| Topic areas |
Functions / communicative tasks |
| Personal identification |
- Greeting people and responding to greetings
- Introducing oneself and other people
- Asking for and giving personal details (name, occupation, etc.)
- Asking about and describing jobs and responsibilities
|
- Asking about and describing a company and its organisation
- Completing forms with personal or company details
- Understanding and writing letters and emails which give personal details
|
| The office, general business environment and routine |
- Arranging and re-arranging appointments and meetings
- Planning future events and tasks
- Confirming or changing plans
- Asking for and giving permission
- Giving and receiving instructions
- Predicting and describing future possibilities
|
- Asking for and giving opinions: agreeing and disagreeing
- Making, accepting and rejecting suggestions or recommendations
- Justifying decisions and past actions
- Understanding office communications (reports, letters, emails, memos, etc.
|
| Entertainment of clients, free time, relationships with colleagues and clients |
- Discussing interests and leisure activities
- Inviting, accepting and refusing offers and invitations
- Thanking and expressing appreciation
|
- Welcoming a foreign visitor
- Talking about own region / country
|
| Travel and meeting |
- Making enquires, reservations, orders and conference bookings
|
| Using the telephone |
- Giving and interpreting numerical data, common abbreviations and acronyms (as used in international business)
|
- Exchanging information
- Taking messages
|
| Health and safety |
- Understanding health and safety rules in the workplace
|
- Understanding instructions and notices
|
| Buying and selling |
- Understanding prices and delivery dates
- Making and accepting offers
|
- Making agreement
- Negotiating contacts
|
| Company structures, systems, processes |
- Presenting and describing company structures and processes
- Exchanging information on company facilities
- Understanding and explaining a company’s production, ordering and delivery systems
|
- Understanding and explaining manufacturing processes
- Understanding and describing processes in one’s company (including staff selection, promotion, appraisal, etc.)
- Asking about and explaining errors
|
| Products and |
- Describing and presenting
|
- Asking for and giving
|
| services |
products
- Advertising, branding and product promotion
- Launching a product
- Trade fairs
- Transport, distribution and suppliers
|
information about a product or service
- Making comparisons, expressing opinions, preferences, etc.
- Making and receiving complaints
- Customer support
- Apologising and accepting apologies
|
| Results and achievements |
- Describing and explaining company background, performance results, trends, events and changes
|
| Business issues |
- Understanding and talking about general business topics, such as management skills, promotional strategies,
training courses, conferences, business services, recruitment, rewarding staff, sponsorship, business premises, company budgets,
use of IT in business etc.
|
