When you’re given verbal instructions, it’s essential that you clarify anything you don’t understand or are unclear about. Even if you feel you’ve understood everything correctly, it’s a good idea to repeat back the instructions to whoever gave them to you to ensure that you haven’t misunderstood or missed anything. This will help to minimize any errors you might make whilst you are carrying out the instructions.

In this podcast lesson, you’re going to listen to two dialogues. In the first dialogue the instructions given are quite brief and straightforward. In this case, the listener waits until all the instructions have been given before making any clarifications. In the second dialogue, the instructions are longer and more detailed. In this dialogue, the listener clarifies the instructions at appropriate points while they are being given.

When listening to the dialogues, make a note of some of the common expressions used to clarify and confirm the instructions.

Introduction

Most of us find it difficult to say ‘no’ when someone asks us for a favour, don’t we? It’s difficult to say ‘no’ when you know someone needs your help. It becomes even more difficult to say ‘no’ in the workplace, because you don’t want to offend anyone. However, it’s possible to refuse to do something in a polite and nice way that does not annoy anyone, hurt their feelings or cause offence.

In this lesson, we will look at how to say ‘no’ in the workplace in a way that ensures that the other person can see your point of view. You can do this by speaking factually, firmly and using a calm and polite tone.

Situation 1

You will now listen to two versions of a conversation between Jim and his boss. In the first version, Jim is not able to say ‘no’, and ends up having to do the favour and also make his boss feel that he is doing it unwillingly.

In this podcast lesson, we will look at the many types of questions you can ask while interviewing someone. Some questions are open-ended and others are close-ended, and there are a number of categories of questions, such as past-performance questions, negative-balance questions, and judgement-call questions. A successful interview is one that combines different types of questions to get comprehensive information from the person being interviewed, and that assesses the job applicant’s capabilities effectively.

Situation

You will now listen to an extract from an interview between Lila, an HR manager at an investment bank, and Edgar, who has applied for a position at the company.

Introduction

After you’ve been assigned a project or task to complete, at some point during the project or task your manager may ask you for a progress update. They will want to know what you have done so far, what you are currently working on, and when it will be completed.

To give an accurate update on your progress, you will need to be familiar with the main reporting tenses: the past simple (did) and the present perfect (have done). You’ll need to know the differences in usage between these two tenses. To talk about what you are doing now, you’ll need to be familiar with the present continuous tense (are doing). And, you’ll need to know how to use the future simple tense (will do) or the future perfect tense (will have done) to talk about what you will do in the future and when you will have completed the project or task.

Situation

You’re now going to listen to Jenny, a Technical Support Department Director, ask Lee, one of her supervisors, for a progress report on a task she had assigned him a couple of weeks ago. Lee’s task was to improve call response times in the Technical Support Department.

Entertaining is considered an important aspect of business communication. Not all professional interactions take place in an office environment, and knowing how to entertain business associates in informal environments, such as in bars and restaurants, is an important part of the communication process.

While communication with clients in social settings is not as structured as that in professional settings, it does have its unwritten rules about etiquette and language usage. Since different social settings require different aspects of communication, it’s a good idea to know what to say and how to behave in such situations.

You are now going to listen to a dialogue between Sheila, a consultant in Mumbai, and Jeremy, a British client with Sheila’s company who is visiting the city.

A common task in business is to compare things such as costs, service, reliability, performance, etc. It's only through making comparisons that we can make decisions about which is the cheapest, the most reliable, and the best buy. The characteristics of a product or service are described by adjectives, such as 'cheap,' 'heavy,' 'wide', 'reliable,' etc. So it's important for you to know how to compare adjectives. In this podcast lesson, we’ll look at a number of ways commonly use to compare adjectives.

You’re going to hear the Human Resources Manager, Marion, and the Technical Support Manager, Alex, have a meeting to compare three English language training consultants – Empire English, Superior Speaking and Accent on English. They have to decide which company to use. They will talk about each company, how long the company has been in business and how successful the company has been. They will also talk about the price of the training, the training materials, and the experience of the trainers.

“Results depend on relationships. That’s what Don Petersen says. He is the ex-CEO of America’s Ford Motor Company. You will find that being able to make small talk—especially before a business meeting—will help build good relationships. And, good business relationships will help you get the results you want. Think of small talk as an engraved business card: small but impressive. Impressive, that is, if you do it well.

SITUATION 1

Listen now to small talk used by Dan, who is about to make a presentation featuring his leadership training firm. He especially wants to win approval from Susan Lynch, head of employee relations for a multinational firm. Pay attention to Dan’s manner and manners as well.

A good graph, diagram or chart can bring your presentation to life. Remember that "a picture can paint a thousand words".

Putting graphical information into words can be easy as long as you keep your sentence structure simple. In your reading, you will come across a great variety of words and expressions to describe trends. However, when you speak you should only use words whose meaning you are totally sure of. Use clear and familiar words at all times. Remember that your one objective in giving your presentation is to get your message across to your audience clearly and simply. Your objective is not to impress your audience with your extensive vocabulary.

First, you're going to listen to someone describing three different graphs during a presentation. Then we present the language and grammatical structures you need to accurately describe trends. After that, you can practice using the language by completing a number of exercises. And finally, we'll summarise the topic in our podcast lesson.

INTRODUCTION

In this podcast lesson, we’ll be looking at a number of useful techniques to help to you develop a conversation.

When you are taking part in a conversation the most important thing is to react to what the other person is saying. If you don’t react, the conversation is likely to end very quickly. Reacting helps to show that you are listening, you are interested in what the other person is saying and that you want to keep the conversation going.

We’ll demonstrate some basic conversation techniques through two dialogues. While you listen, make a mental note of the techniques used to keep the conversation going.

SITUATION 1

You're now going to listen to two conversations between Paul and Nancy. In the first conversation, make a note of what Nancy says in reaction to what Paul says and vice versa.

In the modern business world, teleconferencing is an essential means through which business associates in different places communicate with each other. Teleconferencing may be done through audio or both audio and video channels, and is a cost-effective way of conducting business meetings with colleagues and associates who are in different parts of the same country or the world.

Because teleconferencing is dependent on long-distance communication and sometimes unreliable technology, problems in communication can often arise. For example, participants may not be able to hear each other because of audio problems. Also, a frequent concern is that native speakers of English tend to speak very quickly, and non-native speakers may find it difficult to follow what they are saying over a conference call. In such cases, it is useful to know how to interrupt politely, ask for clarifications, and handle general problems in communication.

SITUATION 1

You will now listen to a teleconference with three speakers who are all from the same company, but work in different locations. Jack, a senior level associate at a global insurance agency, is facilitating the teleconference from his office in London. The participants are Jack’s colleagues Michelle from Hong Kong and Patrick from Edinburgh.