Business English for Executives and Managers

Students on this course

This course is appropriate for students, who have completed a business studies course, or for experienced executives, managers or business professionals, who want to quickly improve their English language skills in a business context, in the shortest possible time. The course is intensive, but rewarding. ELSL recognises that people come to us because their time is valuable - they need a course that will quickly deliver real benefits for them and their organisation.

Overview of course content

Students are expected to actively participate in the frequent role-plays and simulations, using professional materials and ELSL resources, which are provided to extend important language skills. The ELSL methodology is highly effective and incorporates a variety of key disciplines, that are necessary for language-development: focused listening, remedial grammar exercises, and vocabulary-building activities.

Course content is up to date and relevant to the workplace. By actively engaging in tasks, such as authentic case studies, discussions, meetings and negotiations, progress is assured and students become more confident, as fluency and accuracy, within the English language, improve.

Advantages of this course

Whether students choose to follow one of the General English courses, or prefer to select from our Business English courses or Legal English courses, students can expect to improve their English skills in the following ways:

• by expressing themselves more accurately and fluently under the ELSL system, students will communicate more confidently and participate more successfully in business meetings and social settings.
  
• work comfortably and competently in a cross-cultural environment
  
• by expanding their professional vocabulary and their understanding of English grammar, students will be able to write more coherent and professional e-mails, reports and letters.
  
  
• socialise and network with greater confidence

From following this course, students will have acquired many benefits. Students will have expanded their business vocabulary and gained skills that will enhance their performance in meetings and negotiations; presentations will also be much more effective; and the student will experience greater confidence in using the telephone.

Details of Course

The course structure is designed to enable students to extend their English language and communication skills in a business context. The purpose of the course is to concentrate on developing communication techniques, both spoken and written.

Students will cover the following:

• Student presentation of his/her job, organisation, products and/or services.
• Role-playing scenarios of business meetings, discussions and negotiations.
• Analyse and discuss case studies.
• Business issues such as finance, production, distributions and marketing.
• Human resources issues: workplace communications and industrial relations.
• Perform a SWOT analysis of a company.
• Presenting figures and graphs, depicting socio-economic movement.
• Comparison of national economies and business culture.
• Report-writing, e-mail and formal letters for business professionals.
• making a presentation on a business topic of your choice

Practical participation in the activities created for this course, ensures that essential communication skills are developed. Students will gain greater confidence, by nurturing effective communication skills and strategies for dealing with meetings, negotiations and discussions. The course covers:

• asking appropriate questions.
• agreeing and disagreeing.
• interrupting.
• clarifying and confirming.
• challenging/defending an opinion.
• making persuasive points and venturing to compromise.
• making suggestions and proposals.
• offering/accepting.
• eliciting comments.
• condensing and concluding.
• opening/closing meetings

Effective networking, handling social activities, using the telephone, entertaining clients etc, all require confidence and the cultivation of particular professional and social skills. The students will, therefore, practise through simulation:

• meeting and greeting
• receiving guests
• socialising
• effective telephoning skills
• effective listening skills
• expressing and debating more intricate issues.