Syllabus

LEARNING OUTCOMES (LOs) After attending this course, students will be able:

• LO1: to demonstrate a level of general English competence equivalent to B2 (lower) on the Common European Framework ( http://www.coe.int/T/DG4/Portfolio/?L=E&M=/main_pages/levels.html ) with respect to reading and writing skills;                                                                                                                              
• LO2: to understand and apply important concepts from the fields of business organisations, business transactions, personnel management and marketing, and to recall as required the essential terminology associated with them;                                                                                                                                             
• LO3: to recall at will, and use, the English equivalents of basic German terminology from these fields, as well as other typical features (structures, collocations, prepositional usage, etc) of the associated language, to discuss the above business fields in an appropriate manner;                                                                                   
• LO4: to combine the various abilities mentioned above in order to understand lower-intermediate level written texts about the above business fields, and to write, in context, short, appropriate passages of communications relating to them.

In addition, this course fosters the following soft skills:

• Ability to explain and summarise, in German (or other native language), English texts relating to the business fields mentioned
• Improved aural/oral skills

EBC1 is divided into ten units, each centred on an aspect of one of the business fields mentioned above and divided into three parts, dealing with business content and terminology, language, and text comprehension and production, respectively. EBC1 classes (one for each of these units) involve a range of activities based on the course literature, including:

• discussion of tricky content issues;
• vocabulary development and reinforcement of grammatical structures;
• listening comprehension; and
• examination preparation.