TSK0326 Business English I (Hele Saar) (2024)
Topic outline
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Here you can find information about what we did in class and what the homework for the next class is.
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Hele Saar's office hours: Mondays at 11.30 and Wednesdays at 11.00 in SOC-470 or MS Teams
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Here you can ask your questions and answer other people's questions. Please post each question separately and add a subject. You can also raise issues/topics for discussion.
Week 1 - Intro & Employment
Week 2 - Entrepreneurship & Recruitment
Week 3 - Applying for a job
Week 4 - Job Interviews & Presentations
Week 5 - Your presentation
Week 6 - Intercultural communication
Week 7 - Company structure and Formal style
Week 8 - Report writing & Markets
Week 9 - Branding & Marketing
Week 10 - Promotion & Advertising
Week 11 - Leadership & Management; Persuasive speaking
Week 12 - Your persuasive presentation & Meetings
Week 13 - Negotiations
Week 14 - Examination presentation & Business Meeting
Week 15 - Exam report & practice
Week 16 - Exam listening & speaking; Finish
Giving Presentations
Writing
Career development
Business and environment
Section X
During this first week we are going to do the following. In the first class we'll negotiate and plan this course, discuss your needs and expectations, get to know each other and find out about your language level and learning experience. In the second class we'll discuss employment and jobs. We'll also revise some topic-related vocabulary.
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Class 1
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Homework
Please fill in the Needs Analysis Questionnaire.
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Class 2
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Homework
Read the blog on Personal branding and describe yourself as a brand in 15 words or less.
During the second week, we discuss entrepreneurship. You will establish your own (virtual) company.
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Class 1
You are going to describe your personal brand. After that, we'll explore the topic of entrepreneurship.
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Homework
Think of a company or start-up that you would like to establish. Prepare to present it to your groupmates in the next class.
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Class 2
You briefly introduce your business idea, your company or start-up to your groupmates. We'll discuss the topics of human resources and recruitment. -
Homework
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Make a submissionDue: Monday, 16 September 2024, 11:59 PM
Please upload the slides for presenting your company or start-up here.
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Make a submissionDue: Tuesday, 17 September 2024, 11:59 PM
Please compile a job advertisement and upload it here. Advertise for a job in the company or start-up that you established. Also, bear in mind that as the next step another student in your group is going to apply for this job and later you'll interview him/her for the job. So, ideally it should be a job that would appeal to yourself and your fellow-students and match their qualifications.
Before you do it, you'd maybe like to do a bit of online search for real job advertisements to get some ideas but you are not allowed to copy them. -
Reference materials
During the third week, you will present your company or start-up in more detail to the whole group. Also, we will cover topics, such as applying for a job and job interviews.
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Class 1
In this class you'll present your company or start-up. After that we'll explore how to write a covering letter for a CV.
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Class 2
In this class we are going to talk about how to prepare for job interviews, both as an interviewee or an interviewer. We'll listen to and discuss some examples of job interviews. -
Reference materials
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Homework
Write a letter to apply for the job that your fellow student advertised for. Also add your CV.
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Make a submissionDue: Sunday, 22 September 2024, 11:59 PM
During the fourth week you'll conduct job interviews and we'll discuss preparing for and giving presentations.
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Class 1
You attend and conduct job interviews.
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Homework
Please find and upload a research article in your specialist field of studies. Later in the course, you will need to read and study the article carefully as well as prepare and deliver a presentation on it to the group in class (during week 11). This presentation will be graded and will be part of the final assessment/grade.
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Make a submissionDue: Sunday, 29 September 2024, 11:59 PM
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Class 2
We are going to discuss preparing for and delivering presentations. You'll share your experience of giving presentations, discuss what makes a good presentation, what can go wrong and what you can do about it.
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Homework
Prepare a 5-7 minute presentation on a business or economics related topic of your choice. Please upload the slides for your presentation in the assignment below.
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Make a submissionDue: Tuesday, 1 October 2024, 11:59 PM
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Reference materials
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During this week you are going to deliver your 5-7 minute business presentations. You are going to evaluate each other's presentations and give feedback.
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Homework: Read the text "Fear, greed and dedication" and do the reading comprehension task.
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Receive a grade
During week 6 we'll talk about culture, cultural differences, intercultural communication and competence.
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Class 1
We are going to discuss culture, learn about different concepts of culture and intercultural competence.
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Homework
Do the culture quiz and the vocabulary task.
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Receive a grade
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Receive a grade
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Class 2
We are going to discuss intercultural communication and competence.
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Homework
Do the assignment below.
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Make a submissionDue: Monday, 14 October 2024, 11:59 PM
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Further reading
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Videos
During week 7 we are going to have a closer look at companies and their structure. We'll also explore academic writing style.
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Class 1
In this class we'll take a closer look at companies and how they are organised. You'll also think about the structure for your company or start-up.
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Receive a grade
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Homework
Read the text "Company structure" and do the tasks in it. Also, do the vocabulary quiz.
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Receive a grade
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Class 2
You present the structure of your company. We'll also learn about academic writing style.
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Homework
Do the tasks on formal style and hedging. In addition, find ten examples of hedging in the research article you selected.
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Receive a grade
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Receive a grade
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Receive a grade
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Further reading
During week 8 we are going to learn report writing and have closer look at markets and market entry strategies.
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Class 1
In the first class we are going to learn how to write business reports.
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Homework
Do the business report writing assignment below.
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Make a submissionDue: Sunday, 27 October 2024, 11:59 PM
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Class 2
In the second class we'll discuss markets and market entry strategies.
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Homework
Work on the research article you selected. Analyse the structure using the questions in the file below.
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Class 1
In this class we are going to discuss brands, branding and brand management.
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Homework
Do the vocabulary task and tasks on Branding below..
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Receive a grade
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Class 2
In this class we are going to learn about marketing.
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Homework
Read the text "The Centrality of Marketing" and do the task below. In addition, develop the brand for your company or start-up. You'll find instructions and questions to think about while developing your brand when you open the assignment below. Also, think about marketing your product or service. The aspects to consider are in the assignment.
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Make a submissionDue: Monday, 4 November 2024, 11:59 PM
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Make a submissionDue: Monday, 4 November 2024, 11:59 PM
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Extra resources
During week 10 we are going to look into the topics of Promotion and Advertising and practise business report writing.
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Class 1
In the first class you are going to present your brand and the marketing (and sales) strategy of your product or service. Then we are going to discuss the topics of Promotion and Advertising.
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Homework
Continue working on your product or service and now think about how you are going to advertise it.
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Make a submissionDue: Thursday, 7 November 2024, 10:00 AM
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Class 2
You are going to present the advertising strategy of your product or service.
After the presentations, you are going to practise writing a business report. You will listen to a recording of a meeting. Based on the information obtained, you'll write a report. You have 45+5 minutes for doing this.
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Homework
Please write a summary of the research article you selected. The length should be 100-150 words.
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Make a submissionDue: Monday, 11 November 2024, 11:59 PM
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Extra resources
During week 11 we are going to explore the topics of Leadership and Management. We'll also learn how to prepare for and deliver persuasive presentations.
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Class 1
We'll see how management and leadership differ, take a closer look at different leadership styles and discuss what makes a good leader.
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Homework
Read the two texts and do the tasks below.
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Extra resources
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Class 2
We'll explore the mysteries of persuasive speaking and learn to prepare for and deliver persuasive presentations.
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Homework
Prepare a 2-3 minute persuasive presentation on a business related topic of your choice. Please upload the slides for your presentation in the assignment below.
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Make a submissionDue: Tuesday, 19 November 2024, 11:59 PM
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Class 1
You are going to deliver your persuasive presentation and evaluate and give feedback on other students' presentations.
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Class 2
We are going to continue with the persuasive presentations.
After the feedback we are going to learn how to run effective business meetings.
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Homework
Prepare for the business meeting held in the next class.
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Extra resources
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Class 1
You are going to develop your business negotiations skills.
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Homework
Prepare for your examination presentation. The presentation has to be based on the research article you chose earlier. The time limit is 5-7 minutes. Please upload the slides for your presentation in the assignment below.
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Make a submissionDue: Monday, 2 December 2024, 11:59 PM
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Extra resources
In the second class you are also going to run your business meeting.
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Class 1
You are going to deliver your informative examination presentation based on the research article you selected. You will be able to reflect on your presentation as well as evaluate and give feedback on your groupmates' presentations.
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Class 2
You are going to simulate a business meeting. You will also have the chance to reflect on how the meeting went and your own role in it as well as give others feedback.
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Homework
Prepare for writing an examination report.
In the first class of week 15 you are going to write the exam report. In the second class we'll practise for the listening and reading tests of the final exam.
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Class 1
You are going to write the exam report. The time limit is 45 minutes. You can take 5 extra minutes for proof-reading and editing. This is a paper-based test.
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Class 2
Practice for the listening and reading comprehension tests of the final exam.
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Listening comprehension test
Open the listening comprehension test and read the instructions carefully. Then play the audio file and do the task. You can listen to the recording twice. After you finish, please click on "submit all and finish" and confirm it to share your answer with your teacher.
You have altogether 15 minutes for doing the listening test, saving and submitting your answer as well as finishing and confirming. After that the test will be closed.
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Reading comprehension test
1. To do the reading test, please open the reading text first. It will open as a pop-up. Leave it open.
2. Now open the reading comprehension test, read the text and complete the test. You may need to adjust the size of the pop-up text and/or move it on the screen to be able to see both the text and the test questions.
3. For questions 1-20 you need to decide whether each statement is true or false according to the information given in the text. In addition, you need to prove your decision by adding the line numbers where the information occurs in the text.
4. For question 21 you need to match the words/phrases from the text to their definitions/explanations.
3. After you have completed the test, click on "submit all and finish" and confirm it to share your answer with your lecturer.
You have altogether 30 minutes for doing the reading test. After that the test will close.
The mock exam reading test can be taken multiple times. The final examination reading test, however, can be taken only once.
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Homework
Prepare for examination listening and reading comprehension tests.
This is the last week of the course. In the first class you are going to do the listening and reading comprehension tests of the final exam. In the second class we are going to finish the course, look back and evaluate.
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Class 1
Listening comprehension test. This includes listening to a text of approximately 2-3 minutes and completing a task (type: listening for detail) in which you need to fill in the missing information. Listen to the recording twice. The test takes approximately 15 minutes.
Reading comprehension test. This includes reading a business or economics related text of approximately 3000 - 4000 characters and completing two tasks. The first task is of a true/false type in which you have to decide (according to the information given in the text) whether the statements are true or false and prove the decisions by providing relevant line numbers from the text. The second task is a matching exercise in which you need to match words or terms occurring in the text to their explanations or definitions. The time limit for the reading comprehension part is 30 minutes.
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Class 2
This is our last class together. We have reached the end of the course and it's time to say good-bye. I hope you found this course useful but also enjoyable.
It's now time to look back, evaluate the course, reflect on your own work during the course and give your lecturer feedback.
elearningindustry.com
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Overcoming nervousness
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Videos
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Academic Writing
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Academic / formal style
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Summaries
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Essays
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Term papers
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Cohesion
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Business writing
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Business letters and emails
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Business reports
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Company memos
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Homework
Read about Life Cycle Assessment and be ready to discuss it in the next class. Also, find information about two companies attempting to reduce environmental threats. What are their environmental policies and actions?