-skill development in the 21^st century work-environment. They will get familiar with such notions as sympathy and empathy. They will also be encouraged to watch a TED-talk on the power of empathy. While focusing on the development of speaking skills, students will be presented with useful vocabulary meant to improve their socializing skills. When it comes to writing, the learners will get familiar with the characteristics of writing a letter of request. Similarly, they will be encouraged to write their comments on the discussed issues.

Topic 4: Let's nail it!

The fourth topic suggests tips meant to help learners prepare for a job interview. They will read and discuss articles by specialists related to the steps to be taken in order to succeed in a job interview. They will also watch a TED-talk meant to boost their confidence during the interview. Special emphasis will be put to job-interview related vocabulary.

Topic 5: Let’s nail it online!

The final topic will be devoted to the biggest challenge of 2020: remote work. People had to take their job interviews online. Hence it is important to determine the differences between in-person and online job interviews. Similarly, the problems caused by remote work will be discussed. The learners will be encouraged to watch a TED-talk meant to emphasize the importance of outlining ones purpose under any circumstances in order to succeed in one’s career. When focusing on speaking and writing skills, the learners will get familiar with topic-related vocabulary.

Final exam: Book presentation

The learners will be expected to make an analysis of Bill Gates’s book Business @ the Speed of Thought: Level 6. They will have to comment on the content of the book taking into account the present context. They will be strongly advised to express their own point of view on the issues dealt with in the book, taking into account the topics covered during the course.

* This schedule is tentative and subject to change based on the needs of the class. Changes will be announced in class.

Instructional Method

The course is intended as a series of interactive activities meant to develop the learners’ business vocabulary as well as their ability to fluently speak and write in English in business settings. Thus, the learners will be actively engaged in the process of instruction. They will be encouraged to work in pairs and small groups. Similarly, they will be asked to participate in class discussions when tackling a current issue related to the business environment. However, depending on the epidemiological circumstances at the time the ISS is held, the course might be online. In this case the asynchronous learning will be supported by the Moodle platform, whereas the synchronous classes via Microsoft Teams platform.

Required Course Materials

Access to a computer with an internet connection will be needed as well as the following software: word-processing, and presentation software, Moodle.