In Company Web Guides
In Company Web Guides
Pre-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.planware.org/quotes.htm
Every unit in In Company begins with a short quote. Here are a lot of quotes that are linked to business.
Unit 1
Selling your company
Find out more about the Elevator Pitch sales technique.
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2000/11/wallraff.htm
Business collocations
http://esl.about.com/library/business/bl_vocab_buscollocations1.htm
Talking business on page 6 takes a quick look at some verb + noun business collocations. To expand your students' business collocations why not encourage them to try this online quiz?
A dog's life
http://www.betterdogfood.com/
Betterdogfood.com is a real website! Students can find out more about the company and write some more questions based on the pages here.
Unit 2
How often do you .?
http://www.arc.sbc.edu/stressquiz.html
You or your students could take this online stress quiz to see how stressed or relaxed your lives are. The quiz fits in nicely with the material on page 13 as it includes adverbs of frequency.
Unit 3
Telephone skills
http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa092000a.htm
Lots of links to telephone skills materials.
http://www.esl-lab.com/tel1.htm
So what exactly do you say? All those role plays and listening activities are all well and good but if you get the basics wrong . Students can practise getting it right first time with this online listening task, which can be done as text only as well.
Unit 4
Small talk
http://www.linguarama.com/ps/294-3.htm
Meeting people for the first time and starting a conversation can be quite difficult, especially in a foreign language. Here's a chance for students to practise with some typical questions and responses.
http://www.celt.stir.ac.uk/staff/HIGDOX/VALLANCE/Diss/3C.HTM
Although the topic of the unit is strictly to do with starting conversations and introducing yourself in social situations, a lot of what you need to do is the same as when you meet somebody for the first time in a business scenario. This interactive online activity will certainly help students make the right choices and think about why they are making those choices.
Unit 5
Timelines
http://www.nintendo.com/corp/history.jsp
On page 23 there is a short history of Nintendo, the Japanese entertainment company that make Game Boy. Here is a fuller version of the company history which could be turned into a jigsaw information gap activity.
Unit 6
Does grammar matter?
http://www.linguarama.com/ps/grammar.htm
Well, if you think it does here is a selection of grammar activities all with a business theme. Select the ones that you think will help your students the most (or that link in with a particular unit in the book, eg, simple past Vs present perfect for Unit 9).
E-mails
http://www.eslnetworld.com/email2.html
http://www.learnthenet.com/english/html/20how.htm
Three sites devoted to teaching your students more about e-mails. However, probably the most effective learning tip is to encourage students to practise writing e-mails to each other.
Unit 7
Hotels
http://www.esl-lab.com/checkin/checkinrd1.htm
http://www.esl-lab.com/hotel1/hotel1.htm
So your students think they know all about hotels? But, can they do the most basic thing and check-in successfully? Encourage them to try these online listening tasks to see how good their skills really are.
Comparing hotels
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/tefl.teacher/page7.htm
A couple of excellent activities specifically designed for business English students. Click on the 'View the activities in PDF form' and then use the scroll bar on the left to click on one of the last two activities; 'Ranking hotel facilities' and 'Find the differences: two hotels'. Both these activities focus on exactly the same language and topic covered in Unit 7.
Note that you need to have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer in order to read these activities (this can be downloaded for free).
Unit 8
Have you ever .?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/business/features/confessions/index.shtml
The BBC Business site brings you stories (and confessions) from some of the top British business people. Put your students into groups of four. Choose four stories and ask each student in the group to read a different one. Then ask students to retell their stories to the others in their group.
It's in the telling
http://www.onestopenglish.com/section.asp?sectiontype=listsummary&theme=mag&catid=58178
Telling anecdotes isn't easy, so why not show your students some good examples? Although this site is all about teaching anecdotes, the format is clear. You'll also find that your students can relate to many of these anecdotes as they have spent quite a bit of time in classrooms (albeit 'on the other side of the fence').
Unit 9
Strange ideas
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/working_lunch/education/2872223.stm
Not just a strange business idea, but a strange advertising technique. Use the story here for some basic comprehension questions (you could either write the questions before the lesson, or the students can write questions for each other while they read the article).
Unit 10
Most stressful jobs
http://www.britcoun.org/italy/students/rome/topjobs.htm
What do you think the most stressful jobs are (in your country)? Write down your ideas and then compare them with the ideas expressed by some students in Italy. Are your ideas the same? Different? Surprising?
Stressed?
http://library.thinkquest.org/12153/stress.html
Ten tips on how to deal with stress. Start off by asking your students to write down three ways of reducing stress. Then get them to look at this web page and see if their ideas are there.
http://www.arc.sbc.edu/stressquiz.html
Two online stress tests that are designed to tell you how stressed you are. After students have taken the tests they can look at the results and see if they agree with them. Finally, why not get students to design their own stress quiz?
Unit 11
Top jobs
Why not ask your students to find the best job they can. Direct them to any online job site (simply enter "Top jobs" in the search bar on your search engine and choose the best site for your country/region). Set a time limit and ask the students to find the best job they can and write down the details. Afterwards, ask the students to share their findings and to vote on the best job.
Unit 12
The remote lounge
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1634607.stm
An article all about the Remote Lounge, described on page 54. Use the text here for reading comprehension and vocabulary expansion (eg, pick out five or six words that might be new for your students, write definitions and then ask the students to match the words with the correct definition).
http://www.remotelounge.com/
Now you've read about it, why not visit it? Click on the link and be transported to downtown Manhattan.
What do you say?
http://www.esl-lab.com/greet.htm
One of the key things with conversations is being able to respond appropriately. This online listening activity (which can also be done in text form) helps students practise some of the most typical exchanges.
Unit 13
Air travel
http://www.esl-lab.com/plane1/pln1.htm
http://www.esl-lab.com/airport/airportrd1.htm
One of the biggest problems with air travel is understanding the announcements at the airport. See how well your students manage with these online listening tasks.
Air rage
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/309291.stm
http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/00000002D1E3.htm
What is air rage? What is the main cause of air rage? Is air rage a big problem? These are some of the questions that students could answer after reading these two short articles on the topic.
Unit 14
Finding a job, sacking staff, being sacked
http://www.bbc.co.uk/business/work/issues/articles/starting_up120.shtml
What can you do if an employee is not doing his/her job? Ask students to write down three reasons they think somebody could be sacked, and two they think wouldn't be acceptable reasons. Then get them to read this short article and compare their ideas with the ones in the text.
www.bbc.co.uk/business/work/issues/articles/in_the_workplace136.shtml
Usually all that business books talk about are the success stories, but what happens when things go wrong? This web page looks at what you can do if you are sacked. Before students look at the web page, get them to brainstorm three things they think they might read about here. Then ask them to read and check to see if they were right.
CVs and Résumés
http://www.jobsite.co.uk/career/advice/cv_faq.html
What do you put on your CV and where? FAQs answered to give students a better idea of CV conventions.
http://www.how-to-write-a-resume.org
How to Write a Résumé offers free cover letter, thank you letter, and résumé writing tips. Research how to write a résumé, distribute your résumé to hiring managers, and tips for how to get an interview.
Interview questions
http://www.collegegrad.com/jobsearch/16-15.shtml
Students can practise interviews using a selection of questions from this web page which lists the 50 most frequent questions used at interviews.
http://esl.about.com/library/weekly/aa120797.htm
Another site with standard interview questions but one which goes a little further by giving example answers and commentary on the answers. The material here could easily be adapted for a role-play or simulation activity.
Unit 15
Collocations
http://www.quia.com/jg/28284.html
A couple of matching activities with time expressions - fun and educational.
Unit 16
Getting things done
http://www.linguarama.com/ps/392-3.htm
Getting things done is often a matter of behaving in the correct way. The first link has a brief text which links nicely to this topic. The second link looks at tact and politeness - always a useful thing to have if you want to get things done.
http://www.linguarama.com/ps/196-3.htm
http://www.linguarama.com/ps/295-3.htm
Two more activities that link nicely with the topics in Unit 16; the first looks at different ways of making requests and the second at how to say no, which is briefly covered at the bottom of page 73.
Unit 17
Office gossip
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/low/talking_point/1035367.stm
Is office gossip good for you? What do your students think? In groups, get them to discuss what they think about office gossip and then they can take a look at a few opinions posted on this site. Alternatively, print out a number of the opinions posted on this site and develop them into character cards to be used in a role play/debate on the topic of office gossip: a good thing or not?
Say Vs tell
http://home.freeuk.net/lumi/tell.htm
http://www.collegeem.qc.ca/cemdept/anglais/saytell.htm
http://www.collegeem.qc.ca/cemdept/anglais/saytell7.htm
Three sites that deal with this tricky problem. If you think your students need more practise then why not guide them here.
Unit 18
E-commerce
http://www.school-for-champions.com/ecommerce/basics.htm
Nice clear site that takes you through the basics of e-commerce and compares it to more traditional sales techniques. Looks at both the advantages and disadvantages of e-commerce and then tests students' knowledge with a fun online quiz.
http://ecommerce.about.com/cs/faqstutorials/
Everything you could ever want to know about e-commerce and more.
Unit 19
Telesales
http://www.esl-lab.com/market/marketrd1.htm
An online listening activity specifically designed for English language students. This activity is based on a telesales phone conversation.
Working from home
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/1454583.stm
Ask students to make two columns on a piece of paper; one with the heading Advantages and the other with the heading Disadvantages. Then get them to read through the article about working from home and write down the arguments under the appropriate headings. Use these arguments as the basis for a class discussion or debate.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/working_lunch/2265994.stm
Another article on working from home.
Unit 20
When in Rome .
http://iteslj.org/Lessons/Kajiura-Intercultural.html
Unit 20 deals with intercultural communication and the need to understand the culture of the people with whom you are trying to do business. Here is a simple lesson plan outline which sets up a role-play/simulation activity designed to examine intercultural issues. If you like, you can give each group a set of characteristics that they need to follow (eg, Group A: you cannot say no; when you meet people you do not like any physical contact etc. Group B: you want definite answers to all your questions; you like to shake hands when you meet people and when you leave etc).
http://www.linguarama.com/ps/392-1.htm
A short reading text with some vocabulary questions. A good place to start and then lead into a discussion.
www.businessenglishonline.net
