In Company Web Guides - Intermediate level

In Company Web Guides

Intermediate

The In Company Web Guides provide a quick and helpful way to motivate your students and contain resources which are up-to-date and enjoyable. Click on the unit numbers below to jump to the units you want:

General
Quotes
http://www.negotiationskills.com/quotes.html
Each unit in the book begins with a quote. These quotes are not only amusing and memorable, but they are also trying to make a point. Here is a source of more quotes which will often add to the lessons. You need to sign up (by giving an e-mail address) to get the quotes, but this is free.

Unit 1
A global language
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/working_lunch/guides/business/
1554685.stm
In Unit 1 we take a look at 'International English' and its importance in the business world. However, does this mean that English people do not need to learn any other languages? What do you think?

After reading the article 'English Inc.' on page 5 and completing the discussion, why not take a look at this article and then go back to the discussion questions.

Do you still feel the same?

This article would also work well for exam style preparation (e.g. T/F questions, multiple choice, or gapped paragraphs).

http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/11/wallraff.htm
Here is an interesting, but rather long, article on English as a global language. There are a lot of useful links indicated in the article as well as plenty of points raised throughout the text. Use this article if your students are very interested in this topic or summarise the general points for them.

http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa030299.htm
A shorter article that takes a look at English as a global language, globalisation and the 'global village'. Ask your students what they understand by these terms and then get them to look at the web page.

Unit 2
Conference venues
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/

Conference venues is one of the topics in Unit 2 and twelve cities are mentioned as possible places for conferences. Ask the students to choose three of the cities from page 6 and find out more about them. Then, decide which city would be the best place to hold a conference, making a list of points to back this up. Next, make a presentation to the rest of the class: "X is the best place for a conference because .". Finally, the class can vote on what they think is the best conference venue.

The Disneyland experience
http://homepages.which.net/~ian/background.html
http://www.dlpbusiness.com/uk/sommaire/
One of the listening extracts in Unit 2 has a short piece about Disneyland Paris as a conference venue. The first question many people might ask is 'Why Disneyland?'. Well, here are two sites that can try and answer that question for you. The first takes a look at the more 'traditional' features that Disneyland is famous for, while the second site concentrates on corporate clients. Start off by writing down three or four questions you'd like answered and then see if you can find suitable answers in the information provided here.

Unit 3
On the phone
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/youmeus/quiznet/
newquiz65.shtml
'Making calls' is the title of Unit 3 and this short quiz on telephoning brought to you by the BBC World Service would be an excellent way to begin your class. The quiz contains six multiple choice questions that test vocabulary which is specific to the telephone.

http://www.esl-lab.com/record/recrd1.htm
http://www.esl-lab.com/phone/phonerd1.htm
Two online listening tasks that focus on telephone conversations. Both exercises are based on telephone answering machines and are good practice for students who find listening to English on the phone difficult.

Unit 4
Business records
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/
At the top of page 19 there is a box containing information about nine World Business Records. Why not check out the official Guinness Book of World Records for more business related records (type in 'Business' in the search box to access the most up-to-date records). Which of these records do you find: incredible? unbelievable? strange? noteworthy? etc.

Unit 5
Stress
http://www.arc.sbc.edu/stressquiz.html
Another online stress test, this one requires you to indicate how frequently each statement applies to you - there are twenty statements. At the end you add up your score and find out how stressed you are.

Unit 6
Do you speak English, or American?

Why not try an activity? Choose ten words you feel your students may need/find useful and write them up on the board (or on a worksheet). Make sure five are American and five are British. Ask the students to indicate whether a word is British (BE) or American (AmE) and then to write the equivalent before discussing their ideas with a partner. At the end they can check using the website.
http://www.bg-map.com/us-uk.html

Another site which is clearly set out and also has a few good links at the end (e.g. http://englishclub.8m.com/ukus1.htm and a list provided by Karen Barnes which looks at the differences between American, Canadian, and British English at http://www3.telus.net/linguisticsissues/BritishCanadianAmerican.htm).

http://us2uk.tripod.com/index.html
This site not only looks at the differences between British English and American English in terms of vocabulary but also tries to tackle some of the cultural differences between the two countries. The 'funny' section is particularly illuminating.

Unit 7
The unexpected
http://paul.merton.ox.ac.uk/tales/phones.html

Page 30 takes a look at 'unexpected phone calls' and has four situations loosely based on business situations. Here is a true story about a lady in America who experienced 'unexpected phone calls'. Before you read the full story, read the first couple of lines and then try and predict the story. After you have read the story, discuss, with a partner or in small groups, what you would do in a similar situation.

Unit 8
The words you use
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/youmeus/quiznet
/newquiz54.shtml
Unit 8 takes a look at some business collocations within the context of meetings. Here is an opportunity to expand the students' business vocabulary to other situations, as well as to those within the framework of meetings. This online quiz is also a race against the clock, making it both more demanding and also more fun. Put your students into small teams (they all need to be able to see the computer monitor) and then pair up the teams so that there are two teams competing against each other (i.e. if you have eight teams in your class you will have 4 pairs of teams). At the end, go over the questions and discuss the answers.

A virtual meeting
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/business/tendays/
This site is fantastic for many units of the book (including Networking, Desk work and the Meetings sections). One way in which you can use it is by getting the students to practise their decision-making skills. Put the students in pairs or small groups and tell them to work together on this virtual situation. There is an awful lot of material here covering various aspects such as booking a hotel room, negotiating contracts, attending conferences etc. Follow two people on a ten-day visit to Manchester and take part in this virtual programme. This is an absolutely wonderful website with hours of material.

Unit 9
Business in the news
www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/news/words/business/
'Business English words in the news' is a fantastic site brought to you by the BBC World service. On a regular basis, short news stories from the world of business news are adapted for use by English language students. One of the great features is the facility to listen to the stories and individual words. Apart from reading and vocabulary practice you can use the stories here as the basis for opinions (agreeing and disagreeing) which is the focus of Unit 9.

http://www.1099.com/c/co/dw/pe/economy007.html
The article on page 38 briefly touches on an area which is often not discussed in many business situations - business ethics. Here is another article that deals exclusively with this issue (although from the point of view of an independent professional and not big business - but the issues are the same in many respects). Read through the article and then summarise the main points. Finally, use these points as the basis of a debate on business ethics or as a starting point for a discursive essay.

Unit 10
When in Japan .
http://www.ejc.co.uk/cultural_tips.htm
One of the most important topics for business people is cultural awareness and this comes up in a few units (e.g. 2, 10, 18 etc) - one of the countries mentioned is Japan. This site could be useful for all those who do business with Japanese people or could be of general interest. Before you start your lesson, write out a set of true/false questions based on the information. In class, put your students into groups and ask the questions. Finall, use the site to check the answers and discuss the findings.

Culture shock!
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/CGuanipa/cultshok.htm
Problems with cultures colliding are not limited to business situations but affect anybody living (or even visiting) a foreign country. Elicit a list of symptoms and a list of solutions and then read this brief article to see if the ideas are given here. This can then be used as a basis for further discussion.

Unit 11
Attitudes to e-mails
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/workshops/pp/index.html
Lots of online resources which also include business related materials. Two of the most interesting online workshops are 'e-mail etiquette' and 'writing business messages'.

Computer words
http://nt.watauga.k12.nc.us/br/Quiz_Computer_Vocabulary.htm
In the Grammar and lexis links section for Unit 11, the focus of the lexis is on computer words. This site includes seven online quizzes to test the students' knowledge of computer terminology. The site also includes an online computer dictionary and a glossary of Internet-specific terms.

Unit 12
Presentation skills
http://www.ibc.fi/lessons/starting_a_business_presentation.html
Unit 12 focuses on Presenting. This website has a task that will help you check your presentation language. Match the expressions on the right with the function (or stage) of presentations on the left.

http://www.toastmasters.org/pdfs/top10.pdf
Start off by brainstorming a list of tips for successful presentations. Then have a look at this website which has ten suggestions. Which of these ideas did your students come up with? Which do you agree with?

Unit 13
Technology
http://library.thinkquest.org/C002942/home.shtml
The topic of this Talking points unit is Technology. Choose a number of important inventions such as paper, mobile phones, computers etc. Put your students into small groups and give each group a different invention. Tell them to enter the invention into the search box, read the short article and write a few sentences about the invention, i.e 'It was invented in 1450'. The inventor was Gutenburg. etc. Each group read their sentences and the others try and guess what the invention is.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/
Most of us have lots of modern gadgets and inventions in our homes and we know how to switch them on, but do we know how they actually work? Divide your class into groups of three or four and give each group a different object. Ask them to check out this site and then put one member from each group in a new group and ask them to explain to each other how the gadget they researched operates.

www.bbc.co.uk/science/tw
An excellent BBC website which accompanies the popular television programme Tomorrow's World. Covers topics that are relevant to the world of the future and the world today. Use the search feature to find articles relating to the technologies in the book and look at the predictions made about the future and compare them with those made by your students.

Unit 14
Speaking business
http://www.better-english.com/vocabulary.htm
Unit 14 takes a look at collocation connected to meetings. This site contains lots of useful vocabulary exercises that you can try online. The material here is useful for all sections of the book but there are a number of activities which would really help in meetings. Most of the exercises have multiple choice answers and are easy to check as well.

http://www.better-english.com/strongcoll.htm
This website contains fifteen sets of business related collocation exercises. Have a look through to see which one would best suit your students - covering what they have recently learnt.

http://www.better-english.com/texts/explanation.htm
A set of business related texts for you to use. The task on the web page is simply to unscramble a text (using discourse markers and meaning in context to decide on the correct order). You could also use the texts as the basis for discussion.

http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/
Visit this site to read real business case studies of some major international companies. Use the site to enhance lesson plans and schemes of work, or send your students to the site to develop understanding as part of background reading.

Unit 15
Business writing
http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa041399.htm
Do you need to find out about the conventions of writing a business letter? This web page has an easy-to-follow guide on the basics of this skill. Start off by brainstorming language chunks under the headings indicated on the page (i.e. start, requesting etc) before checking your ideas against those listed here.

You could also check out the other links which include 'Making an enquiry', 'Terms and conditions' and 'Applying for a job'.

http://asterisks.com/tut1297.html
Give your writing an edge by using the tips on this site. Start off by writing a few key words up on the board (e.g. jargon, planning, small talk, ramble, spelling) and ask the students to predict what the points might be.

Formal/Informal
http://www.uefap.co.uk/writing/writfram.htm
Although this site is designed for academic writing it has some useful tips and activities designed to help with formal writing which will complement the activities in Unit 15. Once in the site, click on the Style icon to get some information on writing style. Then click on the word Formal at the top of the page to enter a brief list of 'don'ts'. Finally click on #4. formal/informal at the bottom of the page and try to complete the table before checking the answers.

Unit 16
Virtual Meeting
http://www.celt.stir.ac.uk/staff/HIGDOX/VALLANCE/Diss/FP1.HTM
Here is a virtual meeting that you can try out. Follow the step-by-step instructions and take part in your first meeting online. The best way to do this is to get the students to work in pairs and discuss each option as it comes up. Once you've finished the scenario, discuss each step and the options that were available. You (and the students) might even want to make your own Meeting maze.

http://www.esl-lab.com/bs1/bs1.htm
An online listening task called Business Meeting. Follow the instructions on the web page and complete the online tasks.

http://www.thetimes100.co.uk/index.php
Visit this site to read real business case studies of some major international companies. Use the site to enhance lesson plans and schemes of work, or send your students to the site to develop understanding as part of background reading.

Unit 17
http://adbusters.org/home/index.html
Take an alternative look at advertising and global issues from the ones in Unit 17. The homepage on this site has links to articles with an anti-globalisation theme that may appeal to you as reading texts. Other features include uncommercials - a look at campaigns directed against the advertising industry, and spoof ads - an interesting take on well-known products. One activity you could try with the spoof ads is to ask the students to vote on their favourite (for homework they could try to design their own spoof ad).

Global brands
http://www.colettaandcompany.com/public/4_1-digest.cfm?showdigestID=228#847
What do you think the top ten global brands are? Ask the students to work in pairs and come up with a list of the most successful global brands (in terms of earning power) and then take a look at this 'official' list. Finally, ask the students a few questions. e.g. How many did you guess? Why do you think these brands are so successful? Are there any you don't know?

Unit 18
Mind your manners
http://entertaining.about.com/library/weekly/aa032502a.htm
Eating Out is the title of Unit 18 but the unit looks at a lot more than simply which restaurants you should visit. Although first impressions are important, if your table manners are bad then you'll put off any business clientele you meet. Look at the rules listed on this site. Which do you break? Which do you think are important/trivial? Which, if broken, would upset you or other people?

http://entertaining.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?
site=http://www.etiquetteexpert.com/etiquiz.htm
Why not try this online 'eti-quiz'? Not only is it fun but it can be quite informative. Put your students in pairs and ask them to discuss each question and the possible answers. Once you've completed the quiz, discuss the answers.

http://www.canoe.ca/LifewiseWorkEtiquette/eti_quiz.html
Another online etiquette quiz with ten multiple choice style questions. Try answering the questions, discussing both the choices and the answers that are given as correct with a partner.

Unit 19
Cyber language
http://members.tripod.com/~tassiedevil/chat.htm
One of the problems of using e-mail and texting to communicate is that a new language has developed to be used in these mediums: cyber slang. This is one of the topics in Unit 19 (and may also be useful for Unit 11). Cyber slang is shorthand for computers, using a combination of symbols (often smileys), abbreviations and slang by which people in the know keep all the rest of us in the dark. Pick out a few of the most common or useful items of cyber slang, e.g. :), btw, cu, ttyl and so on and see how much your students know.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/so/hotstuff/mobiles/index.shtml
Click on the quiz icon to see how much you know about the language of texting. Once you've completed this short quiz, why not make up your own to test other students or write out your own short message to pass to someone in the class.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/so/quizzes/textpest.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/so/quizzes/textaddict.shtml
A couple of online quizzes from the BBC - test your knowledge of the language of texting.

Unit 20
Nightmare clients
http://www.1099.com/c/co/dw/ea/eadams010.html
Two of the topics covered in Unit 20 are Directness and Negotiating. These are easy if you have cooperative clients but what happens when you have the client from hell. Start off by seeing if anyone has a real anecdote before moving on by asking the students to work in pairs and list three factors that would categorise someone as a nightmare client. Then, ask the students to think of a couple of ways of dealing with a nightmare client before taking a look at this short article.

Negotiating
http://www.negotiate.ca/flash/navigation.htm
Four online negotiating games that are both fun and practical. Follow the online prompts to navigate your way through a series of situations which require planning, thought and negotiating skills. These games are best done working in pairs or small groups, giving the students a chance to discuss the options and maximizing the usefulness of such activities.

www.businessenglishonline.net