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, international trade, and tourism.

The course provides a continuing systematic study of grammar and aims to develop the specific skills required in the field of international trade. Importance is given to the lexis specific to certain subject areas.

Further practice will be given in the development of language skills in the business context.
Communication skills
- Interact with superiors and colleagues through traditional media (telephone) and digital platforms (computer and work platforms, such as Slack, Zoom, LinkedIn).
- handle Q&A sessions, and deal with difficult scenarios

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.

As of the academic year 2025/26, for students enrolling in the first year, it is not necessary to complete the English B1 OFA. However, a knowledge of English at the B1 level of the CEFR ((Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) is strongly advised in order to be able to fake full advantage of the courser. Students who matriculated prior to this time must have completed the English B1 OFA, without which the English 1 exam cannot be registered.

Study and consolidation of the morphosyntactic and lexical properties of specialised 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

Topics:
- Business culture and management
- Networking
- Innovation and circular economy
- Business communication
- Negotiation and active listening
- Marketing and advertising
- Business Travel

Referral texts
**More information on how to gain access to coursebook content will be provided during the first lecture**

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
2) Reading comprehension
3) Grammar
4) Written production: report based on given data: either from a graph or a data table of
For attending students, participation in the course and various activities will contribute to the final evaluation. Furthermore, the prompts and texts selected for the exam will be drawn from the material covered in class.

Evaluation grid:
28-30L: mastery of the topics covered in class and in other materials provided; in oral presentation, appropriate use of the English language in all contexts covered;
26-27: good knowledge of the topics covered in class and in other materials provided; in oral presentation, fair use of the English language in all contexts covered;
24-25: not always in-depth knowledge of the topics covered in class and in other materials provided; in oral presentation,
orderly but not always correct use of the English language in all contexts covered;
22-23: often superficial knowledge of the topics covered in class and in other materials provided; in oral presentation, unclear and
poor use of the English language in all contexts covered;
18-21: knowledge of the topics covered in class and in other materials provided is at times incomplete; oral presentation in English is confused,
with little use of the specific vocabulary covered in class.

- In-person lectures
- Group work (e.g. discussion, peer-review activities, cooperative learning activities, role-play)
- Practical exercises in English grammar with a business/tourism focus
- Moodle for sharing course materials and for certain activities

It is strongly recommended to attend the lessons. A language course requires regular practice.
The language practice labs with the CEL is an essential component of the course, during which students will complete their language preparation for the CEL section of the final exam.