First – term

UNIT 1. CORPORATE CULTURE

I. Vocabulary
1 A good atmosphere
2 Building trust
3 Commitment
4 Company structure: the way the company is organized
5 Culture (n): the attitudes or beliefs that are shared and accepted by a
particular group of people or in a particular organization.
6 Dress code = uniform
7 Enthusiastically
8 Flexibility
9 Hierarchy (n): a system of organization in which people are divided into
levels of importance.
10 Minimum salary
11 Open-plan office
12 Organizational behavior: looks at how people in an organization work
together and how this affects the organization as a whole
13 Pay rate = salary
14 Pay structure
15 Proactively
16 Strategy (n): a plan for achieving an aim
17 The image of a company = brand
18 The values of a company: principles, vision, practices
Questions
1. How important is a high salary to you? Is it more important than a good
working atmosphere?
- High salary: afford me for cost of living, boost my emotion in working.
- good working atmosphere: contributes a better work result because
employers feel comfortable with that workplace. The greater the bond is
between coworkers, the better chance a company has of achieving its short-
and long-term goals. This is due to teamwork is the foundation of company
success.
2. What do you think motivates employers. What motivates personality to work
or study hard?
- motivating employers is concerns of all companies. The better the employers
feel about their job, the better chance a company has of achieving its short-
and long-term goals.
3. Potential advantage and disadvantage of trust at work?
4. How important do you think building trust at work? Why?
- Building trust at work is extremely significant. It is the foundation of strong
working relationships, teamwork, and collaboration. When employees trust
each other and their leaders, they feel more comfortable sharing ideas, taking
risks, and asking for help. This leads to a more innovative, productive, and
positive work environment.
- Increased productivity: When employees trust each other, they are more
likely to work together effectively and efficiently. They are also more likely
to share their knowledge and expertise, which can lead to new ideas and
solutions.
- Reduced stress and burnout: Trust can create a work environment where
employees feel safe, supported, and respected. When employees feel trusted,
they can rely on their colleagues and managers and less likely to feel anxious
or worried about their jobs, reducing the fear of failure or harsh
consequences for mistakes.
 II. Writing
1. Title/ introduction
- Great news!
- Why not take advantage of an exciting new scheme?
- New opportunity for all staff
- Staff are delighted sure to be to learn that…
2. Informing
- We are offering the chance you the to…
- The changes come into
- Full salary is to paid if you
- The HR team can help by providing a structured re-entry process
- The company is happy to announce that
- The changes come into place next month
3. Concluding
- Let us know if you wish to participate
- If you are interested, please contact…
- We would welcome any comments you might have about…

UNIT 2. TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

I. Vocabulary
1 Benchmarking
2 Blended learning
3 Career development
4 Competency – competitive (adj)
5 Cross-functional approach
6 Delivery method
7 Development: the teaching or learning of a range of skills employees can use
in a variety of positions and/or for future careers
8 Emotional intelligence
9 External training
10 Functional approach
11 General business skills
12 In-house training
13 Induction training
14 Job-orientated
15 Job-related training
16 Long-term goals >< short-term goals
17 Mentee (n) – mentor (n) - Mentoring
18 Motivate (v) – motivation
19 Needs analysis
20 Practical courses
21 Preparation for career
22 Preparation for future challenges
23 Rapport
24 Skills set
25 Skills specific to a job
26 Standard
27 Task-orientated
28 Training sessions
29 Training: the process of teaching or being taught the skills for a particular job
or activity
30 Understanding
31 Workplace
 II. Writting
1. Requests
- I’m writing to request some more professional training
- Please could you let me know if…
- I would therefore like to attend…
- Would it be possible for me to do a course?
- I would appreciate it if I could …
- It would be very helpful if I could attend a course
2. Reasons
- I start work in Spain soon so I need to study Spanish.
- I have just been promoted to manager so …
- I do not have enough experience in this area
EX

As I am now having to
negotiate new contracts with
our customers, I feel that it
would be very helpful if
I could attend this new course
to help me negotiate
more effectively.
I believe that the course is
ideal because it focuses
on key skills such as being
able to recognise how
negotiations can change
during the process and
how to read the reactions of
the people I am
negotiating with. It is very
important to be able to
know if the other side is likely
to accept our offer.
Another area where I need to
improve my skills
is being able to listen actively.
I sometimes find
it difficult to keep focused on
listening so
I occasionally might not
always ask the right
questions.
In order to create suitable
strategies, the course
also looks at the value of
careful planning and
preparation so that I can
create effective strategies
to use during negotiations.
Since the next course is in two
weeks’ time,
I’d appreciate it if you could
confirm as soon as
possible if I can take this
course as I have to
negotiate the new contract
with our biggest client
next month.
As I am now having to
negotiate new contracts with
our customers, I feel that it
would be very helpful if
I could attend this new course
to help me negotiate
more effectively.
I believe that the course is
ideal because it focuses
on key skills such as being
able to recognise how
negotiations can change
during the process and
how to read the reactions of
the people I am
negotiating with. It is very
important to be able to
know if the other side is likely
to accept our offer.
Another area where I need to
improve my skills
is being able to listen actively.
I sometimes find
it difficult to keep focused on
listening so
I occasionally might not
always ask the right
questions.
In order to create suitable
strategies, the course
also looks at the value of
careful planning and
preparation so that I can
create effective strategies
to use during negotiations.
Since the next course is in two
weeks’ time,
I’d appreciate it if you could
confirm as soon as
possible if I can take this
course as I have to
negotiate the new contract
with our biggest client
next month.
Dear Walter,
As I am now having to negotiate new contracts with our customers, I feel that it
would be very helpful if I could attend this new course to help me negotiate more
effectively.
I believe that the course is ideal because it focuses on key skills such as being able
to recognise how negotiations can change during the process and how to read the
reactions of the people I am negotiating with. It is very important to be able to
know if the other side is likely to accept our offer. Another area where I need to
improve my skills is being able to listen actively. I sometimes find it difficult to
keep focused on listening so I occasionally might not always ask the right
questions.
In order to create suitable strategies, the course also looks at the value of careful
planning and preparation so that I can create effective strategies to use during
negotiations.
Since the next course is in two weeks’ time, I’d appreciate it if you could confirm
as soon as possible if I can take this course as I have to negotiate the new contract
with our biggest client next month.
Kind regards,
Lily

UNIT 3. FINANCE
I. Vocabulary
1 (Go) bankrupt - Bankruptcy
2 Bail someone out
3 Boom (n/v): to grow rapidly, or be very successful as a business or trade
4 Boost (v): improve sth and make it more successful
5 Bottom-life: the amount of money that a business makes or loses
6 Crash
7 Credit crunch
8 Depression
9 Economic depression
10 Economy
11 Financial crisis
12 Financial institution
13 Insolvent
14 Invest
15 Investment
16 Lay off
17 Loan
18 Losses
19 Make up ground: replace sthg that has been lost, become successful again
20 Make your mark: have an important or permanent effect on sthg
21 Manage money
22 Market-losses
23 Mortgage
24 Profitability (n): the amount of profit a company makes
25 Recession
26 Save money
27 Savings
28 Stock market
II. Functional language
1. I think we should continue to help the guys locally/invest in new
technology/focus on training.
2. This is simply too high / expensive / labour intensive.
3. I'm really happy with the progress we've made in a number of areas / with
the advertising campaign / in expanding our market share.
4. I'm not sure that we'll be able to continue with local production / meet our
targets / achieve what we wanted.
5. To be fair, we're only a little over budget / behind schedule / below target.
6. I'm sure that we can turn this around and get production up to
standard/hit our targets / get back on track.
7. I'm very disappointed with the first quarter numbers / our lack of progress /
the customer feedback.
8. We have to find a new approach to this / dealing with
disagreements/marketing going forwards.
III. Writing: Annual report summary
1. Overview/ Introduction
- 2018 was a year of mixed results and challenges
 - The last year has been the company making many tough decisions
2. Reasons
- The problems were caused by the strength of the dollar
- This was largely as a result of our entry into the Asian market
3. Positive aspects
- After a steady recovery over two quarters, we achieved good results.
- We were able to raise our annual dividend by 2%
4. Negative aspects
- Sales fell by 5% in the second quarter
- We posted sales of $128 mil, down 5% on the previous year.
5. Future outlook
- This gives us cause to be optimistic
- The optimistic for the coming year looks promising
EX.
2018 was a year of challenges due to an economic downturn in some of our
markets. However, this was offset by our entry into more buoyant markets, which
meant we achieved better results overall than expected.
We finished the year posting group sales of £48 billion compared to £40 billion in
2017. In addition, cash flow from operations also saw an increase and was up on
the previous year, at £4.5 billion. As a result of this success, we were very pleased
to be able to raise our annual dividend to £1.34, the third consecutive year it has
increased.
The total number of stores worldwide has reached 2,000 since we acquired five
more stores in Russia, ten new stores in India and four in Japan, the latter two being
new markets for us. Furthermore, we successfully launched a new brand aimed at
the high-end European market and this appears to be selling very well, which gives
us cause to be very optimistic about the future.
Our plans now include a major restructuring of the organisation in order to reduce
operating costs and a plan to buy back £1 billion worth of our shares over the next
three years.

UNIT 4. DIGITAL BUSINESS

I. Vocabulary
Analyse (v)
1 Analysis (n)
Analyst (person) (n)
Analytical (adj)
Analytics (n)
2 Anticipate (v) – anticipation (n) – anticipated (adj)

3 artificial intelligence
4 Artificial intelligence
5 Cloud
6 Conservation (n)
7 Convert (v) – conversion (n) – converted (adj)

8 Dial 2 (right)
9 Digital disruptors
10 Disrupt (v)
Disrupt (v) – disruptive (adj)
Disruptive (adj)
Disruptor (n) – disruption (n)
11 Dump
12 Headsets
13 Innovate (v)
 Innovation (n) – thing
Innovator (n) – person
Innovative (adj)
14 Irritable – irritated – irritating (adj)
Irritate (v)
Irritation (n)
15 Mining
16 Neat features

17 neat features, headsets,

sensor technology,
18 or two segments in an
anti-clockwise direction.
19 Personalization – person - personality (n)
Personalize (v)
Personalized - personal (adj)
20 Platform
21 Predict (v) - Prediction (n)
Predictable – predictive (adj)
22 Real time
23 Sensor technology
24 Simultaneous translation
25 Tool

26 translation, voice
recognition
 27 Turn the dial two
segments in a clockwise
direction
28 Visualize (v) - Visualisation (n) - Visual (adj)
29 Voice recognition
30 Wireless earphones

31 wireless earphones, real

time, simultaneous
II. Writting
1. Introduction

UNIT 5. PERFORMANCE
I. Vocabulary
II. Writing

UNIT 6. ETHICS
I. Vocabulary
Moral approach
Unethical conduct
Tough conditions
Low pay
Ethically sourced
Clothing brands
Sweatshops
Fair-trade cotton
Be accused of
Be aware of
Be responsible for = take responsibility for
Campaign against
Have an impact on
Look across
II. Writing