MODUL PERKULIAHAN

English for
Engineering II
Business Meeting

Fakultas Program Studi Tatap Muka Kode MK Disusun Oleh

12
Teknik Teknik Industri F021700002 Prayogo Hadi Sulistio, M.Pd

Abstract Competency
This module discusses about business The students are expected to arrange
meeting with language features being and conduct business meeting.
used.
Introduction
Lead in
- Are business meeting always necessary? Are they ever enjoyable?
- What kind of meetings do you think are most wortwhile?
- What kind of meetings do you think are least wirthwhile?
- Are meetings sometimes too long? How much time do you spend in meetings and
how could this be reduced?
Discussion
Meetings are not the same all over the world. Answer the following questions for your
company or your country or part of the world?
- Is punctuality important? Do meetings have to begin exactly on time?
- Is it important to reach an agreement quickly (time is money), or getting to know
people and reaching a consensus more important than speed?
- Who has the power to make decisions – an individual (usually the most senior person
at the meeting ) or a group?
- Is it acceptable to show your emotions in a meeting or negotiation?
- Can you suggest parts of the world where people generally do these things differently
from in your country?
- Do you think that corporate culture – a company’s ways of operating and its value,
beliefs and principles – is more important than the nationality of the participants or
the location of the meeting?

Vocabulary
Check your understanding of words and phrases for organizing and controlling meetings (1-
6) by matching them with their definitions (a-f)
1. any other business (AOB)
2. apologize for absence
3. compromise
4. consensus
5. to disgress
6. minutes
a. to move off the subject and start talking about someting else.
b. a written report distributed to participants after a meeting
c. often the last item in a meeting, when participants discuss issues not on the agenda

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d. a way of reaching agreement in which each side concede of gives up something it wants
e. the situation in which most or all of the people at a meeting agree about something
f. often the first item in a meeting, conceringn people who can not be present.

Controlling meetings
Here are some other phrases used for controlling meetings. Look at the table below and put
the phrases based on their functions. There is more than one phrases for some categories.
a. As you can see from the agenda, there are three points .... 1
b. I think we whould move on to the next topic on the agenda ...
c. I’d like to ask Lisa to tell us about .... ...
d. It’s ten o’clock. Let’s start ...
e. Just a moment. Please, let Lisa finish ...
f. Ok, I’d like to sum up the main points so far. ...
g. One at a time, please. Can we let John finish? ...
h. So, let me summarize that, You mean ... ...
i. Sorry, we can’t consider that question at the moment ...
j. Thank you Frank, I think you have made your point now. ...
k. Thank you very much Lisa, for explaining the bckground. ...
l. That’s not what we are here to talk about. Can we stick to the agenda, please? ...
m. We’re here today to talk about ... and to decide ... ...
n. Welcome, everybody. Thank you for coming. ...

Caring a meeting
Please put phrases from above to table below to manage a meeting.
1. Welcome people to a meeting:

2. Begin a meeting:

3. Explain the meeting/s objectives:

4. Introduce the agenda:

5. Explain that someone can’t come

6. Invite someone to speak:

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7. Interupt a speaker:

8. Stop someone interupting a speaker:

9. Stop someone digressing:

10. Thank a speaker for a contribution:

11. Summarize what has been said:

12. Move on to another item:

Practice
MGS Bank has a taineeshipscheme which takes on six foreign students for two months
every summer. They work on projects and get two hours of training each week. The training
departmet is having a meeting to discuss various inexpensive options to improve the
trainees’ knowledge of finance and English.
Your teacher will give you a role to prepare. Use the languega for chairing and controlling
meeting from this unit.
Student A
You are the training manager. You are chairing the meeting. You have to open it, explain its
purpose, decide who speaks, bring people into the discussion, stop people talking to much
or interupting or disgressing, etc.

Students B
You can arrange a special tour of the stock exchange and the central bank in the capital city.
The tour would cost $150, and transport to the capital would be $40 per person by train, or
$260 to hire minibus and driver for the day. If the second option was chosen, you would like
to add an evening entertainment as well. You will ask the meeting for suggestions.

Student C
You think the trainee would appreciate something relaxing after a hard day’s work. You
would like to hire or buy DVD’s of films about finance, show them to the trainee, and discuss
the issues involved. You suggest Wall Street, a well-known movie about financial crime, and
Rogue Trader, about the collapse of Barings Bank in 1995. You will ask your collagues to
suggest toher films. This optionwould be very cheap and enjoyable.

Student D
You want to continue doing what thebank has done for several years and hire an expert to
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give a series of seven 90-minutes seminars on finance and banking. These are usually on
Friday afternoon, when the trainees find it hard to concentrate, so this year you want to
schedule them at 8.00 or 8.30 on Monday mornings. You pay the lecture $80 per session.
Before the meeting you heard colleagues suggesting other non-serious forms of ‘training’,
such as watching films and you are totally against such proposals. You intend to make your
views extremely clear.

Read the quiz below and then discuss the answers in pairs or groups.
Meeting quiz
1. When should you call a meeting?
a. Every time your group needs to share information.
b. When a meeting is the best way to achieve your objective.
c. Never, because meetings are nearly always a waste of time.
2. Who should participate?
a. People who are good at telling jokes and making meetings fun.
b. The people who can help fulfill the meeting’s objective.
c. The whole department, because you don’t want to exclude anyone.
3. How can you stop a meeting
a. You set a time limit in advance and you stick to it.
b. You can’t; I don’t remember the last meeting I went to that didn’t run over time
c. You have the meeting in room without chairs and make everybody stand – the way
they talk a lot less.
4. At the end of the meeting, what should the leader do?
a. Set a time and place to continue with the rest of the agenda
b. Summarize and remind all the participants of who is responsible for what and by
when
c. Offer to buy everybody a drink.

Vocabulary
Cross out the verbs in each list that does not make a word combination with the noun on the
right. The first one has been done as an example.

1. approve / circulate / drw up / go thorugh / hold / put something on an agenda

2. arrive at / brak / carry out / implement / reach / take a decision
3. call / call off / chair / close / hold / take a meeting
4. approve / distribute / go through / set / take / write the minutes
5. achieve / agree on / deal with / move towards / reach / set an objective
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6. agree with / ask for /express / find / give / hold an opinion
7. approve /carry out / do / implement / present /reject a plan
8. avoid / deal with /get round / overcome / put / tackle a problem
9. agree on / arrive at / look after / come up with / find / offer a solution
10. agree with / come to / consider / dismiss / put forward a suggestion

Complete the sentences using the correct form of verbs from the Vocabulary exercie.
1. At the beginning of every meeting, we ...... the agenda, and then we appointsomeone
to ....... the minutes so we have a record of what happened.
2. That was the first time I’ve had to ..... a meeting, and I found controlling everybody rather
difficult.
3. It’s better to ....... the agenda a couple of days before a meeting, so that people can
prepare themselves.
4. It’s very easy to ...... an objective, it’s more difficult to ...... it.
5. We ..... a regular meeting every Monday morning where we can try to ..... any problems
that have come up.
6. I was very disappointed because the Board totally ..... my plan.
7. They argued for an hour, until someone ...... a new suggestion.

Asking for and giving opinion, agreeing and disagreeing

1. Look at the following phrases for giving strong opinion. Can you add any phrases for
giving neutral or weak opinions?
I’m (absolutely) sure / convinced / positive that .....
I have absolutely no doubt that ......
I strongly believe that ....
I definitely think that ......
I really do think that .....
It’s obvious that ....
Clearly / obviously .....
2. The following phrases are used to ask opinions. Which of them show that the speakers
has a different opinion?
Do you really think / beliave that .....?
What is your view on .....?
Do you think / belive / consider that .....?
What do you think that .....?
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 I’d like to hear what you think about .....?
Are you absolutely sure / convinced / positive that ....?
3. The phrases below are used to weak or tentative agreement. Can you add any phrases
for strong agreement?
You may / might /could be right, but ..... I agree with you, but ....
I agree up to a point. I agree to certain extent.

4. Mark the phrases for disagreeing – S If they disagree strongly, and W if the
disagreements is weak or neutral.
Really? Do you think so? I completely disagree with that ...
I’m afraid I can’t agree with that .... I’am afraid I don’t agree.
Nonsense / Rubbish! I’m against that, because ...
I’m not totally convinced, because .... I can;t support that, because ...
I totally disagree with you. I don’t agree.

Practice 1
You are going to practice expressing your opinions, asking your partner’s opinions, and
agreeing or disagreeing with them. Use the phrases for expressing opinions, agreeing and
disagreeing from the Language focus,
Work in pairs. Student A should look page 119, and students B at page 128
Student A
You have the following opinions. Take turns – express one of the opinions to your partner,
ask what his / her opinions are on the topic, and agree or disagree. Then listen to one of
your partner’s opinions, and agree or disagree.
- Commercial banks are often really incompetent.
- English is very easy to spell and pronounce.
- It’s really difficult to raise the capital to start a new company.
- Men almost never admit that they are wrong.
- Most auditing companies don’t do their job very well.
- People are motivated mainly by money.
- Taxes are too high in this country.
- Twenty-five years old is much too young to get married.

Student B
You have the following opinions. Take turns-express one of the opinionsto your partner, ask
what his / her opinions are on the topic, and agree or disagree. Then listen to one of your
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partner’s opinions, agree or disagree.
- Company directors should not earn more than $1m a year.
- Free markets work and governments should never intervene.
- Mother should not work but should stay at home with their children.
- People should be a 40% tax on capital gains.
- There is proof that global wrming is happening.
- There is no future for manufacturing industry in western countries.
- Most people like to have responsibility at work.

Concluding a meeting
There are five characteristics of concluding a meeting. Find phrases based on the
characteristics below.
1. End discussion of a point
2. Begin to summarize the decisions that have been taken
3. Make sure that everyone has understood
4. Arrange the next meeting
5. Thank everybody

Now match the following phrases (a-g) to the characteristics (1-5) above.
a. Can we leave this point now and move on to the next item? ...
b. Is January 11 convenient as a date for our next meeting? ...
c. I’d like to sum up the main joints. ...
d. OK, so we have decided that .... ...
e. Thank you all for coming. I think we’ve made a lot of progress. ...
f. Is everyone OK with that? ...
g. I don’t think there is any more to be said on this. ...

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References
H. Glendining, Eric. (2016). English for Careers: Technology 1 and 2. Oxford University
Press.

Bonarny, David. (2008). Technical English 2 and 4. Pearson Longman.

Mark, Ibbotson. (2016). Professional English in Use for Engineering. Cambridge.

2019 English for Engineering II

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Pusat Bahan Ajar dan eLearning
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