COURSE INTRODUCTION

BUSINESS ENGLISH 2

2013/14 FIRST YEAR, SPRING SEMESTER

Lecturer: VIŠNJA KABALIN BORENIĆOffice hours: Tuesday 12:00 – 13.00 (BDiB m)

Thursday 10.30 - 12.30 Friday 10.00 – 11.00 (Gar-Jus m) Room: 16

Phone: 238 3205E-mail: vkborenic@efzg.hrInfo: www.efzg.hr/vkabalin & www.efzg.hr

The notice board in the Department corridor

Student tutor (GAR-JUS): ŽELJKA LISEC

zeljka.lisec@gmail.com

- get help with your English regularly

Student tutor (BDiB): LANA JEROLIMOV

Department secretary: ANA BENETA- exam registration- any other administrative issue- language certificates for Erasmus

TIMETABLE 2013/14 (GAR-JUS)

Joint session

3 (GAR-JUS) : Mon 14.00 – 15.30

Split session

3_1 (GAR-HOR): Fri 08.30 – 10.00

3_2 (HRA-JUS): Fri 12.00 – 13.30

TIMETABLE 2013/14 (BDiB)

Joint session

BE2 : Tue 10.00 – 11.30

Split session

Thu 8.30 – 10.00

Thu 13.00 – 14.30

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

• to develop business communication skills (written and oral)

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

• to develop business communication skills (written and oral)

• to acquire specialist vocabulary (on selected business topics)

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

• to develop business communication skills (written and oral)

• to acquire specialist vocabulary (on selected business topics)

• to encourage critical thinking (analysis, synthesis, anticipating, deducing,selecting)

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

• to develop business communication skills (written and oral)

• to acquire specialist vocabulary (on selected business topics)

• to encourage critical thinking (analysis, synthesis, anticipating, deducing,selecting)

• to understand the difference between written/spoken and formal/informal lang.

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

• to develop business communication skills (written and oral)

• to acquire specialist vocabulary (on selected business topics)

• to encourage critical thinking (analysis, synthesis, anticipating, deducing,selecting)

• to understand the difference between written/spoken and formal/informal lang.

• to learn how to use dictionaries and other reference material

TOPICS• Retailing and e-commerce• International trade and the EU• Banking• Central banking• Exchange rates• Insurance• Business cycle• Accounting• Stocks and derivatives• Bonds• Mergers and acquisitions

Skills focus:

• Language of meetings– (incl. agenda, memo, minutes)

• Writing reports / memos / agendas

• Describing graphs and charts

REQUIRED LITERATURE

• MacKenzie, I. (2010) ENGLISH FOR BUSINESS STUDIES, CUP

→units 14, 16-19, 21, 23, 26, 27

• RESOURCE BANK 2 (2013/14 NEW !!!)• students aspiring to grade A are expected to read

and be able to discuss all of the material provided in the literature

(See Course content, RB p 2)

- Copy on a USB – distribute to colleagues

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

• regular attendance is OBLIGATORY– IF YOU MISS A CLASS: keep up-to-date with the

course progression (ask your colleagues, see me or Željka during office hours, visit my web page, email me…);

• active in-class participation (home assignments, participation in discussions);

• organizing & role-playing a business meeting;• passing progress tests or the

comprehensive exam

TWO EXAM OPTIONS

1) CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT – (BEFORE REGULAR EXAM DATES)

• business meeting

• two progress tests – (regular submission of written homework

assignments is a requirement)

• active in-class participation

• a comprehensive oral exam

2) REGULAR EXAM DATES

• business meeting – during the semester• final comprehensive written test (regular

examination period)• final comprehensive oral exam (regular

exam period)

MEETINGS

• TEAMS OF 5-7 STUDENTS - exchange mobile phone numbers or e-mails• TOPICS WILL BE ASSIGNED (OR CHOSEN)

- meetings will be held in my office during office hours starting Tue 11 March (BDiB) x 1

Fri 14 March (Gar-Jus) x 2

MORE INFO ON MEETINGS - SHORTLYFINAL SCHEDULE - SHORTLY

• PREPARE THE TOPIC OF THE MEETING, AGENDA, MINUTES AND ROLES

(hand in the agenda and minutes on the day of the meeting)

• USE CLASS INPUT (RB 2) ON THE STRUCTURE AND LANGUAGE OF MEETINGS

• REHEARSE YOUR ROLE ALONE AND WITH

YOUR TEAM

FINAL ORAL EXAM

• checks your speaking skills, coherent and clear presentation of the subject

• students answer three questions on the topics covered during the semester using the relevant terminology

• this is followed by a brief discussion

• it lasts around 5-10 minutes

Recommended literature:Longman Business English Dictionary Špiljak, V. ed. (2000) Englesko-hrvatski poslovni rječnik,

Masmedia Murphy Grammar (students whose general English is weak

pls see my student tutor)

Suggested sources:• Business Week, The Financial Times, The Economist …• CNBC, Bloomberg, business programmes on BBC and

CNN• web sites: bized.com, investopedia.com, quickmba.com,

startup.wsj.com, dictionary.com, harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu, encarta.msn.com, acronymfinder.com, uefap.com, , cusd.com/calonline/econ

IF READING IS DIFFICULT:

read the text to understand it in Croatian retell the text in Croatian translate the whole text into Croatian sentence by sentence identify collocations, key business terms in each sentence find definitions for business terms make a list of collocations for each text you read do vocabulary tasks before or after the text

• prepare a text following the tips above and contact the teacher / student tutor to arrange a study feedback session

THIS WEEK …

– INTRODUCTION TO MEETINGS

– PLEASE get RESOURCE BANK 2 A.S.A.P.

– HOMEWORK: STUDY PAGES 2-5 IN RB 2