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Teaching Business English: Resources, Methods, Assessment September 2009 By Daniela Munca 1.Resources: The following resources will help you find great ideas for your lesson plans and surprise your students with the latest resources in the business domain. a) FORBES official website: Forbes.com – the easiest and most user-friendly resource for lesson plan ideas (look for the following icons):

Teaching Business English

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Teaching Business English: Resources, Methods, Assessment

September 2009 By Daniela Munca

1. Resources:The following resources will help you find great ideas for your lesson plans and surprise your students with the latest resources in the business domain. a) FORBES official website: Forbes.com – the easiest and most user-friendly

resource for lesson plan ideas (look for the following icons):

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b) BBC Business: can be used starting with pre-intermediate students:

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c) CNN Money: more suitable for advanced students, but still a great resource for ideas

d) Video Resources:

1. BBC Business English (30 episodes suitable for the elementary to pre-intermediate levels): download from YouTube. A full story of a toy company trying to tap into a new market, fighting its competitors.

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2. Big City Video (Oxford University Press) intermediate to advanced levels (download from Englishtips.org) – 3-10 minutes videos focused on either a case study: Sony – Building a Brand or Jaguar – the story of success or on a functional situation: Travelling by plane , making a reservation.

3. Wall Street English – short, highly functional language video clips on various practical issues like: answering the phone, talking about your goals and ambitions, making an appointment, cancelling an appointment, ec.

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e) Slideshare.com – power points for ANY business related lesson plan!Search for key words and watch, send or download thousands of power point presentations on various topics.

2. Methods:

We teach Business EFL, not business, so our methodology should not be very different from what we do in a regular classroom. HOWEVER, business EFL students are usually more interested in content, especially vocabulary, than grammar, so:a) ask the students to keep a constant record of new vocabulary (group them by

topics: Marketing, Leadership, Mergers and Acquisitions, etc)b) find various websites which offer vocabulary lists and create a “Vocabulary

File” on each unit – give it to your students and ask them to group them in categories using flowcharts / graphic organizers, etc

c) use power point presentations and videos on vocabulary items: do your best to find the ones with audio / sound.

Business English VocabularyEnglish Club: Business English Vocabulary

Business English lessonsBusinessEnglishSite.comLearn-english-today.com

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d) Task-Based Instruction in Teaching Business: teaching students by asking them to something is much more effective than simply telling them what others did or what should be done. Try to design at least one task for each class / unit / chapter. Tasks can be short (give 5 reasons why Vodaphone has become the world’s largest cell phone company) or more sophisticated (Orange versus Moldcell: contrast and compare), they can be performed individually (you have sent your resume to the following banks: Mobias, Victoria Bank and Banca de Economii. Choose the bank that would fir your professional development goals better and explain how).

Sample of tasks my Business English students successfully performed in class / at home:

- Imagine that you work as the a) leading marketing advisor / b) production line manger for a very successful business person who has just acquired one of the following three Moldovan companies: Ionel, Viorica Cosmetics, Tricon. Your job is to present your boss and the board of directors a 3-year plan which would aim to boost the sales of the company.

- Your best friend has decided to open a boutique in one of the following shopping centers: Malldova, Megapolis and Elat and he / she needs your help to decide which one to choose. Create a contrast and compare graph to evaluate each mall’s advantages and disadvantages, to present your friend the best alternative: take into consideration the following: costs, rent, renting space, number of customers per day, location, advertising, etc.

- Google versus Yahoo: explain which company has been more successful in the past 2 years and why. List at least ten reasons.

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e) Todays’ Expert: create a schedule of “Experts”: leave the “Topic” section blank. Tell your students that there is going to be one student who will be the “Expert of the Day” – he or she will have to pay special attention to the entire class, take notes, record the most important information and at the end of the lesson summaries the content and present it in a “Today’s Business Brief” format:

Day Student TopicSeptember 22 Malcoci OlgaSeptember 24 Guivan ValeriaSeptember 29 Oprea Mariana

Today’s Business BriefWhat we discussed todayMost important informationUseful Vocabulary Grammar PointsHomework

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3. Assessment :Just like teaching, assessing Business English students should be rather meaningful than formal, rather practical than structural, i.e. the tests have to be challenging and interesting, they should reflect the students’ ability to present a business topic meaningfully to the audience rather than reproduce the material which had been taught.1) Ask your students to choose their favorite company and create a company

profile ; they are then given 5-6 min to present it to the class as a presentation, group/pair work, blog entry, power point, short movie, poster, A4 handouts, etc. (What is being assessed: fluency, grammar, vocabulary)

2) Create short, frequent tests to assess your students: these have to be very specific and focus on content and vocabulary rather than grammar: as when you would create a short list of questions the students answer in pairs or individually (15-20 questions like: What is UK’s top company? Name 5 FORBES best countries for business. Finish the idiom/proverb: to be born with a silver spoon in …….. What is the difference between a merger and a joint venture? etc )

3) Ask students to create an individual portfolio of summaries of the most important topics studied during the course – adult students usually love this activity because they don’t really have time to revise everything at home. I strongly recommend you to plan an entire lesson on this task; Group work could be a good alternative to this. They would have to:

a. Choose the topics they found most interesting and useful: for example, a student would choose the following 3 units: marketing, banking and finances, writing business proposals.

b. He/she would write a short summary of each topic using definitions, study cases, examples from texts, news, videos, etc

c. The student would create a personal Vocabulary List where he/she would add the most important words / idioms / collocations / proverbs.

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Unit 2

Present like Steve Jobs, the CEO of the decade

Ex. 1 Group discussion – answer the following questions:

- Witch companies are considered to be the leading software and hardware giants in the world?

- What are their most famous products?- What makes a software company successful?- Have you ever heard of Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs? Which skills should the CEO of

one of the most successful companies in the world poses?

Ex. 2 Match the following words to their definitions:

KeynoteCorporateThere is something in the air!To hint ConsistentTo kick off a meeting Quota (in sales for example)Headline Guidepost To wow smth / somebody To have a flare for somethingIntricate (presentation for example)

- to have a talent for doing something; to have a special ability in some area - informal English for “to start” - having qualities associated with large corporations or attributed to their influence or

control- having many complexly arranged elements; elaborate - to indicate or make known in an indirect manner.- the principal theme in a speech- something that serves as a guide or an example; a guideline - being in agreement with itself; coherent and uniform- a proportional share assigned to each participant, a production assignment - a line of text serving to indicate what the passage below is about - expression used to say that there is something special to be felt everywhere - to impress greatly, to express wonder, amazement, or great pleasure

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Ex. 3 Watch the video and write down the most important strategies Steve Jobs uses to deliver his presentations. These will appear in bold on the TV screen behind Carmine Gallo. Ask your teacher to give you the correct answers.

1. __________________________________________________________________2. __________________________________________________________________3. __________________________________________________________________4. __________________________________________________________________5. __________________________________________________________________6. __________________________________________________________________7. __________________________________________________________________8. __________________________________________________________________9. __________________________________________________________________10. __________________________________________________________________11. __________________________________________________________________12. __________________________________________________________________13. __________________________________________________________________14. __________________________________________________________________

Ex. 4 Watch the video and chose the appropriate alternative:

a) Anyone who has watched a Steve Jobs keynote will tell you he is the most electrifying / extraordinary / memorable speaker in corporate America.

b) While most presenters simply convey/ display / send information, Jobs inspires.

c) I’m Carmine Gallo and today I’ll walk you through several key techniques that Steve Jobs uses to electrify / impress / convince his audience.

d) There is clearly something in the air today. With those words Jobs opened the Mac World 2008, setting the theme for his presentation and making an allusion to / hinting / introducing the major announcement of the day, the launch of the ultra thin Mac book Air.

e) Whether it’s a new notebook or the iPhone, Jobs unveils/ discovers / presents a single headline that sets the theme: “Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone!”

f) Once you identify a theme, make sure it’s clear and stable / permanent / consistent throughout the presentation.

g) Think of a staff meeting as a presentation. Let’s say you are a sales manager introducing a new software tool to help your team generate, track and share sales lead. You might kick off / start / boost your meeting this way: “Today we’ll make it easy for you to make your quota!” – That’s the headline: it’s memorable / impressive / astonishing and it sets the direction for the rest of your meeting!

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Ex. 5 Fill in the sentences with the words from the box:

Mind numbing , effortless , outline, context , guidepost, intricate , experience, wowed, passionate, bonus , travelling, visual, envelope, overwhelming, extravaganza

1. Steve Jobs always provides an ______________ for his presentation and then verbally opens and closes each section with a transition in between.

2. The point is: “make it easy for your listeners to follow the story”. Your outline will serve as a ______________ along the way.

3. You will also notice that during his presentations, Jobs uses such words as “extraordinary”, “amazing” and “cool”. He is _____________________, enthusiastic and it shows!

4. Your audience wants to be _____________, not put to sleep. Too many people fall into this “presentation mode”. It’s stiff, it’s formal, it lacks possess.

5. Remember, Jobs is not selling hardwareware – he is selling _______________! If you offer numbers and statistics, make them meaningful: “We have sold 4 million iPhones to dates, which is 20.000 iPhones a day on average!”

6. Numbers don’t mean much, unless they are placed in _______________. Managers connect the dots for your listeners. Recently, I’ve worked with a company which launched a 12 Gigabits of memory card. 12 gigabits – that number doesn’t mean much to most people, but we put it in the context. We said: “that’s enough memory to listen to your music while ________________ to the moon and back!”

7. One of the most effective elements of Jobs’ presentations is that they are ‘easy on the eyes’. His presentations are _____________ and simple.

8. While most speakers fill their lives with _____________________ data and text and charts, Jobs does just the opposite. He uses very little text and usually one, maybe two images per slide. You want to paint a picture for your audience without _________________ them. Inspiring presentations are short on bullet points and big on visuals.

9. If you really want your presentation to pop, treat it like a show, with ads and flows, themes and transitions. Jobs includes video clips, demonstrations, and guests. He also has a net for dramatic flair that is very effective, for example when introducing Mac book Air, Jobs drew tears by opening an office _______________ and pulling out the laptop for everyone to see.

10. Jobs makes it look easy because he spends hours rehearsing. He can not pull off an ____________________ presentation with

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video clips and presentations and outside speakers without practice. The result – a presentation that is perfectly synchronized and looks ___________________.

11. The average business person does not have the resources to create a Steve Jobs _________________, but you do have time to rehearse. The greatest presenters do it, and so should you.

12. And one more thing: at the end of the presentations, Jobs adds to the drama by saying: “And one more thing” and then he adds a new product or a new feature. Sometimes he just introduces a band. This not only heightens the excitement, it leaves your audience feeling they have been given an added _____________. The point is, Steve Jobs treats each presentation as an event, a production with a strong opening, product demonstrations in the middle and a strong conclusion: “I wish you a dazzling” presentation!

Ex. 6 Watch the video again and answer the following questions:

1. What makes Steve Jobs the most extraordinary speaker in corporate America? 2. How did Jobs set the theme for Mac World 2008? 3. What headline did the presenter suggest to start a staff meeting with? 4. Which words does Jobs use along his presentation and why? 5. What does the presenter say about the “presentation mode” some presenters fall into ? 6. What is Jobs actually selling? 7. How should numbers and statistics be offered in a presentation? 8. How did the presenter make the “12 Gigabytes of memory card” meaningful for his

audience? 9. How does Jobs make his presentations ‘easy on the eye’? 10. What are inspiring presentations like? 11. How does Jobs transform his presentations into shows?12. How did Jobs introduce the new Mac book Air? 13. How does Jobs make it look easy? 14. How does Jobs end his presentations?

Ex. 7 Vocabulary work – read the video scripts in Ex. 4 and 5 carefully and complete the following tasks:

a) Give two more synonyms for “electrifying”. b) What can you convey?c) What happens when you “electrify” the audience? d) What can you unveil? e) Give two more synonyms for “astonishing”? f) If something shows, it … g) How does Gallo describe the “presentation mode” that some presenters fall into?h) If something lacks possess, it …i) “Managers connect the dots for their listeners” – explain. j) If something is ‘easy on the eyes’, it …k) An extravaganza is …l) What does a dazzling presentation do?

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Ex. 8 Read CNN Money’s article on Steve Jobs published on November 5, 2009, and answer the following questions. Start by reading the question and then the article. When you find the answer, write it down and then move to question number two and then keep reading until you find the answer and so on:

1. When was Jobs booted from his company?2. If something is too far-fetched to be true, it …3. An outsize impact on something is …4. How old was Jobs at the time when the article was published?5. Which three markets did Jobs lucratively reorder in the past 10 years? 6. Which other influential business people is Jobs compared to? 7. Finish and explain the quote “ It's often noted that he's a showman, …8. When someone works slavishly to make something, …9. What does Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle, say about Jobs?10. What was Apple’s worth in 2000, just before Jobs unleashed Apple's groundbreaking

"digital lifestyle" strategy?11. What is the company’s value now? 12. Which other major company is it being compared to?13. How much do Macintoshes make up of the PC market in the U.S. today?14. How many retail stores does Apple have in 9 countries?15. What is Apple’s U.S. MP3 player market share?16. How much did Disney pay to acquire Pixar, the computer animation film studio Jobs

had nurtured and controlled?17. What is Jobs net worth, as solely based on his stakes in Apple and Disney?18. If you are being ousted, you … 19. When something kicks into gear, it …20. What steps did Jobs take to reorganize the company? 21. What did Apple do in 2001, when global markets fell and the world headed into

recession?22. If something is a fair bet, it …

The decade of Steve: How Apple's imperious, brilliant CEO transformed American business

Reporter associate Doris Burk

Youthful founder gets booted from his company in the 1980s, returns in the 1990s, and in the following decade survives two brushes with death, one securities-law scandal to become the dominant personality in four distinct industries, a billionaire many times over, and CEO of the most valuable company in Silicon Valley. Sound too far-fetched to be true? Perhaps. Yet it happens to be the real-life story of Steve Jobs and his outsize impact on everything he touches.

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The past decade in business belongs to Jobs. Superlatives have attached themselves to Jobs since he was a young man. Now that he's 54, merely listing his achievements is sufficient explanation of why he's Fortune's CEO of the Decade (though the superlatives continue). In the past 10 years alone he has radically and lucratively reordered three markets -- music, movies, and mobile telephones -- and his impact on his original industry, computing, has only grown.

Remaking any one business is a career-defining achievement; four is unheard-of. Think about that for a moment. Henry Ford altered the course of the nascent auto industry. Conrad Hilton internationalized American hospitality. In all instances, and many more like them, these entrepreneurs turned captains of industry defined a single market that had previously not been dominated by anyone. Consumers who have never picked up an annual report or even a business magazine gush about his design taste, his elegant retail stores, and his outside-the-box approach to advertising. ("Think different," indeed.)

It's often noted that he's a showman, a born salesman, a magician who creates a famed reality-distortion field, a tyrannical perfectionist. It's totally accurate, of course, and the descriptions contribute to his legend. Jobs is all about business. He may not pay attention to customer research, but he works slavishly to make products customers will buy. He's a visionary, but he's grounded in reality too, closely monitoring Apple's various operational and market metrics. He isn't motivated by money, says friend Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle. Rather, Jobs is driven by a visceral ardor for Apple, his first love and the vehicle through which he can be both an arbiter of cool and a force for changing the world.

The financial results have been nothing short of astounding -- for Apple and for Jobs. The company was worth about $5 billion in 2000, just before Jobs unleashed Apple's groundbreaking "digital lifestyle" strategy, understood at the time by few critics. Today, at about $170 billion, Apple is slightly more valuable than Google. Now Apple has $34 billion in cash and marketable securities, surpassing the total market cap of rival Dell. Macintoshes make up 9% of the PC market in the U.S. today, but that share is increasingly beside the point. With 275 retail stores in nine countries, a 73% share of the U.S. MP3 player market, and the undisputed leadership position in innovation when it comes to mobile phones, Apple and its CEO are no one's idea of underdogs anymore.

In 2006 Disney paid $7.5 billion to acquire Pixar, the computer animation film studio Jobs had nurtured and controlled. Jobs, in turn, became a Disney director and the blue-chip company's largest shareholder. His net worth, solely based on his stakes in Apple and Disney, and is about $5 billion. Other executives have had stellar decades but none can compare with Steve's.

The "decade" of Steve actually began in 1997, when he returned to Apple after having been ousted a dozen years earlier. By the following year Steve's regime had kicked into gear. Jobs completed the hiring of a new management team, which included several executives from his previous company. Next. Those top players would form the nucleus of the Jobs brain trust for nearly 10 years. Then came the first Macintosh after Jobs' return, the iMac, a breakthrough all-in-one computer and monitor that heralded Apple's return to health. The success of the pricey iMac, coupled with drastic cost cutting,

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allowed Jobs to build a cash cushion. By repairing Apple's balance sheet, he prepared the company for big investments to come, a shrewd business move if ever there was one. Over the course of 2001, as global markets fell and the world headed into recession, Apple launched the iTunes music software (in January), the Mac OS X operating system (March), the first Apple retail stores (May), and the first iPod (November), a 5GB model that Apple bragged would hold 1,000 songs.

Looking out on the next decade, Jobs may well be asking himself a variation of that very question: After creating more than $150 billion in shareholder wealth, transforming movies, telecom, music, and computing (and profoundly influencing the worlds of retail and design), what should Steve Jobs do next? Given his penchant for secrecy and surprise and his proven brilliance, it's a fair bet that he'll let us know when he's good and ready.

Ex. 9 Vocabulary work - read the text and match the following words to their synonyms:

a) To get booted: to be fired / to be promoted / to be told offb) A brush with death is a: challenge / a risky situation / short unfriendly encounter c) a dominant personality is: prominent / excellent / brilliantd) Far-fetched: distant / old-fashioned / incredible e) Outsize (adj): overestimated / large / mismatched f) Lucratively: efficiently / hard-working / creativelyg) To alter (the course of the nascent auto industry): to change / to explore / to invest

inh) To gush about something: talk with enthusiasm / gossip / disapprove i) Tyrannical: powerful and mighty / creative and original / cruel and unjust j) A visionary is a person: showing wisdom / a born leader / a visual thinkerk) Grounded in something: flexible / realistic / creativel) Ardor: heat / passion / pessimism m) Astounding: amazing / overwhelming / excessive n) To unleash something: to launch / to set free / to investigateo) Groundbreaking: disastrous / damaging / innovative p) Undisputed: out of question / underestimated / exaggerated q) An underdog is a country or a person who is believed to be: weaker / not smart /

not appreciated at the right valuer) To nurture something: estimate / assess / help develop s) Blue-chip: safe investment / expensive / high classt) To oust somebody: to remove from a position / to be overwhelmed with work / to

make lose moneyu) To kick into gear: to fail / to become ready / to lose moneyv) Pricey: expensive / cheap / financial w) A cash cushion: comfortable office / financial reserve / collateralx) Shrewd: smart and logical / effective and fast / positive and enthusiasticy) Penchant for: liking something / disliking something / looking for something