NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:00 Page 1 United Kingdom • United States • Australia • Canada • Mexico • Singapore • Spain NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:00 Page 2 New Business Matters Teacher’s Book Powell/Mart›nez/Jillett Publisher: Christopher Wenger Director of Marketing, ESL/ELT: Amy Mabley Director of Development, ESL/ELT: Anita Raducanu Editorial Manager: Howard Middle/HM ELT Services Development Editor: Jean Pender Sr. Production Editor: Sally Cogliano International Marketing Manager: Eric Bredenberg Copyright © 2004 by Heinle, a part of the Cengage Corporation. Heinle logo is trademark used herein under license. All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyright hereon may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means—graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping,Web distribution or information storage and retrieval systems—without the written permission of the publisher. Printed in Singapore. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 07 06 05 04 03 For more information contact Cengage Learning, High Holborn House 50/51 Bedford Row, London WC1R 4LR United Kingdom or Heinle USA.You can visit our Web site at http://www.heinle.com Associate Marketing Manager: Laura Needham Sr. Print Buyer: Mary Beth Hennebury Compositor: Process ELT (www.process-elt.com) Production Management: Process ELT Copyeditor: Katerina Mestheneou Cover/Text Designer: Studio Image & Photographic Art (www.studio-image.com) Printer: Seng Lee Press For permission to use material from this text or product contact us: Tel 1-800-730-2214 Fax 1-800-730-2215 Web www.heinlerights.com ISBN: 0-7593-9857-7 (Teacher’s Book) NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:00 Page 3 Contents A Typical Topic Unit 4 Unit-By-Unit Teaching Notes Unit 1 Career Management 9 Unit 2 Enterprise 10 Unit 3 E-business Meeting Skills 12 13 Unit 4 Brand Management 14 Unit 5 Prices and Commodities 15 Unit 6 Corporate Entertaining Telephoning Skills 17 19 Unit 7 Innovation 20 Unit 8 Public Relations 21 Unit 9 Cultural Awareness Presentation Skills 22 24 Unit 10 Global Advertising 25 Unit 11 Management Styles 26 Unit 12 Mergers and Acquisitions Negotiating Skills 27 28 Unit 13 Business and the Environment 29 Unit 14 Finance and Credit 31 Unit 15 Economic Issues 32 Resource Files 35 CNN Video Worksheet Teaching Notes 66 3 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:00 Page 4 A Typical Topic Unit Pre-Reading Reading (recorded) Post-Reading Language Focus Fluency Work A note on New Business Matters This course is more than a mere ‘new edition’ of Business Matters, first published in 1996. New Business Matters has been substantially developed and updated as follows: • All units that have been retained have been thoroughly updated, some substantially, to reflect changes in the global business world. • Four entirely new units have been written to reflect modern business reality. • Four listening-based skills units have been added, to focus on the language of meetings, telephoning, negotiations and presentations. • A glossary of key business vocabulary has been added. New Video In addition to the above, a selection of 15 video extracts has been made from authentic CNN programmes, and worksheets written for each have been added to the back of the Coursebook, with teacher’s notes, transcripts and answers provided in this Teacher’s Resource Book. These video extracts have been chosen for variety and international appeal, and to reflect the topics of the main units. Making the most of New Business Matters The Language of Business The Lexical Approach Of New Business Matters A New Approach New Business Matters is a different kind of business English course. Based on the latest corpus research into what the language of business really is, it deemphasises the narrow focus on functional and structural input of the traditional course and places business content at the centre of its syllabus. Redefining Business English Traditionally, the response to the language needs of business people has been the provision of a general business English coursebook, combining a conventional structural syllabus in a business context with the functional language of meetings, telephoning and other business functions. 4 However, teachers will all be familiar with learners who, fed a rich diet of functional exponents to use in meetings, role play a meeting quite successfully in class without using any of them! Would-be presenters, painstakingly coached in signpost phrases, discourse markers and graph language, continue to stand up and give uninspiring end-of-course presentations. Business people who have no problem getting through to the person they want on the phone, have all kinds of trouble dealing with them in English once they have got through! In many ways, the traditional business English syllabus misses the mark, and a large part of the problem is functional ‘overkill’, for much of the functional language of business that is taught is both unnecessary and unnatural.There are always simpler, more effective alternatives. For example, one of the most common ways of disagreeing in a meeting is to say ‘Yes, but ...’. A very common way of changing direction in a presentation is simply to say ‘OK, so ...’ . And recordings of both native and non-native speakers show that EFL favourites like ‘I’m afraid I can’t agree with you there’ and ‘If we could just turn our attention for a moment to the question of cost’ are actually rather rare. In fact, so much time is wasted in business English classes learning ten alternative ways of agreeing that there is no time left to talk about what we agree on! And here we come to the real crux of the matter.The main difference between general English and business English is not one of function but of content.Voicing your opinion in business English is really no different from voicing your opinion in general English.What is different are the things you voice your opinion on. It is all a question of content.What New Business Matters does is systematically identify the key content language all business people need. New Business Matters recognises that learners who have already studied a lot of grammar, a lot of functions, and a lot of vocabulary, will not significantly improve their communicative competence in business simply by studying more of the same.What they need to develop most of all at their critical intermediate stage of learning is lexical awareness, the ability to combine a lot of words they already know (like company and run) into word partnerships they do not know (like run a company), and to see how building up a substantial repertoire of word partnerships (like meet demand) and fixed expressions (like We can hardly keep up with demand) rather than individual words (like meet, keep and demand) speeds up language processing and is the key to real fluency. Word partnerships are accorded special importance in New Business Matters.The language of business is especially heavy in terms of information load, and word A Ty p i c a l To p i c U n i t NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:00 Page 5 partnerships, which are really concentrated packets of meaning, play a much more central role in business English than they do in general English, which tends to be more lexically diffuse. In fact, the core syllabus in New Business Matters consists of a restricted set of business concepts (like companies, contracts and meetings; prices, products and markets), all of which generate hundreds of 2-, 3and 4-word partnerships. For example: hold a meeting market forces sales potential set up a company create a price war reduce overhead costs withdraw a defective product draft a provisional contract professional needs of your group. It is a good idea to go through the contents list with your learners on day one and prioritise the units to be studied.This allows them to negotiate their needs and, to a certain extent, customise the content of their course. Simple Methodology All 1 2 3 of the units follow a similar pattern: A pre-reading activity introduces the topic. Text work follows. A variety of exercises and activities reinforce and expand on the language in the texts. 4 The language work is punctuated by short minidiscussions relating to the learners’ own experience. 5 The unit culminates in an extended fluency activity. Timetable Fit Fixed expressions are also a crucial part of a fluent speaker’s competence. Native and near-native speakers may know many thousands of contextually triggered sentences by heart. All the texts in this course, both articles and exercises, have been packed with a high proportion of fixed expressions which should be categorised and learnt whole. For example: I see what you mean. It can’t be helped. That’s beside the point. I would if I could but I can’t. It isn’t as simple as that. You must be joking. Each unit in New Business Matters, if fully exploited, provides about five hours’ worth of work, roughly divided into: 1 hour text work 2 hours language work ½ hour discussion work 1 to 1½ hours fluency activity Typically, a unit would be covered in four one-hour lessons with some of the language work set for homework. On an intensive course a unit could form the basis of a day’s studies. On an extensive course lessons could trace a four-stage learning cycle: Lesson 1: Lesson 2: General Teaching Notes Lesson 3: Lesson 4: Wide Range of Topics The fifteen main units in New Business Matters are extremely varied in terms of content, target language and activity type. Step by step the course takes learners through the whole world of business from product development to pricing strategy, from brand management to credit control, from advertising expenditure to management styles. General Interest The articles in each unit, though focusing on a particular area of business, are directed towards the general business reader.Topics have been specially chosen to remain current, and the issues raised are of perennial interest. introductory discussion and text work (set language homework) extra language work and discussion (prepare at home for fluency activity) fluency activity (record for feedback) feedback session and remedial work (choose next unit to study) Although each unit is carefully phased to develop the learners’ language awareness and confidence, the page layout in New Business Matters, with each section starting on a new page, means that parts of a unit can be worked with separately if desired. In some cases there is overlap between units in terms of topic and language.This offers the possibility of doing information transfer work using articles for more than one unit. As the business themes addressed are largely ongoing, articles on the same topics regularly appear in the business press.Teachers and learners should be on the lookout for authentic articles and news stories with which to draw a comparison. Freestanding Units The units in New Business Matters can be worked through in any order, depending on the interests and A Ty p i c a l To p i c U n i t 5 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:00 Page 6 A Typical Unit 4. Language Focus 1. Pre-Reading This part of the unit offers a wide selection of lexical and business grammar exercises which review and expand on the key language contained in the article. With some of the exercises it is a good idea to refer learners back to the article itself to check their answers before you go through them in class. The aim in this part of the lesson is to get the learners thinking and talking about the topic.The teacher reads out a short introductory text, learners complete questionnaires or perform a simple task.Ten to fifteen minutes is usually enough to set the scene and arouse interest. 2. Reading (recorded) Learners read the article and compare it with the views they shared with their colleagues in the prereading discussion. Alternatively, they can listen to a recording of the article instead.With weaker groups, who find extended reading and listening activities demanding, try playing the recording as they read.This prevents people ‘getting lost’ and ensures that everyone completes the activity at the same time. Later in this introduction there is more detailed advice on dealing with texts. In Unit 7, Innovation, learners are split into two groups and read different articles on the same topic. They then pair up to exchange and compare information. 3. Post-Reading The activities in this part of the unit are a little different from those usually associated with text work. Instead of comprehension questions, learners may be asked to: — decide which of several points listed support those made in the article. — remember the context in which key facts and figures were mentioned. — find words and expressions in the article which mean ... — indicate their own personal response to the information contained in the article. — prepare a set of questions on the article to ask their colleagues. These last two activities are particularly important.The natural response to reading (or listening to) something is to say what you think. Sometimes questions are raised by what you have read, which you may want to ask. But answering questions on what you read is highly unnatural, except in tests. And, in general, learners gain more from asking questions than answering them. The ability to formulate accurate questions is an essential business skill, and even quite advanced learners can be weak at this. So, the question-asking activities in New Business Matters offer learners ‘language frameworks’ to help them ask better questions than they would naturally. Usually this means giving them the first few words of the question: In what way ...? How might ...? According to the article, ...? What’s likely to be the effect of ... on ...? What are the implications of ...? etc. 6 Word Partnerships: Since New Business Matters sets out to teach the core content language you need to do business in English, word partnerships (the real information carriers) feature frequently in the Language Focus section of each unit. It is essential to get your learners into the habit of looking for chunks of language bigger than words if you are to maximise their learning. Typically, the Language Focus section progresses from straightforward matching to phrase-search exercises to more complex activities where, for example, learners may have to sequence and link up whole expressions into a text or presentation extract. The majority of word partnership exercises in the course start from a keyword, usually a noun (business, company, production, agreement, figures, problem, etc.), and build on the verbs, adjectives and secondary nouns you need to generate two-, three- and four-word partnerships. It is extremely important that learners can identify the keywords most relevant to their own job, for not all the exercises in this section of the book will be equally useful to them. And, if you have a small class, you should be prepared to let them do a certain amount of picking and choosing.The new glossary at the back of the Coursebook provides an additional resource of key vocabulary. Fixed and Semi-Fixed Expressions: There are exercises in New Business Matters which explicitly teach common expressions and idioms used in business (money expressions, for example). And the majority of exercises in the Language Focus section have been specially written to contain a high concentration of more or less fixed expressions as well. Encourage learners to be on the lookout for complete expressions they can learn and use themselves. Business Grammar: Some of the units in New Business Matters address grammar, and a certain amount of grammatical range obviously gives learners choices about what they can say which they would not otherwise have. But grammar is always treated as secondary to lexis.There are two reasons for this. First, it is assumed that at an intermediate level of English learners have already studied a lot of grammar and that further study is unlikely to prove cost-effective in terms of increased communicative competence. Second, a great deal of grammar is, in fact, learnt lexically. In New Business Matters, conditionals, future forms, modal verbs, past tenses and the perfect aspect are all introduced in phrases and expressions in A Ty p i c a l To p i c U n i t NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:00 Page 7 which they commonly feature. Learners meet examples of a structure and work out how it operates.This reflects natural acquisition. Discussion Activities: Throughout the Language Focus section there are short discussion activities which give learners an immediate opportunity to relate the topic of the unit to their own work situations and also to use some of the language they have been learning. It is not suggested that a lot of time be spent on these mini-discussions unless they particularly catch the interest of your class. But it is important that learners are given breathing space between concentrated language work. There are suggestions in the Unit-by-Unit Notes for ways in which the language exercises in New Business Matters can be followed up with competitive and collaborative classroom activities. 5. Fluency Work Each unit concludes with an extended discussion, presentation, role-play or simulation. Occasionally, there is a choice of activity, and sometimes an element of competition is introduced. Recording or videoing is advisable if you want to do detailed feedback.The purpose of the fluency work is to give an end-product to the unit, and, as a general rule, it should be tackled separately from the text and language work, perhaps in a subsequent lesson. Adequate preparation is vital with the more elaborate role-plays and simulations if your learners are to do them well.There are suggestions in the Coursebook and teachers’ notes on extra functional language you may want to input at this stage, but be careful not to overload your learners with language they may end up not needing! Exploiting the Texts The Importance of Input Strange as it may sound, you do not learn to speak a language by speaking, but by listening and reading. Learners who can already speak some English will learn to speak a lot more by listening and reading as much and as often as they can. Reading, in particular, is the best way to boost your word power. But input must be both comprehensible and maximally useful if it is to accelerate learning. The Central Role of the Texts in New Business Matters The articles and many of the exercises in New Business Matters have been specially written to contain a large part of the target language of the course.They are not simplified, but lexically enhanced with a disproportionately high number of word partnerships and / or fixed expressions (and little of the redundant or colloquial language found in many authentic texts).This makes them eminently exploitable in the classroom as the main source of input as well as fuel for discussion.Your learners would have to read an enormous number of newspaper and magazine articles to be sure of covering anything like the same range of content language. A certain amount of reader-training is necessary, however, if learners are to get maximum benefit from the course. Because we hardly ever notice the words we read, but read the meaning behind them instead, all text is prone to what applied linguists call ‘transparency’.The message is received and understood but the words are lost forever. Clearly this is not what we want with our language learners. So the Coursebook introduces them to a variety of simple techniques for mining texts for useful language and increasing their lexical awareness.The Unit-By-Unit Notes and Resource File in this teachers’ book offer many more suggestions. A Ty p i c a l To p i c U n i t 7 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:00 Page 8 How to Use the Texts in the Classroom Managing text can be a bit unwieldy in the classroom, if not handled properly — people read at different speeds; some stop at every unknown word and reach for the dictionary; others take a deep breath and plough on regardless; there are those who get lost altogether and those who read and discard at an alarming rate! The following alternative approaches are suggested to harmonise reading styles and ensure that the input language is properly digested. 1. Set a time limit for all reading activities. For slow readers this will function as a spur to read on, whilst for faster readers it will provide an opportunity to pace themselves.You may find playing quiet music during the reading phases of your lesson breaks what can otherwise be an uncomfortable silence. Fading the music out at the end of this phase is a subtle and effective way of signalling to people to stop reading. 2. Getting learners to read aloud to the class in strict rotation is more reminiscent of primary school than the business language training centre, but reading a paragraph out to a partner is quite acceptable. People read bits of newspapers out to each other all the time in coffee bars and at home, so why not in class? Encourage pairs of learners to take turns reading out parts of the text to each other, perhaps breaking off from time to time to discuss a point with their partner or gloss something which is unclear. 3. Play the recording first, so that your learners get to hear what it is about and compare it with the views they shared in the pre-reading session before you refer them to the text for more detailed language and discussion work. Knowing they will be seeing the actual text later often reassures less confident listeners. 4. An excellent idea is to try playing the CD or cassette as your class reads.This necessarily keeps stragglers on track and ensures that everyone completes the activity at the same time. Reading with the recording also prevents word-by-word translation and encourages people to take in larger chunks of text at a time. 5. Do not underestimate the value of occasionally reading the text out yourself.This is best done interactively, with you pacing yourself according to the difficulty of the text and length of the sentences, and your learners interrupting you to ask for repetition, clarification or explanation. 8 6. From time to time, set the pre-reading and reading activities for homework, so that learners come to the next lesson well immersed in the text and the issues it raises. Resource File Section In the Resource File section of this teachers’ book you will find several other ideas for exploiting text communicatively in the business English classroom. Activities such as games to practise word partnerships, ways to summarise texts and notetaking for minipresentations are examples of the type of activities which are included in the 15 Resource Files. Each file supplies the teacher with the material needed to carry out the activity and a step-by-step description of how to organise each stage. The Skills Units A Typical Skills Unit: Pre-Listening A warm up activity which prepares learners for the listening through discussion and questions. Listening The listening provides an appropriate model for each of the four skills: telephoning, meeting, presenting, and negotiating. Key Language This section provides practice of expressions and vocabulary for each of the skills. Case Study This is an opportunity to practise the skill in a realistic business context. The CNN Video Extracts A Typical Video Unit: Has a worksheet which begins with discussion questions to focus the learners on the topic of the video. Before You Watch An exercise to supply learners with helpful words and phrases to make understanding the video a little easier. While You Watch Exercises to encourage active viewing of the video extract and to check comprehension. After You Watch Pair and groupwork activities which recycle the language of the video in a business context. A Ty p i c a l To p i c U n i t NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 1 U N I T 19:00 Page 9 Career Management Text Me plc.: redefining what it takes to be successful in today’s competitive job market Language Focus The Appointment Pages: job advertisement expressions Reading between the Lines: understanding job ads Career, recruitment and interviewing phrases: do research, sell yourself, dress to impress, project the right attitude Discussion Topics Do you live to work or work to live? Balancing career and life decisions Applying for jobs that are not advertised Fluency Work Describe your ‘dream job’ and prepare a job interview for it; role-play the job interview General Notes This unit focuses on how the very nature of employment has evolved from the traditional notion of ‘holding down a job’ to forcing people to be more proactive about managing their own careers. It is a topic that should have broad appeal since young and old, employed or unemployed alike will find some relevance to their own lives. If you have young-adult learners in your class, the perspective will be more from the prospect of employment, and working adults will be able to contribute more from personal experience. Either way, the topic should generate much interest and discussion, and for that reason may be a good unit to start with. To promote even further discussion, if you have access to real job advertisements – either from an Englishlanguage newspaper or Internet media – you could invite learners to talk about jobs that strike their interest and those that do not, and why. Page 9 Pre-Reading High-flyer or Wage Slave? As a class, have learners react to the opening quotation.This could be done silently or aloud (read by the teacher or learner). After getting a few initial reactions, ask them to individually mark where they see themselves on the scale.Then put learners into pairs to discuss the questions. (There is an analysis of their answers on page of 152 of the Coursebook.) Page 11 Post-Reading Crosschecking When you do the feedback for this task, ask your learners to back up their answers by referring to the article: ‘It says here that ...’, ‘It talks about ... .’ Page 12 Language Focus The Appointments Pages If you have a strong class, this could be done aloud as a ‘complete the sentence’ activity, which will challenge learners and keep up a dynamic pace. (Be sure to ask learners to cover the text in their books when they do this.) Page 12 Reading between the Lines You could start by asking the follow-up question to this activity first, especially if you have a group with enough job experience, to draw more interest and make the activity all that much more relevant to learners. Page 13 Quotes Have learners read through these first without worrying about filling in the gaps.This will allow them to focus on meaning first.This could be done very effectively with the teacher reading the extracts aloud, skipping over the spaces, thereby avoiding the possibility of learners stumbling over them. If you are working in a school or college, it can be fun to collect business quotes with the groups you teach and display them in the classroom. Many quotes contain useful idioms and fixed expressions. Remember to update the collection periodically and get learners to contribute some quotes of their own. Page 14 Recruitment It is a good idea to focus the class and have learners collectively contribute the answer to the first two questions without actually looking at the book.When it comes time to do the activity, if you have learners with little or no work experience, it is best to pair them up with one who does. If no such learner is available, tell them that it is OK to guess. Page 14 Interview Skills If you have a class with very few learners with actual job experience, you might want to skip to the second opening question.When doing the listening activity, learners can simply number each line to establish the order. Page 15 Who Said It? To build learners’ awareness of lexical chunks, as a follow-up to the activity you can ask learners to underline the parts of each line they think are useful/important to them. For example, 1. Take a seat. Coffee?; 2. Could I ask you…? (as a generative question stem) or the entire phrase Could I ask you what attracted you to the position? This kind of training early on will begin to help learners understand that what they want to focus on is language patterns from which they can generalise. Unit 1 • Career Management 9 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:00 Page 10 Page 16 Fluency Work Dream Job If you are short of time Depending on time, you can really raise learners’ interest in the subject by having them answer the first question, ‘What would be your ideal job?’ in pairs or small groups.This will get their heads warmed-up to the activity even more to optimise its effectiveness. Do Interview Skills and Phrase-building on page 14 and Who Said It? and Phrases and Expressions on page 15 in class. Set the rest for homework.You can reduce the time spent on the Dream Job activity by preparing a few job descriptions in advance and simply giving those to the learners to work from in class. Alternatively, the job descriptions in the form of advertisements could be posted around the class or on the board as a kind of ‘job centre’. Learners could then even interview for jobs other than those they have written descriptions for. 2 U N I T Enterprise Text Entrepreneurs: the hero status of the entrepreneur and the secrets of entrepreneurial success Language Focus Word Grammar: expressing nouns in the adjective form Word partnerships in the context of entrepreneurial skills Business Grammar: reporting verbs, gerund/infinitive expressions, prepositional verbs Discussion Topics Entrepreneurism within corporations, using intuition and ingenuity, personal success Page 17 Pre-Reading Room at the Top Fluency Work Business Venture: starting a new business, drawing up and presenting a business plan General Notes This unit discusses the essential differences between the successful manager and the successful entrepreneur. Since your learners are more likely to be managers than entrepreneurs, this gives you the opportunity to find out whether they would rather be working for themselves than for their employer. Be discreet! The unit can be tackled on two levels, depending on the degree of interest and experience in your group. Less experienced groups may want to talk very generally about what leads to success in business, entrepreneurial or otherwise.You could ask them to think of a well-known business person in their own 10 country and account for this person’s success. More experienced groups with an interest in the practicalities of setting up in business may prefer to think about the basic requirements of a successful new company: steady cashflow, a clearly identified customer base, medium-term objectives, etc.They may also want to discuss the idea of ‘intrapreneurism’: giving the manager the autonomy to use their intuition, act on their own initiative and run a company-within-acompany. How much autonomy do your learners enjoy in their own jobs? Be on the lookout for news items and magazine articles featuring the rich and famous from the worlds of business and enterprise. As a rule, disasters and scandals will generate more interest than success stories.You could give an article to each member of your group and ask them to summarise it in a subsequent lesson.There is a worksheet for news article summaries on page 60 This activity is meant to expose preconceived ideas about wealth and how it is acquired. It can be done in pairs or small groups, but you may find, if you are short of time, that this activity will work best done as a class brainstorm to lead into the reading. Read out the text, How to Make a Million, to your class.Tell them that when you’ve finished reading you will put them into pairs to produce a ten-word summary of the text.This will encourage them to stop you if there is anything they do not understand. Make sure the summaries are exactly ten words long. Choose the best. Page 19 Post-Reading Information Check Send your learners back to the text to argue out any differences of opinion. Unit 2 • Enterprise NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:00 Page 11 Page 19 Interviews Monitor the preparation of questions carefully or, if you prefer, collect in the questions at the end of the lesson, correct / reformulate them and hand back multiple copies in the next lesson. If you like, you could conduct the question-and-answer session competitively. Page 20 Language Focus Word Partnerships 1 Draw the learners’ attention to the fact that the 16 parts of the presentation extract are all broken in the middle of a useful word partnership: make it to the top, put in an 18-hour day, a recipe for success, bide your time etc. If you have a small group, don’t underestimate the value of getting them to mark in the stressed words and pauses and then read the extract aloud. Page 21 Word Partnerships 2 Page 24 Fluency Work Business Venture (time required 50-60 minutes) Do the fluency work in a follow-up lesson to give your learners time to think through their ideas. Do not let them get too involved in details, but encourage them to keep the whole thing as simple as possible, taking just a few notes on each point. If notes are displayed on a flipchart or projected on OHP this will help to keep them concise and act as a memory aid during the presentations. Make it clear that amusing ideas for a new company are as welcome as more serious ones! Useful verbs: we plan, aim, intend, propose to ...; we estimate, envisage, propose that ... If you are short of time Do Word Partnerships 1 and 2 on pages 20-21 and Business Grammar 1 and 2 on page 22 in class. Set the rest for homework. Do a simplified version of the Business Venture activity by cutting some sections on the Business Plan Checklist. To make this activity more interactive have pairs of learners question each other on each point. Alternatively, you could record yourself being asked the questions before the lesson, play the recording and get your learners to complete the answer grid with your responses and then discuss them with you. Page 21 Quotes If you are working in a school or college, it can be fun to collect business quotes with the groups you teach and display them in the classroom. Many quotes contain useful idioms and fixed expressions. Remember to update the collection periodically and get learners to contribute some quotes on their own. Page 22 Business Grammar 1 and 2 It is seldom necessary to go through the contortions of reported speech in a business English course. Events and opinions, rather than actual speech, tend to be reported. ‘Are you quite sure you won’t need to get authorisation for this?’ is unlikely to be reported as She asked us if we were quite sure we wouldn’t need to get authorisation for that, but rather: She thought we’d need authorisation. But being able to use simple reporting verbs such as asked, said, told, thought and more complex ones such as confirmed, doubted, stressed, questioned and demanded is very important if you want to write a report on what was discussed in a meeting. Make sure your learners know what words follow each reporting verb – doubted whether, stressed that, questioned the need for, demanded to know whether etc. As a follow-up activity, you could prepare a set of cards with direct speech on for learners to reformulate into report language. Alternatively, a short extract of an interview on cassette or video would be an excellent way of practising reporting verbs.There’s a worksheet for this on page 000. Unit 2 • Enterprise 11 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 3 U N I T 19:00 Page 12 E-business Text Dot.Con?: the rise and fall – and apparent resurgence – of e-commerce and the Internet as a whole Language Focus Abbreviation: business and technology terms Prepositions in phrasal verbs and other multi-word expressions Word partnerships: verbs and verb phrases Discussion Topics Criticisms of corporate web sites The Internet past and present, and predictions for its future, especially as it relates to business Page 28 Find the Words It is important not to rush this activity, as the cognitive involvement which sometimes will take up some time is a productive and essential part of the lexis-building process, and for the same reason it is best not to do the activity open-class, as inevitably there will be learners who will ‘steal the show’ and deprive the others of a chance to reflect on the language to be focused on. Page 29 Discuss Invite learners to contribute any criticisms they may have of their own that were not already covered in the speech bubbles. Page 29 Case Study Microsoft Under Attack Fluency Work Dotcom Clinic: giving online business advice General Notes This unit focuses on an industry that has suffered dramatic changes and is bound to undergo still more. For that reason it has been written from a historical viewpoint, allowing for both reflection and speculation about what is still to come. Since the article deals with what was essentially an investor fad at one point – tech stocks and e-business – the class may go into a discussion about ‘new’ ways of doing business and business trends and how regardless of fashion and fad the fundamentals of business and the nature of markets (supply v. demand, price sensitivity, market timeliness, customer service) remain unchanged through the years. Page 25 Pre-Reading Nethead or Web-hater? Put learners into pairs to discuss the questions, after which it should be established if each is a ‘Nethead’ or ‘Web-hater’ (both made-up terms).The criteria for establishing this are not very scientific – they are based on a general assertion according to how each learner answers the questions. Page 27 Post-Reading Response This focuses on the macro meaning of the article. Learners may wish to briefly re-read before doing this exercise. If you have non-working learners in the class, particularly younger learners, you will probably have little difficulty having them identify with the world of computer security and hacking.Working from this angle, you should be able to gather interest from the class as a whole. (Remember that the scripts for all the listenings are in the back of the Coursebook.) Page 31 Word Partnerships 2 Encourage learners to try the activity without referring to the original text. Page 32 Fluency Work Dotcom Clinic Before putting learners into small groups to work on the activity, you may feel it necessary and helpful to go over some basic opening and closing lexis used in semiformal e-mail messages. Language such as To the team at BiblioFiles, Hope this feedback will be useful. Regards Charles Brown. If you are short of time Do the Language Focus activities on page 28 and the reading on page 30 plus Word Partnerships 2 and Find the Expressions. To reduce the amount of time spent on the fluency activity, have learners choose three case studies to respond to. Page 28 Language Focus Computer Speak debug: to solve a computer-related problem; domain name: the last part of a web address, such as .com or .org; morph: to evolve into a different kind of business; bricks: a real physical business; clicks: referring to the virtual reality of the Internet; friction-free: smooth, minimalised difficulty 12 Unit 3 • E-business NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:00 Page 13 Meeting Skills The Language of Meetings Page 33 Key Language Listening content a problematic meeting scenario where just about anything that can go wrong during a meeting does go wrong Key language useful expressions for participating in and conducting meetings Skills practice Learners divide themselves into different departments within a fast-food organisation, holding a meeting to respond to a crisis situation and develop a plan of action General Notes One thing that a language course cannot and should not aspire to is to go beyond language training to try and change the basic nature of the person. If a person walks into a language classroom as basically shy, it is unlikely that s/he will return home the life of the party when the class or the course is finished. Meetings in many cultures tend to be counter-productive and drag on when extrovert competes with extrovert for the lion’s share of the attention.There will always be people who just love to hear themselves talk, and that occurs independently of L1 or L2 status. In other words, as a teacher you should try to understand and respect the basic nature of a learner if s/he seems to be quieter or reserved during the meetings practised in this unit. It may be that that learner would not speak even in his/her native tongue given the same situation. That said, the general aim of this unit is to at least give learners the tools necessary to be able to participate if need be and if willing and able. Depending on how confident you feel about your learners’ language ability, you can try putting them in pairs first to try and guess or put the sentences together from memory, and then check with the recording only at the end. After learners organise the sentences into the different categories, drill them with Coursebooks closed, naming the category and having learners respond with a sentence that goes into that category. Page 34 Case Study First have learners read the case study individually.Then divide the class into the different departments to prepare for the meeting.You might want to bring in the necessary materials (construction paper, colored pens, etc.) to be able to encourage as much creativity as possible – have them put together a real sample menu, for example, or a storyboard for a new launch campaign to save the company’s image. Page 33 Pre-Listening Language Focus If you have learners who have not yet entered the workforce, or whose jobs as of yet have not required them to be in a professional meeting setting, try to get them to reflect on any other type of meeting situation they may have had. For example, though they may not have ever participated in a meeting at work, they may have done so in school, with friends studying for an exam, or with friends planning for a social event. Page 33 Listening Learners listen for the degree of ‘usefulness’ of the meeting, which, as it turns out, is very low.Try to get them to be as specific as possible in justifying the score they give the meeting at the end, re-playing parts of the meeting or even the meeting in its entirety if necessary. Meeting Skills 13 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 4 U N I T 19:00 Page 14 Brand Management Text Brand Wars: in retail marketing the battle is on amongst the brand leaders, the own-label products and the pirates. Language Focus Key words: market, brand, consumer Word partnerships: brand, market and product descriptions Business metaphors: terms of war, sport and games, water, health and flight. Business grammar: writing a successful sales letter Discussion Topics Company ‘household’ names, upmarket and downmarket goods, product proliferation Fluency Work Product Development: challenging a brand name with a competitive new product General Notes This unit focuses on the ruthless price wars which typify retail marketing. It describes the measures being taken by the big brand leaders in fast-moving consumer goods to take on the more competitively priced ownlabel supermarket products. It also looks at the problems faced by luxury goods manufacturers in trying to deal with the millions of pirate versions of their products which annually flood the market. Since we all have experience of these market sectors as consumers, it is not necessary for learners to be actively involved in retail marketing in order to benefit from this unit.The question of quality v price is one which everyone can talk about, as are the rights and wrongs of ripping off well-known brands by making cheap copies of their goods. You might mention in your discussion that in some countries, notably Turkey and Greece, the brand names have actually given in to the pirates and now grant them licences to produce cheaper but qualitycontrolled versions of their goods. If your class does have an interest in brand management, then there are a lot of issues raised in the article which can be further explored: the criteria by which you measure a classic brand, the effectiveness of brandstretching, the saturation of the market with almost identical products and the problem of product differentiation. Learners who work in service industries might like to consider whether you can brand and market a service in the same way you brand and market a product. Does it make sense to actually sell services as ‘products’? Page 35 Pre-Reading A Follower of Fashion? If your class is not involved in marketing, do not spend much time on the marketing terms, but go straight to the questionnaire. 14 Page 37 Post-Reading Recall and Response When you do the feedback for these tasks, ask your learners to back up their answers by referring to the article: ‘It said that ...’, ‘The article talked about ...’, ‘It mentioned something about ...’. Page 38 Language Focus Word Partnerships 2, 3 and 4 As a follow-up activity, you could prepare one of the word partnership card games described on page 56. Page 39 Word Partnerships 5 Listen again to the article on Brand Wars to check the answers. Page 39 Presenting With a small group there might be time to let everyone have a go at giving the whole presentation, which only takes about two minutes. Make it clear, however, that the objective is not just to read out the information clearly – after all, everyone has heard it at least once already.The aim is to put as much feeling into the delivery as possible by pausing, stressing important words, speeding up and slowing down your speech and raising and lowering your voice for effect. The words given at the bottom of the page should help in achieving this goal. With a larger group do team presentations with two or three speakers giving alternate pieces of information. Good presentations (however brief) are not about being clear; they are about making an impression. Have fun trying out different techniques. Page 40 Business Metaphors A lot of business English is actually highly metaphorical. We talk about money being channelled or poured into projects; resources being tapped or pooled; markets being flooded, saturated or awash with money; business flourishing as money is ploughed back into the economy; companies being floated on the stock exchange or going under and sinking without trace. The field of Sales and Marketing is no exception to this.War metaphors feature most frequently.The language in this exercise is mostly for passive recognition, but encourage learners to collect one or two colourful expressions for their own use too. Although idioms occasionally sound silly in the mouths of non-native speakers, a small amount of figurative language allows something of the speaker’s personality to show through. To introduce learners to the concept of metaphor, try a simple one first on the board. A good basic one is time is money. Give the example of save time / save money, and ask learners if they can come up with any others. Ask if they have similar expressions in their mother tongue(s) and further raise awareness, and then carry on with the activity. Unit 4 • Brand Management NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:00 Page 15 Page 42 Fluency Work Product Development (60-70 minutes) Divide your class into small product development groups with two or three members in each group. Give them 30-40 minutes to work on their presentations. As well as completing the notes in the book, they may want to prepare extra visuals to help promote their idea: packaging designs, pie charts showing market sectors etc. With weaker groups, insist that the technical parts of their presentation are written down clearly for reading aloud, so that they only have to improvise between written sections. Language feedback should focus on the persuasiveness of the speakers and more attention be paid to clarity and delivery than to accuracy. Take a vote on the best idea at the end of the activity. 5 U N I T If you are short of time Do the Language Focus activities on pages 38 and 39 in class. Set the rest for homework. Ask your learners to write a short product development proposal instead of doing a presentation. Let them finish this off at home and read it out in the next lesson. Prices and Commodities Text If the Price is Right ... : the factors that determine the price of goods and services are alarmingly unpredictable Language Focus Keywords: price, trade, profit, compete Word partnerships: business words, fixed expressions in the context of price and money Link words The language of trends and developments Discussion Topics Bargaining, profit margins, critical business indicators, factors influencing pricing policy, taxes and subsidies Fluency Work Case Study: Sumitomo Bank: the world of commodity trading General Notes Pricing is one of the magic arts of business. So many factors influence it that it makes virtually no sense at all to talk about what a thing is worth. And the article in this unit will be of interest to anyone who has wondered why a Swatch is actually cheaper in London than in Lausanne. Learners with some involvement in the export of goods will have a lot to say about trade barriers, import taxes and tariffs. Marketing people will be familiar with pricing as one of the most important of the so-called four Ps (product, price, place, promotion). Almost everyone will have some opinion on the comparative cost of living in different countries. If you are working with a multi-national group, try making a list of basic household items and one or two luxury items as well.What would your learners expect to pay for them in their country? Do some rough exchange rate calculations.Who is getting the best deal overall? Who is worst off? Page 43 Pre-Reading Value for Money Write price in a bubble in the middle of the board. Ask your learners to come up with words and expressions they associate with price and write them up on the board too, organising them in different categories.Try to elicit word partnerships like price cut, price rise, competitive prices; derived words like pricing and pricey; compounds like price-sensitive and price-conscious; as well as related concepts like value, worth and affordability. Suggest a few common expressions: to price yourself out of the market, at a price you can afford. Give your learners a minute or so to read the first part of the text (up to ‘Whatever the market will stand’). How would they define price? Give them another minute or two to work in pairs and come up with a neat definition. Add these to the diagram on your board. Now look at the quotations on page 43.Which view do they share? Question Lord Rayner’s comment. Can you ever make too much money in business? Unit 5 • Prices and Commodities 15 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:00 Page 16 Page 45 Post-Reading Recall When you do the feedback for this task, ask your learners to back up their answers by referring to the article (‘It said that ...’, ‘The article talked about ...’, ‘It mentioned something about ...’) Page 46 Language Focus Word Partnerships 1 You can do this timed word search competitively if you like.The first team to finish with all word partnerships correct is the winner. Alternatively, see how many of the partnerships your learners can remember without referring back to the article. Finally, ask your learners how many other word partnerships they can make using the words in the first column on their list.The chances are they will soon realise that very general words like profit, product and market will partner up with many other words, whereas with more specific words like borderless, luxury and niche you can almost guarantee that Europe, goods/items and market will follow.What lesson can they learn from this about recording useful language? Page 46 Cheap or Expensive? Add your class’s four favourite expressions to the diagram about price suggested in the Pre-Reading note for page 43. Page 47 Money Expressions Ask the class to add more expressions. Page 48 Word Partnerships 4 Put your learners into pairs and get them to prepare their summaries on paper first.They may want to change the order of the sentences and will certainly need some link words to connect up the facts.Those in the Coursebook are only suggestions. Exchange summaries for peer correction or, if you have an OHP, ask your learners to write their summaries onto transparencies and go through them in class. Concentrate on how well they have sequenced and linked the information. Page 49 Trends 1 and 2 As a follow-up activity, do a visualisation drill. Read out some of the trend verbs and ask your learners to picture the curve in their mind’s eye. If they see nothing, let them look back at their books.Then read out the trend verbs again, but this time ask them to trace the curve with their finger. Allow a second or two for some confusion, hilarity and changing of minds. Now trace the curves with your own finger or draw them on a piece of paper and get your learners to shout out any trend verbs they can recall. 16 The language of change and development is particularly rich, and most useful when you have not got a graph to show people, rather than the other way round! It is not important for learners to actively use very many of these terms themselves, but they should have some idea of their use.You could ask them: How many of the verbs are irregular? eg. rise-rose-risen. What is the pronunciation of the -ed ending on the regular ones? eg. plunged, dropped, plummeted. How many of the verbs are also nouns? eg. a rise, a fall, a decline. How many can be transformed into nouns? eg. fluctuation, escalation. How many of the verbs are usually good news? eg. recover, bounce back. How many of the verbs are usually bad news? eg. slump, crash. Get learners to chart their energy levels during the day or the high and low points of their careers and dictate the resultant graphs to a partner. Go back to your board and wipe off part of the price phrases and expressions you have built up during the lesson. See if your learners can recall them later. Page 50 Fluency Work Case Study: Sumitomo Bank (60-90 minutes) This activity is intended to recycle a lot of the language of trends in the context of a game which you can clearly succeed or fail at. In that sense there is a strong element of competition and risk, and the game may not be suitable for all groups. Put your class into commodity brokerage teams of two or three.They each have US$100,000,000 to speculate with and, at the beginning, no holdings in any of the commodities. Ask learners to copy the chart on page 50. Learners will hear information updates at regular intervals on the audio. At the first update they have ten minutes to decide what to buy on the basis of the recommendations they received. Make it clear to them that not all the recommendations will be accurate, but that there is a pattern to the good ones which will become apparent. Play the next information update, quoting the new prices of each commodity.The teams have another ten minutes to adjust the value of their holdings and decide what to buy, sell and hold. Repeat this procedure for the nine rounds of the game, or as many rounds as you have time to complete. At the end of the game get the teams to work out the current value of their holdings and add on any remaining unspent cash.The team with the greatest assets wins. As a follow-up you could get teams to draft a letter to the client whose money they were investing, explaining how their investment is doing and making any necessary excuses! Career Management NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:02 Page 17 Teachers’ Tips: The pattern for gold is volatile: up, up, down, down, up, up, down, down. The pattern for silver is from fluctuation to boom: down, stable, down, up, up, up, up, up. The pattern for copper is volatile: down, up, down, up, down, up, down, up. The pattern for tin is unpredictable: stable, stable, stable, down, stable, up, up, down. The pattern for coffee is steadily upward: stable, up, up, stable, up, stable, stable, up. The pattern for sugar is from slump to recovery: down, down, down, down, up, up, up, up. The pattern for oil is volatile: down, up, down, up, up, up, down, down. If you can see a group is in real trouble, you could try passing them some ‘inside information’: the best shortterm investment is gold; oil is a big earner if you sell before the bubble bursts; long-term the big money is to be made on silver and coffee. 6 U N I T Warning This activity involves a lot of figure work, so calculators are a must. Competitive classes will enjoy seeing how they shape up against the opposition, but people who get bogged down with numbers will tire quickly of keeping accounts. In this case skip the activity altogether. If you are short of time Do the Language Focus work on page 46, Word Partnerships 4 on page 48 and Trends 1 on page 49 in class. Set the rest for homework. Cut the Case Study down to four rounds. Corporate Entertaining Text Looking After the Twenty Percent: Is corporate entertaining just a form of bribery or is it a legitimate part of a company’s overall marketing effort? Language Focus Word partnerships in the context of corporate entertaining Describing food and drink Expressions with deal Discussion Topics Above-the-line and below-the-line marketing, corporate gift-giving, wining and dining clients, the business lunch Fluency Work Mixing Business and Pleasure: a business meal with a foreign host General Notes Most executives are at some point involved in the business of socialising with clients and colleagues, whether it be wining and dining a potential customer at a top-class restaurant or looking after an important visitor for the afternoon. In some cultures sociability is of paramount importance and virtually all important business is done on a social level. But no matter what culture you are from, being ‘nice’ to people who are important to your business brings its own linguistic demands, and it is frequently in this grey area between small talk and talking business that learners of business English feel least confident. This unit introduces learners to some of the language they will need in the most commonly encountered social English situation: taking a client out to lunch or dinner. The article in this unit is more light-hearted than in most of the others, but sets the scene in a fairly controversial manner. If you teach Japanese learners or learners who do business with the Japanese, they will no doubt be able to tell you why spending 40 billion pounds on corporate entertaining actually makes a lot of sense! Page 51 Pre-Reading What’s your price? Find out how much eating out on business your learners do and whether they enjoy it or not. Most people don’t (or, at least, pretend not to). Ask them how difficult it is finding things to talk about after the first twenty minutes. Read out the short questionnaire, What’s your Price?, to your group whilst they follow in their books and say what they would do. Ask them who they think spends the most money on corporate entertaining. Page 53 Post-Reading Expand When you do the feedback for this task, ask your learners to back up their answers by referring to the article (‘It said that ...’, ‘That referred to ...’, ‘That was when it was talking about ...’) Unit 6 • Corporate Entertaining 17 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:02 Page 18 Page 55 Describing Food Page 56 Spoken English You could do this exercise as a quick guessing game. Get your learners to close their books, but give them the list of nouns. Divide them into two teams. Read out each set of words slowly, pausing after each word.The first team to correctly guess the nouns which will partner all the other words wins a point. You can play the same game with other social English topics eg. holidays If you are working in a school or college where you can leave things displayed in the classroom, keep a collection of social English fixed expressions in view. Remember to update the list from time to time. pleasant bumpy smooth terrible long-haul FLIGHT quiet family-run comfortable seafront four-star HOTEL comfortable spacious dark double twin-bedded ROOM fabulous miserable disappointing dull hot WEATHER traditional top-class Indian fish fast-food RESTAURANT wonderful strange spicy inedible delicious FOOD lousy excellent poor first-class slow SERVICE reasonable ridiculous silly inflated bargain PRICES If you are working with a multi-national group, let them produce menus typical of their respective countries written in their own language. If culturally appropriate, a short wine list could be included. Asian and Arab learners should use the Roman alphabet but not translate. If your group is monolingual but small, then you could consider playing the client yourself with each of them in turn. Otherwise, a certain amount of roleplaying ‘the foreigner’ will be unavoidable. If you have time, do a dry-run with describing food using the expressions listed in the Coursebook before you launch into the full role-play. At the feedback stage you might like to draw your learners’ attention to certain features of social English which would have helped them in the role-play: introducing a topic of conversation: About this contract ... changing the topic of conversation: Anyway, shall we order? picking up a topic where you left off: So, you used to work in Prague ... asking for permission: I’ll just see if our table’s ready. showing degrees of interest: Have you? You have? You haven’t! polite noises: Uh-huh. Ah-hah. Mmm. Right. Oh, yeah. word order: Can you help me, please? Please, help yourself. repetition: So, it was very difficult to know what to do. Very difficult, yeah. You may also want to point out how consistently contracting verbs, far from being the icing on the cake, is a fundamental part of conversational English if you want to create rapport. Compare: I’ll help you. with I will help you. As a follow-up, try describing to your class a fabulous / disastrous meal or holiday you have had. Deliberately stumble when you come to word partnerships you would like them to supply you with: Teacher: So, anyway, the wine they’d bought us was much too sweet and we prefer it er ... Learner: Dry? Teacher: Well, no, not quite dry but er ... Learner: Medium? Teacher Yes, exactly.We prefer a medium white wine ... Page 57 Fluency Work Mixing Business and Pleasure (30-50 minutes) It’s the best restaurant in Lyon. with It is the best restaurant in Lyon. We mustn’t be late. with We must not be late. If you are short of time Do Describing Food on page 57 and the Language Focus work on page 56 in class. Set the rest for homework. Get your learners to prepare for the roleplay at home and do it in the next lesson. 18 Unit 6 • Corporate Entertaining NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:02 Page 19 Telephoning Skills The Language of Telephoning Page 59 Key Language 1 Listening content Three different types of business-oriented telephone calls: contact, information and appointment Key language Useful telephone expressions Telephone language question starters and their collocates Skills practice Learners practise making different types of business calls in a role play, using the language studied in the unit Put learners in pairs to have them try and recall from memory how to fill in the blanks, then play the listening again to check learners’ answers. It is worthwhile to do a little pronunciation work here, using drills for example, in order to help learners commit these expressions to memory. Key Language 2 With the Coursebooks closed, start by writing the stem May I…? on the board and eliciting some questions that could come from that stem in a business telephone call situation.Then put learners in pairs to work out the rest. Page 60 Making Business Calls General Notes Telephoning in a second language is one of the most difficult functions to perform, mostly due to the acoustic and visual restrictions imposed by the telephone itself.The pedagogical advantage business telephone situations have over more social ones is that a business telephone call is a primarily transactional language situation, and a social call will be mostly interactional. Transactional language situations, such as a restaurant situation, a post office situation, exchanging e-mail addresses and so on, are advantageous from a teaching standpoint in that they are more predictable situations. The aim of this skills unit, then, is to try and make the most of that fact and give learners the tools to be able to prepare themselves for highly probable business telephone situations. Telephoning is also a language function which has a high surrender value to learners, in that they feel it is immediately ‘useable’ language, regardless of their grammatical competence or station in the company (remember that it is often the people on the lower end of the corporate ladder who will be picking the phone up first!). In other words, it won’t take much to convince your learners that this is a useful unit of the book. Get learners to read each case study and make the appropriate calls, taking turns for each situation. There is not much you can do about getting around the artificial nature of making a mock telephone call in a classroom. Short of getting learners to bring cellular telephones to class to call each other, there is not much to be done.There are some limited if somewhat creative ways, however, you can manipulate the physical environment of the activity, such as putting learners back-to-back to approximate the lack of visual information in a telephone conversation, playing loud music to simulate the interference one gets when talking on the phone, and even experimenting – space allowing – with putting a physical barrier between learners, such as a door or other thin wall. In any case, if the activity is treated as serious telephone training, then learners should appreciate the value of the exercise. Page 59 Pre-Listening Language Focus Everyone seems to have some complaint about telephoning, especially in service-encounter and other commercial contexts. If you have a weaker group and you see they have more to say than they are immediately capable of, you can allow for some discussion in the learners’ L1 (in a monolingual setting, of course), attempting to encourage and inject English equivalents where relevant and useful. Page 59 Listening Ask the question: Do you have telephone situations like these in (Brazil)? You may want to play the listening more than once. Te l e p h o n i n g S k i l l s 19 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 7 U N I T 19:02 Page 20 Innovation Text Bright Ideas/The Lateral Thinker:What are the optimum conditions for creativity in business and can creativity be learnt? Language Focus Word partnerships with: research, problems, ideas Business phrases with make and do Adverbs Discussion Topics Creativity in business, breakthroughs and backfires, dealing with problems at work, responding to change and new ideas Fluency Work Brainstorming: defining, reformulating and solving problems General Notes The two articles in this unit each operate on two separate levels. On a general level, they are about fostering creativity in all areas of business and are, therefore, applicable to anyone who has to look for creative solutions to the problems they encounter at work. But, more specifically, the articles investigate the distinction between creativity and innovation, and mention the importance placed on creative strategy in some of the world’s best-known hi-tech companies. Learners who work in R&D or new product development will probably have something to say about researching and protecting new ideas.You might raise the question of patents and intellectual copyright. Except in the world of science, can you really copyright an idea? In the pharmaceuticals industry, for example, patents often only run for ten years, and by the time lab and clinical trials have been completed, the patent has often just about expired. Learners with mixed business backgrounds will probably be more interested in discussing creativity in general terms. Is creativity measurable? And can you learn how to be more creative? What problems in your own job could be tackled by looking at things another way? Page 61 Pre-Reading How Creative Are You? Draw the diagram on the board and paraphrase the instructions in your own words. Give everyone a couple of minutes to work out a solution if they have not seen the puzzle already. Find out whether they think such creative intelligence tests really prove anything. See if anyone knows any similar puzzles. Here are two possible solutions: 20 This unit is different from the others in that it contains two texts rather than one.Your class should work in two groups on different texts.There is a good case here for using the recording, since each group can then listen to the tape or CD together, pause it and take notes, working as a team. Reading different texts is a reasonable alternative, but a more solitary activity. If you do not have access to two rooms and two cassette players, send one group out of the room to work on the activities on page 65, whilst the other group listens to The Bright Ideas article.Then change, so that the first group comes back into the classroom to listen to The Lateral Thinker and the second group do page 65. Page 63 Post-Reading Summary If you are short of time, skip stage 1, but make sure you do stage 4, either by playing the recording or simply referring your learners to the text. Page 64 Language Focus Word Partnerships 1 Draw your learners’ attention to the fact that most of the sentences in the presentation extract are split in the middle of a useful word partnership: fail to see an opportunity, create a climate for creativity, face difficulties, take advantage of etc. As a follow-up activity, get pairs to do a collaborative presentation, where one reads out the sentence beginnings and the other reads the ends.They will do this much better if they underline the stressed words and the pauses first. Page 65 Word Partnerships 2 As a follow-up activity, you could prepare one of the word partnership card games described on page 56. Page 66 Word Partnerships 4 The language practised in this exercise needs to be automatic. If you have to think about whether it is make or do a mistake, you may as well say the first one that comes into your head. Everyone will know what you mean. So, to promote spontaneity, try a Total Physical Response drill. Put a sign up on one wall of the classroom reading MAKE, and another on the opposite wall reading DO.Then read out the nouns in the list one by one. Learners have to point to MAKE or DO depending on which verb collocates with the noun you read out.They point to both if it collocates with both. Start off the drill slowly and gather speed.You can use this technique with any language area where a straight choice has to be made: gerund v infinitive, past simple v past perfect, separable v inseparable phrasal verbs, etc. Unit 7 • Innovation NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:02 Page 21 Page 68 Brainstorm (20-30 minutes) This activity is actually used on advertising courses to test creative thinking power.The objective is to come up with as many ideas as you can, silly or sensible, within a ten-minute time limit, and then present your best one. Conventional ideas include: children’s building blocks (paint in different colours), dice (paint dots on), shop display stands (for small items like jewellery), drinks coolers (fill with water and freeze), promotional paperweights (fill with sand and print company logo on), paper clip holders (cut in half to make two), earrings (back to the sixties), decorative mobiles (wire together and hang from ceiling). More imaginative ideas include: fishermen’s floats (camouflaged as ice-cubes), ‘worry cubes’ (for fiddling with when you’re nervous), executive decision-maker (print Go ahead, No way, I’ll think about it,Time for 8 U N I T another coffee, Not my responsibility and You’re fired! on the six sides), work of art (put into bin liners and dump outside the Tate Gallery). If you are short of time Just read one of the texts in class. Do Word Partnerships 2 on page 65, Word Partnerships 4 on page 66 and Problem-Solving and Idea Killers on page 67. Set the rest for homework. Do the Brainstorm activity as a class. Public Relations Text True Lies: the vital role public relations plays in corporate image management Language Focus Word partnerships in the context of recommendations, PR crises, key words for mission statements Expressions with image Word grammar: communicate, public, persuasion, reputation Discussion Topics mock public relations crises, addressing questions as in a press conference Fluency Work Case Study: Intel in Trouble: holding a crisis meeting General Notes Especially for people with little experience in the business world, the idea of what public relations involves may be somewhat alien. For this reason it might be a good idea to come to class informed regarding recent relevant corporate scandals and PR crises in the country in which you are teaching, as examples that are ‘closer to home’ may help clarify the meaning. Even more illustrative would be if you actually have someone who works in PR in the class, to have that person talk a bit about what s/he does. Inevitably, any discussion regarding PR and corporate scandals will lead to talk about business ethics, which should be encouraged. If you are teaching in a multinational environment, this could indeed make for some very interesting conversation, as what constitutes ‘ethical’ in one culture may vastly differ from the criteria another culture uses to judge this. Page 69 Pre-Reading The Power of the Media You can use the headlines in the book, but if you can gather some ‘authentic’ material from actual newspapers or even electronic media, learners may find the activity all the more involving. It would be OK to even use headlines in the learners’ L1 (if you are working in a mono-lingual classroom), since the actual production phase of the activity can be done in English, regardless. Page 71 Post-Reading Crosschecking When you do the feedback for this task, ask your learners to back up their answers by referring to the article (‘It says here that ...’ ‘It talks about ... .’). Page 72 Language Focus Word Partnerships 1 An alternate approach to the one suggested in the book is to play the PR officer’s recommendations first just once, and then do one of the following: Play the listening once more and pause at each first component Unit 8 • Public Relations 21 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:02 Page 22 of a two-part collocation (i.e. press – stop – release…) and have the learners complete the word partnership aloud, or, perhaps more manageable, do the same activity but reading the passage (in order) out loud with the Coursebooks closed. One element that is especially crucial to the success of this activity are the ‘further details’ about each crisis that each learner is supposed to invent.This may prove to be somewhat of a challenge to some learners so your facilitation may be required. Page 74 Do-it-yourself Vision Maker This activity is designed to work with micro word partnerships in order to build a larger sentence with a specific message. It is important, therefore, that you add a reporting phase or other kind of whole-class phase in order to allow learners to hear what other classmates came up with, reinforcing the notion that the lexical items featured in the activity are worth committing to memory for their generative value. U N I T Draw learners’ attention to the follow-up questions first, or write them up on the board. Following the listening, elicit the answers to the questions from the learners. Depending on the dynamics of your group and the nationalities involved, you may encourage different levels of hostility during the meeting. Remind the ‘Edelman PR consultants’ to refer to Making Recommendations on page 72 for useful language during the production phase of the activity. If you are short of time Do the Language Focus activities on page 72, the Vision Maker exercise on page 74 and Word Partnerships 3 and Word Grammar on page 75 in class, and leave the rest for homework. On the Fluency activity, you can reduce items on the agenda and leave out the follow-up listening. Cultural Awareness Text Boardroom Culture Clash: the advantages and disadvantages of doing business across cultural frontiers Language Focus Word partnerships business verbs and nouns Business grammar: negotiations, diplomacy multi-word adjectives Discussion Topics Cultural aspects of conducting meetings and prioritising business issues Meetings with native speakers of English Fluency Work The Cultural Awareness Game: creating business solutions in a multi-national environment General Notes This unit capitalises on both the preconceptions and actual experiences of your class concerning the way business is done in other cultures. And even learners who as yet do little business with foreigners, will no 22 Make sure learners understand that they are to choose only one verb to fill in each blank in sentences 1 to 6. Page 76 Fluency Work Case Study: Intel in Trouble Page 73 Discuss 9 Page 75 Word Partnerships 3 doubt display some degree of prejudice (we all do), which will serve as a starting point. If you have a class who do business with a particular nationality, you might concentrate your discussion on that. Do not forget to ask your learners how they think their foreign counterparts view them. Cross-cultural awareness is, of course, a huge and complicated area.The article in this unit can really only act as a catalyst to further discussion and restricts itself to behaviour in meetings. But if your class are interested, there are many websites with more on the subject, including the American Chamber of Commerce and The Wall Street Journal. Page 77 Pre-Reading Your Preconceptions Get your learners to work alone on this for a few minutes.They should write down the names of nationalities next to the characteristics they associate with them.They may associate more than one nationality with some of the characteristics, and one with others.Then get them to pair up with a partner and share their views. Finally, bring them together as a group. Encourage them to support their opinions and, where possible, give concrete examples from their own experience. Unit 9 • Cultural Awareness NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:02 Page 23 Page 79 Post-Reading Crosschecking When you do the feedback for this task, ask your learners to back up their answers by referring to the article (‘It says here that ...’, ‘It talks about ... .’). Page 80 Language Focus Word Partnerships 1 You can do this timed word search competitively if you like.The first team to finish with all word partnerships correct is the winner. Alternatively, see how many of the partnerships your learners can remember without referring back to the article. Finally, ask your learners how many other word partnerships they can make using the words in the first column on their list.The chances are they will soon realise that very general words like hold, question and get will partner up with many other words, whereas with more specific words like withdraw, diffuse and pool they may not be able to think of any.What lesson can they learn from this about keywords in business? Page 81-2 Business Grammar 1 and 2 When teaching the language of meetings, it is easy to confuse learners by overloading them with functional exponents of the ‘If I could just come in here’ variety. A certain number of such expressions can, of course, be very useful in a meeting, but we have probably all had experience of teaching far too many of these, only to find that our learners never use them! What is much more useful to learners of business English is a system for making direct remarks diplomatic without losing any of their force: a grammar of meetings, in fact; with a generative pattern which people can learn. And that is what this page presents. As well as the language points mentioned in Business Grammar 2, you might draw your learners’ attention to the use of the past continuous in examples f and h. We hoped to finalise the deal today suggests that we have given up hoping and closes the door on further negotiation. We were hoping to finalise the deal today implies we are still hoping and that finalisation today is still a possibility. Words learners often over-use in meetings, which would be better avoided or rephrased include: must, mustn’t, should, shouldn’t, can’t and impossible. Page 82 Business Grammar 3 As a follow-up to this exercise, you could prepare a set of cards with similar direct remarks on them and words in brackets to help your learners reformulate them.Write correct reformulations on the back of each card. A number of competitive games can then be played using the cards.Turn them over in rapid succession and give teams a five second time limit in which to rephrase the sentences on them. Alternatively, spread out all the cards and get your learners to bet on the ones they are confident they can reformulate immediately. Pages 83-4 Fluency Work The Cultural Awareness Game (60 minutes plus preparation at home) The role-play in this unit is designed to simulate some of the psychological effects of doing business across cultures and, if you decide to do the full version, will require as much time to set up as to carry out. Adequate preparation is a crucial part of the activity itself. Step one is to divide your class into two groups (four, if you have a very large group) and give them information about the company they ‘work for’: a computer peripherals firm with falling sales. The scenario is very simple, and your learners should have little difficulty coming up with ideas for reversing the downward trend in sales. Get them to compile a list of their ideas and prioritise the best.This stage of the activity should only take 15 to 20 minutes. Now refer your learners to the Cultural Background Notes on pages 83 and 84. Each group should read different notes (if you have four groups, two read one text and two the other). Give them plenty of time to do this (about twenty minutes) and explain any words or expressions they do not know. If you can, keep the groups apart at this stage to prevent them overhearing each others’ discussions. As the acculturisation process takes a little time it is a good idea to break off the lesson at this point and let your learners re-read their notes at home. In the next lesson put your class back into the same groups as before and let them review the ideas they came up with in the previous lesson for boosting sales. As far as possible, they should do this ‘in role’. Allow for some confusion and hilarity. Now bring groups A and B together to hold the final problem-solving session.Whilst it is unlikely that people will behave exactly as their notes briefed them, plenty of culture clash will ensue, which they will have to deal with. If you have a large class and four groups, conduct two simultaneous problem-solving sessions. If the meeting shows no signs of ending, after about half an hour slip one of the leaders an urgent message requiring their immediate presence elsewhere. In the debriefing session deal first with the result of the meeting.Were any final decisions reached about how to promote sales? Then turn to the question of cultural differences.Without looking at the other group’s notes, what can people say about the way they behaved? How did they modify their own behaviour? How did they find the experience of being ‘in the dark’, not knowing quite what to expect next? How could they have found out sooner exactly who they were dealing with? Finally, do any necessary language feedback. If you want to make this activity shorter and simpler, you can, of course, easily reduce the amount of cultural background information. Cut points 4, 5 and 7. If you are short of time Do Word Partnerships 2 on page 80 and the Business Grammar work on pages 81-2 in class. Set the rest for homework. Do the simplified version of The Cultural Awareness Game. Unit 9 • Cultural Awareness 23 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:02 Page 24 Presentation Skills Language of Presentations Page 85 Pre-Listening Listening content An extract of the beginning of a presentation meant to inform and persuade an audience, including a brief introduction, summary of the talk’s structure and reference to visual aids Key Language Useful expressions for structuring and delivering a presentation Skills practice Developing a sales presentation to persuade major airlines to buy into a new idea for in-flight service General Notes The function of delivering a presentation is not unlike that of participating in a meeting in that in both cases one needs to capture and sustain the attention of an audience.The most significant difference is that a speaker giving a presentation has to capture and sustain that attention for a longer period of time, and, in general, there will be no sort of dialogue going on, and so all discourse will be coming from that person. The idea of being the centre of attention and, on top of that, being forced to speak coherently in front of an audience can truly frighten some people. For this reason, the presentation at the end of this unit has been designed to give each learner as much support and comfort as possible. Learners will be working in teams, and presentations will be a maximum of five minutes. Still, those five minutes can be terrifying for a learner. It is important, therefore, to try and identify any and all learners who might really be deeply traumatised by speaking in front of an audience and intervene where appropriate. Once identified – and without singling them out – you can make things easier on the learner by making them feel as comfortable as possible with the language itself, so as to boost their confidence as much as possible when it comes time to speak. You can also volunteer to go over their presentation with them and even let them try it out on you as if you were a one-person audience. However, if you have exhausted all the tricks you know for helping a learner feel comfortable and confident and s/he still seems as though s/he will be seriously troubled by the exercise, then by all means forego their participation and arrange some other means for them to demonstrate their proficiency in the language focused on in this unit. I have personally witnessed learners exit a classroom to never return upon a teacher’s insistence that they carry on with a presentation against their will. 24 This is an activity to allow learners to air their fears of speaking in public and to begin to approach the topic. It is also designed to allow for people in the class who may not yet be in a professional situation in their lives with a need to prepare for a presentation. In these cases it is useful to think of the other non-conventional forms of public speaking which can informally involve an audience of merely one.What is important is to be able to organise thoughts and ideas and bring them across in an effective way to whomever may be listening. Listening Learners listen to the speech, specifically for what the definition of a ‘tween’ is.You can encourage them to imagine they are actually in an auditorium at an important international conference, and have them take notes. Learners answer the true/false questions in pairs, and listen to the recording once more if necessary. Key Language Learners work in pairs or small groups to work out the most logical sequence to the expressions. Listen to the recording again for answers. Page 86 Case Study After getting learners in pairs to focus on the vocabulary used to talk about trends, tell them what the situation is and what their role will be, and have them work out a SWOT analysis in pairs or trios.Then draw up the SWOT chart on the board and elicit some points from the class. Put learners back into pairs/trios and have them study the data to prepare the presentation. It is useful at this stage to put some of the key language focused on in this unit on the board to serve as a constant reminder and encouragement to use the expressions. Presentation Skills NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 10 U N I T 19:02 Page 25 Global Advertising Text Going Global: how the world’s biggest advertisers have responded to the increasing globalisation of markets Language Focus Expressions with commercial Word partnerships in the context of advertising Sentence starters for presentations Adverbs of degree Word grammar: forming verbs with -ize / -ise Discussion Topics Attributes of market leaders, branding for different countries Fluency Work Case Study: British Airways—What can you do as an ad agency to keep this company competitive in the 21st century? General Notes This unit focuses on the marketing strategies of some of the world’s biggest companies. Particular reference is made to global commercials: advertisements which cross cultural boundaries and work equally well in different countries. All the companies and brand names featured in the article are well-known: Coca-Cola, BA, Marlboro, IBM, Apple, Nike. And your learners are unlikely to be unfamiliar with the Marlboro cowboy, the Apple apple and the Nike ‘swoosh’. Although global advertising campaigns may be updated over the years, the overall strategy and corporate image of the companies who run them usually remain the same. So the topic has fairly general appeal and will not date and this unit also gives learners a chance to talk about the national or international profile of their own companies in very general terms. If you are teaching a group with a specific interest in marketing or advertising, you might like to explore some of the main issues raised by the article: market segmentation, the overall effectiveness of advertising and the idea that ‘image outsells product’. Other global advertisers you could mention in your discussion include Ford, Benetton, Nestlé, Microsoft and Motorola. If, on the other hand, your group have mixed business interests, you could concentrate instead on the cultural question of whether consumers in different countries really have that much in common. If your learners have little experience of doing business with other cultures, then direct the conversation towards good and bad TV advertisements – most people have an opinion. If you can, bring a selection of press or TV advertisements into class to promote further discussion. Ideally, include ads for some of the companies featured in the article.There is a photocopiable worksheet on page 42 which you can use with any TV commercial. Page 87 Pre-Reading The Persuaders Put learners into small groups to read through the task and think about the questions regarding effective/memorable ad campaigns. If you can, ask them to bring examples of their own companies’ ads or promotional material to class to extend and personalise the discussion. Page 89 Post-Reading Crosschecking When you do the feedback for this task, ask your learners to back up their answers by referring to the article (‘It says here that ...’, ‘It talks about ... .’) Page 90 Language Focus Word Partnerships 2 As a follow-up activity, you could prepare one of the word partnership card games described on page 56. Page 90 Word Partnerships 3 As a follow-up activity, read out the text pausing for your group to call out the missing words. Stop reading if they get it wrong and wait for self-correction. Page 91 Word Partnerships 4 As a follow-up activity, get pairs to do a collaborative presentation, where one reads out the sentence beginnings and the other reads the ends.They will do this much better if they underline the stressed words and the pauses first. Page 91 Quotes If you are working in a school or college, it can be fun to collect business quotes with the groups you teach and display them in the classroom. Many quotes contain useful idioms and fixed expressions. Remember to update the collection periodically and get learners to contribute some quotes of their own. Page 92 Word Grammar As a follow-up activity, try a prompt-drill, where the learners have to provide you with the word you need: Teacher: Utilities should be state-owned. Learner: You mean they should be nationalised? Teacher: Yeah. Teacher: The packaging on all our products should be the same. Learner: You mean it should be standardised? Teacher: That’s right. Teacher: Production would be smoother if we used computers. Learner: You mean production should be computerised? Teacher: Uh-huh. Unit 10 • Global Advertising 25 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:02 Page 26 Page 93 Discuss If you are short of time A short activity to familiarise learners with some of the adjectives commonly used to describe product image. Concentrate on the images they pick up on. Do not spend too much time on the words they don’t know. Do the Language Focus exercises on page 90 and Word Partnerships 4 on page 91 in class. Set the rest for homework. Just do one case study or the last discussion activity. Page 94 Fluency Work Case Study (30-40 minutes) After discussing the questions posed at the end of the study, divide the class into groups and ask each group to prepare for the presentation. If you prefer, you can read the case study out instead.This then allows your class to interrupt you for clarification and repetition. While each group is making its presentation, the rest of the class will be the ‘clients’. Remind learners to make use of the expressions for presentations in Word Partnerships 4 on page 91. 11 U N I T Management Styles Text She’s the Boss: the world’s corporations are still dominated by men, but more and more successful entrepreneurs are turning out to be women Language Focus Expressions with company, staff Word partnerships in the context of company organisation and management Word grammar negative adjectival prefixes un-, in-, im-, ir-, disBusiness grammar: prepositional phrases Discussion Topics Male and female oriented management styles, company organisation, ratio of male to female employees Fluency Work Follow-up Letter: rejection; four recruitment dilemmas where practical considerations and prejudice both play a part General Notes Do women make better managers than men? Venture capitalists would seem to think so. Since 1990 the number of women being given the financial backing to set up in business has grown twice as fast as the number of men. And, statistically speaking, a woman is more likely to succeed in a new business than a man. Why, then, are there so few women running the world’s corporations? It is a good question. As a teacher of business English, 26 you may observe that most of your learners are men. That is because at middle and senior management level three out of every five managers are men. And that is just the figure for Europe. Elsewhere the prospects for female managers are even worse. This unit questions whether the disproportionately low number of female executives is just a case of discrimination, or whether women are actually better suited to being their own bosses and starting up in business for themselves. If you have a group with both men and women, there is likely to be some disagreement as to why women have traditionally found invisible barriers between themselves and the top jobs. And men, in particular, may not react favourably to the idea that, with companies being forced to become more enterprising, women may well turn out to be the managers of the future. At any rate what you will get with this unit is some lively discussion. Page 95 Pre-Reading The Same or Different? This activity pre-teaches a lot of words and expressions that will be useful later in the unit.Take the time to explain unknown terms. Learners who work in human resources or training and development will find the vocabulary of personal characteristics and behaviour particularly relevant. Page 95 Discuss At the prioritisation stage people may be surprised to find themselves more biased than they thought! Unit 11 • Management Styles NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:02 Page 27 Page 97 Post-Reading Crosschecking Page 99 Word Grammar 2 When you do the feedback for this task, ask your learners to back up their answers by referring to the article (‘It says here that ...’, ‘It talks about ... .). There is usually a best answer for each of these descriptions, but there is also room for alternatives. Capitalise on this. Discussing quite subtle differences of meaning and nuance is part of the exercise. Page 98 Language Focus Word Partnerships 2 and 3 As a follow-up, you could prepare one of the word partnership card games described on page 56. Alternatively, you could try a Total Physical Response drill. Put a sign up on one wall of the classroom reading COMPANY, and another on the opposite wall reading STAFF.Then read out the verbs and adjectives in each list in random order. Learners have to point to COMPANY or STAFF depending on which collocates with the words you read out.They point to both if they collocate with both. Start off the drill slowly and gather speed.You can use this technique with any pair of business keywords, but make sure they do not collocate with both words too often. Page 101 Fluency Work Discrimination (20-30 minutes) There are various ways you can conduct this activity. You can simply divide your class into groups to read and discuss each case and then come together to report their decisions. To speed things up, you can divide your class into four groups. Give each group one case and then bring them together to report their decisions. You can record the cases onto cassette.Your learners listen, take notes and then make their decisions. Page 102 Follow-up Letter Page 99 Word Grammar 1 The letter written in note form here is a basic framework only. Encourage your learners to add in extra details referring to the specific job in question. Your learners will remember the meaning of each adjective better if they write the names of people they know well next to the ones which best describe them. If you are short of time 12 U N I T Do Word Partnerships 1 on page 98 and all the Language Focus work on page 99 in class. Set the rest for homework. Do the fluency work as a whole class. Mergers and Acquisitions Text Greed is Good Language Focus Word partnerships: verbs and nouns in the context of acquisitions and company management Word grammar: prefixes, finance, invest, capital, negotiate Discussion Topics Globalisation Fluency Work Simulation:Takeover Battle: competing media giants their company, so the topic should be treated accordingly. Additionally, though this will probably not be the case in a business class, recent events involving the World Trade Organisation and the topic of multinational companies that seek out ‘global domination’ and the ‘neo-liberalism’ propagated by the IMF – especially if you are teaching in a developing country – can spark negative feeling in people, so be prepared for some animosity or resistance. One way to do this is to take a more neutral stance and focus on the subject as a simple fact, an inescapable reality of times in which we live. If you keep focused on that and the usefulness of the language dealt with in the unit, the class will keep to its proper role as pedagogic environment and not political forum! Page 103 Pre-Reading Let’s Stick Together General Notes This unit focuses on a subject that for some may be a sensitive issue.You may have learners who have been adversely affected by a merger or hostile takeover of Do not attempt to pre-teach the terms in the first part of the activity, as learners will be better served attempting to negotiate their meaning in pairs or small groups. Unit 12 • Mergers and Acquisitions 27 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:02 Page 28 Page 105 Post-Reading Response Encourage learners to go through the text and find a place to use each expression by putting the number of the sentence starters next to different parts in the reading where they feel they apply. Page 108 Language Focus Word Grammar 1 This will be a much more challenging task for learners whose L1 is non-Indo-European, as the Greek and Latin prefixes (anti-, mega-, pre-, ex-, etc.) will be very familiar to speakers of languages such as Spanish and Italian, for example, even to the point of being under-challenging. Though to a lesser extent, this will also hold true for the second part of the activity. If you have mixed occidental/oriental learners in class, it may be a good idea to pair them (i.e. Brazilian learner with a Japanese learner), to make it almost an information gap activity. You can play a follow-up game with the exercise by dividing the class into teams, each scoring points by giving nouns to each prefix that you shout out. You could also expand on this exercise by asking your learners to look up words in their English-English dictionaries which take the following prefixes: mono-, counter-, pseudo-, eco-, geo-, Euro-. Page 109-10 Fluency Work Simulation:Takeover Battle If learners have Internet access on school premises, encourage them to visit the web sites for good (and authentic!) first-hand information. Be sure to give learners enough time to fully discuss all the issues at length and to make allowances in physical space so as to facilitate keeping the bids secret. If you are short of time Do Word Partnerships 1 on page 106 and Word Partnerships 2 on page 107 in class and set the rest for homework. Skip part 3 of the Fluency Work on page 110. Negotiating Skills Language of Negotiating many countries, especially Latin America, the United States and Southern European countries. It is therefore useful to know with whom your learners are likely to be dealing in order to advise them accordingly. Listening content Contract negotiation in a B2B situation Key language Expressions used when negotiating Lexical grammar: expressions + gerund/infinitive Skills practice A negotiation scenario between a boss and an employee General Notes The aim of this unit is to give learners the necessary language tools in order to carry out effective negotiations. It is a good opportunity to talk about the different negotiating styles of various cultures (the article on pages 78-9 in the Coursebook has some good material on this) and how being too direct or not direct enough can adversely affect a deal – hence the importance of being able to say the right thing at the right time. On this subject, it is worth noting here that the best attempt was made at keeping the register used in the listening as neutral as possible, while still sounding as natural as possible.There is a danger of putting the other party off by using language that is too informal, yet it is just as dangerous to adopt a register that is too formal, as this will forment an air of distrust in 28 Page 111 Pre-Listening Language Focus This is an activity designed to get learners thinking about their own philosophies on negotiating. Even if a learner is not yet in a career situation that requires formal negotiation, it is important for that person to understand that negotiation is something that can occur even informally, even unplanned. For this reason, it is a good idea to brainstorm some of these less formal negotiation situations with the class before diving into the heart of the unit. Listening The first part of the listening is just the very first opening line, which learners will listen to in order to decide if George ‘sounds’ happy with the proposal already at the outset.Though very brief, this initial stage of the listening is important as it is designed to drive home the point that intonation speaks volumes in language, and so in a situation where words are as carefully chosen as in a negotiation scenario, if the intonation is off then no matter what words were chosen one can be in danger of being misinterpreted or even causing the listeners to feel offended. Point out the questions the learners will be listening for answers to during the listening, particularly the Negotiating Skills NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:02 Page 29 term bottom line as this term may not have an equivalent in the learners’ L1 and will come up again later on in this unit. Key Language If you have confidence in your group’s language abilities, a fun activity to do is to put these scrambled expressions on an OHP and have learners unscramble them out loud as a class, one by one.This reinforces the fixed nature of the expressions, helping learners understand that they are in fact chunks and need to be recalled as such. In the part where learners have to decide between using the gerund or infinitive (a. reduce the price / b. reducing the price), have learners work it out first in pairs and then check as a class.You can drill them by reading the beginning and having the learners complete each sentence, read at random, in chorus. 13 U N I T Page 112 Case Study A very ‘down-to-earth’ situation – that of a negotiation between an employee and his/her boss – was intentionally chosen here so that learners could focus more comfortably on the language dealt with in the unit and also to raise learners’ awareness as to how negotiations can occur in many different forms. Have learners first fill out both roles – boss and employee – then negotiate with different classmates, one at a time, each time choosing a different point to negotiate. It is useful here to write up the target language on the board for quick reference and a constant yet silent reminder to be mindful of the language they are meant to be using in order to carry out the negotiations. Business and the Environment Text Managing the Planet: big business is responsible for most of the world’s environmental damage, but, ironically, only big business can reverse it Language Focus Word partnerships: ecology and commerce Adjectival word partnerships Business grammar: attitude verbs (modals), natural and unnatural sentences Discussion Topics The environmental problems and solutions of your own country, big business and the environment Fluency Work Business Ethics: ethical think tanks: five case studies explore the commercial and ethical issues involved in running a large multi-national corporation General Notes Nowadays people talk a lot about the greening of politics and business. But there is generally a lot more talking than greening. In many cases a dirty brown would be a more appropriate colour! For heavy industry has more or less single-handedly wrecked the planet in the last hundred years and, so far, its impact on the environment has remained largely unchecked. Some of the companies your learners work for may well be phenomenal polluters themselves and it pays to approach the topic with tact. But green is fashionable and business leaders have been quick to seize on that. Unit 13 • Making a more environmentally friendly hamburger, sells hamburgers. This unit is one of several which take a broader perspective on business. If your class has little professional experience as yet, you may want to encourage suggestions as to how the world of commerce could clean up its act. More experienced (and, therefore, more cynical?) executives will no doubt respond better to a less idealistic approach. In either case the environment is definitely a legitimate business issue. Keep a look out for the many articles which regularly appear in the papers describing some environmental disaster or other.You could give an article to each member of your group and ask them to summarise it in a subsequent lesson.There is a worksheet for news article summaries on page 58. Page 113 Pre-Reading Can Business be Green? A selection of some of the particularly shocking and dramatic pictures featured in the publicity materials of organisations like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth would be an ideal introduction to this unit. It would also elicit a lot of the target vocabulary in this prereading ranking exercise. Page 115 Post-Reading Crosschecking When you do the feedback for this task, ask your learners to back up their answers by referring to the article (‘It says here that ...’, ‘It talks about ... .’). Business and the Environment 29 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:02 Page 30 Page 116 Language Focus Word Partnerships 2 You can do this timed word search competitively if you like.The first team to finish with all word partnerships correct is the winner. Alternatively, see how many of the partnerships your learners can remember without referring back to the article. Finally, ask your learners how many other word partnerships they can make using the words in the first column on their list.With words like global, world, financial and commercial the choice of word partnerships is fairly wide.With a word like track, record seems the only possible collocation in the context of business.With a word like big, however, there are too many possibilities to be worth recording.What lesson can be learnt from this about learning word partnerships? study they read and the decision they came to. Alternatively, record the case studies onto cassette and play them to your class.They listen, take notes and then make their decision. If you prefer, read the case studies out instead.This then allows your class to interrupt you for clarification and repetition. If you are short of time Do Word Partnerships 2 on page 116 and Business Grammar 1 and 2 on pages 117 and 118 in class. Set the rest for homework. Split your class into two groups to look at one case study each, and then come together to exchange information. Page 117 Business Grammar 1 In the business English classroom it is often a good idea to approach the presentation of language in a way that is broadly compatible with business people’s natural working styles. In previous units of this book we have seen how a lot of language can be presented graphically, since business people are used to working with graphics. Here, the idea is to get learners thinking about grammatical choice in project teams and then report back their findings.You can obviously use the same technique to teach other grammar points. If you like, go through the answers confidentially with each project team and then ask the team who did best to present the target grammar to the rest of the class. Page 118 Business Grammar 2 As a follow-up activity, you could prepare a set of cards with unnatural sentences like those in the left-hand column of this exercise and ask your learners to reformulate them using a modal verb.There is a blank set of cards on page 96. Page 118 Business Grammar 3 All the fixed expressions generated in this exercise could be used in either a meeting or in everyday conversation.Though simple in meaning, some of them are extremely difficult to explain. Context is everything. Monitor your learners carefully as they write their dialogues. And when everyone has read their dialogue out, write one or two of your own up on the board to exemplify the expressions people still do not understand. Page 119-20 Fluency Work Business Ethics (50-60 minutes) If you are working with larger classes, divide them into groups and ask each group to look at a different case study.They can then regroup and explain both the case 30 Unit 13 • Business and the Environment NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 14 U N I T 19:02 Page 31 Finance and Credit Text Credit out of Control: bad debt has now reached epidemic proportions in the business sector and modern technology is actually making the situation worse Language Focus Word partnerships in the context of finance and credit Expressions of bankruptcy Expressions with money and order Business grammar: prepositions they will pay off the interest? They could let the client pay in instalments.This is a reasonable compromise, but, long-term, the chances of the whole debt being paid off are much reduced if the client really is in financial difficulty. All in all, the prospects are grim. Page 123 Post-Reading Information Check Send your learners back to the text to argue out any differences of opinion. Page 123 Interviews Discussion Topics Cross-border trade, credit card debt, dealing with foreign suppliers and customers Monitor the preparation of questions carefully or, if you prefer, collect in the questions at the end of the lesson, correct / reformulate them and hand back multiple copies in the next lesson. If you like, you could conduct the question-and-answer session competitively. Fluency Work Getting Tough: dealing with debtors: a meeting of the Finance Department to decide whose debt to call in, a follow-up letter and phone call Page 124 Language Focus Word Partnerships 1 You can make this activity more interactive by preparing sets of domino cards.There is a blank set for you to photocopy and cut out on page 00. General Notes Getting new business is one thing. Actually getting paid is another.These days the credit situation in a lot of companies has become an elaborate game of pass the parcel, where I can’t pay you your money until I get mine. And the higher the sums of money involved, the less pressure you can put on a debtor whose business you want to keep. The vicious circle of debt and credit is a particular nightmare for small-and medium-sized companies, who can often be ruined by a single bad debtor. But people in the finance and accounts departments of larger companies face the same problem daily. If your learners have ever been responsible for the negotiating and drawing up of agreements with clients, they will be familiar with the dangers of implementing penalty clauses mid-contract. If your class has less direct experience in this area of business, you might prefer to approach the topic from a cultural angle.Who are the worst debtors? Is it fair to label particular nationalities as unreliable? Page 121 Pre-Reading Urgent Action Read out the text to your class. Give them a few minutes to outline their courses of action.They could refer the matter to their legal department, but it might take years to settle and would cost a fortune. If their client goes bankrupt, they will end up with nothing anyway.They could sell off the debt to a factoring agent, but they would have to pay a substantial commission, even assuming they could find a factor willing to take on the debt.They could offer to help the client company with their cashflow difficulties, but this is unlikely to help, and the client will almost certainly refuse.They could charge interest on the debt, but if the client can’t pay their debt, what makes them think Page 125 Word Partnerships 2 As a follow-up activity, you could ask your learners to produce a 150-word description of the credit control process using all the word partnerships in this exercise. It is more fun if they draft this out together on a whiteboard.Write the completed word partnerships on cards which can be attached to the board as they use them up in their description. Page 126 Business Grammar As a follow-up activity, try paused reading. Read out the summary to your class pausing in the middle of important word partnerships or fixed expressions.Your learners have to predict the next word and write it down.You can either read out the full word partnership/expression immediately after they have written down what they think or you can let your learners check the whole text again at the end. A mixture of memory and deduction should enable them to predict most of the words correctly. eg. Most people pay for their everyday [10 seconds] items with their credit [10 seconds] card or in [10 seconds] cash and pay their domestic [10 seconds] bills by [10 seconds] cheque or direct [10 seconds] debit. Suggested pauses: 1. everyday / items, 2. credit / card, 3. in / cash, 4. domestic / bills, 5. by / cheque, 6. direct / debit, 7. valued / customer, 8. outstanding / sum, 9. agreed / deadline, 10. withdraw their / business, 11. to make matters / worse, 12. sit on your / invoice, 13. cashflow / situation, 14. in regular / instalments, 15. fall behind with their / repayments, 16. short of / cash 17. writing off half the / debt, 18. things would probably be a lot / simpler, 19. direct bank / transfer, Unit 14 • Finance and Credit 31 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:02 Page 32 20. in constant credit with their / suppliers, 21. playing the waiting / game, 22. and that would never / do, 23. until the very last / minute. Page 127 Fluency Work Getting Tough (30-40 minutes) If you are working with larger classes, divide them into groups and ask each group to look at a different client. They can then regroup, exchange information and come to a final decision about whose debt to call in. Alternatively, record the client information onto cassettes and play them to your class.They listen, take notes and then make their decision. If you prefer, read the information out instead.This then allows your class to interrupt you for clarification and repetition. 15 U N I T Point out to your learners that the notes here provide a basic framework for the letter. Depending on which debtor they have decided to target, they may want to add in specific details and alter the tone of the letter. Draw your learners’ attention to semi-fixed phrases and expressions: with regard to, on this matter, you must be aware, perhaps you could inform us, we would appreciate, we sincerely hope, I am afraid we must now insist, we shall have no alternative but to, etc. If you are short of time Do Expressions with money on page 124, Word Partnerships 3 on page 125 and Business Grammar on page 126 in class. Set the rest for homework. Cut out the information exchange stage from the Fluency Work. Economic Issues Text The Death of Economics: the greatest threat to the multi-trillion dollar world economy is the growing polarity between the haves and have-nots Language Focus Word partnerships in the context of economic issues and political speeches Word grammar: economics and politics Business grammar: describing economic situations (tense review) Abbreviations and acronyms Discussion Topics Economic situations: growth and decline, political views and beliefs: hopes, memories and regrets, honesty in politics Fluency Work Election Campaign: economic and political prospects of an imaginary country General Notes The final unit in New Business Matters brings together many of the issues and much of the target language of the previous units: employment trends, trade gaps, debt management, environmental damage, rising prices, consumerism and cheap labour. The article itself, The Death of Economics, highlights the widening rift even in the developed countries between the haves and the have-nots, and the market implications of a two-tier economy. But the unit takes a very broad perspective. And no matter what field of business they are in, your learners will have something 32 Page 128 Follow-up Letter to say about the many topics touched on in the article. As the language of politics, economics and current affairs is the particular focus of this unit, it would be an excellent idea to incorporate an authentic TV or radio broadcast into the lesson.There is a worksheet for use with news broadcasts on page 00. Page 129 Pre-Reading An Uncertain Future If sufficient interest is generated here, it is probably worth letting the pre-reading discussion run on for longer than usual.This will establish a need for a lot of the language dealt with later in the unit. Putting your learners into small groups to prepare a three-minute presentation may help them to have a better structured discussion when they come together as a class. Page 131 Post-Reading Information Check Send your learners back to the text to argue out any differences of opinion. Page 132 Language Focus Word Partnerships 1 As a follow-up activity, read out the summary, pausing for your group to call out the missing words. Stop reading if they get it wrong and wait for selfcorrection. Unit 15 • Economic Issues NBusinMattersTBK 23/12/2003 11:44 Page 33 Page 133 Current Affairs 1 Page 135 Business Grammar As follow-up activities, you could try one of a number of word partnership games: Some of the sentence completions here are more or less fixed. Others are more open. Encourage the discussion of what is possible and what is not. a. Guess the Keyword Read out each pair of verbs and get your learners to guess the key noun / noun phrase. eg. Teacher: Go into. Come out of. Learner: Recession. Teacher: Yes. Teacher: Widen. Close. Learner: The trade gap. Teacher: Yes. b. Word Partnership Tennis Learners work in pairs, learner A and learner B. First game: A serves by reading out, one by one, the word partnerships from 1-10 (nationalise industry, increase social benefits, go into recession etc.). B has to think of the opposite partnership for each one. If they can, A reads out the next word partnership. If they can’t, A gets a point and the game continues. Second game: B serves by reading out, one by one, the word partnerships from 11-20 (raise taxation, unite public opinion, bring down employment etc.). A has to think of the opposite partnership for each one. If they can, B reads out the next word partnership. If they can’t, B gets a point and the game continues. The third and fourth game are repeats of the first two with B serving the first time. c. Help the Teacher: Prepare a short talk on the political situation in your home country or the country where you are teaching. Use as many of the word partnerships in this exercise as you can. Give the talk in class but deliberately struggle for some of the words you need. Let your learners help you by supplying the missing halves of word partnerships. eg. Teacher: During their years in power the Conservative Party managed to sell a lot of industries, er, not sell exactly, but, er ... Learner: Privatise? Teacher: Yes, they privatised a lot of industries. And they also cut, er, cut, what’s the word I’m looking for, er ... Learner: Taxation? Teacher: No, not taxation. Er, yes, they did cut taxation, but, no, I mean they cut um money from people with families and single parents er ... Learner: Do you mean social benefits? Teacher: Er yes, social benefits, that’s right. Page 134 Current Affairs 2 If you like, you could expand this exercise by including some real headlines with the key nouns and verbs blanked out. Keep a collection of lexically useful newspaper headlines on display in the classroom. Page 136 Fluency Work Election Campaign (60-90 minutes) Although the party political broadcasts in this simulation are only five minutes long, you will need to allow at least 45 minutes for preparation. If you have time, get your learners to produce party name cards, rosettes, flags etc. It all helps to increase the level of rivalry and competitiveness. All the language work in this unit will be useful to your learners in preparing their speeches. But they should definitely refer to the Business Grammar exercise for the economic statistics they may need.The language in Current Affairs 1 and Word Partnerships 4 will also be particularly helpful. If you prefer, instead of using the map and economic statistics in the Coursebook, you could gradually build up the profile of your fictitious country on the board with your class.This takes quite a bit longer, but is usually more fun and introduces the target language at a more manageable pace. 1 Get one of the learners to draw a large outline of a fictitious country on the board. 2 With all the other learners, agree on the country’s topography and ask the ‘cartographer’ to mark in mountains, rivers, lakes, jungles, deserts, beaches etc. on the map. Choose an appropriate climate. 3 Locate the capital and principal cities and draw in road and rail links, airports, seaports and other aspects of the national infrastructure. 4 Ask the group to decide where to site the country’s main industries and financial centres and to agree on what the natural resources might be. 5 Now tell them that the country they have invented is in fact their country. Invite them to name it.Tell them that, sadly, their country is facing many problems – social, economic and political. Point out border hostilities with a powerful neighbouring country; perhaps terrorist flashpoints in the major cities; raging unemployment in the poor ghettoes of the inner-cities; escalating inflation everywhere; maybe an environmental disaster or two etc. 6 Counterbalance this with the positive side: a booming tourist industry; the discovery of rich oil reserves etc. 7 Ask them what political groups they imagine would exist in their country – socialist, communist, nationalist/fascist, liberal, conservative, green etc. 8 Divide up the class into political groups (it is not necessary for the learners to represent a party they in fact support in their own country – actually, it can be more fun to dabble in political extremism!). You need at least two parties.Three or more are better, with two or three members in each group. Unit 15 • Economic Issues 33 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:03 Page 34 9 The parties all work within their group to produce a political slogan, a manifesto (a brief checklist of their policies) and a more or less scripted Party Political Broadcast which is to be transmitted live on TV/radio. 10 Film/record the different parties, coloured rosettes and slogans well in evidence. Allow a little time for questions from the others. Get a larger audience in for this phase if you can. 11 Hold a swift election at the end to decide the winner. Obviously no member is permitted to vote for their own party. Make the ballot secret and keep a running total of the votes for each party as you count them to keep up the suspense. If you are short of time Do Current Affairs 2 on page 134 and Business Grammar on page 135 in class. Set the rest for homework. Get your learners to do some of the preparatory work for the simulation at home. 34 Unit 15 • Economic Issues NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:03 Page 35 Resource Files The Resource Files The formatted pages with teaching notes which follow are designed to help you make the most of this course.They are particularly useful for bringing variety to the text work, based on the articles. Copyright The formatted pages may be photocopied by individual teachers for use in their own classes.They may not be copied and bound into any other publication for whatever purpose.The copyright on these pages remains with the publisher. Any use of these pages must include the line © Heinle. Contents Resource File Resource File Resource File Resource File Resource File Resource File Resource File Resource File Resource File Resource File Resource File Resource File Resource File Resource File Resource File 1 Text Search 2 Text Comparison 3 Crosschecking 4 Commercial Break 5 Information Update 6 Business Language Awareness 7 Clarification Game 8 Point of View 9 Question and Answer Session 10 Mini-presentation 11 Lexi-cards 12 Information Gathering 13 Text Summary 14 Facts and Figures 15 Mini-report Resource Files 35 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:03 Page 36 RESOURCE FILE 1 Text Search Media: Business skills: Time: Business press / radio / television Searching text for word partnerships 10-20 minutes Rationale The usual reason for reading or listening to anything is because we are (at least, vaguely) interested in its content. And, as a rule, we take little notice of the actual language – the packaging the content comes in. But, as language learners, it is precisely the language we should be taking notice of when we read, otherwise we are doing little more than exercising our eye muscles. This activity trains learners to read / listen for language and to search for useful word partnerships (the real information carriers) in any piece of text.This is not as easy as it sounds. Look at the following extract: The basic idea that most companies could manage just as well with three layers of management as with twelve was first put forward by Hammer and Champy in their best-selling book, Re-engineering the Corporation. The word partnerships basic idea, layers of management and best-selling book are easy enough to spot because the words are adjacent to one another. But what about put forward an idea? This is much more deeply embedded in the text, and is hard enough to detect when you read it. If you just listened to the text, you would almost certainly miss it. Identifying key words is a fundamental part of knowing which bits of language to look for in a text.The key words here are clearly idea, companies, management and book. In fact, the underlying framework of the text is: The (basic / novel / revolutionary) idea that ... was (first / originally) put forward by ... in (their / her / his) (best-selling / controversial / recent) book ... . Procedure 1. Select a text – an article, advert or short taped extract – which contains between twelve and eighteen useful two- and three-word partnerships. 2. Write the first words of each partnership in the left-hand boxes on the worksheet and make copies for each person in your class. For two-word partnerships blank out or put a line through the right-hand box. 3. Get your class to read or listen to the text and complete the word partnerships by filling in the middle and right-hand boxes. If you use a written text set a challenging time limit (about a minute less than you think they will need). If you use a tape, let your learners signal when they want you to pause it. 4. The follow-up activity involves pairs testing each other by covering up one or two of the words in each partnership. Cuisenaire rods are perfect for this. Notes You can make the task much more demanding by missing out the first words of each partnership on the worksheet.This deprives your learners of a word to listen out for and forces them to listen more globally. If you decide to try this, your learners will need to hear the whole extract once before they begin. 36 Resource File 1 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:03 Page 37 TEXT SEARCH The following business words appeared in the text / broadcast in the order in which they are listed. How many of their word partners can you find in just ... minutes? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. Now work with a partner. Cover up some of the boxes above.Your partner should try to complete the phrase. Resource File 1 © Heinle 37 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:03 Page 38 RESOURCE FILE 2 Text Comparison Media: Business skills: Time: The business press Note-taking and making comparisons between two articles 40 minutes Rationale When such a large part of business involves presenting, exchanging and comparing information, it seems silly to always have everyone reading or listening to the same thing in the classroom. This Resource File exploits the jigsaw reading / listening principle, where learners are given different texts which deal with the same subject but from opposing or complementary standpoints. Procedure 1. Choose two articles or business news stories of roughly equal length which deal with the same topic.There is an example in unit 7 in the Coursebook. Make copies of the articles for your class, one per learner. 2. Decide what general points you would like your learners to take notes on. From four to six points is usually sufficient.Try to choose at least two or three points which are covered in both articles.Write these at the top of the worksheet and then make copies for each member of your class. 3. Divide your class into two groups. Give one group copies of the first text and the other group copies of the second. Allow five to ten minutes for private reading, depending on the length of the texts.You may want to play some quiet music during this session. 4. Bring each group together separately to discuss the text they read and write brief notes in the left-hand box on the worksheet (these notes are supposed to act as a memory aid in the next phase of the lesson and should not be detailed). 5. Pair up people from the two groups to compare what they read. Each learner should note down what their partner tells them.When everyone has exchanged information, they may want to share their own views on the topic. 6. Give everyone five minutes to skim the article they did not read to check it against what their partner told them. Alternatives If you have access to two classrooms or can send one group out of the classroom to work on something else for ten minutes, this activity can be done as a listening exercise. Simply record your two articles onto a tape. All the articles in New Business Matters have audio recordings. As mentioned above, unit 7 contains twin texts on the same topic, and several of the other articles in the Coursebook have sufficient overlap to use as jigsaw reading / listening exercises: Unit 2 Enterprise and Unit 11 Management Styles both address entrepreneurial and managerial skills. Unit 1 Career Management and Unit 12 Mergers and Acquisitions both address employment trends and corporate structure. 38 Resource File 2 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:03 Page 39 TEXT COMPARISON Read the article your teacher gives you and take notes on the following points: 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MY ARTICLE MY PARTNER’S ARTICLE ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ ........................................ Your partner has a different article on the same subject. Compare notes and complete the box on the right.What are your own views on the matter? Resource File 2 © Heinle 39 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:03 Page 40 RESOURCE FILE 3 Crosschecking Crosschecking Media: Business skills: Time: Business press / radio / television Amending notes 30-40 minutes Rationale Many of the comprehension formats traditionally used in the EFL classroom – true-false exercises, multiple choice – are actually highly unnatural. In real life what people tend to do is measure what they read and hear against their previous knowledge, against things they have read and heard before. This Resource File gets learners to read preliminary notes on a text, discuss them, study the text and then amend any of the notes which seem inaccurate. Procedure 1. Choose your text or audio / video extract and write short preliminary notes on it in the spaces on the worksheet. Deliberately include wrong information in some of your notes. Make sufficient copies of the notes for each pair of learners in your class. 2. Ask your learners to go through the notes in pairs, checking any words and phrases they do not understand with each other or with you. Reading through the notes in this way gives your learners a good idea of what it is going to be in the text / extract. 3. Your learners now read the text or listen to / view the extract and underline any inaccuracies they find in the preliminary notes.You can specifically tell them to do this or you can wait and see if they noticed the discrepancies for themselves. 4. Step three is repeated, but this time inaccuracies in the notes are amended on the worksheet. If you are using audio or video, it may need to be viewed again a few times with a short period of discussion after each viewing. 5. Score the amended notes for accuracy. Notes With weaker groups the inaccuracies in the preliminary notes should be purely factual.This makes them easier to spot. For example, using the article in unit 1 in the section headed Employability: PRELIMINARY NOTES It is a good time to find work provided you accept insecurity. Project teams are poorly paid. Team stay together after a project. AMENDED NOTES Correct. Incorrect.They are highly paid. Incorrect.They disband. With stronger groups the inaccuracies could be less obvious, more interpretational. For example, using the article in unit 9: PRELIMINARY NOTES The Japanese are very passive in meetings. The French tend to be fairly aggressive. Cultural stereotypes are usually wrong. The majority of Americans are sales-oriented. AMENDED NOTES Often silent, not necessarily passive. Argumentative rather than aggressive. Some people think so. Some don’t. Correct. Alternatives If you are using an audio or video tape, you could let your learners take their own preliminary notes and then exchange worksheets and amend each other’s work. 40 Resource File 3 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:03 Page 41 CROSSCHECKING Some of the following notes on the text / broadcast are not completely accurate. As you read or listen, first underline any inaccuracies.Then see if you can amend the notes. Media Source: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Topic: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . PRELIMINARY NOTES AMENDED NOTES 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 7. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 8. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 9. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 10. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 11. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 12. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 13. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 14. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 15. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 16. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 17. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 18. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... Resource File 3 © Heinle 41 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:03 Page 42 RESOURCE FILE 4 Commercial Break Media: Business skills: Time: Television commercials Evaluating & inferring 30-40 minutes Rationale TV commercials can be very usefully exploited in the classroom, particularly with groups with an interest in marketing and advertising, but it is essential to edit your selection carefully.The best adverts combine rich visual imagery with evocative background music and memorable dialogues / voiceovers. Some of them say more in 40 seconds than a lot of documentaries say in 40 minutes. However, try to avoid using ads which are either very low-budget (sales at furniture warehouses and department stores etc.) or culture-bound (British humour does not always travel well).The big names in fast-moving consumer goods usually set fairly high standards. If you can, use commercials which advertise rival products (cars, soft drinks, sportswear, computer hardware and cosmetics tend to be the easiest to find). Do not try working on a single commercial in depth unless it is of special interest (eg. it features the company your learners work for). Even with marketing specialists, it is generally much better to look at half a dozen commercials fairly superficially rather than get into a complex analysis of advertising strategy. If you do not have the time to put together an edited sequence of ads, then you could try using Resource File 12 Information Gathering instead.This works with any string of adverts. Simply write key phrases, images and musical references on the information cards to be cut up and sequenced in the way described. Procedure 1. Choose your sequence of commercials and make sufficient copies of the worksheet for your class, one for each commercial per learner. 2. Go through the worksheet in class, explaining any unfamiliar terms. If you have studied the ads you have chosen before the lesson, you may decide to pre-teach some of the language your learners are likely to need. Some of the adjectives in the Discussion exercises on pages 87 and 93 of the Coursebook might be useful for talking about image. 3. Put your learners into small groups to view each advert, take notes, discuss their impressions, share a few of their notes and go on to the next advert. 4. View the adverts again, if necessary, as a complete sequence, without pausing. Learners give a creative award to what they consider to be the best ad and a thumbs-down award to the worst. 5. Bring the groups together to talk about their opinions. Alternatives 1. Get groups to watch different ads and then discuss them. 2. Run the activity as a simulation. Groups are appointed account managers at a top advertising agency, responsible for different clients.They choose their ad from a selection, complete the worksheet, and then use their notes to give a presentation to the other groups, outlining the advertising strategy they propose. Finally, they show the others ‘their commercial’ and answer any questions. If you want to make the activity more competitive, promote the best account team to full partners in the agency and fire the others! 42 Resource File 4 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:03 Page 43 COMMERCIAL BREAK Watch the TV commercial and complete the following analysis. Core Product(s) / Service(s): Target Consumer(s): Key Consumer Benefit(s): Product Identification (early or late): Company Identification (high or low profile): Creative Strategy: Verbal Message Visual Image Musical Association Language Analysis: Positive Reinforcement Words ‘Buy’ Verbs Slogans / Catchphrases Resource File 4 © Heinle 43 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:03 Page 44 RESOURCE FILE 5 Information Update Media: Business skills: Time: The business / financial press Updating information and talking about change 30-40 minutes Rationale Both the global economy and the world of business are in a constant state of flux. And changes in unemployment figures, exchange rates, company performance and stock market averages offer a natural context in which to introduce work on the perfect aspect and the language of cause and effect. Learners are given two texts containing economic figures and statistics – one current, and one weeks, months or even years out of date.The task is to report the changes that have occurred between the two dates and to speculate on their likely causes and effects. Procedure 1. For this activity you need access to information which is regularly updated and always presented in the same format. Ideal sources are The European (Economics & Finance page, Investment page and Companies & Markets page), The Financial Times (International Economic Indicators page, Markets pages), the annual Economist publication, The World in 2001/2/3 etc. (The World in Figures section). 2. Decide what information you want your learners to search for and note it down on the worksheet next to each number eg. INFORMATION SOURCE 1 INFORMATION SOURCE 2 a b c 3 How is the European chemical sector performing? ............................................... ............................... What is the price of crude oil? ............................................... ............................... Where is the FTSE standing? ............................................... ............................... Distribute copies of the two texts, one to each pair of learners. Set them the task of finding the relevant information.They note it down under Information Source 1 and 2. 4. When the worksheet has been completed, put the pairs into groups to discuss their findings and speculate on the causes of the changes they have noted. Sometimes the text will indicate possible causes and effects. 5. Finally, get the groups to report their findings to the class including any conclusions they came to about likely causes and effects. Alternatives 1. To promote global reading skills you can, of course, provide your learners with several pages of data rather than just two. Make sure it is clear which information is current and which is from the past (perhaps photocopy onto different coloured paper). 2. Learners can set each other the questions.Time limits can be imposed.You can divide the current and past information between different groups. Information can be exchanged over the telephone, back-to-back or on slips of paper. 44 Resource File 5 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:03 Page 45 INFORMATION UPDATE Your teacher will give you two texts. One contains up-to-date information.The other contains similar information from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ago.Take notes on the following points in each text.Then talk about how the situation has changed on each point. INFORMATION SOURCE 1 INFORMATION SOURCE 2 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................... | ........................................ 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................... | ........................................ 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................... | ........................................ 4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................... | ........................................ 5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................... | ........................................ 6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................... | ........................................ 7. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................... | ........................................ 8. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................... | ........................................ 9. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................... | ........................................ 10. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................... | ........................................ 11. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................... | ........................................ 12. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..................................... | ........................................ Resource File 5 © Heinle 45 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:03 Page 46 RESOURCE FILE 6 Business Language Awareness Media: Business skills: Time: The business press Predicting word partnerships and fixed expressions 15-20 minutes Rationale The underlying principle of New Business Matters is that it is by learning to combine words into word partnerships and fixed expressions (and not by welding words and grammar together) that you increase your communicative power. But getting learners to think and speak phrase by phrase instead of word by word is no small step. It demands levels of language awareness and predictive skills which have previously been largely untaught. Used regularly, the activity in this Resource File raises your learners’ awareness of the combinatory nature of language and helps them to think in terms of groups of words. Procedure 1. Choose a good text with plenty of word partnerships and fixed expressions in it. Any of the articles in the Coursebook would be suitable, as are many of the text-based exercises. 2. Underline the words you are going to pause in front of.This is the most important part of your preparation. For this activity to be effective you must pause before words which can be logically or linguistically predicted and for which there are not too many alternatives. 3. Let your learners read the text. If you are using a text in the Coursebook, you may want to do some of the post-reading and language focus work before you use this resource file. When you are ready, ask your learners to put away their texts. 4. Now read out the text to your class pausing before the words you underlined. If you used the article in unit 6 of New Business Matters, it might sound something like this: There is no doubt about (pause) it, corporate entertaining is big (pause) business. In Japan, for example, where relationship (pause) building is a fundamental (pause) part of business (pause) life, a staggering 40 billion dollars of marketing (pause) expenditure goes on corporate (pause) entertaining annually. Using a mixture of recall and language awareness, your learners have to work out the missing words.You can give them these immediately after each pause if you like, or you can let them check each one in the text at the end of the activity. It is important that they write the whole word partnership or expression on the worksheet next to their answers.This prediction phase can either be done individually or with learners discussing possibilities in pairs. 5. Discuss alternative answers and give scores for the number of accurate predictions. If you do this activity regularly, your learners will be able to see their language awareness increase. Alternatives Learners can obviously read out texts to each other, but it is important that you tell them where to pause, otherwise the activity will turn into guesswork instead of language practice. 46 Resource File 6 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:03 Page 47 BUSINESS LANGUAGE AWARENESS Your teacher will read out a text to you, pausing before important words.Write down in the spaces below the words you think come next.Then check your answers in the text itself. MISSING WORD COMPLETE PHRASE / EXPRESSION IN THE TEXT 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................... 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................... 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................... 4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................... 5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................... 6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................... 7. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................... 8. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................... 9. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................... 10. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................... 11. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................... 12. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................... 13. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................... 14. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................... 15. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................... 16. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................... 17. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................... 18. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................... 19. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................... 20. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................... Where your words are different from those found in the text, decide if they are possible alternatives. Resource File 6 © Heinle 47 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:03 Page 48 RESOURCE FILE 7 Clarification Game Media: Business skill: Time: The business press Asking for clarification 30 minutes Rationale Keeping track of what is going on in meetings and discussions is an essential business skill. But too often learners feel unable to interrupt the flow of conversation to clarify something they either did not hear properly or did not fully understand, and so end up talking at crosspurposes. Of course, short rescue phrases like ‘Sorry, could you say that again?’ and ‘Sorry, I don’t quite follow’ are helpful, but they are sometimes too vague. Areas of confusion need to be clearly pinpointed. eg. A:There are two main BLAH-BLAHS that I can see here. B: Sorry, two main WHAT? A: Advantages. B: Ah, right. A: Profits have fallen by BLAH-BLAH over the last three years. B: Sorry, profits have fallen by HOW MUCH over the last three years? A: By 35%. B: Really, as much as that? Procedure 1. Select a short business text. Go through it quickly before the lesson underlining 16 key facts, figures, names, places, dates etc. then make copies of the marked text for your class for distribution after the activity. 2. Tell your class you are going to read out some information to them, but that some of it may be unclear. If there is anything they do not follow, they are to stop you and ask you to repeat or clarify what you said.They make a note on their worksheets of the points they get you to explain.Warn them that if no-one interrupts you to check unclear information, you will simply carry on reading. 3. Read out the text at a reasonable pace as if it was a presentation, mumbling the words you have underlined. Do not pause for your learners to interrupt you, but keep reading until they do. eg. Teacher: Today we are looking at the annual rates of return on American investments since BLAH-BLAH. In fact, betwe... Learner 1: Sorry, since WHEN? Teacher: 1985. Learner 1: 1985. OK. Teacher: Yes, in fact, between 1985 and 1994, the lowest rates of return were on BLAH-BLAH – only about three percen... Learner 2: Sorry, the lowest rates of return were on WHAT? Teacher: Treasury bills. Learner 2: Treasury bills.What are they? 4. Distribute the copies of your marked text so that learners can check their information. Notes Make sure the words you underline in your text are not too close together.Your learners need a little time to get ready for each new piece of information. 48 Resource File 7 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:04 Page 49 CLARIFICATION GAME Listen to your colleague. Some of the information read out to you may be unclear. If it is, stop your colleague and ask for clarification. For example: BLAH-BLAH was 16%. BLAH-BLAH has refused to comment. The greatest demand is in BLAH-BLAH. The company went public in BLAH-BLAH. Costs increased by BLAH-BLAH. Sorry,WHAT was 16%? Sorry,WHO has refused to comment? Sorry, the greatest demand is WHERE? Sorry, the company went public WHEN? Sorry, costs increased by HOW MUCH? Write down the information you ask them to clarify and check it at the end. INFORMATION CLARIFIED CORRECTLY CLARIFIED OR NOT? 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 7. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 8. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 9. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 10. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 11. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 12. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 13. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 14. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 15. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... 16. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .......................................... Resource File 7 © Heinle 49 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:04 Page 50 RESOURCE FILE 8 Points of View Media: Business skills: Time: Business press / radio / television Comparing views & reactions 20-30 minutes Rationale The problem with most comprehension questions is that a) they tend to check only simple matters of objective fact, and b) they tend, necessarily, to be in the third person (What happened in 2001? Who developed the idea of lateral thinking? Where is agriculture heavily subsidised? etc). In real life, however, understanding simple facts is merely a pre-condition for forming a subjective opinion.Who cares what it says in paragraph three! It is what I think about what it says in paragraph three that matters. Learners need much more practice in using the first person and voicing their own opinion than in confirming or refuting facts. This Resource File provides a framework for giving your personal reactions to a text or broadcast. Procedure 1. Take any article, audio or video recording which is likely to interest your class and, instead of setting comprehension questions, distribute copies of the worksheet on the next page one per learner. 2. Go through the worksheet with your class, explaining some of the words or expressions they do not know, but do not spend too long on those at the bottom of the worksheet – you may be able to introduce them in the context of your discussion later. 3. Refer your learners to the text or play the recording in the usual way. Let them simply read or listen without taking any notes. 4. Now give them ten minutes or so to collect their thoughts and complete relevant parts of the worksheet.They are not expected to complete all of it unless they want to. Monitor this stage.They may need some help completing some of the sentences. 5. Bring them together in groups or as a class to discuss their reactions. Include yourself in the discussion. Accept that some people will have more to say than others and that, occasionally, some people will have no strong feelings about the text either way. Be prepared also for a discussion which may grow beyond what you expected. Notes Obviously, the more controversial or sensational the material you use is, the more likely you are to provoke strong reactions and the better this activity will work. 50 Resource File 8 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:04 Page 51 POINTS OF VIEW What in the text / broadcast did you personally find ... ... most interesting? What interested me was . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............................................................... ... most surprising? What surprised me was . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............................................................... ... most shocking? What shocked me was . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............................................................... ... most amusing? What amused me was . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............................................................... Was there anything in the text / broadcast that ... ... you didn’t know before? I wasn’t aware that . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............................................................... ... annoyed you? It annoyed me that . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............................................................... ... you think is wrong? I’m not sure about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ............................................................... Do you find yourself mostly agreeing or disagreeing with the text / broadcast? Indicate where you stand on the scale below: I totally agree! There’s some truth in it. It’s complete nonsense! I agree with what it said about ...................................................... But the thing I disagree with most is . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Useful expressions: a bit worrying quite encouraging just not true totally ridiculous over-optimistic too pessimistic pretty accurate completely misinformed well-researched very superficial a bit out-of-date quite amazing Resource File 8 © Heinle 51 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:04 Page 52 RESOURCE FILE 9 Question-and-Answer Session Media: Business skill: Time: Business press / radio / television Question formation 30-60 minutes Rationale Except in tests, the natural response to reading or listening to anything is to want to ask questions not answer them. And it is learners who need practice in asking questions, not teachers. This Resource File can obviously be used with any text (written, audio or video) and requires very little preparation on the part of the teacher, for here it is the learners who take the initiative and set the agenda by asking the questions. The question starters at the bottom of the worksheet are suggestions only, but experience shows that you will get better questions from your learners if you guide them towards the more sophisticated level of question-formation required in business. Procedure 1. Put your class into small groups or pairs and set the task of reading / listening to / watching the extract.They should take simple notes at this stage. 2. Repeat the previous step, giving the learners time to flesh out their notes. 3. Now give your learners 15 minutes or so to put together a set of questions which they think the other group(s) will not be able to answer. Point out that only factual questions should be asked (ie. those which can be answered correctly or incorrectly). 4. Conduct the question-and-answer session competitively, giving points for correct answers. You may decide to allow people to reread / review the text (within a time limit) for the answers to questions they could not get the first time. Declare the winning team. 5. Collect in the worksheets for correction / reformulation. Alternatives 1. Get learners to prepare questions on different texts, and then exchange both texts and question worksheets. 2. Establish a rule that only grammatically perfect questions will be answered. Defective questions will mean a point automatically goes to the other group(s). 3. Run the activity cooperatively, rather than competitively, with learners asking questions about things they really did not understand in the text. 4. Instead of competing with each other, get your class to compete with you.Your English may be better, but there are several of them and only one of you, so it is an even contest! Take a selection of texts (say, ten) into the classroom and let your group choose the one they want to read.They have 15-20 minutes to prepare a set of fifteen questions to ask you, the most difficult they can think of.You have just five minutes to prepare your fifteen questions.Try not to let them win too often! 52 Resource File 9 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:04 Page 53 QUESTION-AND-ANSWER SESSION Read the text / listen to the broadcast and prepare a set of questions to ask your colleagues / your teacher. 1. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ? 2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ? 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ? 4. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ? 5. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ? 6. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ? 7. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ? 8. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ? 9. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ? 10. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ? 11. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ? 12. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ? 13. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ? 14. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ? 15. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ? The following question starters may help you to prepare better questions: What exactly ...? In what way ...? In what context ...? Why exactly ...? What are the chances of ...? Why is it that ...? Who said ...? Who’s responsible for ...? What effect ...? What’s the reason for ...? What evidence is there ...? Why can’t ...? What are the implications of ...? What’s the significance of ...? What’s likely to ...? Resource File 9 © Heinle 53 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:04 Page 54 RESOURCE FILE 10 Mini-presentation Media: Business skills: Time: Business press / radio / television Language awareness & presenting 40-60 minutes Rationale Once your learners get used to the idea of searching text for useful word partnerships and fixed expressions, you can start to capitalise on their new lexical awareness by using the worksheet on the next page.There is an example of a similar flowchart on page 39 of the Coursebook. Procedure 1. Choose your text or listening extract. Note down key phrases and sentences in the boxes on the flowchart, leaving one or two important blanks in each. eg. If you used the article in unit 6 of New Business Matters, the first part of the flowchart might look something like this: Wining and dining could add up to . . . ➔ If the Pareto principle is true . . . ➔ How cost-effective is it . . . To some, it is about . . . ➔ Recognizing the major contribution . . . the Ritz . . . ➔ Business lunches are an ➔ important part of corporate culture . . . ➔ 2. After your learners have read the article / listened to the broadcast, give them a copy of the flowchart, one between two, and ask them to complete the notes, without referring back to the text. 3. Play the recording again / refer learners to the text so that people can check their answers. 4. Now set your learners the task of preparing to present the notes.This is not quite as simple as just reading them out.They will sometimes need to use links (and, but, so, however etc.) and adverbials (unfortunately, basically, actually) to connect up the information into a coherent mini-presentation. 5. With a small group there might be time to let everyone have a go at giving the whole presentation, which will only take about three minutes. Make it clear, however, that the objective is not just to read out the information clearly – after all, everyone has heard it several times already.The aim is to put as much feeling into the delivery as possible by pausing, stressing important words, speeding up and slowing down your speech and raising and lowering your voice for effect. With a larger group do team presentations with two or three speakers giving alternate pieces of information. Good presentations (however brief) are not about being clear; they are about making an impression. Have fun trying out different techniques. 54 Resource File 10 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:04 Page 55 MINI-PRESENTATION Without referring back to the article you read / broadcast you listened to, complete the following flowchart.Then link the notes together into a short presentation. ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ ➔ Resource File 10 © Heinle 55 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:04 Page 56 RESOURCE FILE 11 Lexi-cards Rationale A great deal of emphasis is placed in New Business Matters on the importance of word partnerships. And the simple card games suggested here provide an ideal way of consolidating and reinforcing your learners’ word partnership awareness. Preparation Establish what the key concepts are in your learners’ work and prepare sets of cards accordingly. For example, if some or all of your learners work in sales, then it is a safe bet that sales would be a key concept for them – something they have to talk about every day. Other key concepts for them are likely to be prices, markets, figures, contracts, agreements, demand etc. A set of cards will normally consist of one key word (eg. sales) plus up to twenty partner words.With weaker groups, reduce the number of partner words. Make sure you have a good selection of verbs, adjectives and nouns, but pay especially attention to verbs.Where possible, include both words which come before the key word and words which come after it. If you find you cannot think of very many partner words, then the chances are your key word is not a real key word after all. Here is a selection of key words and their word partners to get you started (see the Glossary in the Coursebook on page 169 as well): ADVERTISING (A) BUSINESS (A/THE) COMPANY CONTRACT / AGREEMENT COST(S) (A) DECISION DEMAND (THE) FIGURES (AN) IDEA(S) (A) LOSS(ES) (THE) MARKET (A/THE) MEETING 56 agency, campaign, budget, executive, expenditure, industry, space, global, subliminal,TV contact, lunch, matters, objectives, opportunities, relationship, build up, close down, get down to, go into/out of, manage, run, streamline, family, lucrative, risky, successful, urgent, is booming, is thriving blue-chip, holding, limited, medium-sized, parent, private, rival, sister, subsidiary, buy out, close down, downsize, establish, found, join, leave, liquidate, restructure, run, set up, start up, take over, went bust, went under sales, non-renewable, three-year, unworkable, verbal, terms of, draft, draw up, finalise, go over, renew, review, terminate (in)direct, fixed, material, mounting, rising, running, overhead, prohibitive, total, unit, variable, bring down, cover, hold down, increase, push up, price, of living clear-cut, crucial, final, hasty, last-minute, major, right, snap, unanimous, arrive at, come to, make, reach, reconsider, reverse, take, be faced with boost, create, gauge, keep up with, meet, satisfy, stimulate, excessive, fluctuating, great, growing, little, seasonal annual, ball-park, (un)official, rough, round, sales, six, back up, discuss, go over, look at, massage, quote, refer to, round up/down, run through, talk, speak for themselves brilliant, clever, stupid, brainstorm, come up with, develop, generate, implement, promote, put forward, put . . . into practice considerable, partial, total, tremendous, make, make up for, compensate for, minimise, offset, realise, recover from, suffer, sustain, write off economy, domination, forces, leader, leadership, penetration, pressure, research, saturation, share, survey, trends, be pushed out of, be squeezed out of, break into, come onto, corner, dominate, enter, flood, penetrate, saturate, black, bear, bull, buoyant, buyers’, competitive, declining, domestic, expanding, foreign, free, growing, healthy, ready, volatile, the bottom has dropped out of annual, board, budget, departmental, emergency, general, arrange, attend, bring forward, call, cancel, chair, close, hold, interrupt, miss, open, organise, postpone, put off, skip, wind up Resource File 11 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:04 Page 57 LEXI-CARDS NEGOTIATIONS (AN) ORDER (A) PROBLEM(S) PRICE(S) PRODUCT PRODUCTION (A) PROFIT(S) RESEARCH SALES STAFF/PERSONNEL complicated, delicate, difficult, lengthy, prolonged, tough, abandon, be engaged / involved in, break off, enter into, hold, interrupt, prejudice, resume, speed up, are nearing completion, broke down, came to nothing, dragged on, failed, got under way, reached a deadlock bulk, initial, minimum, regular, repeat, cancel, check, confirm, dispatch, get, handle, lose, phone about, phone/fax through, place, receive, rush through, win, form, stock basic, common, complex, difficult, fundamental, main, major, serious, severe, unexpected, address, aggravate, cause, come up against, create, define, overcome, pinpoint, run into, solve, tackle attractive, bargain, competitive, discount, high, low, retail, unbeatable, wholesale, agree on, cut, fix, quote, raise, reduce, undercut, list, range, reduction, rise, sensitivity, war best-selling, improved, new, advertise, design, develop, discontinue, invent, launch, modify, phase in/out, test, upgrade, withdraw, demonstration, development, features, specifications capacity, costs, engineer, levels, line, manager, methods, plant, rate, target, go into/out of, half, hold up, monitor, scale down, step up, supervise, mass enormous, massive, net, slight, substantial, boost, clear, cut into, generate, make, realise, margin, share, plough . . . back into basic, intensive, ongoing, recent, vital, consumer, market, product, back, carry out, conduct, cut back on, fund, invest in, promote, put money into, undertake, costs, team, methods disappointing, encouraging, poor, potential, steady, boost, increase, maintain, promote, figures, forecast, manager, prospect, tactics, team, technique, territory, volume, are booming, are brisk, are sluggish, are static, are plunging efficient, dedicated, extra, full-time, loyal, part-time, permanent, qualified, (un- / semi-) skilled, temporary, attract, dismiss, employ, fire, get rid of, headhunt, hire, lay off, lose, motivate, recruit, sack, take on, train, shortage of, appraisal Photocopy, complete and cut out the lexical cards on page 96. Resource File 11 © Heinle 57 NBusinMattersTBK 23/12/2003 11:45 Page 58 RESOURCE FILE 12 Information Gathering Media: Business skills: Time: Radio / television news Gathering & summarising information 40-60 minutes Rationale Being able to piece together the information you were able to follow in a presentation and work out the rest is a valuable business skill. And, until learners reach a very high level of proficiency, it is what they will always have to do. This Resource File tries to reflect the information gathering process itself. It can be very quickly prepared, but has sufficient mileage to provide up to an hour’s work. Procedure 1. Listen to / view a short news or business news summary (5-10 minutes maximum), and note down in random order in the boxes on the worksheet names, dates, places, times, important events, acronyms etc. mentioned in the broadcast. If you like, include useful word partnerships mentioned too.Write one piece of information in each box. eg. UN six 2001 Washington hunger strike European summit attack Brussels ICI industrial action 173 renewed outbreaks of violence takeover Notice that some of the information is self-explanatory (eg. European summit), and some meaningless out of context (eg. Six what? 173 what?). 2. When you have filled the boxes with as much information as you want from each of the news stories, make copies of the worksheet, divide your class into groups and give one copy to each group in your class. Ask the groups to cut out the boxes into separate information cards (this is much quicker than cutting up all the boxes yourself!). 3. Ask your learners to spread out all the cards in front of them. From what they know of world events, can they begin to group the cards into what they think might be the different news stories? 4. Now play the tape, pausing between each news item. No information cards can be moved while the tape is playing, but only in the pauses. Groups must try to reach agreement on which cards go where before they move them. If necessary, let the groups go back through the broadcast to check their information. 5. Ask your class if they can summarise one of the news stories using the information cards they grouped together for it.The chances are, there will be both agreement and disagreement as to what refers to what! Encourage this. 6. Play the tape through one last time, checking the information as you go. Give scores. Alternatives 1. With lower level groups simply reduce the number of information cards. 2. With more advanced groups put in a few red herrings (things not mentioned in the broadcast). It is important to know what you did not hear, as well as what you did. 3. With a stronger class, try getting groups to write the information in the boxes themselves, and then pass the worksheet to another group to cut up and organize. 4. If you want to do the business news and have difficulty finding an off-air programme, try reading out and recording the Business Review column in The European. 58 Resource File 12 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:04 Page 59 INFORMATION GATHERING Listen to / watch the broadcast and organise the following information. Resource File 12 © Heinle 59 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:04 Page 60 RESOURCE FILE 13 Text Summary Media: Business skills: Time: The business press Reading & summarising an article 10-30 minutes Rationale On a business English course one of the teacher’s prime responsibilities is the selection of maximally useful input, and the articles in New Business Matters have been specially written to provide your learners with a lot of the essential business language they need – much more than they would get by reading randomly. But in real life we generally choose what we want to read and this is too seldom reflected in the classroom. This Resource File provides a simple conversational framework for presenting the gist of a news story or business article the learner has chosen. It is a good idea to encourage your learners to read widely outside the classroom and to bring articles that interest them to the lesson, where they can discuss them with their colleagues. Procedure 1. Choose a short business article yourself (or use one of the articles in New Business Matters) and summarise it using the worksheet as a framework. 2. Read out your summary to your class, pausing for reactions. Invite a few questions at the end. Keep the tone conversational. 3. Distribute copies of the article for your learners to skim through.They may want to check certain things in the article against what you said.With a fairly advanced class you might decide to deliberately misinterpret parts of the article in your summary and see if they spot the discrepancies. 4. Give out a blank copy of the worksheet to each learner, and set them the task of finding an article to talk about in the next or subsequent lesson.You could also give them copies of the summary you wrote, as an example. 5. Set aside at least ten minutes in each lesson for people to talk about what they have read since they last met. 6. Collect in the summaries at the end of the lesson for correction or reformulation. Notes: The summary suggested here is very simple. Some learners may want to step outside this framework and give a fuller presentation.This is fine, of course, but the idea is really to get learners into the habit of talking regularly for just a few minutes about topics that interest them. You could keep a file in the classroom containing copies of the articles that people have talked about. 60 Resource File 13 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:04 Page 61 TEXT SUMMARY Choose a magazine article or news story which is of interest to you and prepare a short summary of it, using the framework below to help you get started. I was reading this article the other day in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................................................ And it talks about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................................................ I thought you might be interested because . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................................................ Basically, what it says is . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................................................ ........................................................................................ ........................................................................................ ........................................................................................ ........................................................................................ What interested / surprised me most was . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................................................ ........................................................................................ ........................................................................................ ........................................................................................ I’m not sure I agree with / believe what it says about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ........................................................................................ ........................................................................................ ........................................................................................ What do you think about . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......................................................................................... I could let you have a copy if you like. Resource File 13 © Heinle 61 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:04 Page 62 RESOURCE FILE 14 Facts and Figures Media: Business skills: Time: Business / financial news Contextualising facts & figures 20-30 minutes Rationale A key skill in business is the rapid assimilation of facts and figures. Activities in coursebooks which ask you to circle the numbers you hear miss the point entirely. Facts without figures (‘The basic rate of income tax has gone up, but I’m not sure by how much’) are much more useful than figures without facts (‘Something’s gone up by 2%, but I’m not sure what’). Ideally, of course, the fact and figure will be understood as a unit. A lot of business English learners need practice here. Complicated figures often distract them from the facts to which they relate.This is particularly the case when listening to figures quoted at speed. Procedure (audio / video extract) 1. Find a short audio or video extract with a high concentration of figures and statistics.The business and market news on the BBC or CNN is especially good for this, but you could also record an extract from the Financial Times or The Economist onto cassette. 2. Write all the figures in the order you hear them in the boxes on the left-hand side of the worksheet. 3. Distribute copies of the worksheet, one per learner. 4. Put one of your learners in charge of the cassette player or video.They play the extract, pausing it whenever they hear one of the figures and rewinding the tape to listen for the context again. If they miss the figure, too late! They must go on to the next one. 5. Give a score for accuracy Procedure (written text) Prepare worksheets as above but put your learners into groups and give them a strict time limit in which to find and contextualise all the figures.Two minutes is ample for ten figures. If you have more figures, you will need two worksheets per learner. Alternatives 1. Write in the context but leave out the figures. 2. Give weaker groups the context and stronger groups the figures.They listen, take notes and then compare. 3. With more advanced groups, write the figures out of sequence or put in a few red herrings (figures which do not appear at all or are slightly inaccurate). 4. Get your learners to listen to / read different texts, note down the figures and exchange texts.They then contextualise each other’s list of figures. 62 Resource File 14 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:04 Page 63 FACTS AND FIGURES In what context were the following facts and figures mentioned in the text / broadcast? FIGURES CONTEXT ➜ ➜ ➜ ➜ ➜ ➜ ➜ ➜ ➜ ➜ Resource File 14 © Heinle 63 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:04 Page 64 RESOURCE FILE 15 Mini-report Media: Business skills: Time: Radio / television interview Reporting & paraphrasing 30-40 minutes in class plus 30 minutes homework Rationale Being able to write a short report on what was said at a meeting or conference is a useful skill in business. And, by and large, this involves the use not of reported speech but of reporting verbs.The comment ‘I think it’s absolutely vital that we do some kind of market research on this’ is unlikely to appear in a subsequent report as ‘The European Sales Manager said she thought it was absolutely vital that we did some kind of market research on this’, but rather ‘The European Sales Manager stressed the importance of market research’. This Resource File gives learners practice in reporting and can be used with any recording or transcript of an interview. Procedure 1. Select an audio or video recording of an interview you want to work with. Interviews on news programmes are ideal because they tend to be very short and concise with perhaps only five or six exchanges in all. If you do not have access to these media, you can often find transcripts of interviews with well-known business people and politicians in business magazines. Time magazine regularly features an interview with someone currently in the news.When well-edited, these transcripts are often better than the original interview. Record them onto a cassette with a colleague. 2. Make sufficient copies of the worksheet for your class, one copy per learner. If your interview is more than six questions long, you will need to give each learner two worksheets. 3. Play the extract twice, pausing the tape after each question and answer.Your learners should only write the key points in each question and answer in the speech balloons on the worksheet. 4. Put the learners together in pairs or small groups to combine their notes. 5. For homework get them to write up a short report of the interview using their notes and the suggested list of reporting verbs to help them. Alternatives Set two of your classes the same report-writing task, but use different interviews with each class. In a later lesson give each class the reports written by the other class, and then play them the interview the reports refer to. How do they rate the other class’s reports for accuracy? 64 Resource File 15 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:05 Page 65 MINI-REPORT Listen to / watch the interview and take notes on the questions and answers. Media Source: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Interviewee: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Topic: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Now use your notes to help you write a short report on what was discussed in the interview. The following reporting verbs may help you: said explained told him / her argued / claimed / admitted / insisted / confirmed that asked about / if / whether felt that welcomed praised / attacked / criticised ... for raised the question of questioned the need for stressed the importance of Resource File 15 © Heinle 65 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:05 Unit 1 Page 66 Women on Wall Street Video Summary The report looks at a number of women who have made a major contribution in changing the face of Wall Street. Muriel Siebert was the first woman to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange in 1967. She suffered considerable discrimination in the early years. She recounts the tale of not being allowed to use the elevator to get to meetings. Alexandra Lebenthal of Lebenthal & Co. talks about her grandmother who founded the company with her husband and then took over the running of it until the age of 93. Background Buying a seat on the New York Stock Exchange means you become a member of the New York Stock Exchange. Make sure that learners know that Wall Street is New York’s financial district. Before You Watch 1 (Suggested answers) work their way to the top: work to get to the top of the career ladder, to the most senior positions a glass ceiling: a point beyond which they cannot get promotion barriers: obstacles outnumber: be many more of, greater in number old boys’ network: the friendships, connections and favours that exist between men who have been to the same schools, universities, etc. achievement: something which is hard to do, but which you have succeeded in a struggle: a fight, something which requires a lot of effort and is difficult balance a career and family: succeed in giving enough time to both these things support network: a group of people you can depend on Start 1:24 End 5:54 While You Watch Play the report all the way through for learners to answer questions 1-2. Then play it again in two parts for learners to answer more detailed questions. 66 General comprehension from first viewing of whole report: 1b 2A: c 2B: a, b Detailed comprehension from part one: 3 a T: She says, ‘For almost ten years I could say thirteen hundred and sixty-five men and me.’ b T: Her granddaughter grew up thinking it was very normal for a woman to run a company because her grandmother did. c F:Alexandra Lebenthal’s daughter has an imaginary company called Diamonds, Diamonds, Diamonds. d T: She was not allowed in the elevator. e F: Getting to a meeting became more of a barrier than partaking in it. f F: It made her very angry (mad). Detailed comprehension from part two: 4 An organisation for women in finance. 5 Women in finance who worked for Goldman Sachs. 6 To balance a career and family. 7 She thinks that the opportunities are there for women to get to the top if they choose to take that path, but some do not because of having a family. 8 No, not yet. After You Watch Ask learners to invent their own contexts based on their experience. TRANSCRIPTION CNN Reporter: Wall Street, the old boys’ network, has always been home to men in suits. And, though they are quick to open the door for a lady, it is Wall Street’s women who have walked through that door and changed old perceptions.When Muriel Siebert bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange in 1967, she was the first woman to do so. Muriel Siebert: I took the constitution of the New York Stock Exchange home, I felt that I qualified, ... there was no prohibition - in so many words - against women. And, uh, I bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, December twenty-eighth, 1967, I made the stock exchange co-ed. For almost ten years Wo m e n o n Wa l l S t r e e t NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:05 Page 67 TRANSCRIPTION I could say thirteen hundred and sixty-five men and me. I was more than delightfully outnumbered. I will tell you that ... there were some tough times ... CNN Reporter: And, though she’s been called the first woman in finance, she was not the first to make waves on Wall Street. In 1925, Sayra Lebenthal met her future husband while studying for the bar exam.Together they founded Lebenthal and Company.When her husband was forced to stop working due to illness. Sayra took over the company and became a major player on Wall Street. She stopped working at ninety-three. Her granddaughter Alexandra now runs the company. Alexandra Lebenthal: What probably was most important was the fact that when I was four years old ... five years old, I would come down to the office and my grandmother would be sitting behind this desk. And so, to me, your grandmother working and working on Wall Street and running a company, was a completely normal thing.Therefore, I should assume I could do the same thing. And I do see that in my own daughter. She has an imaginary company - Diamonds, Diamonds, Diamonds - she is the CEO of it, and I think to myself, you know, there’s only one place you picked this up. CNN Reporter: Having female family members in finance has helped pave the way. But for most of the women veterans on the street, bumping into a glass ceiling was the norm. Sometimes, getting to a meeting became more of a barrier than partaking in it. Muriel Siebert: I’d go to the elevator, and they wouldn’t let me in the elevator. So I had to walk through the kitchen and up the back stairs. And I was sitting in that room getting madder and madder and madder. I mean, really mad. So much so that I really did not know what was going on in the meeting. And a couple of men asked me, “Hey, what happened? What’s wrong?” And I told them. So after the lunch, they said, “Come on with us to the elevator.” Well, they wouldn’t let them in the elevator with me. So we all walked down the stairs and through the kitchen. CNN Reporter: Eighty-five Broad is an organization for women in finance. It was started by women in finance who worked for Goldman Sachs and named after the company’s street address.Women in finance had a strong support network. But balancing career and family is still a struggle for female executives. Patricia Chadwick: I think the door is wide open for women and, I think that at certain points in everybody’s life, they have to make decisions about how much farther they want to go. Family is a very important decision, in all that. And women have to understand that as well. CNN Reporter: It’s been more than seventy-five years since Sayra Lebenthal started on Wall street, thirty-five years since Muriel was the first woman to buy a seat on the exchange, and thirty years of working her way to the top for Patricia Chadwick.These women of Wall Street have different perspectives, but they seem to share a common hope for the future. Alexandra Lebenthal: If we reach a point in time where those women have access to the same opportunities, access to capital - both in the public and private markets - and really recognize the power of the female entrepreneur ... again, I’ll feel that that’s a significant achievement for all of us. Patricia Chadwick: There were both opportunities, and times when it was more difficult. I think sometimes people have a tendency to remember the more difficult times and forget how, in fact, there were some opportunities, perhaps, because one was a woman. Muriel Siebert: You know, you really hope that one of these days we ’re going to see that a woman can make the same mistakes and be head of a company the same way a man can. CNN Reporter: For Business Unusual, I’m Rhonda Schaffler, CNN Financial News, New York. Wo m e n o n Wa l l S t r e e t 67 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:05 Unit 2 Page 68 The Limited Entrepreneur Video Summary The report is about Leslie Wexner who owns a $9 billion retail empire. It charts his rise to billion dollar success from the money-making projects of his childhood, to getting a business degree, dropping out of law school to join the family business and finally opening The Limited. It also tells of his relationship with his parents, who owned a small women’s clothing store. He hated the fact they worked so hard and earned so little. He swore he would never join the family firm, but did so to prove his worth to his father on his own territory. His father dismissed his ideas for re-focusing the family store, but his parents finally closed their store and joined his business,The Limited. After You Watch Discuss Learners could also discuss the following: Think of other people you consider entrepreneurs. Have they all done many different things? Role-play alternative Get learners to work in pairs or groups and think of an idea for a new business. Learners then present their ideas to the rest of the class. Before You Watch a 7, b 5, c 3, d 6, e 8, f 2, g 4, h 1 Start 5:56 End 10:07 While You Watch Learners are not expected to give answers in great detail: for example, in question 2 elicit examples but do not expect a comprehensive answer at this point. 1 As a child. 2a Shoveling snow, cutting grass, washing cars, running a day camp, he sold T-shirts and stationery, he did landscaping. 2b He hated it because they worked so hard, seventy or eighty hours a week, and earned so little. As he says, they were “just eking out a living.” 3 The answer is visual: a, b c, d 4 a, c, d, e, f, h, j, k, l, n Notes not b: Cutting grass was one of his money-making jobs, so he didn’t do it for free. not g: He studied law, but dropped out of law school so he didn’t get a law degree. not m: He was worried he might go bankrupt, but his worries were unfounded: the store was a great success. 68 5 He realised he could earn more money taking ten children to the park at the same time than babysitting children one at a time. 6 a T, b T, c F, d F The Limited Entrepreneur NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:05 Page 69 TRANSCRIPTION Leslie Wexner: CNN Reporter: Leslie Wexner: CNN Reporter: Leslie Wexner: CNN Reporter: Leslie Wexner: CNN Reporter: Where you take risks and where you don’t does get your motor going and your heart thumping, uh, ... but it’s also a very dangerous place. First store ... one of a kind ... Leslie Wexner has lived a life on the edge - the cutting edge - peddling fashion-forward clothing to the masses.Turning a small women’s store in the Midwest into a ninebillion-dollar retail empire, home to some of America’s fashion’s bestknown brands. As a kid, he was always trying to earn a buck. But all work and no play did not make Les Wexner a dull boy - it made him rich! I can remember as a kid, that when it snowed, I was really happy. And the reason I was happy was I could go out and shovel snow and make money. And in the summer days, I could cut grass or wash cars. His parents encouraged him to work. But for young Wexner, there was more to it than earning a bit of pocket change. I figured out when I was ten or eleven years old, I could make more money taking ten kids to the park on Saturday, if you would - my own day camp - than I could babysitting kids one at a time. It just simply did work. And so I had some sense of proportion or leverage then. Those after-school jobs became small businesses.The little day camp, selling T-shirts and stationery from a college-dorm room, a landscaping business that one summer brought in three thousand dollars. So, really, right there, imprinted in your DNA, was an entrepreneurial spirit. Yes. In hindsight, I think so … that … I think I realised by the time I was maybe in my early thirties, that I really never had worked for any one. And I didn’t see that. It just happened that I could … figure out how to make a better living for myself.You know, more date money or, you know, have a little bit nicer clothes. But one thing he swore he’d never do: join the family business - Leslie’s a small women’s clothing store his parents opened in Columbus in 1952 and named after him. Leslie Wexner: Oh, I hated it. Both of them probably working seventy or eighty hours a week, just eking out a living. And, here I was, in my own business, selling sweat shirts, and stationery, and, you know, my landscaping business; and doing better than they were. CNN Reporter: The landscaping business was so lucrative that Wexner decided he’d become a landscape architect. But his father pushed him to get a business degree.Wexner got one from Ohio State University and then went on to law school there. But, despite his vow to stay away, he dropped out to work in his parents’ store. Leslie Wexner: In hindsight, I think it was a very typical father-son kind of relationship and conflict in that the son wanting to prove to the father his value. And, I think, quite deliberately and quite unconsciously, what I decided was I could only prove my worth to my father in an endeavour that he would understand. CNN Reporter: After a few years working with his parents,Wexner came to his father with an idea. Since coats and dresses weren’t turning a profit, why not focus on women’s sportswear, the store’s best-selling item. His dad’s response? “You’ll never be a merchant.” So Wexner borrowed $5,000 from an aunt and opened The Limited. And, even though he was operating on an educated hunch about sportswear, he had a recurring nightmare: it would fail. Leslie Wexner: It’s the first day, and people just stare through the shop windows in the store, but no one crosses the threshold. And I worked myself ... up into a point where I had a stomach ulcer. And I figured out that at one point, that I had a negative net worth of a million dollars. So I, I thought it was going to be the biggest and youngest bankruptcy the Midwest had ever seen. CNN Reporter: Far from it! Wexner’s gamble paid off with profits that exceeded his expectations. And, just three years later, his parents closed their shop and joined their son. The Limited Entrepreneur 69 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:05 Unit 3 Page 70 E-tombs Video Summary Start 10:09 End 12:44 The report is about an unusual use of the Internet – some Chinese are creating e-tombs to commemorate their loved ones who have died.The report looks at the traditional annual festival of grave-sweeping on which the Chinese visit their ancestors’ and relatives’ graves, sweep and clean them, burn incense and lay offerings of food and flowers. While You Watch Background Question 3 allows learners to say what they have understood.Watching for detail will focus on the detail. 1 You can open an e-tomb web site through Netor.com. 2 Because you can visit them easily, at any time. These virtual burial sites are much less expensive than real burial sites to maintain and visit. 3 You can light candles, burn incense, and offer flowers and songs. 4 1T, 2T, 3E, 4E, 5E, 6E, 7E and T, 8E 5 1c 2a 3b 6 a three b four c $3,000 d two; 12,000 e $24 f two, 2,600, 90% Grave-sweeping day takes place on April 5th each year and is also called Ching Ming or Qin Ming. Ching means pure or clean and Ming means brightness. The Chinese government is encouraging cremation in an attempt to stop the expansion of cemeteries.There is a limited area of land on which to grow crops to feed the Chinese, the world’s largest population. Part of the tradition of grave-sweeping was also to burn money for the dead, so that they would have money in the next life.This practice has been banned in one northern Chinese province because of the risk of forest fires. Netor.com is the web site operator.There are many web sites dedicated to ordinary and famous people. Amongst them are sites to the victims of 9/11 and to Princess Diana Follow-up Before You Watch You can ask learners if they think the family who they saw grave-sweeping would benefit from opening an e-tomb. Possible answer:Yes, as there are a number of elderly relatives in the group who might find it easier not to have to travel to the graveside. Play the video excerpt with the sound turned down and elicit as much vocabulary as you can. Deal with all the words in the list. After You Watch Role-play 1 Learbers’ own answers 2 the Internet to attract visitors a click of the mouse cyberspace to feature memory a message board modernisation technology a subscriber a web page Learners can also choose e-tombs as their service if they wish. the dead to bury a graveyard in memory of to commemorate memory a memorial 70 E-tombs NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:05 Page 71 TRANSCRIPTION CNN Reporter: To Beijing, where technology is catching up with people in life as well as in death.You may have gone to a cemetery to visit a graveside of a friend or a relative who has died. That’s a tradition familiar to most people, but in China, tradition is meeting technology. In something called “E-Tombs,” memorials live on in cyberspace as Jaime Florcruz explains. Jaime Florcruz: Incense burning, three deep bows in memory of the dead. Ancient rituals that have survived the Chinese drive to modernisation. Zhang Jiabin: [Translator] We come here four times a year during holidays. Jaime Florcruz: On this annual grave-sweeping festival, Zhang’s family gather to sweep his wife’s burial site built two years ago at cost of three thousand U.S. dollars. A lot of money and hassle for some Chinese who are turning to cemeteries online, like the Netor dot com, set up in Beijing two years ago and now serving twelve thousand subscribers. Liu Yi: [Translator] [A] traditional cemetery can hardly contain a biography of the dead. [The] Internet offers a better way to commemorate them. Jaime Florcruz: Yang Tuan spent only twenty-four dollars to open an e-tomb for her mother, a famous Beijing writer who died recently. It now features a biography, photos, essays, and a message board. “E-cemeteries will not replace traditional graveyards,” she says, “but they offer a convenient alternative.” Yang Tuan: [Translator] With the online memorial, we can pay our respect and show our love any time we wish. Jaime Florcruz: With a click of the mouse, relatives can light candles, burn incense, and offer flowers and songs.They can also propagate the memory of their loved ones. In two months since Yang opened her mother’s e-tomb, it has attracted more than two thousand six hundred visitors. Yang Tuan: Jaime Florcruz: E-tombs Ninety percent of them are strangers. I was very touched by the words they left on the web page in my mother’s memory. The most important thing in life, a Chinese saying goes, is to get buried well. Now, on the Internet, the buried may also be remembered well. Jaime Florcruz, CNN, Beijing. 71 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:05 Unit 4 Page 72 Auto Brands’ DNA Video Summary Ford owns the following prestigious brands which make up its PAG (Premier Automotive Group): Aston Martin, Jaguar,Volvo and Land Rover. Many people do not know that these vehicles are Ford’s and the current head of PAG, 41-year-old hot-shot executive Mark Fields is happy to keep it that way.The Ford badge, the famous little blue oval, is nowhere in sight and the brands are displayed in separate showrooms to highlight their individuality. The brands do benefit from being part of Ford. Costs are helped by sharing sales, marketing, repair shops and where appropriate, components. The report shows Mark Fields in London, the UK headquarters of PAG and a dealership in Dortmund, Germany. Before You Watch You could play the report without sound and elicit vocabulary from learners, especially: luxury cars, dealership, showroom, back office, repair shop, safety tests, navigational systems. 1 Jaguar, Aston Martin,Volvo, Land Rover 2 They don’t.They’re happy for customers not to associate these prestigious brand names with Ford. 3 1a 2b 3b 4a 5b 6c 7c After You Watch You could give learners the context of one working in a dealership, the other a customer, or just ask them to describe the brand in a less defined context. Extra Activity Ford’s badge is referred to as ‘the little blue oval’. ‘Ford built a one-hundred-sixty-billion-dollar business on a little blue oval.’ Get learners to describe other well-known car badges or logos of other products.You could do this as a guessing game: one person describes the logo, others guess the brand. You could ask what sort of a person they think Mark Fields is, eg. ask, ‘Does he seem confident and successful?’ To teach hot-shot executive you could ask how old they think he is. 1 a7 b5 c6 d3 e1 f4 g2 2 automaker: a component: a, b dealership: a high-end brand: a luxury market: a parts: b safety systems: b suspension: b vehicle: b retail: b 3 Learners’ own answers. This question is focused on in detailed questions, ex 1 question 3 and ex 2. Start 12:46 End 15:34 While You Watch Ask learners to describe each vehicle’s DNA from what they know about the brand and from what image this footage conveys. 72 Auto Brands’ DNA NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:05 Page 73 TRANSCRIPTION CNN Reporter: Ford built a one-hundred-sixtybillion-dollar business on a little blue oval. In the late eighties, to lure wealthy customers, the number two automaker began its push into the luxury market, buying Ford brands outside the U.S.: Aston Martin, Jaguar, Volvo, and Land Rover.Today, they make up Ford’s Premier Automotive Group, or PAG. Mark Fields is PAG’s new chief. At forty-one, he’s a hotshot executive, with cars in his blood. Mark Fields: This is a dream job for me. And, and the reason for that is ... I remember, when I was growing up in New Jersey, and I used to go by the, uh, ... Jaguar dealership. And my friends and I used to go by there and think, oh, one day ... CNN Reporter: Today, Fields has his choice of a Jag or an Aston Martin, or two other high-end brands. One of the things you said about your industry and about your cars is that it has a brand DNA.What does that mean? Mark Fields: Brand DNA, very simply, ... if, if the vehicle was a person, how would you describe them? Or, alternatively, when you look at the vehicle and you get in the vehicle and drive it, what’s the taste or the flavour of that vehicle? CNN Reporter But selling luxury and getting the flavour right means keeping the Ford brand out of sight. Mark Fields: Most people don’t know that Ford owns the brands in PAG. And we want to, ... I think for the most part, ... we want to keep it that way. CNN Reporter: At the retail level, the Ford blue oval is conspicuously absent. Dealerships, like this one in Dortmund, Germany, sell the Ford PAG brands under one roof. Separate entrances and showrooms clearly distinguish each brand. Mark Fields: For those customers that do not know that we own these various brands, that’s fine, ... that’s fine with me. CNN Reporter: But, behind the scenes PAG and Ford reap savings on common back offices, sales, marketing, and even repair shops.The Ford global muscle also comes in large-scale investment in safety and navigational systems that could be shared. Engineer: And so ... we can do the comparison ... and we look at it for commonality in areas where the customer doesn’t see ... Mark Fields: Right CNN Reporter: But critics warned that, to increase profits, Ford parts may wind up in Jaguars or Aston Martins. Fields says cost-cutting won’t harm the brands’ integrity. Mark Fields: If we say, well, we can save a certain amount of money by going to a certain suspension, but we realise that if we do that, we would compromise the brand character of the vehicle, then we will not do that. Because, in the long term, that will degrade the brand. At the same time, there’ll be other instances, for example, where we find some components, which do not affect the dynamic personality of the vehicle, that we can share amongst the entire group.That does bring costs down. Auto Brands’ DNA 73 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:05 Unit 5 Page 74 Truffle Wars Video Summary The French truffle is a luxury item and has a price tag to match. Less valuable Chinese truffles are being exported to France and sold as if they were French by unscrupulous merchants. French truffle growers are unhappy as their business is being undermined. French scientists are working to crack the genetic code of the Périgord, a prized French truffle, so that the truffles can be tested to check their origin. The report focuses on the qualities of the French truffle over the Chinese truffle and ends in a lighthearted experiment to see if a pig can tell the difference. 1 Imported Chinese truffles are being sold in Europe as French truffles.The Chinese truffles have a market value of less than 5% of the French truffles. 2 Yes, it eats a French truffle. 3 French truffles: $600/kg exported from France high-priced gourmet food Chinese truffles: cheap $30/kg imported to Europe 4 a underground b find c can d southwestern e French, Chinese f flavour 5 1b 2b 6 investigates thoroughly: 3 rejects Chinese truffles: 4 returns to the French truffles: 5 switches allegiance: 2 favours the French truffles: 1 You may want to point out to learners that all the interviewees have very strong French accents. Before discussing the questions in the introduction, make sure that learners know what truffles are.You could show the first images of the report where they are being put in the bowl and also tell them that pigs are used to find them as they grow underground. You could ask learners further warm-up questions, eg Have you ever eaten truffles? Do you know the price of truffles in your country? Can you guess? You could find out the price, or ask learners to do so for the next lesson. Before You Watch a b c d e f g h i j k After You Watch (Suggested answers) 1 Not very aware. create controversy have a market value undermine business highly developed switch allegiance gourmet food crack the genetic code sense of smell scientific test put something to the test competing products (business) 2 Start 15:35 End 18:14 While You Watch Extra Activity If learners are close enough to the screen, you could also ask them who Michel Courvoisier represents. (Answer: French Federation of Truffle Growers.) You could ask learners what the man looking into the bag does. (Answer: He’s a truffle importer.) 74 Tr u f f l e W a r s Food labelling could be standardised internationally. NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:05 Page 75 TRANSCRIPTION CNN Reporter: Truffles, like these from western China, have a market value of thirty US dollars a kilogram ... about five percent of what you’d pay for French truffles. Recently, they’ve created a lot of controversy.That’s because cheap Chinese truffles are being exported to Europe and sold to consumers there as high-priced gourmet food. French truffle growers say their business is being undermined by unscrupulous local merchants. Michel Courvoisier: It’s not the Chinese we are fighting, it’s the people in Europe ... in France. CNN Reporter: Truffles grow underground and, traditionally, pigs are used to uproot them since they have a highly developed sense of smell and can forage for the delicacy, although dogs can be trained to find truffles, too. Eventually, they end up in kitchens like this one in Hong Kong, where Executive Chef Marc Toutin especially likes Périgord truffles from southwestern France. He says they have far more natural flavour than competing Chinese products. Marc Toutin: The French truffle you can make up a sauce, okay, with no additive. Chinese truffles, what people have to do - kind of trick- is just to put, like, truffle oil on it. CNN Reporter: Many consumers don’t know about these tricks.That’s why French scientists have worked to crack the genetic code of the Périgord ... so they can test food and positively identify the source of the ingredients. Many truffle importers welcome that effort. Man: It will stop, that we got … truffles, eh, supposed to be, eh, French truffles, and we get Chinese truffles. CNN Reporter Which is good news if you really think there’s a difference between the two. So, let’s put that to the test. On the right-hand side of your screen, these French truffles that just came out of the oven this morning, and on the left-hand side these Chinese truffles. Let’s see which one is more popular. Tr u f f l e W a r s At first, pigs from Hong Kong’s Kadouri farm seem to favour French truffles.Then they switch allegiance. But, after thorough investigation, this sow rejected the Chinese truffles, returned to the tray full of Périgord, and ate one.You couldn’t call this a scientific test but it’s firm proof that pigs are picky ... . Andrew Brown, CNN Hong Kong. 75 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:05 Unit 6 Page 76 Summit Living Video Summary After You Watch Critics accuse the Johannesburg Earth Summit of being a UN extravaganza, an excuse for high living in a country where there are huge differences between rich and poor. Although delegates stay in up-market hotels, they refute the suggestion that they live the high life. This summit cost just a tenth of the Rio Earth summit ten years beforehand. You can tell learners that they can decide how to present the news to their staff - either by supporting their own boss’s decision or by not agreeing with it. Background At the Johannesburg summit the following important new targets were established: • to halve the proportion of people without access to basic sanitation by 2015; • to use and produce chemicals by 2020 in ways that do not lead to significant diverse effects on human health and the environment; • to maintain or restore depleted fish stocks to levels that can produce the maximum sustainable yield on an urgent basis and where possible by 2015; • to achieve by 2010 a significant reduction in the current rate of loss of biological diversity. Before You Watch Check learners understand the meaning of all these words. Ask them to predict which they will see in the report. You can then show the report with or without sound to elicit these expressions, before learners watch to answer comprehension questions. 1 Learners’ own ideas. 2 a bonanza 3 a flock b delegate b affluent, seedy c high living c host a function Start 18:16 End 21:37 While You Watch 76 1 Not according to members of the UN. (Learners can make up their own minds). 2 It creates employment opportunities in the hotel industry. 3 It is much cheaper – a tenth of the cost. 4 d, a, b, c 5 1 2 3 4 a b a a Summit Living NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:05 Page 77 TRANSCRIPTION CNN Reporter: Wining and dining at the Earth Summit as world leaders flock to Johannesburg for the largest gathering of heads of states ever outside of New York City. Add to that tens of thousands of delegates all converge in one of the city’s most affluent neighborhoods and a stone’s throw away from its seediest slum. Hotels and guesthouses, restaurants and diners all put on their broadest smiles and waited to cash in on the Summit bonanza. This is up-market West Cliff Hotel, a fifteen-minute drive from the Summit site. Delegates here dine on the finest of foods, everything from fresh oysters to caviar, under a backdrop of the city’s imposing skyline. Delegates pay for their own meals and, general manager Mark Holden says, they aren’t any different from any of his regular guests. Mark Holden: I haven’t seen any extravagance, uh, in my hotel ... much, as though I might have wished for that. But that notwithstanding uh, I think really ... uh, we’re missing some of the, the true point … point of this ... I think the World Summit, certainly with the amount of delegates that we’ve had to look after in Johannesburg - I think we’ve looked after somewhere between thirty-five to forty thousand delegates from all corners of the Earth - that has provided, um, many more employment opportunities. CNN Reporter: Employment opportunities that have enabled the one-hundred-twentyroom West Cliff to hire additional staff for the Summit period. But it’s not just the up-market neighborhoods that are attracting the delegates.This is Soweto: scene of some of the most violent incidents during the Apartheid era. And this is Wandies—a local shebeen and one-time illegal gathering place. Today, it’s a famous restaurant for both tourists, and now Summit-goers. There are no frills here; just a buffet lunch of homegrown delicacies. First Man: The business is very good.We make sure that when they think of coming to this country, we are number one the first choice. CNN Reporter: Conference organizers say, despite critics calling this Summit just another UN extravaganza, there’s very little to show that it’s been all about high living. Second Man: Well first we didn’t live a high life. I hope you saw that. And one of the things that we did do was to really encourage a certain frugality. For instance, the UN didn’t host any functions.We worked with the ... I hope you people realise this. I’ve lived on sandwiches most of the time, and so have most of the delegates. And this has not been a place full of these lavish dinners and parties ... . CNN Reporter: But many agree there are great disparities between the rich and poor throughout the world. And Johannesburg is no different. Kofi Anan: We would want to change these inequities, we would want to be able to uplift the poor, we want to be able to improve their conditions and so I … whilst the observation may be accurate, it really is not the issue … . CNN Reporter: Total running costs to the UN of the entire World Summit, roughly $1million, one tenth of what it cost to host just over half as many delegates at the Rio Earth Summit ten years ago. Summit Living 77 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:05 Unit 7 Page 78 Location Innovation Video Summary After You Watch With a tracking device from the Pinpoint company, developed for the Hong Kong market, employers know where their workers out in the field are.The device does not use expensive satellite technology, but mobile phones and costs on average $20 dollars a month for each employee. Productivity in companies that use this device has increased by between 10 and 15%. Critics think the system is intrusive, but the Pinpoint company insists that they protect the privacy of the user. Students’ own answers to the questions in the introduction. 1 Learners’ own answers 2 Once learners have done this exercise, you can tell them that Pinpoint has, in fact, developed all of these. You could also ask them what features they think are essential. For example, a button that allows the user to switch off the device. 3 Learners’ own answers Before learners do the exercise, you could play part of the video and ask learners why they think Thomas Joy keeps looking at his mobile. Before You Watch a: tracks his movements: shows where he is as he moves from place to place b: out in the field: working outside the company, not in the office c keep tabs on: make sure you know where someone is and what they are doing; intrusive: when something or someone is involved in something or somewhere where it, he or she is not wanted Start 21:39 End 24:14 While You Watch Question 2 is not directly answered in the report, but it draws on learners’ understanding of the device, and is also a way of teaching the expression ‘to pinpoint something’. 78 1 b 2 To pinpoint something means to show exactly where it is, so it is a good name for the company. 3 aT b F:The information is delivered in real time. cT dT eT fT gT Location Innovation NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:05 Page 79 TRANSCRIPTION CNN Reporter: If you want to know where Thomas Joy is, just contact him on the mobile. Don’t worry if he doesn’t pick up. Joy’s phone is linked to a computer that tracks his movements. As he roams around Hong Kong, dispatchers from his company can see his position on a map.The information is delivered in real time and is accurate within two hundred meters.That’s not a precise fix, but it can be delivered without the use of expensive satellite technology. First Man: Previous technologies have tended to rely on, um, hardware-driven solutions, and that has proven to be an expensive proposition for companies. CNN Reporter: The Pinpoint Company has developed a tracking service for the Hong Kong market. Regular mobile phones are used and subscribers are also able to receive text messages from their employer.This service has been adopted by, among others, Watson’s Water, which has hundreds of workers out in the field, delivering supplies and fixing water coolers. That’s what Thomas Joy does. Companies are paying on average twenty dollars per month to keep tabs on each of their employees. Firms use the tracking system to improve efficiency. First Man: It typically ranges anywhere between ten to fifteen percent in increase productivity; that is a tangible saving, okay, which you can measure by how many additional jobs the field workers are doing in a month. CNN Reporter: Some analysts point out these systems can be intrusive, since employees are always carrying a mobile. Second Man: As an employee, there’s just not much you can do about it if your boss wants to know where you are. You could, in the past, say that you were at the office, when in fact you were at some bar. In fact, there are some bars called “The Office” where you can actually tell truthfully to your boss or in fact your spouse that you’re still at some bar. First Man: All of our services are developed around the fact that we must protect [the] privacy of the user. CNN Reporter: It’s too early to say where this technology is heading but, in Hong Kong, the impact could be farreaching. Pinpoint’s technology knows whether an employee’s downtown or in the suburbs, on a mountain, or even in the middle of the ocean. First Man: That means one of the guys is drowning. CNN Reporter: But, before you mount a rescue, give the employee a call. Even if they’ve disappeared, most likely they’ll still be breathing. Andrew Brown, CNN, in the Hong Kong Cross-harbor tunnel. Location Innovation 79 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:05 Unit 8 Page 80 Designer Video Summary Start 24:18 End 26:31 Amid scenes of Paris fashion shows, the report looks at the interdependent relationship between the fashion world and the fashion media and asks whether the latter can make or break a designer. Contributions come from a designer who does not appear to worry too much about the media: from Anna Wintour, Editor of Vogue, the magazine from which Giorgio Armani has withdrawn advertisements because of the magazine’s editorial content: from movie star John Malkovitch attending a fashion show. One contributor doubts that when it comes down to the consumer buying, he or she will make up his or her own mind. While You Watch 1 Yes. She shows how important the designers think reviews are: journalists have been banned from fashion shows after giving negative reviews. 2 Examples of the ‘love-hate’ relationship: love when the right critic writes a positive article, this can make a designer’s career. media want to be at every show. support of designers in the media, eg in Vogue. hate when a critic writes an acidic article. Giorgio Armani pulled ads from Vogue because they refused to change editorial content. Consequently Vogue lost thousands in advertising revenue from Armani. 3 All of them except d. Armani withdrew ads from Vogue. He was not banned. You may want to point out to the first person interviewed has a foreign accent. Before You Watch Check that learners understand all the word partnerships in ex. 2. Before you ask learners to look at the While You Watch questions, you could play the report to elicit vocabulary. Pause to ask them how they would describe the journalists’ reactions, and what sort of reviews they will write. Elicit the words: good review, negative review and acidic article. You could ask them how they would describe the clothes they see to elicit, eg, avant-garde. You could also ask them what information they think the report might contain. 80 1 a 3, b1, c 2, d 9, e 8, f 10, g 5, h 6, i 4, j 7 2 1f media attention 2 c two-page spread 3 b editorial content 4 a publicity stunt 5/6 h/d fashion media/fashion critic 7 g to promote a designer 8 e advertising revenue After You Watch Learners can work in pairs and then give feedback to the class. Designer NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:08 Page 81 TRANSCRIPTION Paula Hancocks: Designer: Paula Hancocks: Paula Hancocks: Anna Wintour: Paula Hancocks: John Malkovitch: Paula Hancocks: Man: (Some) times ... ... it can go with the ... with the ... with the press people and sometimes it doesn’t do it. So, for me, it’s very important just to be free and to dream and then to ... for the others to ... just to ... understand or not. There’s no doubt the media attention is there every single show we have been to this week, the press have been clamouring to get that spot. So, the real question is whether or not the power of the pen can make or break a designer. Paula Hancocks: You can promote a designer like crazy, ... you can take ads like crazy. Eventually, there’s no editor standing next to a consumer at the store. She or he will buy whatever he looks good in. And, so, no amount of cajoling from anybody is going to make them put it on their body. So, the love-hate relationship between fashion and media remains. Unlikely to change, considering they each financially feed one another. Paula Hancocks, CNN, Paris A two-page spread in one of the glossy magazines could cost about two hundred thousand dollars a month. Giorgio Armani recently pulled ads from Vogue around the world after editor, Anna Wintour, failed to change editorial content. We support the designers that we feel deserve to be in the magazine and deserve attention and that we think that our readers would like to know about. And, you know, they’re in the magazine for all sorts of reasons because they’re avant-garde or new or, um, maybe they appeal to more realistic, sense of dress. But, uh, they’re in the magazine because Vogue believes in them for whatever reason. One of the best publicity stunts: famous clients attending your show. The less they are part of the fashion circuit, the better. I really don’t follow it religiously ... I mean, I occasionally watch fashion TV, ... but I don’t really come to these things very often. Sort of a one-off or so. But at the end of the day, does a good review sell clothes? Designer 81 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:08 Unit 9 Page 82 The Britishness Test Video Summary After You Watch Stereotypes of Britishness are contrasted to today’s multi-cultural Britain.The government is concerned that the number of immigrants not being able to speak English leads to problems of isolation within some ethnic communities.They are introducing a test which immigrants will have to take in English before they can be granted British citizenship.This test will include aspects of British traditions which can be hard to define. Not everyone is in favour, and Trevor Phillips, a member of the London Assembly, speaks out against the test. Learners should justify their answer in question 1. Learners could work in pairs and then as a class. You could also ask learners if they think they would pass a citizenship test in their country. Background The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act passed in 2002 introduced the evaluation of language skills into the naturalisation process. People who want British citizenship must demonstrate sufficient English,Welsh or Scottish Gaelic! This has caused some to say, why not recognise, eg Punjabi as an official language as there are as many Punjabi speakers in UK as Gaelic speakers. Learners could work in pairs to come up with their idea of Britain and then pool them as a class. Before You Watch a 4, b 6, c 7, d 10, e 3, f 8, g 5, h 2, i 9, j 1 Start 26:33 End 28:58 While You Watch 82 1 The traditional stereotype is of Buckingham Palace, red telephone boxes, tea and scones. While these things still exist, the face of modern Britain is a multicultural one. 2 A citizenship test for immigrants to make sure they know about Britain and can speak English. 3 b, c, e, f, h, i, j 4 b 5 a, b 6 a 7 b 8 b T h e B r i t i s h n e s s Te s t NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:08 Page 83 TRANSCRIPTION CNN Reporter: When you think of Britain, what do you visualise to be particularly British? Changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace? Or, perhaps, you think of red telephone boxes, doubledecker buses, and black cabs. Or maybe your idea of quintessential Britain is having a cup of tea and some scones. But those stereotypes just don’t get it. Modern, multicultural Britain is more difficult to define, but the government is trying anyway. It’s asked this man, Bernard Crick, to construct a test for immigrants. They’ll have to pass it - in English before being granted citizenship. And if they can’t speak English, the government will give them free lessons. Bernard Crick: We’ll be trying to give a fairly accurate description of British customs and habits. Now, that will have to be at some level of generality because, after all, they vary in different parts of the country. CNN Reporter: In fact, cultural peculiarities are cherished. Bernard Crick: If your good cameraman called me “Luv” in London, I would punch him. But in Derbyshire and South Yorkshire, that is how men talk to men. Little things like that can cause tremendous problems. CNN Reporter: But, not being able to speak English has caused greater problems, leading to a growing isolation of some ethnic communities. Prescribing a curriculum and test for citizens has some Britons concerned. First Man: The whole idea of compulsion and setting rules, and so on, is a terrible mistake and is against what I regard as, uh, British traditions. CNN Reporter: British traditions? Well, that’s the whole problem. Even the British are unsure of what being British means. Second Man: Being British means for me, mmm ... , good question. Third Man: Being British means being kind of united, individual though at the same time. First Woman: I think I feel more European than British. Second Woman: I’m proud to be British in the sense like, you know, I feel that I belong here. CNN Reporter: The proposed citizenship test is still being drafted. Until it is instituted, perhaps the only real test of Britishness is if you can stomach warm beer on a cold day. T h e B r i t i s h n e s s Te s t 83 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:08 Page 84 Unit 10 Hollywood’s Marketing Machine Video Summary After You Watch Hollywood has a powerful marketing machine which it uses to promote its films in the domestic and international market. It customises its campaigns and release dates to suit specific markets.The one thing that is same all over the world is the need for promotion, including promotional tours by stars. 1 a revenues b overseas market c marketing machine d campaigns e customised f promotional tours g piracy 2-3 Learners can think of a Hollywood film or a film from another foreign country. Before You Watch Before doing the exercises in the worksheet, you could show the report without sound to elicit vocabulary including: videos, video store, DVD, new releases, film, action, film premier, film stars, to make a film, schedule, studio, piracy, counterfeiting. The word flicks appears in the report: tell learners this is an informal word for films. You could ask learners what information they think the report will give. For exercise 2 learners could work in pairs. Some of the expressions may be new to them, so tell them not to be discouraged, but to see which they may know. Then go through the answers with them - use this as the teaching phase. 1 a-c: Learners’ own answers at this stage – answers from report appear in the next box 2 a 4, b 8, c 9, d 10, e 2, f 3, g 10, h 7, i 6, j 1, k 5 Start 29:01 End 31:30 While You Watch Answers to Before You Watch after seeing report. a They have to listen to what local people tell them and release films, taking into account the local calendar, eg school holidays. b Market by market, but use promotional tours in all markets. c Counterfeiting and Internet piracy. 84 1 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6b 2 promotion 3 They wanted to make him into a well known figure and to promote the movie XXX that he stars in. 4 $150 million 5 DVD counterfeiting and Internet piracy H o l l y w o o d ’s M a r k e t i n g M a c h i n e NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:08 Page 85 TRANSCRIPTION Stephen Moore: We usually say that 50 percent of the revenues come from international. But there are many occasions, uh, the biggest of all time, Titanic, for example, where the international market ... can ... uh, ... can contribute double the domestic market. And, not only in the cinema business, but throughout the film’s life through home entertainment: DVD and video and television ... . CNN Reporter: Big stars, big action flicks, and characters that tug at the heartstrings typically do well around the world. Child: Yeah, I’m going to see Star Wars! CNN Reporter: Still, all agree, a big global payday can be elusive. So the industry turns to its legendary marketing machine to hedge its bets.When it comes to international marketing, there’s no such thing as “one size fits all.” Dick Cook: I can’t think of a single campaign that we’ve done in the last ten or fifteen years that has been exactly the same. CNN Reporter: These films may be made in Hollywood but, in most cases, local staffers - in important markets around the world - help customise their campaigns. Dick Cook: You have to check your own ego and really, uh, rely upon what your people are telling you.Time and time again, they’ve been right, and our instincts would have been completely wrong. CNN Reporter: Studios also schedule a film’s release date with the local calendar in mind. Dick Cook: The holidays are different.We want to schedule them when the families are available - when kids are available. And that can differ from country to country ... . CNN Reporter: One thing that’s as important in Trenton as it is in Tokyo ... promotion, promotion, promotion! Joe Roth: A star’s appearance in an overseas market has an unbelievable, uh-uh, benefit. CNN Reporter: Roth’s Revolution Studios - a highprofile, two-year-old startup - sent the star of Triple X [XXX],Vin Diesel, a relative unknown around the world, on a twelve-country promotional tour. Joe Roth: I know he went to twelve different cities in Europe alone. And he went to Japan. And he went to Hong Kong. CNN Reporter: And the result of all those frequent flier miles for Vin Diesel ... ? Joe Roth: It makes him a star ... whatever movie he does, they now know him in that territory. CNN Reporter: Thanks in part to its nearly onehundred-fifty-million-dollar international box office, XXX is Revolution’s most successful film to date. But all that money and all that marketing may not matter as Hollywood faces a potentially deadly opponent to its global dominance: piracy! Stephen Moore: We have an epidemic DVD counterfeiting problem at the moment. And, on the top of that, we have an emerging - and potentially explosive - problem of Internet piracy. H o l l y w o o d ’s M a r k e t i n g M a c h i n e 85 NBusinMattersTBK 23/12/2003 11:46 Page 86 Unit 11 Bagging a Niche Market Video Summary The report looks at the story behind Tote Le Monde, a popular brand of bag that despite being relatively inexpensive is sold alongside much more expensive brands in expensive department stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue.The report asks how can such a brand can compete. It speaks for itself means: a. it is so good, there is no need to advertise it. b. it is very uncomplicated. 1b, 2b, 3a, 4a, 5a Background Start 31:32 End 34:08 Tote Le Monde created an environmentally friendly, durable, functional and fashionable ‘carry-all’ bag, made out of recyclable plastic. It expanded to making travel bags, placemats, shower curtains, belts, business portfolios all in its instantly recognisable signature material of striped recycled plastic. Tia Wou does all the company’s advertising and the brand has been featured in the high fashion press such as Elle, Elle Decor, InStyle and Oprah. Ask learners what they think the title Bagging a Niche Market means. Explain that ‘to bag’ in this context means to get something that other people want. It is of course, also a play on words, as the product the report focuses on is a bag. Ask learners if they have heard of, or anything about the company Tote Le Monde. While You Watch Before You Watch 1b, 2c, 3a, 4f, 5g, 6e, 7d, 8h, Extra Activity The report uses a lot of idiomatic language.You could photocopy the following for learners, or ask them verbally to choose the correct answer. 1 86 5 Products which fly off the shelves are: a. a failure and have to be removed from the shops. b. very popular and sell very fast. 2 For some customers money is no object.They: a. think there’s no point in having money. b. don’t have to worry about money, because they are so wealthy. 3 Someone who goes against the norm: a. does not follow the usual way of doing something. b. lacks common sense. 4 It is here today, gone tomorrow means: a. it is temporary, transient. b. it travels a lot. 1 a successful b small c accessories d major e reasonable f expensive g Tia Wou h niche i skeleton-size j low k high 2 company name products some products made from price tag on a Tote Le Monde bag annual sales figures country of design country of manufacture designer number of full-time staff retail outlets where sold Tote Le Monde accessories recycled plastic $28 approx. 2 million US Bolivia Tia Wou 8 Neiman Marcus, Barneys, Saks Fifth Avenue After You Watch 1. Learners can work in pairs or groups. Elicit learners’ opinions of the bags. Ask learners what sort of consumers the bags would appeal to, eg. to the fashion-conscious ..., to the environmentally aware. Ask them if they think women may be particularly swayed by the environmentally-friendly aspect of the product. 2. In asking learners to discuss this, you might also point out that the co-founders are both women. In what way might this affect the company they run? Bagging a Niche Market NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:08 Page 87 TRANSCRIPTION CNN Anchor: CNN Reporter: Tia Wou: CNN Reporter: Carmen Borgonovo: CNN Reporter: Neiman Marcus, Barneys, Saks Fifth Avenue - institutions in high fashion and in high prices. But don’t tell that to entrepreneur Tia Wou, a fine arts graduate from Brown with a flair for business. Her accessories are flying off the shelves of high-end stores at rather low-end prices. Rhonda Schaffler reports: In high-end fashion it seems money is no object. From shoes to jewellery to handbags, no detail is too small and no price tag is too big. But when Tia Wou wanted to break into the luxury market with an all-purpose handbag, she went against the norm. Abandoning high price points and big overhead for inexpensive bags and a skeleton-size staff. Armed with only her credit card and one sample bag,Tia did the unthinkable. She made luxury store buyers take notice of her brand, Tote Le Monde. We’d go into the stores and I would talk to the sales people and I’d say, ‘Is your buyer in?’ And the buyers are never around. And so I’d say, ‘Well, you know, I designed this bag and maybe you want to look at it and then I’ll call your buyer and I’ll tell her to ask you what you think.’ And then from there it sort of propelled on and we were into Barneys soon we were into Barneys after that and that’s how we started. The brand was created in 1993. Working out of her downtown loft has kept Tote Le Monde’s costs low and returns high. But how does a company with a full-time staff of only eight, compete with a big-name luxury brand? have graced several magazine covers. At Bendel’s in New York, they’re placed among bags that are five to ten times the price.Tote Le Monde remains a low-priced bag that is still a status symbol. Carmen Borgonovo: CNN Reporter: Tia Wou: CNN Reporter: It is rare, but then if you hit that special niche and, you market it well and if the product is good, you know, it works. But it is rare. And they’ve definitely captured a special market in the accessories market. Annual sales for the bags are in the two million dollar range.Tote Le Monde’s niche is here today.Will it be gone tomorrow? I think it’s a very strong concept. I think it’s a very strong product.You know sometimes there are trends that come and go. It’s just got a high visibility, it’s because it’s so …, the product is fun and it speaks for itself. For Business Unusual, I’m Rhonda Schaffler. CNN Financial News, New York. Well, it’s because it’s so greatlooking. I mean it’s as simple as that. It’s great to wear. It’s colourful. It just looks good for the summer. And just because it’s not expensive, doesn’t mean it’s not a great brand. Tote Le Monde’s signature style is a colourful bag made out of recycled plastic.The main factory is in Bolivia, but the design takes place inside Wou’s apartment. She does all her own advertising, and her bags Bagging a Niche Market 87 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:08 Page 88 Unit 12 PCCW’s Acquisitions Video Summary Start 34:10 End 37:04 PCCW is Hong Kong’s dominant telecom service provider. Its credit rating assessed by Moody’s (a company which helps investors to assess credit risks) is likely to be downgraded. PCCW first acquired Hong Kong’s main phone company and then acquired considerable debt when the Internet and telecoms industry collapsed. It assured Moody’s that it would not make any new acquisitions until 2004, but then put in an informal bid for UK’s Cable & Wireless. It has reportedly also shown interest in Japan Telecom.These are both companies which would be selling low. The sale of Cyberport, a high-tech office and residential development may help PCCW, as it will provide funds for new ventures. While You Watch Background Thirty-six-year-old chairman of PCCW, Richard Li, is the son of a Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-Shing. PCCW had $4.2 billion in net debt at the end of 2002, and set a goal of reducing debt by another $1 billion by the end of 2005. After this report was made, PCCW was downgraded by Moody’s in May 2003. One effect of this is that it will have to pay more interest. 1 Yes, Hong Kong’s main phone company. 2 Japan Telecom. It also made an informal bid for Cable & Wireless, but did not pursue this. 3 Moody’s wants to review PCCW’s credit rating downwards. 4 1a 2a 3a 4a 5a 6b 7b Before You Watch 1 88 a to scotch rumours b a bold move c to borrow money d a mountain of debt e credit rating f a buying spree g to make an informal offer h mature market i to buy assets j to undertake an acquisition P C C W ’s A c q u i s i t i o n s NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:08 Page 89 TRANSCRIPTION CNN Reporter: A few years ago, PCCW turned its own Internet business into a promising telecom, acquiring Hong Kong’s dominant phone company. It was a bold move since PCCW had little cash of its own and had to borrow huge sums of money to back its bid. PCCW’s chairman, Richard Li, persuaded banks to lend him what he needed. But, as the Internet and telecom’s markets collapsed, the firm was left with a mountain of debt, which undermined its credibility. Li quickly reassured analysts there would be no more giant acquisitions. The Moody’s ratings agency says it was told buying sprees were being suspended, at least until the middle of 2004. So Moody’s was taken by surprise when PCCW confirmed February 6 it had made an informal offer to buy Britain’s Cable and Wireless. Moody’s representative: We’re concerned that, uh, if the company was to undertake an acquisition, it may have ... an impact on its credit profile, specifically, if there was additional debt that was taken into the group profile. CNN Reporter: PCCW has now said it will not be pursuing Cable and Wireless, and is trying to scotch rumours it is in talks with Japan Telecom to buy part of its business. Both targets are something of a puzzle. Analyst: The only thing that links potentially Cable and Wireless and Japan Telecom and any other assets that might come up in the next week or two is that they’re simply assets which are seen to be you know lowpriced, there’s an opportunity for a deal-maker uh such as Richard Li to go in and do what he’s done before. CNN Reporter: But analysts say there are good reasons for Richard Li to buy assets outside Hong Kong, which is now a mature market. Analyst: Organically, there’s almost no such thing as organic growth in Hong Kong.The economy is slow so we won’t … until the economy recovers, ... we won’t see recovery in a fixedline sector. And, even then, that won’t be, won’t be very strong. CNN Reporter: One bright spot may be Cyberport, a high-tech office and luxury residential development, being built by PCCW. PCCW will be trying to raise extra funds when the residential units go on sale very shortly. Of course, this project isn’t exactly what you’d call ‘organic,’ either. But it may stop critics trashing PCCW, since the firm will have more cash for future ventures, whatever they may be. Moody’s says it intends to sit down with PCCW officials and reevaluate the company’s finances. At the moment, Moody’s has put PCCW on review for a ratings downgrade. Moody’s representative: Our statistics indicate that, about 65 per cent of the time, the outcome is in the direction of the review. CNN Reporter: In other words, the odds are against PCCW. Andrew Brown, CNN Hong Kong. P C C W ’s A c q u i s i t i o n s 89 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:08 Page 90 Unit 13 Environmentally Friendly? Video Summary Start 31:32 End 34:08 A consortium of oil companies led by ExxonMobil is constructing a pipeline from land-locked Chad through Cameroon to the coast, in order to export Chad’s crude oil.The report looks at the criticisms levelled at the project. While You Watch Background This project has taken years to get off the ground in part because of environmental issues. The pipeline will be 1,050 miles long and 30m wide and the project included drilling 300 oil wells in southern Chad. 1 The answer to question 1 is to some extent subjective, but the reporter does seem to give more emphasis to the negative points surrounding the construction of the pipeline. 2 A consortium of oil companies led by ExxonMobil.The World Bank. 3 a +, b -, c +/-:The World Bank says it is complying with environmental standards, but critics say the project is harming the environment. d -, e -, f +, g + 4 a The shift starts at 7.00a.m.; b The workers have to lay 5km of pipeline a day; c It is a $4billion project; d Construction work started in October 2000. e ExxonMobil and its partners say the Doba oil reserves will last twenty-five to thirty years; f Thousands of people are employed in both Chad and Cameroon, and 85 % of them come from local villages; g GDP of Chad before start of the project in 1999; h Growth in Chad in 2001 Before You Watch For ex. 1, play the video without sound. To elicit laying a pipeline, welding, digging a trench, gruelling work, you could ask the following questions: What are these people doing? Do you think it’s easy work? To elicit rainforests, you could ask: What impact do you think the construction has on the environment? What sort of pipeline do you think it is? 2 90 a consortium of companies b to undertake a project c to threaten or harm the environment d to replant crops e to comply with standards f an advisory group g to step out of line h in dire need of After You Watch Allocate parts and then show learners the report once again before they argue their point of view. Environmentally Friendly? NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:08 Page 91 TRANSCRIPTION CNN Reporter: This is grueling work.The shift begins at seven in the morning and, before the end of the day, the men must lay pipes covering a distance of five kilometers.They work in teams: one places the pipes on the surface, then another moves in and welds them together, the third team does a second phase of welding before the pipes are placed in trenches two meters below the ground. This is a $four-billion project undertaken by a consortium of oil companies led by ExxonMobil.When complete, it’ll provide land-locked Chad with a market for its crude oil. Construction work began in October of 2000, including the development of three oil fields in Chad’s Doba basin. ExxonMobil and its partners say the Doba oil reserves will last twentyfive to thirty years. Environmentalists say the project also threatens Cameroon’s rain forests—a vegetation already under threat from nomadic farmers, hunters and unregulated logging.Villagers will be allowed to replant crops on the land, but no trees or houses. The World Bank’s involvement in the project has been criticised by some, especially since an internal report released in September said the project will harm the environment. But the bank says there is an independent advisory group established to ensure that all involved comply with environmental standards. First Man: We are using or working with external partners to ensure that this complies. And I think that’s about as much as the bank or these governments can do. And, if the oil companies were to step out of line, I think we’ve got enough leverage to, to ensure that, uh, ... they meet their commitments. CNN Reporter: Many of the people here are farmers, and will lose a significant number of their crops and farmland. Towns along the pipeline route are in dire need of roads, more schools, hospitals, and other essentials. Critics say the project brings no such development to these communities. ExxonMobil counters that argument by pointing to the employment opportunities the project has provided thus far.Thousands of people are employed in both Chad and Cameroon, and 85 percent of them come from local villages. Second Man: Before this project started year 1999, year 2000, the growth of Chad was 1%, GDP growth of Chad was 1%.We started construction activity at the end of year 2000. Growth in Chad in 2001 was 9%. CNN Reporter: Yet, critics say those figures are miniscule when compared with the millions that ExxonMobil stands to make. And, as construction of the Chad/Cameroon pipeline nears completion, there are even calls for a reevaluation of the project to ensure that development does indeed come to towns such as this one, in the heart of central Cameroon. Environmentally Friendly? 91 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:08 Page 92 Unit 14 Microfinance Video Summary Start 40:19 End 44:12 The Ugandan Microfinance Union (UMU) lends small sums of money to people who are not served by commercial banks. It was set up by Charles Nayalli and Rodney Schuster and is making a real difference to the lives of micro entrepreneurs, people who sell vegetables, have small stores, make clothing and run the other small businesses that make up the backbone of developing economies. UMU is finding that the repayment rate on loans is excellent. While You Watch Background New members of UMU can borrow 50,000 shillings. When this loan has been repaid, they can then borrow 100,000 shillings. Loans continue to increase by increments of 50,000.When Regias Kokkures says ‘I started with 500,000,’ she probably means 50,000 shillings. Speakers You may want to tell learners that Regias Kokkures and Charles Nayalli have quite strong accents as non-native speakers. English is the official national language of Uganda and is taught in schools, though a number of Niger-Congo languages are also used. 1 a F bT cT dT eT 2 a studying b 1997 (they conceived of the idea in 1996, but opened the bank in 1997) c the Bank of Uganda and USAID d Large commercial banks e easier 3 All except f are given as examples 4 a. $100 b people who sell vegetables: have small stores: make clothing: run other small businesses c 98% d 100% e nearly 4% a month f about 5 g guarantors h it costs as much to administer a small loan as a big loan i Because of social pressure. If one member of the group is late paying, the other members cannot borrow. Before You Watch Before you do the exercise, you could play the report without sound and elicit vocabulary from learners. Learners should already be familiar with most of the vocabulary from the Coursebook. After You Watch You can see if learners’ opinions have changed as a result of watching the report. Ask them to recall their answers to the questions in the introduction. Master’s students: students studying for a further high-level degree to conceive of: to form an idea, a plan a mission: a goal, an aim a misconception: an incorrect idea Check learners understand all the vocabulary. 92 Microfinance NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:08 Page 93 TRANSCRIPTION CNN Reporter: For Regias Kokkures, 50 thousand Ugandan shillings - almost thirty dollars - was enough to change her whole life. Regias Kokkures: I started with five hundred thousand. I bought a pig; then one hundred thousand, I bought another pig ... that from there I expanded ... two hundred ... three hundred and something ... up to now where I am. CNN Reporter: Three years ago, she owned two cows.Today, with the help of a loan from the Ugandan Microfinance Union - or UMU - she supports a family of eight on the income from this farm. Regias Kokkures: I’m happy ... I’m okay ... because I can buy whatever I feel I want ... CNN Reporter: Charles Nayalli and Rodney Schuster conceived of UMU in 1996 as master’s students at Brandeis University. Using initial funding from the Bank of Uganda and USAID, they opened their doors a year later with a mission: to reach the people commercial banks weren’t serving. Charles Nayalli: I think there is another misconception: that the poor people do not pay. So the banks find it rather, uh, unreasonable to go and bank with “unbankable people,” as they say. But we have seen that that is not true. CNN Reporter: UMU has twelve branches around the country, like this one in Kasangati, about nine miles away from the capital. For most of the people in this town, microfinance organisations have offered them the first assets they’ve ever had from formal financial services. Charles Nayalli: I think we are really changing the lives of people. One way is by increasing their household incomes. They can now access certain things, like their children can now go to school, or even better schools.They can have better meals.They have better accommodation and, generally, life becomes a lot easier when your income raises. CNN Reporter: With an average loan size of a hundred dollars, UMU is helping micro entrepreneurs ... people who sell vegetables ... have small stores ... make clothing ... and run the other small businesses that make up the backbone of developing economies. While larger banks may baulk at lending such small amounts, UMU boasts repayment rates that would be the envy of traditional institutions. Rodney Schuster: We have a ninety-eight percent repayment record on time, and a hundred percent historically ... historical repayment record. CNN Reporter: Microfinance institutions have been criticised for their high interest rates - UMU charges nearly four percent a month. But, according to Schuster, that’s the price of staying in business. Rodney Schuster: It essentially costs the same, uh, to process and administer a thirty-dollar loan as a five-thousand-dollar loan. So, um, our costs are much higher. CNN Reporter: They try to minimise some of those costs by spreading the risk. Rodney Schuster: What we do is we make people form small groups of about five people from five to ten - uh, and they guarantee each other ... they act as guarantors, essentially. So, it’s quite a simple concept ... . So one borrows ... if that person doesn’t pay, no one in the group can then borrow. So the other four people then put pressure on the first borrower who’s not paying their loan, to pay. And that’s really how it works. Basically: social pressure. CNN Reporter: The Ugandan government has taken note.Within the next few months, the parliament is expected to pass a bill allowing microfinance organisations [MFIs] to become regulated financial institutions and expand their scope of services. Victoria White: I think the Bank of Uganda really sees MFIs as a solution to reaching a broader number of people ... really providing services on a much broader basis to micro entrepreneurs throughout the country. CNN Reporter: Micro entrepreneurs, like Regias Kokkures, who have shown that a little can go a long way. Microfinance 93 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:08 Page 94 Unit 15 At the Centre of MCIWorldCom Video Summary In the 1990s telecom companies were encouraged to grow. Bernard Ebbers grew WorldCom, acquiring MCI in 1998.When it then tried to acquire Sprint, the acquisition was blocked by the regulators. Bernard Ebbers was CEO of WorldCom, but was forced to resign. He owed the company $360 million. Background In 2001 WorldCom’s ‘creative accounting’ came to light showing that the company was in debt, when its accounts had showed otherwise. Its stocks crashed and employees lost their jobs. Before You Watch 1 a 3, b 5, c 9, d 1, e 4, f 10, g 2, h 8, i 7, j 6 2 b, i, j Start 44:14 End 46:19 While You Watch 1 a, d, e 2 Telecoms 3 They built for the future, but built in excess of any foreseeable demand. 4 To make it as big as AT&T, to build a dominant global service provider. 5 Not originally from the world of business: he was a novelist, a poet, a milk-truck driver and a bar bouncer before buying a long-distance phone company in 1983. 6 MCI 7 Sprint 8 Because he borrowed $360 million from MCIWorldCom and because the company was in severe debt (but did not show this in its accounts). After You Watch Learners can choose how hostile or sympathetic they are in their presentation of WorldCom and Ebbers. 94 A t t h e C e n t r e o f M C I Wo r l d C o m NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:08 Page 95 TRANSCRIPTION CNN Reporter: When you surf the Internet, you’re not only dipping your toes in the dot-com ocean, you’re also using voice and data networks built by telecommunications’ companies. And, in the nineties, those companies, especially WorldCom, rode the dream of the Internet to new heights. Analyst: They are the foundation of the Internet and people threw bags of money at them to go out and build. Telecom providers at large were rewarded for building well in advance of any demand that could actually be seen in the market. CNN Reporter: That desire to build sparked Bernard Ebbers to grow WorldCom to a size that would rival AT&T. A former novelist, poet, milk-truck driver, and bar bouncer, the Canadian-born Ebbers bought his first long-distance phone company in Jackson Mississippi, in 1983.Two years later, he went shopping, buying some sixty companies over the next thirteen years.That buying binge included the nation’s number two long-distance provider: MCI in 1998. Analyst: The intention was just to build a dominant global service provider, and you can really see the energy, the drive, that relentless ambition that happened in the bid for Sprint.That was actually a very bold move. CNN Reporter: As it turned out, it was too bold for federal regulators who blocked the attempt to buy Sprint.That didn’t help WorldCom stock, neither did the dot-com bust. Regulators started wondering about $360 million in loans that Ebbers got from his own company.With its debt approaching $30 billion, Ebbers resigned as WorldCom CEO in April. But the alleged fraud happened on his watch. Now WorldCom investors are waking up from Ebbers’ Internet dreams to a reality that includes an investigation* and possible bankruptcy. Ebbers : You don’t know what it’s like to leave the farm with cow manure on your boots and have to put this miserable suit on to come to the ... A t t h e C e n t r e o f M C I Wo r l d C o m 95 NBusinMattersTBK 22/12/2003 19:08 Page 96 LEXI-CARDS Photocopy, complete and cut out these lexical cards: 96 Resource File 12 © Heinle