ENGLISH FOR ECONOMICS AND BUSINESS I

The course is part of the Bachelor's Degree in International Trade and Tourism 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 and tourism industry.

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, tourism and international 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:

Communication skills

- 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.
- Describe market trends and graphs in short reports.
- Recognize different communication genres and registers in the context of business and tourism communication.

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 ethics
- Banking and finance
- Innovation and circular economy
- Sustainability
- Marketing and advertising
- Intercultural negotiation and active listening
- Tourism

**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 a text belonging to one of the following genres: memorandum; summary; brief market report (graph description) based on a provided prompt
4) Speaking: role-play

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.

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

written and oral

- Interactive lectures and reading of scientific articles from specialized journals; listening to conversations and debates related to economic sciences and international trade.
- 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.

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.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Circular economy, innovation, work" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development