The basic objective of this subject is the personal and professional development of the student in an environment of speech different from her / his mother tongue. The students will develop the necessary skills to communicate in English in the globalized business context. Thus, the comprehension and writing of business correspondence, given its importance in the current business framework, will be one of the bases of the subject. In particular, the students will acquire the necessary language skills to understand and write business letters about common business operations. Furthermore, the second aim will be to develop oral communication skills in professional business ambiance. Thus, the students will learn to maintain a conversation in standard business situations, implementing the formal register. The subject Advanced Business English I is linked to other subjects of the Degree in Business Management, specifically those related to Marketing, Advertising, Entrepreneurship as well as Domestic and International Trade since it covers key concepts studied within these business areas. In general, the competences acquired in the course will allow the students to apply for wider variety of positions, especially at multinational companies, where the knowledge of Business English is crucial for main duties implementation.



Prerequisites: Knowledge of Business English is not necessary to take this subject. However, it is necessary to have general English level equivalent to or higher than B1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for languages.

During the course, the following competencies will be developed:



- The ability to use specific business terms in English correctly to communicate effectively in professional environment. It relates to the M04CM09, M04CM13 degree competences.

- The ability to use correctly specific English grammar structures characterizing formal register in business contexts. It relates to the M04CM09, M04CM13 degree competences.

- The ability to understand written and oral texts of B2 / C1 level in English regarding certain business situation. It relates to the M04CM09, M04CM13 degree competences.

- The ability to produce written and oral texts of B2 / C1 level in English around specific business topic. It relates to the M04CM09, M04CM13 degree competences.

- The ability to work in a multinational environment where the knowledge of English is vital. It relates to the M04CM07 degree competence.

- The ability to collaborate with other groupmates, to work as a team showing respect to the other group members, responsibility for the work to implement and initiative. It relates to the M04CM10 degree competence.

- The ability to acquire a high degree of autonomy both in order to undertake further studies and in face of their own self-training. It relates to the M04CM05 degree competence.



Learning outcomes:



By the end of the course, the students will learn:

- to understand and correctly comprehend oral and written information in Business English;

- to distinguish the main characteristics of formal register and to apply it adequately to formal business contexts;

- to elaborate business documents in English respecting the indicated format as well as using appropriate vocabulary and grammar structures;

- to maintain effective oral communication in different formal business situations;

- to apply the studied material to new contexts to develop a high level of autonomous work.

Topic 1. Formal letter writing. Formal communication. Holding a formal meeting.



Topic 2. New business. Enquiry letters, reply to enquiry letters and quotation letters. Negotiating.



Topic 3. Products and brands. Order letters and reply to order letters. Placing and following up an order.



Topic 4. Marketing and advertising. Methods of payment in domestic and international trade. Holding a teleconference.



Topic 5. Selling across cultures. Logistics and INCOTERMS. Coordinating shipment of goods.

During the lectures, the professor will expose the conceptual contents of the subject. Practical activities in the classroom will be carried out through teacher-students interaction, student-student interaction and individual student work. The subject seeks to develop competences in a foreign language to help students get acquainted with different linguistic contexts and be able to adapt to some new ones. Therefore, autonomous learning will have a great relevance during the term. Exercises to be done individually in class or outside class hours will be oriented at enhancing autonomous learning and strengthening the language skills of students. The tasks given for homework will receive individual correction or will be discussed in class.

The teaching process will be organized in the conventional, face-to-face mode, or in the bimodal way (if the number of students within a group makes it impossible for everybody to attend the lessons in the conventional mode) in case the sanitary situation allows for it. If, for sanitary reasons, it is not possible to organize the teaching process in the conventional way, it will be adapted to the online mode.

• Sistema de Evaluación Continua
• Sistema de Evaluación Final
• Herramientas y porcentajes de calificación:
  • Prueba escrita a desarrollar (%): 30
  • Prueba tipo test (%): 30
  • Defensa oral (%): 20
  • Trabajos individuales (%): 10
  • Participación activa en clase (%): 10

CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT



1. Writing 1 (15%)

2. Writing 2 (15%)

3. Final test (25%)

4. Reading (10%)

5. Individual exercises and active class participation (10%)

6. Oral test (25%)



For the percentage points to be summed, it is necessary to get at least 5 out of 10 for a given task. The works that receive grades below 5 and works not submitted or submitted after the deadline are considered as a failure and the percentage is equal to zero (0).



If a student desires to withdraw from the call, he/she will have to let the teacher know about their decision in written form one month before the end of the studying period. Otherwise, he/she will be evaluated through the continuous evaluation system, as final test constitutes only 30% of the grade.



Whoever requests and obtains the right to submit to the final exam, renouncing the continuous evaluation, will be evaluated through the final evaluation system, which scores 100% of the grade. This is a written test that will consist in writing business letters, doing reading comprehension exercises and test on knowledge of the specific vocabulary and grammar structures used in business English. A minimal grade of '5' is required to pass the subject. However, if the test part does not reach the minimal grade of 5, the letter part and reading are not checked, which signifies the failure of the exam. In case of the successful test result, the letter part and reading will be checked and will require the minimal grade of 5 for the percentage points to be summed. The works obtaining a grade lower than 5, will be considered as a failure and will be graded with 0, which will be given no percentage points. Those students who pass the exam with the grade 6.5 or higher and would like to improve their grade can take the oral exam, which will be optional.



Not sitting the 100% exam on the official date qualifies as an automatic withdrawal from the corresponding call and is assessed as *no grade reported* [ez aurkeztua/no presentado/a].



NB! Students are not allowed to plagiarize, copy other students’ works or use materials or electronic devices during the partial or final exam. Under any of the aforementioned circumstances, students’ works will be qualified as an automatic failure and, consequently, assessed as *0* [failed/suspentso/ suspenso]. Furthermore, in the case of copying, both, the student-author and the student who copied the work will fail the exam or the activity in question.

The extraordinary evaluation will be a written test that scores 100% of the grade. The test will consist of business letters writing exercises, reading comprehension exercises and exercises on knowledge of the specific vocabulary and grammar structures used in Business English. A minimal grade of '5' is required to pass the subject. However, if the test part does not reach the minimal grade of 5, the letter part and reading are not checked, which signifies the failure of the exam. In case of the successful test result, the letter part and reading will be checked and will require the minimal grade of 5 for the percentage points to be summed. The works obtaining a grade lower than 5, will be considered as a failure and will be graded with 0, which will be given no percentage points. The maximal grade for the written part will be 6.9. Thus, those students who pass the exam with the grade of 6.5 or higher and would like to improve their grade can take the oral exam, which will be optional.



NB! Students are not allowed to plagiarize, copy other students’ works or use materials or electronic devices during the partial or final exam. Under any of the aforementioned circumstances, students’ works will be qualified as an automatic failure and, consequently, assessed as *0* [failed/ suspentso/ suspenso]. Furthermore, in the case of copying, both, the student-author and the student who copied the work will fail the exam or the activity in question.



Not sitting the 100% exam on the official date qualifies as an automatic withdrawal from the corresponding call and is assessed as *no grade reported* [ez aurkeztua/no presentado/a].

Class dossier prepared by the professor. Students must come to the class with the corresponding class dossier that is available in their photocopy centre.

Bibliografía básica

Ashley, A. (1988) A Handbook of Commercial Correspondence. Oxford: OUP.

Baude, D. (2007) The Executive Guide to E-mail Correspondence. Franklin Lakes, NJ: Career Press

Bond, A. (2005) 300+ Successful Business Letters for All Occasions. Hauppauge, NY: Barrons.

Carey J.A., Dugger J. (2002) Business Letters for Busy People. National Press Publications, Inc.

Day J. (2012) Writing for Impact. CUP

Hughes, J. & Mallett, A. Successful Meetings. Video course. OUP.

Lindsell-Roberts, S. (2004) Strategic Business Letters and E-mail. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Rogers L. (2013) Skills for Business Studies. Upper-Intermediate. OUP

Taylor S. (2012) Model Business Letters, Emails and Other Business Documents. Financial Times Prentice Hall.

Bibliografía de profundización

Brook-Hart, G. (2014) Complete First for Spanish Speakers. Class Audio CDs (3).
Brook-Hart, G. (2014) Complete First for Spanish Speakers. Student's Book with Answers with CD-ROM. CUP.
Dubicka I. et al. (2019) Business Partner B2+ Coursebook and Standard MyEnglishLab Pack. Pearson.
Hewings, M. (2015) Advanced Grammar in Use Book with Answers and Interactive eBook (Third Edition). CUP.
Lane A., Speck C., Duckworth M., Turner R. (2012) Business Result Upper-Intermediate. Student's Book with DVD-ROM + Online Workbook Pack
McCarthy M & O’dell F. (2017) Business vocabulary in use. Advanced. CUP
Thomas, B., Thomas, A. (2014) Complete First for Spanish Speakers. Workbook with answers with Audio CD. CUP.

Dictionaries
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. OUP.
Longman Concise Dictionary of Business English
Oxford Business English Dictionary for learners of English
Cambridge Business English Dictionary

Revistas

https://www.omicsonline.org/business-and-management-journals-united-kingdom/

https://www.hilarispublisher.com/business-and-economics-journal.html

Direcciones web

Online dictionaries:

http://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp?tranword
https://www.linguee.es
http://context.reverso.net/traduccion/
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/learner-english/
http://www.spanish-translator-services.com/espanol/diccionarios/finanzas-espanol-ingles/
http://www.businessdictionary.com
http://www.investorguide.com/glossary/
http://www.investorwords.com
https://www.investopedia.com/dictionary/

Online grammar:

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/grammar

https://www.businessenglishsite.com/business-english-grammar-tests.html


General resources related to Business English:

https://www.businessenglishresources.com/

Business news:

https://www.cnbc.com/business/
https://www.ft.com/global-economy
https://edition.cnn.com/business
https://www.bbc.com/news/av/business-11876811