Escuela de Ciencias del Lenguaje

Sección de Lenguas para Fines Generales y Académicos

Textos contables III

NEGOTIATION

Unidad 1: Aspects to consider when in a meeting

Skills involved: Reading, speaking, listening and writting

EAP: Discuss negotiation vocabulary, expressions and skills.

Grammar & Vocab.: Derived words

Task: Oral report about business and negotiations.

Time (approx): 3 hours

The Bargaining Stage

Horse-trading …concession-trading ... give-and-take …haggling ... bartering … bargaining …
negotiating. Call it what you like, but this is where the real action in a negotiation happens. We all
know that negotiations aren’t all about winning and losing, but try telling that to the executive
who has to return home to explain to her board of Directors why she just accepted a price 10%
over her budget. That’s why bargaining is so stressful: the risks of failure are high.

You’ll almost never get everything you want out of a negotiation, so sooner or later that means
you’re going to have to give something up. But the problem here is that if you agree to a lower
price, you’re effectively admitting that your original price was exaggerated. It’s like admitting that
you tried to trick your counterpart into paying over the odds, and you got caught and had to admit
defeat.
 But does it have to be like this? The truth is, price is rarely the only factor in a negotiation. It’s
usually one of many factors, but let’s assume for a moment that there are only two variables in a
negotiation between a manufacturer and a potential distributor – let’s call them price and
exclusivity. As the manufacturer, of course I want as high a price as possible, but I also want the
distributor to sell my products exclusively, and not my competitors’. So there’s a trade-off here:
I’m prepared to accept a high price and no exclusivity, or a low price and total exclusivity, or any
combination in between. Adapted from: https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/sites/teacheng/files/Negotiations
%204_Bargaining_lesson%20plan.pdf

Skimming

a. What is the text about?

b. Horse-trading …concession-trading ... give-and-take …haggling ... bartering … bargaining …
negotiating are…

Scanning

a. What does the figure 10% refer to?

b. In the second paragraph, the word defeat is referint to…
c. What does the question “But does it have to be like this”? Referes to?

Reading skills
a. Find 5 prefix and 5 suffix examples in the text above as studied in class

Different words that are originated from roots are called DERIVED WORDS: they
are words that have a prefix or a suffix.

Prefixes can consist of one letter, two letters or a group of letters. They are word
parts attached at the beginning of a word. They change the meaning of the root.
(reread, uncover, supermarket).

Suffixes, like prefixes, can consist of one letter, two letters or a group of letters.
They are attached at the end of a word. They change the word function (noun,
verb, adjective, and adverb).

Prefixes change the meaning of a word. The list provided below is organized
according to an area of meaning because most often there is one single (unique)
specific meaning.
 PREFIXES OF SIZE PREFIXES OF LOCATION

Prefix Meaning Examples Prefix Meaning Examples

semi- half, Semiconduct inter- between, Interactive

equi- partly or among
equal equidistant over
maxi- super- supermarke
across
big maxicomputer out t
micro- trans-
small microchip beyond transnation
mini- ex- under al
little minicomputer below
macro- extra-
around ex-wife
big macroeconomi
mega- sub-
cs extraordinar
big
infra- y
megabyte
peri- subnormal
infrared
peripheral

PREFIXES OF NUMBERS PREFIXES OF TIME AND ORDER

Prefix Meaning Examples Prefix Meaning Examples

semi- Half semicircle ante- before Anteceden

mono- one monolingual pre- before t
preliterate
bi- two bilateral prime- first
primitive
tri- three triangle post- after
postgraduat
quad- four quadruple retro- backward
e
penta- five pentagon
postwar
hex- six hexagonal
retroactive
dec- ten decimal
multi- many multinational
PREFIXES WITH POSITIVE MEANING PREFIXES WITH NEGATIVE
MEANING

Prefix Meaning Examples Prefix Meaning Examples

re- do again reread un- not Unable

over- too much overworked in- “ incomplete
im- “ impossible
non- “ non-
existent
il- “
illegal
ir- “
irresponsibl
mis- bad, wrong e

dis- opposite misunderst

and
anti- against
disagree
de- reduce
antiterroris
under- too little m
decrease
underestim
ate
Suffixes1

Suffixes change the grammatical function of a word. The list provided below is
organized according to the function the suffix helps create.

NOUN FORMING SUFFIXES

SUFFIX MEANING EXAMPLES
-ance State, quality of
-ence “
-er, -or A person who
-ist “
-yst “
-ation, -tion The act of
-ness Condition of
-ment Action / state
-ion “
-ing Activity
-ian State / quality
-ism
-dom
-ship
-ary