
The new course that teaches business English and business skills
Business Partner gives students the practical training they need to bridge the gap between the classroom and the world of work. It helps learners to make measurable progress in learning English while helping to make them more employable.
Authors:
Margaret O’Keeffe, Lewis Lansford, Ros Wright, Mark Powell, Lizzie Wright, Madeleine Williamson, Evan Frendo, Robert McLarty, Iwonna Dubicka, Marjorie Rosenberg, Bob Dignen, Mark Hogan, Irene Barrall
Subject:
Business English
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A1
A2
A2+
B1
B1+
B2
B2+
C1
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Components
Building business skills with real life business content
The new course that teaches business English and business skills
Business Partner gives students the practical training they need to bridge the gap between the classroom and the world of work. It helps learners to make measurable progress in learning English while helping to make them more employable.
Business Partner does not assume any knowledge of the workplace, and is designed for students with no work experience. It also provides many suggestions and alternative ways to use the material for those students already in work.
Real life business content
- Authentic video content introduces unit topics, exposing students to real English and the sorts of issues they may encounter in their careers.
- Financial Times articles provide reading practice to build on the topics discussed in the videos, further exposing students to authentic English.
- Students work on case studies that allow them to practise their business and communication skills in realistic professional contexts.
Building communicative and business skills
- The course builds two sets of skills - communication and practical business skills - which students practise together in the business workshop case studies.
- Practical skills training includes negotiating, presenting, building relationships and small talk.
- An innovative video-based training programme helps build the communication skills, including supporting teamwork, listening actively, collaborating, solving problems, and influencing.
Building language skills
- Students acquire functional language and practise all the skills, including writing, grammar and pronunciation.
- The task-based approach incorporates presentation and practice, with a lot of communicative pair and group tasks and projects.
- There are multiple opportunities for writing practice across all the lessons, with a full writing lesson in each unit.
Videos
The authentic video content features real-life business stories, providing information and key language relating to business topics.
The dramatised videos of real work situations feature a range of accents and demonstrate dealing with professional challenges to help students develop communication skills, such as influencing and listening actively.
Margaret O’Keeffe
Margaret O’Keeffe is a freelance writer, teacher and course designer specializing in Business English and ESP. Based in Barcelona since 1991, she has written online English language materials for the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya in Spain and is an online tutor with the university. She is co-author of English for International Tourism (Pre-Intermediate) and she has recently written the Market Leader Advanced course book along with Iwonna Dubicka. When she isn’t working, she enjoys cycling in the hills.
Lewis Lansford
Ros Wright
Mark Powell
Lizzie Wright
Madeleine Williamson
Evan Frendo
Robert McLarty
Iwonna Dubicka
Iwonna Dubicka has over 15 years’ experience as a Business English trainer, including teacher training and six years as Director of Studies of English at In Company Languages in Barcelona. She has also worked as an online tutor for the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Catalonia’s Open University. She is the co-author of various English language titles together with Margaret O’Keeffe, including English for International Tourism Pre-Intermediate and the new Advanced level of the successful Market Leader (Pearson).
Marjorie Rosenberg
Bob Dignen
Mark Hogan
Irene Barrall
Irene Barrall has enjoyed a successful career as a teacher, author and teacher trainer and has worked in a variety of interesting countries. Prior to teaching, she gained valuable business insight through her work in marketing and banking. Publications for Pearson include the award winning Intelligent Business series and the Lifestyle series. She has also written material for electronic media and graded readers as well as prize winning fiction and is a school governor in charge of literacy development.