Formazione Linguistica
English Booklet
Level: Upper- Intermediate
BUSINESS ENGLISH
CONTENT
Representing Your Company in International Meetings 4
The History 4
Organization charts and hierarchies 6
What about Your Company itself? 7
The services you provide 7
Present your Company 8
Social English - Welcoming people from other countries 9
Breaking the ice 10
Introducing colleagues 11
Attending a meeting 11
Organising Conferences, Seminars Meetings 12
Working with a partner to organise a conference 12
Telephone skills 12
Making and taking Calls 14
Making suggestions, agreeing and disagreeing 17
Meeting 19
Attending a trade fair
Presentation Skills 21
Writing Skills 23
Writing reports 27
Product Development 29
Benchmarking activity 29
Describe an Innovative Product being developed in your company 31
Your Suppliers 33
Social Responsibility 34
Culture, Countries and Current Events 36
Articles on writers, file makers and more
The Obama’s first 100 days 38
Talking about interests and current events 40
International route of the Olympic Flame 40
Different types of music 42
Talking about journeys and people 44
Dialogues 44
Travel 45
Talking about culture 46
Chicago - Art Institute 46
Pocket Grammar 48
Representing Your Company in International Meetings
When did you start working for it?
Which department do you work in?
What are your tasks and competences?
What is your Job?
Here is an example of an Organization Chart.
Organization charts and hierarchies
Can you describe how your department is organised? Prepare a short description including the following points:
- Who do you report to?
- Do you have contacts with other departments? If so, with which?
- What are your department's priorities this year?
- Has your way of working changed over the last few years?
- Do you work as a team or individually?
What are the advantages and/or disadvantages of team working, in your opinion?
What about your company itself?
Imagine someone knows nothing about your company. Working in small groups, identify some bullet points to summarise what your company does. Write your bullet points here:
- ……………………………………………………………………………………….
- ……………………………………………………..……………………………….
- ……………………………………………………………..……………………….
- ………………………………………………..
- ………………………………………………..
- ………………………………………………..
- ………………………………………………..
- ………………………………………………..
Present Your Company
Our Mission
......
Our Activities
......
Our Objectives
......
Our Products
......
Social English
Welcoming people from other countries
1. How many expressions do you know to greet someone?
Make a note of any new expressions:
- …………………………………………………..
Do people from other countries come to your offices? Who are they?
(clients-customers / consultants / delegations / suppliers / representatives / others)
- …………………………………………………..
Where do they come from?
(Europe / Northern Africa / The Middle East / Asia / The Far East / N/S America
Mediterranean Countries / Scandinavian Countries / Eastern European Countries)
- …………………………………………………..
Why do they come?
To get or give information and/or advice To sell a product or service
To learn about how Your Company operates To work together on a project
To attend a meeting/seminar/conference To run a training course
To speak at a meeting/conference Other: …………………...
Breaking the ice
In the lift or walking along a long corridor!
Here are some expressions you could use to make polite conversation.
2. Match the questions on the left with a reply on the right.
1. Haven’t we met before?2. How are things in the London office?
3. You come from Stockholm, don’t you?
4. You have a wonderful tan! Have you been on holiday?
5. I hope you had a good journey.
6. Have you been to Sardinia before?
7. Have you worked for here for a long time?
8. May I help you with one of your bags?
9. How did the dinner go last night?
10. You are staying for two days, aren’t you? / a. Well. It wasn’t too bad, but we were delayed by the fog.
b. No, only for a couple of years.
c. Oh! That’s very kind of you.
d. Very well. The food was good and we had
a nice time.
e. Yes, I am. One day wouldn’t have been
long enough.
f. Yes, I do. Have you ever been there?
g. Yes, I took a week off and the weather
was superb!
h. Pretty busy. The reorganisation is underway!
i. I think so, but I can’t remember where!
j. No, I haven’t. This is my first visit.
Can you think of any other expressions?
- …………………………………………………..
- …………………………………………………..
Introducing colleagues
3. Can you find the mistakes in the following sentences?
a. I'm in charge of the working environment unit.
b. She's the responsible of public relations.
c. She works in the human resources direction.
Attending a Meeting
Exercise
Imagine that you have been asked to organizing a meeting in Bologna with some new Customer.
v Prepare an agenda for the
meeting
v Who would you invite?
Simulate the telephone
calls and prepare the
invitation that you would
send.
v What do you know about
new customer?
v Do they provide
information and services
that are useful for ?
Organizing Conferences, Seminars and Meetings
Working with a partner to organise a Conference
Telephone skills
GETTING THROUGH
WHO’S CALLING?
Here is some more useful telephone language
Can I have your name please? - Certainly. It’s SMITH, Jane Smith.
I’m sorry. It’s a bad line. Can you repeat your last name?
Who’s calling please. John Burns from Toyota, Scotland.
Can you match these questions and answers ?
Could you say the name of the road again? / Eight two - it's 0586 413482Could you repeat the last two numbers? / Yes, B-I-A-N-C-H-I
Would you mind saying that again? / That's right, 2.00 p.m.
Can you spell your surname please? / It's 533
Sorry, I didn't catch the extension number / Madison Road - M-A-D-I-S-O-N
Did you say two o'clock? / Certainly, it's the sales office.
Now try this telephone roleplay
MAKING AND TAKING CALLS
Taking the call Making the call
Now put this conversation in the right order (there are three speakers)
Now practise these phone calls
LEAVING AND TAKING A MESSAGE
CALLING BACK
Now look at this conversation
- Mr Black wants to talk to Mike Miller from the Employment Department
Which expressions are the more polite of each pair?
-I'd like to speak to Mr Millar or Pass me Mr Millar
-Yes, I'll hold or Ok, I will wait.
-Tell him I'm arriving on Saturday or Could you ask him to ring John this afternoon?
-It's 0044 586 412397 or Can I give you my extension? It's 533
-Yes, that's all. Could you give him or No, I need an answer now
the message as soon as possible?
NOW in pairs practise taking and leaving messages
If you have other problems you can say
Making suggestions, agreeing and disagreeing
Making suggestions
Proposing alternatives
Asking favours
Accepting
Refusing politely
Concluding
Agreeing on key issues
ACCEPTING AND DECLINING
Fixing a date for a meeting
Compromising to find solutions
Roleplay
Meetings
- How often do you have meetings at work? Once a week? Twice a month?
- Do you always have meetings with the same group of people?
- Are they formal or informal?
- Who prepares the agenda? Who chairs the meeting?
- Is there a person responsible for taking notes?
- How long do meetings usually last?
STARTING THE MEETING
A Well, the purpose of today's meeting is …. r
B OK, who wants to say something? r
C Right, today I'm going to tell you what to do. r
D Perhaps I could begin by saying … r
E There are three items on the agenda today. r
F Perhaps we can think about an agenda now. r
G Today's meeting, as you know, is about….. r
H What do you think we can talk about? r
I I am pleased to welcome you all to our meeting about….. r
J Right - who wants to start? r
K Good morning. I'd like to starting by checking … r
L Well, I'm in charge of this meeting - you'll do what I suggest. r
INVITING COMMENTS
How can you make your language more encouraging?
Instead of saying
You can say
Imagine you are at a meeting concerning product development. Now invite comments about:
1. New design for the dual position reflector
2. Energy saving lighting
3. Safety systems
4. Efficient emergency lighting
Presentation skills
Prepare a short talk on a topic that interests you
State the purpose of your presentation
I’m here today to talk about …
I’d like to speak briefly about …
What I’d like to do today is …
In my presentation this morning, I’ll be describing …
The purpose of my presentation today is to …
Give a brief outline of your talk
I’ve divided my talk into three main parts. Firstly, I’d like to … Secondly, … and, finally …
I’ll begin with some general comments about … , then I’ll deal with the … , I’ll move on to the … and, after that, we’ll take a look at …
I’ll be speaking about three main topics today. First of all, I’ll describe the … . Then I’ll go into detail about the … and finally, I’ll tell you about the …
The body of the presentation
Draw attention to important points
The success of this project is extremely important to …
The changes in … have been highly significant for us …
Refer to visual aids
I’d like you to have a look at this graph /pie chart / bar chart
As you can see from this diagram … the highest increase …
If you could look at this pie chart … you can see that …
The figures shown here indicate that …
Changing to another topic
We’ve seen the potential problems and now let’s look at some possible solutions.
Having looked at the options, let’s move onto the advantages and disadvantages of …
This leads me to my next point which is …
Highlighting advantages and disadvantages
Advantages Disadvantages
the main advantage is ... There are one or two disadvantages …
The benefit of … is … The disadvantages are …
I tend to be in favour of … There tend to be some disadvantages …
One main advantage is Where we have to be careful is …
Using rhetorical questions
Looking at the continual drop in sales, we must pose the question, Why?
Major changes are going to be made in the company. How will this affect your department?
The project has taken longer than originally anticipated. What is the explanation for this?
There is indeed a growing demand for our products. What are the implications for our production facilities?
And remember, you, the speaker, provide the answers to these rhetorical questions.
Referring to other parts of the presentation
I’d like to go back to a point I made earlier concerning …
As I’ve already mentioned …
I’ll come back to this point in a moment but …
If you wouldn’t mind, I’ll answer that question in the next part of the presentation
I’ll deal with that later.
Summarizing the presentation
Conclude by thanking the audience
Inviting questions
To summarize the main points of my talk, we must … . We must also … . And finally, it is necessary to … .
To sum up, then, we will need to …
Conclude
I’d like to conclude by …-ing …
This brings me to the end of my talk. I’d like to thank you for your attention.
The main points of the presentation are summarized in the handouts which I’ll distribute now. Thank you.
Inviting questions
I’d like to thank you for your attention. Now, if there are any questions, I’ll be pleased to answer them.
Thank you once again for your attention. If there are any questions, I’ll do my best to answer them.
Writing skills
THE INVERTED PYRAMID
A structure for formal writing
The inverted pyramid system provides a logical structure for writing text. It enables you to write down information in an ordered sequence, according to what is most important. This structure is the one most frequently used by professional writers.
The inverted pyramid format is ideal for summaries.
Put essential detail first, supporting data next and additional data last.
Do not confuse your reader with irrelevant details
APPLYING THE TECHNIQUE
The pyramid structure is ideal for writing general professional communications and announcements, for example research results, invitations to participate in events, and employment notices. It is also ideal for producing summaries and other documents that require you to provide condensed information in a report format that is understandable to everyone. Journalists also use this technique for writing news stories and reports.
PROVIDING A STRUCTURE
These are the three essential elements that comprise the structure of the pyramid and ensures clearer, more concise writing.
WRITING MEMOS
This structure is ideal for in-house communications and memos. In the example below, Mr Jones receives a briefing from the Human Resources Department at InfoPower about his staff's standard working day. He finds the content difficult and confusing to read. The HR department is not practised at writing memos - and it shows. Had they used the pyramid structure, their memo would have been much shorter and clearer.
Information should be competently, professionally, and politely presented.
BEING ORGANIZED
The memo on the left does not deliver its message because it is unclear, badly organized, and was not checked before it was sent out. The reader is left uncertain about what action to take. The memo on the right is clearer and more direct.