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