BEC Preliminary
Skills required for BEC
Primary skills
Listening skills - receptive
Speaking skills - expressive
Secondary skills
Writing kills – expressive
Reading skills
Vocabulary skills
Collocations
Send an enquiry
Make /submit an offer
Place /give, take) an order
Lodge / file / make a complaint
Take the minutes
Business register
Business vocabulary
Formality (formal – informal)
Vocabulary learning strategies
Dictionary skills
Linking words / signposting
Grammar skills
Rules / routines (present simple: timesless tense)
Current projects (present continuous: short duration and exceptions)
Business activities
(Work, make, design, produce, interview) Page 8
History (past simple)
Results (present perfect)
Complete: results
Incomplete (seit) I have been living in Bremen for 10 years
Verbs:
stative verbs (simple tenses)
dynamic verbs (simple + continuous tenses)
verbs of dual function
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 trend: go up, increase, shoot up, peak, recover, rise
Downward trend: go down, decrease, decline, dip, hit the bottom
Level trend: level off/out, fluctuate, steady
Language of graphs
Nominalisation Verbalisation
There was a fall The sales fell
There was a drop The sales dropped
There was a rise The sales rose
There was a growth The sales grew
There was an improvement The sales improved
There was a recovery The sales recovered
There was a peak The sales peaked