Financial English

Introduction

Financial English is an online course, consisting of 56 units of English, and providing approximately 60 hours of study for students.

Course aims

To give students at Intermediate, CEFR B1/Upper Intermediate B2 level practice in general and business-oriented language required for business contexts at this level, specifically tailored towards the specialisation of finance. The course blends grammatical structures necessary for this level, with vocabulary, reading, listening, writing, speaking, and pronunciation.

Граматика

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

  • Use the present perfect tense to describe situations requiring a link between the present and the past
  • Describe what someone has said using reported speech
  • Use modal verbs to talk about the functions of obligation and possibility
  • Correctly use adverbs to describe events happening over time
  • Select the correct past form to talk about actions happening before now
  • Use the present continuous form to describe situations in the future
  • Use relative pronouns and clauses to link simple ideas into more complex sentences
  • Distinguish and be able to correctly describe countable and uncountable nouns

Речник

By the end of the course, students will have learned approximately 120 lexical items used in a financial setting.

Skills

By the end of the course, students will have had exposure to and practice in reading and hearing formal and informal English from a variety of accents and financial contexts.

Unit Summary

Module 1

  • The Financial World
    Grammar: Present Perfect
  • Речник: General finance vocabulary
  • Четене: The interconnected world of finance
  • Слушане: Dialogue: It’s a small world
  • Писане: International travel in the finance industry
  • Говорене: How can the finance industry help fight climate change?
  • Pronunciation: Minimal pair: /ə/ and /e/; dealing with connected speech

Module 2

  • Understanding Financial Reports
    Grammar: Reported Statements
  • Речник: Vocabulary commonly encountered in financial reports
  • Четене: Aventis Steel financial report
  • Слушане: Dialogue: Aventis feedback
  • Писане: Writing an easy-to-understand financial report
  • Говорене: How to get the main points from a report quickly
  • Pronunciation: Minimal pair: /e/ and /ʌ/; dealing with connected speech

Module 3

  • Budgeting and Forecasting
    Grammar: Talking about obligation
  • Речник: Budgets and forecasting vocabulary
  • Четене: Forecasting: predicting the future
  • Слушане: Talk: Lower your costs and maintain a happy workplace
  • Писане: How to make accurate financial forecasts in an unstable world
  • Говорене: Keeping budgets under control in a profit-making company
  • Pronunciation: Minimal pair: /a:/ and /ʌ/; dealing with connected speech

Module 4

  • Banking and Investment
    Grammar: Adverbs of time
  • Речник: Vocabulary used in the banking sector
  • Четене: Banking employment roles
  • Слушане: Dialogue: Ghost banks
  • Писане: What do people like and not like about banks?
  • Говорене: What’s the best investment advice in an unstable world?
  • Pronunciation: Minimal pair: /d/ and /r/; dealing with connected speech

Module 5

  • Business Communication in Finance
    Grammar: Past tenses
  • Речник: Vocabulary necessary for talking about effective communication
  • Четене: Effective communication
  • Слушане: Dialogue: A lack of communication
  • Писане: How to complain to your boss without losing your job
  • Говорене: Face-to-face or online meetings: which are best?
  • Pronunciation: Minimal pair: /f/ and /v/; dealing with connected speech

Module 6

  • Taxation and Compliance
    Grammar: Talking about possibility
  • Речник: Vocabulary used in taxation
  • Четене: Taxation: a comparative study
  • Слушане: Dialogue: An auditor speaks
  • Писане: What would a tax-free society be like?
  • Говорене: Do we punish tax cheats enough?
  • Pronunciation: Minimal pair: /g/ and /j/; dealing with connected speech

Module 7

  • International Finance and Trade
    Grammar: Relative pronouns and clauses
  • Речник: Vocabulary used to talk about international trade
  • Четене: Politics and trade: friends or enemies?
  • Слушане: Talk: Free trade
  • Писане: Has protectionism locked Africa into a cycle of poverty?
  • Говорене: Is international trade damaging the environment?
  • Pronunciation: Minimal pair: /ɑː/ and /æ/; dealing with connected speech

Module 8

  • Careers in Finance
    Grammar: Countable and uncountable nouns
  • Речник: Vocabulary useful for careers in finance
  • Четене: How to get a job in the financial sector
  • Слушане: Dialogue: My chat with human resources
  • Писане: How to fail a job interview
  • Говорене: Acing your job interview
  • Pronunciation: Minimal pair: /v/ and /b/; dealing with connected speech

Follow-up

Students completing the Financial English course should feel confident in tackling any upper intermediate course, including our Upper Intermediate Business Power course.