Business English Program

Course Descriptions

We_Proudly_Administer_Linguaskill_from Cambridge, At ASA College

Advanced Listening

Students will encounter new business vocabulary and topics in this class. Students will improve their audio and visual proficiency, review advanced grammar topics, and engage in exciting commentary on current trends and stories. The course includes real-world business conversations, news coverage, and case study analysis which enable students to process English in authentic business situations. Conversations will include topics that provide focus on the cultural diversity
awareness that students require to be successful in today’s global business environment. Additionally, the content of this class will provide the foundations for the business courses that focus on productive skills. This coursework will be guided by the listening section component of the University of Cambridge Linguaskill exam.

Advanced Speaking

This is a skills class that emphasizes real-world business oral communication. In this class, students will have a chance to practice the idiomatic phrasing that they learned during their reading and listening classes. Furthermore, students will simulate real-world business-related discussions: job interviews, negotiations, customer service conversations, and more. They will learn pragmatic skills to aid them in these situations, such as strategies for moving discussions forward, time management terms, negotiation language, transactional and transformational language, conflictual idioms and metaphors, turn-taking language, inviting and replying to questions, direct and indirect criticism, euphemisms, managing conference calls, and ways of offering suggestions and advice. In addition to engaging in business role play, students will engage in focused work that targets their pronunciation and speech rhythms. Students will develop productive pronunciation skills towards the goal of maximum intelligibility. This coursework will be guided by the speaking section component of the University of Cambridge Linguaskill exam.

Advanced Reading

Students will build additional vocabulary, topic awareness, and depth of knowledge in this class. Students will review advanced grammar topics, develop their business text literacy, and engage in debates and discussions surrounding contemporary business trends and news stories. The course includes real world business texts and case studies that enable students to use English in authentic business situations. Topics include Sustainable Development, Social Enterprise,
International Trade, Design and Invention, Leadership, Crisis Management, Standardization and Differentiation, and more. Additionally, the content of this class will provide the foundations for the business courses that focus on productive skills. This coursework will be guided by the listening section component of the University of Cambridge Linguaskill exam.

Advanced Writing

This is a skills class that serves to further develop student writing. Focus will be given to both elements of written style and the strategies that underpin their deployment. Students will encounter situations in which professional written business communication is critical – composing notes and slides for presentations, business plan and executive summary composition, effective email exchanges, follow-up emails, writing for meetings, reporting statistical information, and writing a cover letter for a CV. Students will learn the idioms and conventions that govern these situations, and they will learn how to strategically deploy them. Students will draw upon the vocabulary that they have already learned in other business classes to bolster their responses. This coursework will be guided by the writing section component of the University of Cambridge Linguaskill exam.

Elocution and Role Play

In this class, students will have a chance to extend their understanding of the topics that they have covered in the listening, speaking, and reading classes. This class will have three components. Component 1: students will engage in targeted phonetics practice that includes a focus on topics like:
American rhythm, intonation & stress, and minimal pairs like “TH”: /ð/ vs. /θ/sounds. Component 2: students will engage in group task-based learning exercises that integrate the topics covered during the week in the other business classes. Component 3: students will view and analyze case study video commentaries that provide insights from consultants and insiders who were involved in company-defining business events. In sum, this class further develops and integrates
the applicable communicative skills that students encounter in their listening and speaking classes.

Extensive Reading and Cultural Studies

In this class, students will read and discuss books that define the current business paradigm in US-based global corporations. Students will gain a critical understanding of concepts informing management and strategy. Specific topics and authors include EQ, Group Dynamics, Growth Mindset, Daniel Goleman, Carol Dweck, Grant Cardone, and Amy Cuddy. Students will be given extensive reading assignments; such coursework has been shown to help students develop confidence and familiarity with unknown words and provide opportunities for context-based inferencing. Furthermore, students will gain both greater self-awareness and knowledge of unspoken but agreed-upon cultural characteristics that define corporate business communication today.