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