BEC Preliminary

Skills required for BEC

IPO principle (input – processing – output)

 

Primary skills

Listening skills – receptive (input)

Speaking skills – expressive (output)

Secondary skills

Writing skills – expressive

Reading skills - expressive

 

Vocabulary skills

Collocations

Send an enquiry

Make /submit an offer

Place / (give, take) an order

Lodge / file / make a complaint

Take the minutes

Give advice / infontion

Provide a service

Interview an applicant

Deal with a problem

Attend a meeting

Keep a record

Organise a conference

 

Business register

Business vocabulary

Formality (formal – informal)

 

Business activities

(work, make, design, produce, interview) Page 8

 

Vocabulary learning strategies pages (19-21-22-23-24/ 39, 40

Organise, visualise your vocabulary according to different principles:

Scales, forks, diagrams, word fields, word trees

 

Addition and contrast

Cause (reasons) and effect (consequences)

Because of, due to, owing to, thanks to

Lead to, result in

Whereas, but, however, on the other hand

 

Terms and conditions of

Employment (pay, working hours, health and safety, safety net, dress code, overtime, flexitime, leave)

 

Sale (delivery – payment)

Contract

incoterms

 

Motivation (discount)

To motivate to buy

Early settlement motivation

 

Grant                                                                  cash discount

Offer /give                                                 quantity discount

Allow                                     discount               trade discount

 

Work:

I work as

I am responsible for

My job also involves

I deal with

As part of my job

I am based in

 

 

Dictionary skills

Monolingual dictionaries

Translation dictionaries

 

 

 

Text / Writing Skills

Relevance

 

Sequence and chronology

Page 19, 50

Coherence

Linking words / signposting

 

Clarity

Constraints

 

Means of Business Communication

Internal communication

Memos

Notes

Reports

Face-to-face

Phone

 

External communication

Business letters

Enquiries – offers – orders - complaints

 

Types of business communication

Verbal communication

Non-verbal communication (body languages)

Written communication

 

 

Grammar skills

Rules / routines (present simple: timesless tense)

Current projects (present continuous: short duration and exceptions)

 

History (past simple: reporting)

 

Results (present perfect)

Complete: results I have repaired the car.

Incomplete (seit) I have been living in Bremen for 10 years. I have been living in Bremen for 10 years.

 

Processes

Industrial processes: passive

 

Verbs:

State verbs (simple tenses)

Verbs of possession: have, own, possess, belong to, want

Verbs of mind: believe, think*

Verbs of emotions: like, love

Verbs of appearance (linking verbs): look, appear, sound

 

Dynamic verbs (simple + continuous tenses)

 

Verbs of dual function

 

Prepositions

Deadlines – by (German bis: to / till /until – by)

 

Targetting and the preposition at

 

Comparison of products

Comparing and contrasting (degrees of comparison)

 

Business ideas and concepts

Bottom lines (profit – loss)

 

Graph literacy /skills

Types of graphs

Line graph – changes – trends

 

Bar chart – comparisons

 

Pie chart – shares

 

Flow chart – processes

 

Tables

 

Maps

 

Diagrams

 

Organigrams

 

Trends

Upward trends:

go up, increase, shoot up, peak, recover, rise

 

Downward trends:

go down, decrease, decline, dip, hit the bottom

 

Level trends:

level off/out, fluctuate, steady

 

 

Language of graphs

Nominalisation                               Verbalisation)

 

Business Situations

Functional English and modalities

Requests

Obligations / necesities