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.

Грамматика

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

Словарный запас

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
  • Словарный запас: General finance vocabulary
  • Чтение: The interconnected world of finance
  • Прослушивание: Dialogue: It’s a small world
  • Написание: International travel in the finance industry
  • Выступление: How can the finance industry help fight climate change?
  • Произношение: Minimal pair: /ə/ and /e/; dealing with connected speech

Module 2

  • Understanding Financial Reports
    Grammar: Reported Statements
  • Словарный запас: Vocabulary commonly encountered in financial reports
  • Чтение: Aventis Steel financial report
  • Прослушивание: Dialogue: Aventis feedback
  • Написание: Writing an easy-to-understand financial report
  • Выступление: How to get the main points from a report quickly
  • Произношение: Minimal pair: /e/ and /ʌ/; dealing with connected speech

Module 3

  • Budgeting and Forecasting
    Grammar: Talking about obligation
  • Словарный запас: Budgets and forecasting vocabulary
  • Чтение: Forecasting: predicting the future
  • Прослушивание: Talk: Lower your costs and maintain a happy workplace
  • Написание: How to make accurate financial forecasts in an unstable world
  • Выступление: Keeping budgets under control in a profit-making company
  • Произношение: Minimal pair: /a:/ and /ʌ/; dealing with connected speech

Module 4

  • Banking and Investment
    Grammar: Adverbs of time
  • Словарный запас: Vocabulary used in the banking sector
  • Чтение: Banking employment roles
  • Прослушивание: Dialogue: Ghost banks
  • Написание: What do people like and not like about banks?
  • Выступление: What’s the best investment advice in an unstable world?
  • Произношение: Minimal pair: /d/ and /r/; dealing with connected speech

Module 5

  • Business Communication in Finance
    Grammar: Past tenses
  • Словарный запас: Vocabulary necessary for talking about effective communication
  • Чтение: Effective communication
  • Прослушивание: Dialogue: A lack of communication
  • Написание: How to complain to your boss without losing your job
  • Выступление: Face-to-face or online meetings: which are best?
  • Произношение: Minimal pair: /f/ and /v/; dealing with connected speech

Module 6

  • Taxation and Compliance
    Grammar: Talking about possibility
  • Словарный запас: Vocabulary used in taxation
  • Чтение: Taxation: a comparative study
  • Прослушивание: Dialogue: An auditor speaks
  • Написание: What would a tax-free society be like?
  • Выступление: Do we punish tax cheats enough?
  • Произношение: Minimal pair: /g/ and /j/; dealing with connected speech

Module 7

  • International Finance and Trade
    Grammar: Relative pronouns and clauses
  • Словарный запас: Vocabulary used to talk about international trade
  • Чтение: Politics and trade: friends or enemies?
  • Прослушивание: Talk: Free trade
  • Написание: Has protectionism locked Africa into a cycle of poverty?
  • Выступление: Is international trade damaging the environment?
  • Произношение: Minimal pair: /ɑː/ and /æ/; dealing with connected speech

Module 8

  • Careers in Finance
    Grammar: Countable and uncountable nouns
  • Словарный запас: Vocabulary useful for careers in finance
  • Чтение: How to get a job in the financial sector
  • Прослушивание: Dialogue: My chat with human resources
  • Написание: How to fail a job interview
  • Выступление: Acing your job interview
  • Произношение: 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.