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.

Grammar

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

Vocabulary

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
Vocabulary: General finance vocabulary
Reading: The interconnected world of finance
Listening: Dialogue: It’s a small world
Writing: International travel in the finance industry
Speaking: 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
Vocabulary: Vocabulary commonly encountered in financial reports
Reading: Aventis Steel financial report
Listening: Dialogue: Aventis feedback
Writing: Writing an easy-to-understand financial report
Speaking: 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
Vocabulary: Budgets and forecasting vocabulary
Reading: Forecasting: predicting the future
Listening: Talk: Lower your costs and maintain a happy workplace
Writing: How to make accurate financial forecasts in an unstable world
Speaking: 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
Vocabulary: Vocabulary used in the banking sector
Reading: Banking employment roles
Listening: Dialogue: Ghost banks
Writing: What do people like and not like about banks?
Speaking: 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
Vocabulary: Vocabulary necessary for talking about effective communication
Reading: Effective communication
Listening: Dialogue: A lack of communication
Writing: How to complain to your boss without losing your job
Speaking: 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
Vocabulary: Vocabulary used in taxation
Reading: Taxation: a comparative study
Listening: Dialogue: An auditor speaks
Writing: What would a tax-free society be like?
Speaking: 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
Vocabulary: Vocabulary used to talk about international trade
Reading: Politics and trade: friends or enemies?
Listening: Talk: Free trade
Writing: Has protectionism locked Africa into a cycle of poverty?
Speaking: 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
Vocabulary: Vocabulary useful for careers in finance
Reading: How to get a job in the financial sector
Listening: Dialogue: My chat with human resources
Writing: How to fail a job interview
Speaking: 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.