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

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.

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 Vocabulary
English Club: Business English Vocabulary
Business English lessons
BusinessEnglishSite.com
Learn-english-today.com
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.
 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 Topic

September 22 Malcoci Olga
September 24 Guivan Valeria
September 29 Oprea Mariana

Today’s Business Brief

What we discussed today
Most important information
Useful Vocabulary
Grammar Points
Homework
 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.
 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:

Keynote
Corporate
There is something in the air!
To hint
Consistent
To kick off a meeting
Quota (in sales for example)
Headline
Guidepost
To wow smth / somebody
To have a flare for something
Intricate (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
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!

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 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?
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.
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, 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 off

b) A brush with death is a: challenge / a risky situation / short unfriendly encounter
c) a dominant personality is: prominent / excellent / brilliant
d) Far-fetched: distant / old-fashioned / incredible
e) Outsize (adj): overestimated / large / mismatched
f) Lucratively: efficiently / hard-working / creatively
g) To alter (the course of the nascent auto industry): to change / to explore / to invest in
h) 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 thinker
k) Grounded in something: flexible / realistic / creative
l) Ardor: heat / passion / pessimism
m) Astounding: amazing / overwhelming / excessive
n) To unleash something: to launch / to set free / to investigate
o) 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 value
r) To nurture something: estimate / assess / help develop
s) Blue-chip: safe investment / expensive / high class
t) To oust somebody: to remove from a position / to be overwhelmed with work / to
make lose money
u) To kick into gear: to fail / to become ready / to lose money
v) Pricey: expensive / cheap / financial
w) A cash cushion: comfortable office / financial reserve / collateral
x) Shrewd: smart and logical / effective and fast / positive and enthusiastic
y) Penchant for: liking something / disliking something / looking for something