16918 - Business English

Learning outcomes

The integrated course aims to provide students with the linguistic and intercultural competences necessary to operate effectively in international business contexts. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to: - use English accurately and fluently in professional and academic settings; - comprehend and produce oral and written texts on business, economic, and managerial topics, including technical and abstract subjects; - communicate effectively in meetings, negotiations, and presentations, providing clear and coherent arguments; - identify and interpret key cultural dimensions influencing organizational behavior and international business relations; - apply principles of cultural intelligence and cross-cultural management to enhance cooperation and negotiation across diverse cultural contexts; - integrate linguistic proficiency and intercultural awareness to work successfully in multicultural teams. The course prepares students to communicate professionally in English and to manage cultural diversity competently within global business environments.

Course contents

• Company profiles;
• Presentations;
• Language for business meetings, negotiations, cultural implications;
• Customer service;
• Competition;
• Advertising and marketing;
• Networking;
• Leadership;
• Statistics and trends: discussing trends, graphs and charts;
• Small talk;
• Problem solving;
• Business emailing;
• CV.

It is paramount for students to attend both the Business English course and the Cross-Cultural Management course, since language and culture are strictly intertwined. The teaching activities of the two integrated courses will be delivered in a fully integrated manner. Accordingly, topics from one subject may be taught during time slots formally allocated to the other. Due to technical constraints, the official timetable cannot fully reflect this integration and therefore lists the two components separately. Likewise, the assessment will be conducted in an integrated format, and students will take a single examination covering both subjects.

Readings/Bibliography

No specific textbook will be used. Material coming from the real world, such as company profiles and presentations, articles and videos from economic and financial newspapers and magazines, company performance analyses, etc.

Teaching methods

Interactive, student-focused teaching methods: students should actively participate in communication tasks, such as role-plays, brainstorming, discussions, text analysis, flipped classes. There will be a combination of communicative grammar with business language together with the cultural implications of the different structures. This method aims at helping students boost their communication skills in multicultural contexts. This course will be strictly connected with the Cross-Cultural Management course. Therefore, attendance to both Business English and Cross-Cultural Management courses is highly recommended.

Assessment methods

The assessment includes:

• Company profile project ONLY for attending students, OR oral exam (30%)
• Written integrated exam (70%): 2 mid-term exams or 1 Total exam both made of two COMPULSORY sections:

1. a multiple-choice question test (1 point per correct answer; 0 points for wrong answers or unanswered questions) concerning all of the material available on Virtuale (for both courses);
2. a section with open questions, as follows:
   1. 1^st mid-term exam: a business email + 1 CCM question;
   2. 2^nd mid-term exam: a graph description + 1 CCM question;
   3. Total exam: a business email and a graph description + 2 CCM questions.

• Bonus provided for attendance

Teaching tools

apps and websites for students to improve their skills in English

Office hours

See the website of Paola Scalzotto