Given the focus on Business English, a 72-hour B1 level course is to enable students to handle most routine business situations with reasonable confidence and independence.

The emphasis shifts from basic survival to more complex communication, expressing opinions, dealing with problems, and participating in discussions.

Course Title: Business English B1: Developing Independent Professional Communication

Total Hours: 72 hours

Level: CEFR B1 (Intermediate)

Course Objectives

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

  • Handle routine business correspondence and communicate effectively by phone.
  • Participate in most meetings and discussions, presenting and defending opinions.
  • Give clear presentations on familiar business topics.
  • Deal with problems, suggest solutions, and negotiate basic terms.
  • Network effectively and engage in extended social interactions in a business context.
  • Understand and use a broad range of common business vocabulary.
  • Apply core B1 grammar structures accurately and appropriately.
  • Read and understand standard business texts (emails, reports, articles).

Methodology

  • Communicative Focus: High proportion of speaking and listening practice, pair work, and group discussions.

  • Task-Based Learning: Real-world business scenarios, simulations, and case studies.

  • Authentic Materials: Use of real business emails, reports, articles, short videos, and audio clips.

  • Vocabulary Building: Systematic introduction and practice of thematic business vocabulary, collocations, and phrasal verbs.

  • Grammar in Context: Focus on practical application of grammar for clearer and more sophisticated communication.

  • Error Correction: Balanced approach to accuracy vs. fluency.

Course Outline (Approximate Hours per Unit)

Unit 1: Company Structure, Culture & Roles (8 hours)

  • Business Context: Describing your company in detail, understanding different organizational structures, discussing company values.

  • Vocabulary: Hierarchy, department, division, subsidiary, headquarters, branch, CEO, manager, employee, team leader. Adjectives for company culture (innovative, traditional, hierarchical, flat).

  • Grammar: Review Present Simple for facts. Passive Voice (all tenses) for describing processes and structures (e.g., “The company was founded in 1980,” “Products are manufactured here”).

  • Skills: Describing your company’s structure and culture, explaining your role and responsibilities in detail, asking about other companies’ structures.

  • Activities: “My ideal company” discussion, analyzing organizational charts, short presentations on a company’s structure.

Unit 2: Products, Services & Marketing (10 hours)

  • Business Context: Presenting products/services in detail, discussing marketing strategies, identifying target markets.

  • Vocabulary: Product features, benefits, target market, branding, advertising, promotion, sales, market share, competitor. Verbs: launch, promote, target, compete.

  • Grammar: Conditionals Type 1 (for likely outcomes). Future Simple (will/won’t) for predictions. Modals for advice/suggestions (should, ought to, could, might).

  • Skills: Giving a more detailed product/service pitch, discussing marketing channels, suggesting ways to promote a product, asking for and giving opinions on marketing strategies.

  • Activities: Developing a mini-marketing plan for a fictional product, role-play a sales presentation, analyzing a short case study on a marketing campaign.

Unit 3: Meetings & Discussions (12 hours)

  • Business Context: Participating actively in formal and informal meetings, expressing opinions, agreeing/disagreeing, managing interruptions, summarizing points.

  • Vocabulary: Meeting agenda, minutes, participants, chairperson, propose, suggest, agree, disagree, clarify, interrupt, sum up, action points. Useful phrases for opinions, agreeing, disagreeing, asking for clarification.

  • Grammar: Linking words for contrast (however, although, despite), cause/effect (because of, due to, so, therefore), addition (furthermore, in addition).

  • Skills: Opening and closing a meeting, presenting a point, asking for opinions, managing polite interruptions, reaching a consensus, summarizing conclusions and action points.

  • Activities: Full-length simulated meetings (with roles), analyzing meeting transcripts/audio for effective communication, practicing polite interruption and disagreement phrases.

Unit 4: Business Correspondence & Reports (10 hours)

  • Business Context: Writing a variety of professional emails (inquiries, requests, complaints, apologies, confirmations). Writing short internal reports and memos.

  • Vocabulary: Formal email openings/closings, clear subject lines, phrases for making requests, complaints, apologies, confirming details. Report structures (introduction, findings, recommendations, conclusion).

  • Grammar: Review passive voice. Reported Speech (simple statements) for reporting information accurately. Conditional Type 2 (for hypothetical situations in emails/reports).

  • Skills: Drafting professional and clear emails for various purposes, writing a short status report, summarizing data/information in written form, proofreading.

  • Activities: Analyzing good and bad email examples, writing emails based on complex scenarios, preparing a short report from provided data.

Unit 5: Telephoning & Negotiating (8 hours)

  • Business Context: Handling more complex phone calls, making arrangements, dealing with problems over the phone, basic negotiation phrases.

  • Vocabulary: Phrases for opening/closing calls, connecting, leaving messages, dealing with poor connections. Phrases for making offers, counter-offers, accepting/rejecting, compromising.

  • Grammar: Review modals for certainty/possibility (must, may, might, could). Phrasal verbs related to phone calls (call back, hang up, pick up).

  • Skills: Making outbound and receiving inbound calls effectively, politely requesting information, conveying difficult messages, handling customer inquiries or complaints over the phone, practicing simple negotiation dialogues.

  • Activities: Advanced role-plays for phone conversations (e.g., resolving an order issue, making a sales call), simulated short negotiations (e.g., price, delivery time).

Unit 6: Business Travel & Socializing (8 hours)

  • Business Context: Navigating business trips, entertaining clients, engaging in longer social conversations, cultural awareness.

  • Vocabulary: Travel arrangements (booking, itinerary, customs, visa), dining (ordering, making reservations), small talk topics (current events, local culture, shared interests). Adjectives for describing experiences (interesting, challenging, enjoyable).

  • Grammar: Past Simple & Present Perfect (for experiences). Future forms review for plans.

  • Skills: Discussing travel plans, making social arrangements, ordering food and drinks, making polite conversation, understanding and responding to cultural nuances, dealing with travel-related problems.

  • Activities: Role-play a business dinner, discussing past business trips, analyzing short case studies on cultural misunderstandings.

Unit 7: Problems, Solutions & Decision Making (8 hours)

  • Business Context: Identifying problems, brainstorming solutions, evaluating options, making recommendations, presenting decisions.

  • Vocabulary: Problem, issue, challenge, solution, opportunity, obstacle, dilemma, brainstorm, analyze, evaluate, recommend, decide. Phrases for expressing concern, identifying causes, proposing solutions.

  • Grammar: Conditional Type 3 (for past hypothetical situations, e.g., “If we had done X, Y wouldn’t have happened”). Review modals of deduction (must have, might have).

  • Skills: Describing a problem clearly, asking probing questions, proposing alternative solutions, weighing pros and cons, making and justifying a decision.

  • Activities: Case study analysis focusing on a business problem, group problem-solving tasks, preparing and presenting recommendations.

Unit 8: Review & Consolidation (8 hours)

  • Business Context: Integrating all learned skills through complex, extended simulations.

  • Vocabulary: Comprehensive review of all B1 business vocabulary.

  • Grammar: Comprehensive review of all B1 grammar structures.

  • Skills:
    • Extended business simulation: Students work in groups to address a multi-faceted business challenge, requiring meetings, phone calls, presentations, and written communication.
    • Listening tasks with authentic materials (e.g., short business news clips, podcasts).
    • Reading comprehension of more complex business articles or reports.
    • Final B1 assessment (oral and written components).

Materials

  • A dedicated Business English B1 textbook (e.g., “Business Result B1,” “Market Leader B1,” “Business English Handbook” from reputable publishers).
  • Authentic supplementary materials: Business newspaper articles (e.g., Financial Times, Wall Street Journal – simplified versions if needed), company websites, professional social media profiles (LinkedIn), business-themed podcasts/videos.
  • Teacher-created case studies, role-play scenarios, and discussion prompts.
  • Online resources for B1 Business English practice.

This B1 program aims to create well-rounded business English communicators who can function independently in a variety of professional situations, a crucial step for business managers and exporters engaging with international partners.