Using texts in the business English

classroomKaren RichardsonApril 14th 2014

Agenda

• Types of business texts• Where to find them• What you can do with them • Staying on the right side of the law *

• Tips• Free resources• Useful links

Headlines (of articles)a lesson in their own right!

some ideas:• 1. deciphering what they mean • 2. parsing the language• 3. after looking at a few, decide which article to

read• 4. guessing which words will appear in the article -

followed up by article in a word cloud*• 5. cutting them up into individual words and

reassembling them*

Eurostar stake up for grabs in £10bn state asset sell-off

(Guardian Weekly, Dec 2013)[1 & 2]• Eurostar = Company name (background knowledge) • stake = biz vocab• up for grabs = idomatic phrase• £ = currency symbol• bn = billion abbreviation (in Germany false friend alert)• state = noun not verb• asset = biz vocab (pronunciation)• sell-off = biz vocab

[ 3 & 4 ]

The big picture 1

• Summarizing & retelling • Practise skimming & scanning skills• Read aloud – students or you• Set as pre-class reading task• Set as post-class reading task• Write comprehension questions• Extend, research & present• Discuss & give personal opinions

The big picture 2• Get the scissors out - reassemble, jigsaw reading /

information exchange, missing sections, … *• Write headings for sections• Invent new (better) headlines & titles• Word frequency / word clouds *• Genre, length, style• Required pre-knowledge• Images & graphs

The small picture 1• Keywords• Certain types of words – compound words,

adjectives, phrasal verbs, prepositions……• ESP & vocab fields• Abbreviations, short forms, accronyms• Collocations / word pairs• Fixed expressions• Idioms, metaphors, alliteration …• Tenses & structures

Purpose & emotions

• Purpose- advertising & marketing• Information - ingredients, source, company • Quality assurance• Instructions• Style - personal & caring, signature• Formality – neutral to informal (ps. ….)• Language – soothing, calming, nourishing …..

Company materials*

• Analyse (as above)• Translate• Discuss images• Explain how machines

work• Write requesting more

information / catalogue / appointment …..

Students‘ writing

• Peer feedback• Correct• Improve• Analyse (see above)• Needs analysis• How would you feel…?• Write a response

Further sources of BE texts*

Ready-made & legally-photocopiable lesson plans with BE

texts and articles

Teaching tips

Teaching tips 2

Resources & links• www.onestopenglish.com

• http://www.businessenglishonline.net/

• http://mag.digitalpc.co.uk/Olive/ODE/ELGAZETTE/

• http://www.eltpics.com/

• http://www.eltteacher2writer.co.uk/

Copyright laws: state schools & Unis[US, UK, DE]• http://www.copyright.com/

Services/copyrightoncampus/content/index_class.html

• http://www.copyrightandschools.org/

• http://www.schulbuchkopie.de/index.php/fotokopie-was-geht-was-geht-nicht

Contact & free worksheetwww.compass-elt.de