Business English Course for ESL Students

Practice the key vocabulary from Lesson 1

Fill in the correct word in these interview phrases.

In this lesson, you’ll learn vocabulary for people and things in the office. You’ll also learn some phrases for interacting with colleagues.

Complete the sentences with the correct word.

The top person in the company is the president. The president can also be called the CEO. This stands for “Chief Executive Officer.” In today’s lesson, you’ll learn vocabulary for job titles and words for talking about salary and benefits.

How well do you remember the vocabulary from the lesson?

Many students, even at the advanced level, HATE talking on the phone in English. This lesson will teach you phrases that you can use with confidence in any phone call.

How well do you remember the phrases from the lesson?

What if you call somebody and they’re not available? You’ll have to leave a voicemail message on their answering machine or cell phone – so today you’re going to learn 5 simple steps to leaving a great voicemail in English.

Have you ever given a presentation in English? If you have, you know it can be quite difficult to think of the right words with the pressure of everyone watching! Don’t worry, because in this lesson you’ll learn a number of English phrases that will help your presentations sound polished and professional.

Complete each presentation phrase with the best word!

Numbers were one of the first things you probably learned in English class – but many students have difficulty saying very big and very small numbers in English. In this lesson, you’ll practice saying complicated numbers and learn how to talk about trends.

Slang is almost never used in business English, but idioms are often used in conversations and e-mails – so I’m going to introduce you to some common idiomatic expressions. Note: The quiz is in the downloadable lesson text!

In this lesson, you’ll learn a simple 3-part structure to use in any business letter or e-mail. Before we begin, I want to remind you of two important characteristics of business communication.

Complete these sentences with the best word.

When writing a business letter or e-mail, it’s important to have correct punctuation and capitalization because this helps your writing look professional. In this lesson, we’re going to review the rules for capitalization and punctuation marks in English.

Today you’re going to learn almost 100 practical English phrases to use in meetings. Many of them – such as the phrases for expressing opinions, agreeing, and disagreeing – can also be used in other situations outside of work.

Test your memory of the phrases for meetings.

Today we’ll be talking about project development and time management. This vocabulary is important because all jobs require efficient use of time and resources.

Review and practice the vocabulary from the lesson.

“Small talk” refers to casual conversations that people have in order to pass the time and get to know each other. It can help you develop social connections with co-workers and business associates.

Discourse markers are words or short phrases that help connect ideas. They are often difficult to define or translate; instead, they show relationships between ideas or express the speaker’s attitude.

Today we’re going to go into much more detail on how to use discourse markers in sentences – since many students know the words, but make mistakes with the word order or sentence formation.

Negotiation is the ability to communicate with different people (who have different interests) with the goal of finding a win-win situation: a solution that benefits everyone. Having good negotiation skills is important for resolving conflicts and reconciling differences of interest in business, politics, and everyday life.

Perfect your phrases for talking about negotiations and contracts!

Today’s lesson will teach you 12 more idioms related to business. Let me remind you of the steps for our idioms lessons. Note: The quiz is in the downloadable lesson text.

You’re now halfway through the Business English Course! Review
the vocabulary from Lessons 12-20 with this progress test.

A manager supervises a group or team of people. The employees “under” the manager are called the manager’s subordinates, and they report to the manager – meaning they are under his/her supervision.

Practice the vocabulary from the lesson!

This lesson is divided into five parts – banking, loans, investments, taxes, and accounting. The first four parts contain vocabulary that is useful for everyone, even if you don’t work in the financial sector – and the last part will have some terms that are specific to accounting.

How well do you remember the financial vocabulary?

The world of business is competitive, and companies need to have solid strategies in order to achieve their objectives.

Review and practice the vocabulary from the lesson!

Every day, we see hundreds of advertisements (called ads for short). We see commercials on TV. We see billboards next to the road. We see posters on walls. And we receive brochures and pamphlets on the street.

Manufacturing is the process of making products. There are many different industries (areas of activity) that manufacture products. Here are a few examples.

Retailers are the stores that sell products directly to the consumers or end users (the regular people who buy and use the items). There are different kinds of retailers.

A person who works in sales can be called a salesperson, salesman/saleswoman, or sales representative (sales rep for short). In this lesson, we’ll learn phrases for selling products and helping customers.

Review and practice the words and phrases from the lesson!

Workers in many jobs deal with hazards (dangers), so it’s important to have good safety practices. In this lesson, we’ll learn about possible dangers in the workplace and how workers can protect themselves from injury (being hurt) and illness (becoming sick).

Let’s learn more business idioms! You’ll need to interact with the idioms by guessing their meanings from the context. Choose the option that you think is the best definition for the idiom, and then wait for the answer to find out if you were correct. Note: The quiz is in the downloadable lesson text.

Review and practice the vocabulary and phrases from Lessons 21-29.

Learn vocabulary related to computers, programs, and technical problems.

Test your basic technical vocabulary

Today’s lesson is an overview of vocabulary used in medicine and dentistry. Even if you don’t work in these areas, you’ll learn many useful words for talking about health problems and treatments in English.

Let’s begin by talking about the scientific method – the process that scientists use for exploring the natural world and making new discoveries.

Identify the profession of the speaker of each statement.

Which is your favorite medium (type) of art? There’s drawing, which is done with pencil, pen, or charcoal on paper: Painting involves applying paint to a canvas with a brush.

Choose the correct word to complete each sentence.

There are two main areas of law – criminal law and civil law. Criminal law deals with crime and punishment, whereas civil law involves settling disputes (resolving conflicts) between individuals and/or organizations.

In this lesson, we’re going to look at three major environmental issues – pollution, endangered species and deforestation, and energy consumption.

Review and practice the vocabulary from the lesson

There are many different types of non-profit organizations, but in this lesson we’re going to focus on charitable organizations (usually called charities), which focus on helping people, animals, and the environment.

Entrepreneurship refers to creating, starting, and running a new business, and a person who does this is called an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs must be innovative and willing to take risks.

Welcome to our final business idioms lesson! Try to guess what these 12 expressions mean from the context. Note: The quiz is in the downloadable lesson text.