Materials and Curriculum Development for TESOL Kevin Garvey 3/29/12 Professor Xiang In Company (Intermediate Level) textbook

Review for English for Business Purposes by Mark Powell Introduction English for Business Purposes (EBP) requires high-levels of intrinsic student motivation, intercultural competence and authentic materials. In order to gauge the texts accomplishments in reaching these levels, I will be analyzing In Company vis-a-vis Littlejohns questions for analysis: what is there, what is required of users, and what is implied (Littlejohn 2011). I have referred to Kathleen Graves chapter on adapting textbooks for course design (Graves 2000) to evaluate how flexible In Company is for the diverse needs and goals of EBP learners. To further evaluate In Company as a CLT-approach text, I have also referred to Browns Principles of Teaching, particularly Meaningful Learning, Willingness to Communicate, Language-Culture Connection, Intrinsic Motivation, and Communicative Competence (Brown 2000). This review will not evaluate In Company vis-a-vis the description given by the publisher. Instead, it will assume an EBP classroom of intermediate to high-intermediate level learners with high motivation and individual goals. In Company (IC) is a series from Macmillan Education. Author Mark Powell has written the intermediate text reviewed here as well as the advanced level text. There is no preface or introduction in the book, but it is clear from the unit titles and topics that In Company is intended for learners of English for Business Purposes (see appendix for unit titles and description). The description of the In Company series found online describes it as follows:

In Company trains students in the language and skills which are immediately transferable to the workplace. Each lesson is a stand-alone, fast-track to competence in a particular skill... ("In Company." Macmillan English - Home, 2012)

The textbook comes with a CD-ROM of listening exercises and an appendices containing exercise answer keys and the script of the audio. The book is meant as a primary text with no supplemental materials or workbook, although supplemental materials are available online. The publisher describes the book accurately: lessons are stand-alone and disconnected. The pace of the book is quick and strictly goal-oriented, rather than being gradual and designed for a wholistic learning experience. Whether or not this structure provides for a fast-track to competence in a particular skill is discussed in this review. In the final evaluation, IC utilizes a fast-paced Communicative Language Teaching approach, treating the student as a self-directed learner and the teacher as a guide and moderator for the pace of the book. IC offers a broad range of tasks that integrate the four primary skills of language learning (reading, writing, listening and speaking) with authentic material, and stimulates in-class student communication and motivation. A wide range of tasks is covered, but there is a lack of interconnectivity and the potential of some task-based activities to be expanded or repeated across units is sacrificed in favor of moving on. This may not satisfy students who desire continuity and scaffolded tasks to improve their EBP skills. Finally, its the opinion of this review that to make the most of ICs offerings, discrimination while choosing which units to skip and which to expand upon, or the addition of supplemental material that better connects the bigger picture skills of EBP, will be necessary.

Factual Details Title: In Company Author(s): Mark Powell Publisher: Macmillan Education Price: $32.00 (converted from British pounds) ISBN: 978 0 333 95732 5 No. of Pages: 142 Components: (1) Course Units, (2) Exercise Answer Key, (3) Audio CD scripts (4) Audio CD Level: Intermediate Length: 20 units (*see appendix B) Sections: 4-6 sections per unit Hours: 1-2 per unit Target skills: Listening & Reading (primary); Speaking & Writing (secondary) Target learners: Low-level intermediate learners improving EBP skills

Adapted from: Sheldon (1988: 242) Section 1: General Analysis What is There? Breakdown of Sections IC consists of twenty units varying in length from 4-6 sections, or 2-5 pages. Sections are categorized by a focus on reading, grammar, writing, listening, and speaking. For this review, section type was determined according to section tasks: if students were asked to write, the section was deemed a writing section, and so on. Reading sections are by far the most common, with a count of 40. Following that are listening sections with 36, speaking sections with 28, writing sections with 22 and grammar sections with 13. Reading passages vary in type and length. Each unit has 1-2 reading passages, ranging from half-page articles on contemporary business practices to shorter interview transcripts. Passage content carries certain cultural elements as well: how to meet-and-greet, presentational styles, anecdotes about Western businesses, etc. This indirect exposure to culture

should be highlighted by the teacher, and additional materials or explanation could help towards intercultural competence. Additionally, the speaking and listening exercises encouraging students to express themselves in pairs or groups could be manipulated to bring out student experience with business in their own or any other culture. Without teacher modification, the cultural aspect of learning is overlooked by IC. Listening sections introduce new vocabulary through conversation and case studies in business. These are often followed by comprehension-check questions, and at times students are prompted to carry on the conversation by drawing on their own experience. These follow-ups comprise most of the speaking sections. The tasks following a reading or listening section typically recall the skills or focus of the previous activity, naturally scaffolding student comprehension. Speaking sections are also found at the beginning of units as warm-up activities. Writing sections typically appear in the middle or the end of each unit and ask students to complete a task that combines the units exercises and material. A good example of a mid-unit writing activity is found in unit 5, where the section titled Time Management asks students to respond to a list of strategies for managing their time, and compare their list to a subsequent reading passage. At the end of unit 2, students are prompted to write out a dinner party conversation script. Both tasks serve a communicative end, as well as bring together their respective units targeted grammatical and vocabulary points (Unit 5: Speed of Life: workrelated pressure, goal-setting; Unit 2: Making Contacts: conversation topics, taboos). Teacher modification may be necessary to make lessons flow a little better than ICs dry delivery provides. Speaking sections have the potential for being good breaks from formal reading and listening exercises. They provide opportunities for students to begin talking and negotiating meaning with one another. Strategically alternating between individual and partner/

group-based activities will be necessary for an engaging lesson based around IC. Grammar is easily the least attended to as a core language-learning skill. In line with a CLT approach, IC forgoes intensive grammar drills and/or lessons in lieu of communicative, task-based activities that draw on students experience for meaning-making. Much of the reading and writing activities include instructions to work with your partner or answer the questions and then discuss your answers with your partner, making the reading and writing activities lead into speaking and listening activities. The emphasis in the productive skills remains on fluency rather than accuracy.

Authenticity ICs reading and listening samples are primarily concerned with issues of business management, organization and conflict resolution (units 1-9, 14, 16, 19). This suggests ICs utility as a textbook for middle-management workers interested in entering the international EBP world. IC does a good job of balancing its register between casual and formal: instructions are clear and casual whereas reading samples are formal. The listening samples similarly vary in register, offering authentic workplace conversations later in the book (units 16-20) and shorter, less complex but commonplace conversations early on (units 1-7). Conversation is difficult to authentically replicate, but ICs actors are convincing and realistic in their delivery, and the content is contemporary and relevant to students needs. IC periodically depends upon students to make their own meaning from the material during speaking and writing tasks.

Intercultural Competence

Especially in its reading samples, IC does a good job at exposing learners to western business-world cultural contexts and situations. IC would be useful to many EBP students. It has a clear communicative style that situates lessons in diverse, authentic contexts. By offering numerous occasions for students to work in partners or groups, or discuss topics as a class, IC opens the possibility for extended intercultural competence beyond western world business culture. The possibility is there only if students can develop a willingness to communicate. With IC, a teacher is well-equipped for ideas on how to get students talking. That being said, IC does not offer samples that explicitly present business cultures other than the western model, or explicitly elicit such examples from learners. For learners not entering western-styled business cultures, this is a missed opportunity for sharing cultural background and tradition in the interest of generating intercultural competence. This may not apply to the majority of ICs targeted learner population, who may have purchased this UKbased publication intent on succeeding in the western business world. Globalization has also spread western business culture into much of the professional world. Therefore, this criticism is not grounds for serious concern, but worth noting nonetheless, as not every EBP environment is necessarily run in western-styled business culture (parts of China, Korea, Japan, India, and Russia are some examples).

What is Required of Users? Balance of Teacher/Student Direction and Roles The majority of activities are feasible as student-directed (partner work, individual reading and writing, critical thinking and listening). In Company would be very successful with intrinsically motivated learners with developed learning strategies. At the intermediate level

for EBP students, I do not predict a large problem with motivation or focus on the part of the students, and IC reflects this reality with a large number of student-directed activities. Where students might benefit from teacher-direction is in the area of intercultural competence and full-class discussion. IC does a good job of giving the teacher the opportunity to take charge of the class with a number of group/class discussion activities and Q&A activities that are aimed at focusing in on the lesson goals. A good example of a full-class activity comes at the beginning of every unit in the form of an open-ended question. In unit 1: Complete the following sentence. Use the words in the box if you like. Then compare with other people in the class. For me, learning English is ______. In addition to being an introduction, unit 1s opening question serves as a needs assessment tool and a chance to begin the class with an open-ended, student-directed discussion of EBP-related motivations, feelings, opinions and goals. In activities such as these, IC displays its CLT colors. The text favors student-directed learning, with students making the decisions on what content is explored. During these types of discussion-based activities, the teacher plays a supervisory or moderating role, concerned with encouraging but not leading students to their chosen goals.

What is Implied? Scaffolding On a macro level, each unit builds on the last in terms of skills and complexity. The first ten units are concerned with relatively simple tasks: reading email, completing questionnaires, and expressing yourself in English. Units 11-20 are concerned with discussing presentations, attitudes towards email or business meetings and generally call for deeper understanding and

greater capacity for communication. The difficulty level greatly intensifies after the first ten units. Though the skills in the first ten units relate directly to the tasks in the final ten, a teacher will need to supplement the material to help students move from less complex to more complex tasks, as well as make these connections clear. On its own, IC does not do a good job of successfully scaffolding EBP skills and task-based activities on a micro, unit-to-unit level. An example can be seen between contrasting Unit 10 with Unit 11. Unit 10 covers Completing a questionnaire on cultural awareness, Talking about Experiences and Engaging in Small talk, whereas Unit 11 moves on to Discussing attitudes to e-mail, Guidelines for writing e-mail, Writing e-mail equivalents of formal texts, SImplifying a lengthy email, Exchanging e-mails. IC assumes that the students role is one of a self-motivated, self-directed learner that will pick and choose the skills that are important to them. The teachers role is as a guide and occasional motivator to help the student along. However, if students did not master the simpler skills in the first half (tasks like reading short emails, stating opinions, likes & dislikes, and reading short articles) they would have a difficult time getting through the second half. No two students are alike in aptitude and self-motivation. An adept teacher will know how to gradually increase the difficulty while maintaining student interest. This may require the teacher to take a more active role.

Adaptability & Sequencing In Company is easily adaptable to a student-centered EBP course. Activities are straightforward and reading and listening materials are simple. They could be easily supplemented with additional articles or teacher-created content such as extended conversations,

new vocabulary or reading samples of different genres (business emails, minutes of meetings). There are openings for partner work and class discussion throughout the book, most often in the opening warm-up (Unit 9: How big is the company you work for? Given the choice, would you prefer to work for a big or a small firm? or Unit 18: Opening exercise of partner work discussing the concept of business lunch across cultures). Instructions are consistently specific enough to prevent students from providing vague answers, and broad enough to activate student schemata and trigger creativity. These positive points having been covered, it must now be said that it will take an experienced teacher to take full advantage of ICs materials. Considering the sequencing of units, as Graves suggests doing in her chapter on the adaptation of texts (Graves 2000), its clear that IC is assuming students will want stand-alone, independent lessons. Therefore, unit objectives are designed to be self-contained. For a course of any length, however, a teacher will need to adapt and interconnect units to provide some sense of continuity. In addition to this, unit length is irregular. Lesson planning will likely need to supplement or cut textbook material to make sure the necessary lesson items are covered. Estimating a standard EBP course to be two hours, 45 sections (the average unit length) are sufficient to fill that time. Shorter units such as unit 5 (3 pages), 13 (2 pages), and 17 (2 pages) will either need to be combined with an adjacent unit, cut altogether or supplemented in order to fill a full class. It would also be possible to adapt the final section of a unit preceding a shorter one into an in-depth homework assignment that could fill time in the form of student presentations in the next class. Examples of this include the end of unit 5 (write about your time management strategies), the end of unit 12 (build a presentation; presentations could be used to supplement the shorter unit 13) and the end of unit 16 (read about and then do individual research on

companies problems and their solutions; this research could be delivered in the form of a presentation to supplement the shorter unit 17). In Company is very adaptable for a teacher with some experience and additional resources. Less experienced teachers may find themselves extending the reading and discussion activities of the textbook in order to fill time. This strategy misses the opportunity for making connections between the lessons to make up for ICs lack thereof, and for extending lessons beyond the classroom. Although it encourages the role of the student as a self-starter, additional materials and ideas from the teacher to connect lessons and extend ideas beyond the classroom could greatly benefit learners in the EBP world.

Section 2: In-Depth Analysis of Unit 12: Meetings A preliminary note: I would recommend that teachers select units from the second half with more discretion, as the difficulty level experiences a steep incline after Unit 10. An examination of unit 12 presents a good example of what to keep (and add to) and what to leave (or shorten) in adjusting material for student comprehension. The opening or warm-up activity contains two parts. The first is a discussion of successful talks youve been to in the past. Here the teacher may want to present video of a conference talk to give students a common reference point, or to activate related schemata. Following the discussion is a vocabulary matching exercise: To be a good presenter you need..., with a word bank of adjectives like humor, knowledge, etc. The next activity is a discussion of presentational style with brief prompts for expressing opinions: What you need most of all is..., Another important thing is..., etc. The next section (titled Delivery) presents reading and listening materials related to

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successful public speaking. The listening activity doubles as a grammar task, as students listen and fill in proper punctuation for the script of the passage. A teacher should pace this portion of the lesson carefully and be sure that students are comprehending both the content and purpose of this activity. A follow-up team activity to plan and perform a new presentation comes next. Students are asked to evaluate prosody (should someone present dramatically or professionally? ), rhetorical devices (repetition, grouping points) and presentational skills (considering the audience, checking for comprehension among your listeners). This activity has a heavy culturalunderpinning; what makes a good public speaker can differ in specifics from one culture to the next (while general things like volume, charisma and humor are likely to be common crossculturally). This exercise is a good opportunity for the teacher to elicit stories and schemata from students concerning cultural attitudes towards presentations. Perhaps this activity could be linked with the unit warm-up on successful talks. The next section covers the use of visuals and has a listening activity about a case study of a technical problem with a companys website. This activity leads into an open-ended writing and critical thinking activity asking students to outline a presentation of their own using some of the prompts and transitional statements learned in the lesson. This wrap-up activity might best be split into two parts: the first as an in-class outlining task and the second as an individual homework assignment to fill in the gaps and present a coherent, flowing presentation. However, this suggestion brings up the same issue discussed earlier with improperly scaffolded tasks. Teaching presentational skills can take up a lot of class time (many businesspeople attend conferences in their L1 just to master some of the finer skills of public speaking). By the same token, what makes presentational skills so hard to teach is also what makes them so

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useful for EBP learners: they integrate the four skills, require confidence with the target language and macro- as well as micro-planning. Unit 12 is a good example of a single units skills building up to a larger task, but unfortunately, subsequent units only grow more complex and difficult and do not relate directly to the units that came before. IC covers a lot of ground in 20 short units, but sacrifices depth for breadth. Unit 12s lessons could be better remembered if tasks were interconnected with adjacent units, and repeated and adjusted to match student progress.

Conclusion In Company is an excellent textbook overall, and fulfills the goals it sets out for itself. Teachers with students interested in fast-paced, stand-alone lessons that focus on one task-based skill at a time with little to no interconnectivity with other task-based skills are encouraged to pick up In Company. IC will not be as useful to teachers attempting to use the textbook to connect one real-life task to the next in terms of skill-sets, and IC will call for alteration to ease students into the more difficult tasks found later on. Despite the dramatic upswing in difficulty soon after the first half of the book, IC is generally thoughtfully designed and laid-out for a teacher. It puts students in the role of selfmotivated, self-directed learners and teachers in the role of supervisory guides. Students interests will be engaged by tasks based on real-world EBP situations. The content (vocabulary, writing strategies, grammar structures, speaking and listening strategies) will help students in reaching their goals. Sprinkled throughout the tasks are breaks for students to work with partners, groups or as a class to discuss the material that they just learned. Equipped with these built-in breaks, a

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teacher can easily encourage student schema activation and communicative competence. Recommended is a student journal or log about the problems or obstacles they encounter in their EBP settings. Bringing these examples to class and comparing them to the solutions found in the text will increase the authenticity of the material as well as the intrinsic motivation of students to get through the text. As was said in the analysis of Unit 12, IC covers a lot of ground in 20 short units, but forgoes depth for breadth. Students cannot count on the skills of the previous unit to directly translate into skills for completing the next unit. This may threaten students motivation, as they find themselves, say, very invested in unit 17s discussion on globalization and the global economy, but uninterested in unit 18s advice on business lunch meetings. Depending on what students feel they need for their job or job-related goals, IC runs the risk of being alternatively essential and superficial. Fortunately, the material is such that it may be altered to maintain students interest: a discussion on globalization could lead into a discussion of business lunch conversation topics. IC predicts that EBP student populations will have strong motivations for learning particular skills out of a huge range. For a creative teacher, IC will offer enough material to choose from to accomplish a range of student goals. For a less creative teacher, IC should not be followed word-for-word, especially when it is clear that later lessons are not carrying over from one unit to the next (unit 15 to 16, unit 12 to 13, unit 18 to 19, are some stand-out examples). In these cases, teachers must intervene and make changes or add material to make the connections between skills and situations clearer to students. In a class of any size, students will have differing preferences for which skills they wish to learn. Connecting the lessons through homework, discussion and review will help maintain student interest even when that weeks

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target skills are not applicable to their job.

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Works Cited Brown, H. Douglas. Teaching by Principles: An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall Regents, 1994. Print. Littlejohn, A. 2011. The analysis of language teaching materials: inside the Trojan Horse. In Tomlinson, B. (Ed.) Materials Development in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pages 179-211 Graves, Kathleen. Designing Language Courses: A Guide for Teachers. Boston: Heinle & Heinle, 2000. Print. "In Company." Macmillan English - Home. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Apr. 2012. <http:// www.macmillanenglish.com/Course.aspx?id=28294>. Sheldon, L.(1988). Evaluating ELT textbooks and materials. ELT Journal, 42/2.

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Appendices Appendix A: Checklist PRESENTATION 1. Completeness of presentation 1-10 (1=low; 10=high) 5 Comments Accompanying CD-ROM useful for listening practice. Needs teacher-directed in-class practice to target problem areas CD-ROMs (or nowadays online resources) can be easily accessible and comprehensive study aids Without self-motivation, Ss will miss opportunity to practice outside of class. T needs to create online oral journal or conduct in-class practice to compensate.

2. Appropriateness of presentation

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3. Adequacy of practice

GRAMMAR 4. Appropriateness of frequency 7 Although a CLT-approach textbook, IC could have added more grammar exercises, especially as models for homework assignments Grammar is scaffolded and introduced in-context. There is little to no drilling. Grammar lessons encourage conversation or writing more than drilled practice. T needs to check to make sure correct forms are being learned. Outside of strict drilling, practice with written/spoken production is heavy, Scentered

5. Appropriate sequencing 6. Adequacy of drill model & pattern display

10 2

7. Adequacy of practice

10

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CONTENT 8. Functional load 10 Material is useful and comprehensible for students. Many activities are task-based and connected to real life. Lessons not as well interconnected as possible. Potential for students to lose bigger picture of business English skills Generally the materials are level-appropriate and comprehensible. Later sections of the book include advanced tasks and more involved material.

9. Rate & manner of entry & re-entry

10 Appropriateness of content 8 & situations

GENERAL 11. Authenticity of input 10 Materials often directly related to recent (past 5 years) situations and problems concerning the business world. Skills are relevant. No supplemental materials listed. No guidance present for either a NS or NNS teacher Mark Powell is an experienced ESL educator and writer (CITE) Unit lessons tend to be separate from one another and students may have difficulty seeing the larger connections between tasks Paperback, easily beat-up if not taken care of No typos or errors found in

12. Availability of supplementary materials 13. Adequate guidance for non-native teachers 14. Competence of the author

0 0 10

15. Sufficient integration of skills across units

16. Durability 17. Quality of editing &

7 10

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publishing

a read-through of the book. Professional publishing quality 10 For around $32, a book and CD, with full-script and authentic materials for EBP Adapted from: Tucker (1975: 360-1)

18. Price & value

Evaluative Questions 1. Is it attractive? Given the average age of your students, would they enjoy using it? YES 2. Is it culturally acceptable? YES 3. Is it about the right length? YES PARTLY NO PARTLY NO PARTLY NO

4. Does it balance between the relevant language skills and integrate them? YES 5. Is there a clear teachers guide? YES PARTLY NO PARTLY NO

6. Are the suggested teaching methods appropriate for you, your students and your classroom? YES PARTLY NO

7. Is the textbook easily adaptable / expandable? YES PARTLY NO

8. Are activities spiraled? (scaffolded and integrated) YES PARTLY NO

9. Do you believe the book would be acceptable to employers as a course textbook? YES PARTLY NO

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10. If It does more than the syllabus requires, is the result an improvement? YES PARTLY NO

11. Is there a good balance between EBP skills for a job and EGP skills for everyday life? YES PARTLY NO

Adapted from: Grant (1987: 122-6)

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Appendix B: Breakdown of Units

Unit Number Topic Communication skills and tasks Reading and Listening Texts Grammar and Lexis Links

1: International English

English as a global language

Completing a needs analysis Doing a quiz on languages Discussing attitudes to English English using expressions for talking about language needs & learning preferences Describing people Discussing appropriate conversation topics Keeping the conversation going Networking

R: Article about English dominating communications L: People talking about their attitudes to learning English

2: Making Contacts

Networking

L: Extracts from a business travel programme on conference venues L: People gossiping at a conference L: People socialising at a conference

Present Simple Present Continuous Present Simple vs. Present Continuous Collocations relating to conferences Verb + prepositions Past Simple Time adverbs for, in, during, ago, over, before Telephone expressions for dealing with difficulties & distractions Comparatives & superlatives Comparative & superlative expressions Phrasal verbs with on, out, off, up, down

3: Making Calls

Desk work

Making telephone phrases Exchanging information on the telephone

L: Planning a telephone call L: Voice mail messages L: Telephone conversations

4: Keeping Track

Meetings

Checking & clarifying facts & figures Querying information

L: Extracts from meetings R: Texts: the Budweiser companies L: Extracts from a meeting L: A briefing meeting

5: Speed of Life

Talking Points

Discussing time management strategies Discussing statements on how speed affects your working life

R: Mini-texts: statistics about the working week R: Extract from Getting Things Done by Roger Black L: People talking about how speed affects their work L: People talking about how they unwind after work L: Extracts from business travel conversations R: Article from Newsweek about people who live in two cities L: Short exchanges in British & American English L: Conversations at the airport R: Mini-texts: telephone statistics L: Telephone conversations Polite question forms Indirect questions Collocations relating to travel

6: Business Travel

Networking

Expressing likes & dislikes about travelling on business Making polite requests & enquiries Situational roleplays Identifying signs as British or American English Greeting visitors Discussing your attitude to using the telephone Making polite telephone requests using if & Could you...? Making telephone expressions with Ill Dealing with incoming calls

7: Handling calls

Desk work

Will for future predictions, spontaneous, decisions, offers, requests, promises, refusals, threats If + will Collocations relating to work routines Conditionals (future reference)

8: Making decisions

Meetings

Doing a questionnaire on making decisions

L: Extracts from a documentary L: Extract from a meeting

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Using expressions for making decisions & conducting a decisionmaking meeting

R: Article about James Bonds films R: Actor profiles: James Bond contenders L: Interviews with James Bond contenders

Unless, provided/ providing (that), as/ so long as, suppose/ supposing Collocations relating to the marketplace

9: Big business

Stating opinions, agreeing & disagreeing Stating preferences Networking

L: People talking about the size of their companies R: Article: Land of the Giants - are companies or governments in charge? L: People talking about the article Land of the Giants Completing a questionnaire on cultural awareness Talking about experiences Engaging in small talk L: Extracts from pre-meeting conversations L: People chatting at work Past Simple vs. Present Perfect Common adjectival collocations Exaggeration & understatement Future forms Expressing intention: be going to/planning to/intending to etc. Collocations relating to computers Past Continuous Past Perfect Past Simple vs. Past Continuous vs. Past Perfect Expressions for structuring a presentation Collocations relating to presentations

10: Small talk

11: E-mail

Desk work

Discussing attitudes to e-mail Guidelines for writing e-mail Writing e-mail equivalents of format texts Simplifying a lengthy e-amil Exchanging e-mails Discussing qualities of a good presentation Pausing, pacing & sentence stress Delivering a presentation Structuring a presentation Using visuals Presenting a solution to a problem at work

L: People talking about their attitudes to e-mail R: Article: e-mail research results R: Extract from The Bluffers Guide to the Internet L: Voice mail messages L: People conversing & giving a presentation L: Toast: by George Bernard Shaw to Albert Einstein R: Extract from First Direct website L: A presentation about a technical problem

12: Presenting

Meetings

13: Technological World

Talking points

Discussing the pros & cons of technology Making predictions about future technology using expressions for speculating about the future Discussing attitudes to meetings Completing a questionnaire on assertiveness in meetings Discussing meeting styles in different countries Interrupting a speaker

R: Article: the age of technology L: People talking about future technological developments

14: Being heard

Meetings

L: People talking about their attitudes to meetings L: Extracts from meetings in different cultures R: Case studies: meeting styles in three countries

Modal verbs: must, may, might, can, could, would, ought to, etc. Collocations relating to meetings Expressions for stating opinions Multi-verb expressions in business letters Prepositions Conditionals (past reference) Collocations relating to people & products

15: Snail mail

Desk work

Types of paper documentation Correcting a formal letter Writing letters of complaint and apology Discussing solutions to problems Expressions for making suggestions Devising a procedure for solving problems

R: Article about a paperless office L: Someone correcting a colleagues business letter

16: Solving problems

Meetings

L: Case studies: three problems solved L: Extracts from problem-solving meetings R: Texts: advice on solving problems L: Case studies: solutions to problems in two companies

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17: Global village

Talking points

Discussing opinions on globalisation Using time expressions to communicate your views on how globalisation affects the company you work for Describing restaurants Expressions for discussing food Doing a quiz on table manners & etiquette Categorising food & drink Describing typical dishes from your country or region Discussing attitudes to electronic communication Sequencing a series of e-mails Expressions used in e-mails Note-taking from voice mail Dealing with messages Sounding more diplomatic Expressions for negotiating Completing notes while listening to two negotiations Negotiating a transfer deal

R: Texts: four peoples opinions on globalisation

18: Eating out

Networking

L: A conversation in a restaurant L: Conversations over lunch

Passive with common verb structures Collocations relating to food & drink

19: Messaging

Desk work

R: Extract about the role of e-mail in business L: People discussing their opinions on messaging L: Humorous voice mail messages

Reported speech

20: Negotiating

Meetings

R: Extract from Getting Past No L: People sharing their views on negotiating R: Joke from Complete Idiots Guide to Winning Through Negotiation L: Extracts from negotiations R: Article on football L: Description of football players transfer deals

Grammar of diplomacy Collocations relating to negotiations Expressions for negotiating

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