business english for academic purposes - … · a note to the student v dear student, welcome to...

Zoe Kantaridou

Iris Papadopoulou

Polyxeni Stefanou

EAP Teachers, University of Macedonia, GR

BUSINESS ENGLISH

FOR ACADEMIC PURPOSES

Zoe KantaridouIris PapadopoulouPolyxeni Stefanou

EAP Teachers, University of Macedonia, 156 Egnatia str, 54006 �essaloniki, GR

ISBN: 978-960-87293-9-1

Copyright © EKΔΟΣΕΙΣ ΑΝΙΚΟΥΛΑ

Θεσσαλονίκη 2008

Copyright © ΑΝΙΚΟΥLΑ PUBLISHERS

Thessaloniki 2008

EKΔΟΣΕΙΣ ΑΝΙΚΟΥΛΑ

• Δημ. Γούναρη 44, τηλ. 2310-235.297, fax 2310-265.126

• Εγνατία 148, τηλ. 2310-239.537 - 546 21 Θεσσαλονίκη

• Εγνατία 156, τηλ. 2310-861.917, fax 2310-891.201, εντός Πανεπιστημίου Μακεδονίας

• e-mail: [email protected]

ΑΝΙΚΟΥLΑ PUBLISHERS

• Dim. Gounari 44 tel. 2310-235.297, fax 2310-265.126

• Egnatia 148, tel. 2310-239.537 - 546 21 Thessaloniki

• Egnatia 156, tel. 2310-861.917, fax 2310-891.201, (University of Macedonia)

• e-mail: [email protected]

Αll rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrival) without permission in writing from the publisher.

B E A P

VA NOTE TO THE STUDENT

Dear Student,

Welcome to the “Business English for Academic Purposes” course!

The course book you are holding is designed for university students of Economic & Social studies, and it aims to meet the occupational needs that will emerge after graduation. In this sense it combines the present academic environment with your future “anticipated” needs. It is this dual purpose of integrating business content and needs with academic skills that the title reflects. The future business occupational needs anticipated are: letter-writing (complaint, cover letter), report-writing, curriculum vitae, telephoning, negotiating, and dealing with international business communication.

The course has been developed for the upper intermediate level which is the minimum requirement for international business communication. Every effort has been made to include authentic reading texts in a wide variety of business-related topics: company organization, finance, human resources, business administration, advertising, cross-cultural management. Each unit featuresEach unit features reading for gist & reading for detail, text features, vocabulary building, grammar awareness, writing assignment, and self-study exercises. The appendices at the end of the book aim to provide easy reference for the most frequent grammar topics and writing tasks that you will encounter both in class and later at work.

Above all, variety is what makes our life interesting and that is certainly indispensable in a classroom. For this reason there is a range of different tasks built-in the course from critical thinking to negotiating, role playing and simulating real life business situation, even to dealing with literature. In this sense we hope to

A note to the student

VI A NOTE TO THE STUDENT

stimulate your interest and brighten up the “course requirement” side of the class. Hopefully, your active participation in the course will be a reward in itself which will have both direct results and long-term impact. The direct result will be the development and maintenance of a good level of English within the scope of your studies and the enjoyment that springs out of that, while the long-term effect will be the satisfaction that you will get when you realize that you can efficiently handle the complexity of your job requirements as far as English is concerned.

All the best with your studies

Sincerely,

�e Authors

Zoe KantaridouM.A. in Linguistics, University of Leeds, UK

PhD in Applied Linguistics, Aristotle University of �essaloniki

Iris PapadopoulouM.A. in �eoretical and Applied Linguistics, University of Essex, UK

Ph.D. in Linguistics, University of Essex, UK

Polyxeni StefanouM.A.in Linguistics for TEFL, Lancaster University, UKin Linguistics for TEFL, Lancaster University, UK

XIA NOTE TO THE STUDENT XICONTENTS XICOURSE PLAN

Unit Vocabulary Writing skill Grammar Speaking

Profiles of successful business persons

Unit 1

Haji-Ioannou

General

business

Vocabulary

Tenses

Active/passive voice

Unit 2

Oprah

Winfrey

Wealth

Charity

Tenses


Role-play:

interview

Unit 3

Larry Page &

Sergey Brin

�e Internet Tenses


Gerund

Hearsay

transformations

Role-play:

interview

Company Operation

Unit 4

Company

Profiles

Business

vocabulary:

sales, Stock

Exchange,

types of

companies,

company

relations

Describing a

company

Question

formation

Role-play:

interview

Unit 5

About

Organizations

Organization

charts


Modals

Unit 6

Financial

Statements

Financial

accounting

words

Abbreviations

Describing

trends

Report writing:

compare

company

performance

Describing

trends

C P

XII A NOTE TO THE STUDENTXII CONTENTSXII COURSE PLAN


Targeting the consumer

Unit 7

�e State of

the Art in

Advertising

Emotional

language Emotional

vs objective

language

Unit 8

Many Happy e-

turns

Electronic

commerce

Purchasing

Complaining:

email, letter

Letter of

apology

Conditional

sentences

Indirect questions

Telephoning

Unit 9

Modern Trade

Electronic

commerce

Complex noun

phrases

Debate:

presenting

arguments

)e labor market

Unit 10

Applying for a

Job

Formal

qualifications

Professional

experience

Personality

traits

Abbreviations

Curriculum

vitae

Cover letter

Unit 111

Telecommuting

Telecommuting

vocabulary

Argument

support: pros &

cons

Reporting speech

Forecasting

Negotiating

Unit 122

�e Future of

Workforce

Management practices

Unit 133

SWOT Analysis

Strengths,

weaknesses

Opposites

Modal verbs

Advice,

suggestions

Unit 144

Case Study:

Struttura Steel

Co

Formal

qualifications

Personality

traits

Report writing Making

suggestions

XIIIA NOTE TO THE STUDENT XIIICONTENTS XIIICOURSE PLAN


Management across cultures

Unit 155

Business Across

Cultures

Human

Resources

Socio-

demographic

features

Rephrasing

Letter of advice Hedging

Expressing

contrast

Verb forms:

revision

Unit 166

Business

Etiquette:

Country Profiles

Cultural

differences

Opposites

Describing

business

etiquette

Presenting

business

etiquette

Company Accountability

Unit 177

Company

Accountability

Company

ethics

Report: case

study

Linkers of

contrast

Unit 188

Crisis

management

Management

vocabulary

Press release Gerunds

Infinitives

Critical

thinking:

Report a

crisis

Unit 199

�e Little Prince

Rephrasing

Appendix I

Writing

Appendix II

Grammar

Key to self-study

exercises

APROFILES OF SUCCESSFUL

BUSINESS PERSONS

Haji-Ioannou

Stelios 1UNIT

Stelios Haji-Ioannou1UNIT

Lead-in activities

Work in groups to answer the following questions on the text you are about to read:

1. What type of text is it? What typological features characteristic of it can you discern?

2. What inspired Stelios Haji-Ioannou in his business ventures, what character traits helped him achieve so much at such a young age?

3UNIT 1: STELIOS HAJI-IOANNOU

R

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou (born 14 February 1967 in Athens) is a Greek-Cypriot born British entrepreneur and is best known for setting up easyJet, a low-cost airline.

[1]...................................................

Stelios is the middle child of Loucas and Nedi Haji-Ioannou. His father’s side has its roots in Pedoulas vil-lage (a village on the mountains of Cyprus), and his mother is from the Potsos family with roots in Lania village (just outside the city of Limassol). He was educated in Ath-ens at the Doukas High School and in 1984 continued his education at the London School of Economics. He also graduated from the Cass Business School at City University with an MSc in Shipping, Trade and Finance. Stelios has also been awarded a total of three dochon-orary doctorates from Liverpool John Moores University, Cass Busi-ness School City University and the Cranfield University.A serial entrepreneur, Stelios start-ed his professional career in 1988

working for his father’s shipping company, the Troodos Shipping Co Ltd. Aged 25, he negotiated a $30 million payout from his father and used the funds to set up his own shipping company, Stelmar ship-ping. Stelios floated Stelmar Ship-ping on the NYSE in 2001 and in 2005 it was sold to the OSG* Ship-ping Group for approximately $1.3 Billion.

[2]...................................................

Stelios, who prefers to be called by his first name, is best known for cre-ating easyJet PCL when he was 28. He is often credited as the pioneer who changed the European aviation scene for the benefit of millions of consumers. easyJet PLC was partial-ly floated on the London Stock Ex-change in 2000 but Stelios remains the largest single shareholder.Nowadays, acting through his pri-vate investment vehicle, the easy-Group, which owns the easy brand

Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou

Born: February 14, 1967 (age 40)

Cyprus

Occupation: entrepreneur

Net worth: GBP £1.29 billion

Spouse: none

Children: none

Website: stelios.com

* OSG: Overseas Shipholding Group. NYSE: New York Stock Exchange

4 UNIT 1: STELIOS HAJI-IOANNOU

and licenses it to the various easy branded ventures, including the air-line, Stelios sees himself more as the manager of the brand and less as a manager of one of the companies. He continues to extend the brand, with mixed success, by creating new easy branded ventures in the areas of travel, leisure, telecoms and per-sonal finance.

[3]...................................................

easyJet PLC which is Europe’s larg-est low cost airline by revenues with a fleet of 122 jets and growing, carried 33 mil-lion passengers in 2006. !e travel related busi-nesses also include:easyCar, which provides low cost car rental in 2,000 locations globally; easyCruise, introducing a younger age group to cruising in various parts of the world; easyBus, which provides low cost bus transportation between airports and city centres; easyHotel, which is growing rapi-dly around the world by providing cheap accommodation in city cen-tres. !e businesses outside the travel industry cover areas as diverse as Internet cafιs, online price com-parison, personal finance, cinema, male toiletries, online recruitment, pizza delivery, music downloads, mobile telephony, offices and wrist watches!

In November 2006 Stelios received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for services to entrepreneurship.

[4]...................................................

On the “giving something back” side, Stelios is interested in education for under-privileged students and sustainable development. In 1992 he founded CYMEPA, the Cyprus Marine Environment Protection Association. !is is a non-profit making association of ship owners and Cyprus-based business people

who believe in sustainable development.Stelios recently endowed this association with a further gift worth more than $600,000. In 2005 he made a pledge to both his alma mater, the London School of Economics and the City of LondonCass Business School, worth £3m for the funding of 100 scholarships over 10

years in each establishment. !e students will be known as the Ste-lios Scholars. In 2006 he established the Disabled Entrepreneur of the Year Award with the disability cha-rity Leonard Cheshire, with £50,000 going to the winner.Also in 2006 he sold his private art collection, which once filled the walls of the now sold Stelmar Ship-ping, for a total of €730,000, the proceeds of which went to a Greek children’s charity.

“It’s the least de- sirable aspect, but I don’t think people

are too worried about windows.”

—Stelios Haji- Ioannou, easyGroup head, defending the

windowless chambers in his London easyHo-tel, where rooms rent

for $36 a night


Reading

Comprehension ¨=Reading for Gist

Choose from the following titles for the four text sections:

A. Other business activities.

B. Social life.

C. Social contribution.

D. Growing up.

E. Family background and early business activity.

F. Primary business activity.

=Reading for Detail

1. Answer in your own words

1. Which line of business is Stelios most active in?

2. What is the major characteristic of his business ventures?

3. Which domain has he innovated in?

4. Which areas have attracted his charity concerns?

2. True or False?

Say whether the following statements are true or false. If false, say why.

1. Stelios was born and raised in Athens.

2. He completed his PhD at Liverpool University.

3. He was 21 when he worked for his father.

4. He was the owner of Stelmar shipping for 13 years.

5. Easy Jet PLC was sold in 2000.

6. All his business expansions are equally successful.

7. He was knighted by the Queen for excelling in the enterprise world.

8. He has donated money to the Universities he has graduated from.


Guess the meaning of the following words and expressions based on

a) etymology

b) the context

c) knowledge of the world/subject.

1. Stelios fl oated Stelmar Shipping on the NYSE in 2001

2. Europe’s largest low cost airline by revenues with a fl eet of 122 jets

3. He sold his private art collection … for a total of €730,000, the proceeds

of which went to a Greek children’s charity.

Tense Example Function

S. Present 1.

2.

3.

S. Past 1.

2.

3.

Vocabulary

Development

Grammar

Awareness ¤1. TENSE REVISION. " e purpose of this awareness activity is to increase

your ability to choose the correct verb form at an exam situation by

observing how tenses are used in authentic texts. In this encyclopaedic

text you have just read, you primarily encounter two tenses, the Simple

Present and the Simple Past. Find three examples of each and then describe

their function.


Writing

Assignment

1. In about 150 words, write the profi le of another famous business person-

ality, like Onassis, Richard Brandson, Madonna, etc. Do not copy-paste

from the wikipedia. If you use sources, compose your own texts, para-

phrase and make sure that you include them in your references.

2. " ink critically. Look up some further sources on Stelios Haji-Ioannou.

Write a piece of about 150 words estimating what has contributed to his

success. Make informed guesses as to his personality based on his family

background, his marital status, or anything else you consider relevant.

ªª

2. PASSIVE VOICE. In the following sentences, explain why the passive

voice was used. In your search for the appropriate function, you may

wish to consult the reference section of this chapter.

a. He was educated in Athens _______________

b. Stelios has also been awarded _______________

c. Who prefers to be called _______________

d. He is often credited as the pioneer _______________

English word Definition Greek equivalent

negotiate discuss in order to reach an agreement διαπραγματεύομαι

payout Εξαγορά

pioneer innovator πρωτοπόρο̋

aviation the aeroplane business αεροπλοϊα

vehicle means of achieving, expressing μέσον, φορέα̋

venture enterprise επιχείρηση

diverse varied ποικίλο̋

Vocabulary

List


recruitment hiring of personnel πρόσληψη,, στρατολόγηση

entrepreneurship the state of being a businessperson επιχειρηματικότητα

endowed gifted προικισμένο̋

pledge promise δέσμευση

alma mater (lit.) foster motherthe college one has graduated from

disability a physical or mental disadvantage αναπηρία

proceeds earnings from copyright, charity έσοδα

Derivatives

Verb Noun Adjective Adverb

enterpriseentrepreneurentrepreneurship

entreprenurial

profession professional

globalize globeglobalization

global globally

recruit recruitment

disable disability disabled

Table


Self-study¬

1 Word matching

Match the words and the meanings below.

1. diverse a. hiring of personnel 1. __

2. pledge b. means 2. __

3. pioneer c. gifted 3. __

4. recruitment d. discuss to reach an agreement 4. __

5. vehicle e. innovator 5. __

6. proceeds f. enterprise 6. __

7. negotiate g. varied 7. __

8. aviation h. promise 8. __

9. venture i. fee 9. __

10. endowed j. the aeroplane business 10. __

k. earnings from copyright, charity

l. being a businessperson

m. a physical or mental disadvantage

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business english for academic purposes - … · a note to the student v dear student, welcome to...

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