BUSINESS ENGLISH

The course is part of the Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and will enable students to develop communication skills in English, allowing them to engage with professional economic and business management activities in the international market.

The course aims to enhance the linguistic skills necessary for clear and effective business communication in English. Specifically, the course focuses on the correct use of vocabulary and collocations related to the language of economic sciences, including finance, management, marketing, and trade, meanwhile ensuring the application of interpersonal and intercultural negotiation techniques in the workplace.

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

Knowledge and understanding

- Know and understand the specific terminology and written and oral texts related to economic sciences, business activities, and international trade.

Ability to apply knowledge and understanding

- Draft emails in the context of business communication using the appropriate formulas and register depending on the context, demonstrating adequate grammatical and lexical knowledge.
- Write brief reports following business meetings, or reports such as market research and business plans.
- Draft abstracts related to theses and studies in the economic field.

Critical skills

- Develop a critical approach to presenting topics in the economic or business management fields with a disposition towards developing alternative hypotheses and solutions to conflicts of ideas or intercultural communication styles.

Communication skills

- Deliver brief individual presentations for business meetings, using charts and meaning negotiation strategies, including non-verbal communication.
- Interact with superiors and colleagues through traditional media (telephone) and digital platforms (computer and work platforms, such as Slack, Zoom, LinkedIn).

Learning skills

- Take notes from oral content in more than one variety of English and reprocess and share the content with peers.
- Deepen knowledge and lessons independently.
- Recognize different communication genres and registers in the context of business communication and management.

B1 or B2 level (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, CEFR).

Study and consolidation of the morphosyntactic and lexical properties of specialized economic language and communication related to commercial activities.

Morphosyntax:

- Verb tenses
- Modals
- Possessive and demonstrative adjectives and pronouns; comparative and superlative forms
- Nouns (countable/uncountable)
- Cardinal and ordinal numbers
- Articles and partitives
- Adverbs and prepositions
- Subordinating and coordinating conjunctions

Vocabulary - Topics:

- Business culture and management
- Business ethics
- Banking and finance
- Innovation and circular economy
- Sustainability
- Marketing and advertising
- Leadership
- Intercultural negotiation and active listening
- Phrasal verbs and collocations

**More information on how to gain access to coursebook content will be provided during the first lecture**

Cotton, David, David Falvey, and Simon Kent. Market Leader, Intermediate Business English Course Book (Third Edition). Pearson Education Limited, 2010.
Cotton, David, David Falvey, and Simon Kent. Market Leader, Upper Intermediate Business English Course Book. Pearson Education Limited, 2006.

Articles and listening and reading activities available from the following websites:

- Financial Times, The Economist, Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review;
- BBC Learning English, CNN;
- British Council, Cambridge English, Oxford Online English;
- TED Talks.

Exam duration: 90 minutes

1) Listening comprehension of an excerpt through closed and open-ended questions
2) Reading comprehension of an excerpt through closed-ended questions to assess lexical and morphosyntactic skills
3) Written production: drafting an email or report based on a provided prompt
4) OR: writing an essay on one of the topics covered in class

For attending students, participation in the course and various activities will contribute to the final evaluation. The grade given will impact the final exam grade. Specifically, an evaluation of the role-playing and negotiation activities carried out in class will be assigned and will influence the final grade. Furthermore, the prompts and texts selected for the exam will be drawn from the material covered in class.
Non-attending students are strongly encouraged to contact the instructor for an office meeting to receive advice on the most appropriate study strategies for passing the exam.

Evaluation Criteria

The activities and exam will be evaluated based on the following parameters:

a) Knowledge and correct use of specialized vocabulary and register according to the context
b) Adequate morphosyntactic competence
c) Logical, coherent, and cohesive organization of content
d) Completeness and clear presentation of information

- Interactive lectures and reading of scientific articles from specialized journals; listening to conversations and debates related to economic sciences and business communication.
- Exercises involving written and oral reworking, in groups, of the lexical and grammatical content and forms of the analyzed texts.
- Analysis of the formulas and register of formal genres such as abstracts, reports, and market research, as well as hybrid forms like emails and presentations.
- Role-playing to simulate daily workplace interactions between colleagues and superiors, refining communication and negotiation strategies, including the correct use of vocabulary in context.

English

It is strongly recommended to attend the lessons. A language course requires regular practice.
A "lettorato" will be held in parallel with the main course. This is an essential component of the course, during which students will complete their language preparation for the final exam.

written and oral

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Human capital, health, education" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development