Business English Materials on the Internet


I am very keen to see more business English materials available for sale on the internet for several reasons. Firstly the ease of accessibility means that you don't have any waiting time, as is the case so often if you order a book; secondly you can usually download free samples to evaluate. Thirdly I like the loose-leaf format that printing at home permits, as I find my business clients prefer a loose-leaf folder of materials to a textbook with its schoolroom associations.

I have recently located two excellent resources and have tried them one of them out with French company executives. The first set of materials came from The LACS Centre- http://www.lacscentre.co.uk in Edinburgh. LACS has three series currently available: Fluency, Negotiating and Presentations. I downloaded an evaluation pack for Fluency, which includes 10 lessons in which a business topic is linked to typical language structures and vocabulary. The first chapter concerns company description and practises present simple and past tenses as well as the 'going to' future in conjunction with the vocabulary for production, employment, physical description and planning ahead. The other topics are:

  • Company organization
  • Product description
  • Business performance
  • Opinions and predictions
  • Processes and procedures
  • Reporting progress
  • Requirements
  • Comparing
  • Plans and schedules

One of the attractive features of this series is that each unit is preceded by a clear illustration that is suitable for putting on an OHT. This means that you can use it in a variety of ways as well as in the manner suggested by the authors. Each unit has a clear explanation of the language points followed by activities which give opportunity to practise the target language in realistic business situations. The series is accompanied by a comprehensive set of teacher's notes.

I would be happy to use these materials for intermediate levels and above, because I find that even advanced level students welcome revision of key language points if the practise activities are relevant to their needs. It is here, I think that the main strengths of the materials lie. The activities have very carefully planned to reflect real needs so that students would find them motivating and helpful.

The materials can be downloaded for Acrobat Reader (available free from http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/r... or obtained on floppy disk. The prices are entirely reasonable and the download time quite acceptable. Payment can be made by credit card. Address any queries about these materials to lacs@lacscentre.co.uk.

Dave Volek's materials in the series Dave Volek's Business English, are devised for three different levels and are concerned with specific business topics such as marketing, using figures etc. I road tested 'Stan's Tents' from the intermediate series with a reasonably advanced level group and found I had enough material for a full day. We started with the vocabulary quizzes to see exactly how much terminology was familiar and how much new. This in itself generated a good deal of discussion about the scope and contexts in which the marketing terms operated. We next dealt with the case study provided in the unit, looking at the phases: Segmenting, Competitor Analysis, Market Position Segment Assessment, Distribution, Promotion and Conclusion. To do this I assigned one or two phases to a pair of students and they had to summarise their section for the whole group. I then dealt with the comprehension questions.

The copyright of the article Business English Materials on the Internet in TESOL Language Training is owned by Brenda Townsend Hall. Permission to republish Business English Materials on the Internet in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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