Business Casual:
“Dressing professionally, looking relaxed,
yet neat and pulled together.” (as defined by the NY Times)
“Business Casual” is a 6-week Business English Course specifically designed for UBB (Cluj's University Babes-Bolyai) Lecturers who wish to improve their own Business English skills in order to more effectively instruct students. The course has been tailored to target the needs of UBB Lecturers as curriculum shifts dictate the need to teach more and more business courses in English.
The objective of the course is to increase the participants’ familiarity and confidence of English for its use in business content and terminology, oral & written communication, and text comprehension and production. This course will place special attention on creating a Student-Based Learning environment, where participants, rather than the trainer, generate the bulk of the material, interact while working together on various hands-on activities, projects, and tasks, and learn to identify and correct their own English language mistakes.
The 6-week course will be made up of the following topics and sessions:
Weeks 1, 2, & 3- Basic Oral & Written Business English Communication
- Cover Letters and Mock Job Interviews (Grammar Review: Present Perfect Tense)
- Characteristics of an Effective Employee & Boss (Vocabulary: Adjectives); 21st Century Business Concepts (Vocabulary: Business Terms)
- Formal Letter Writing and Internal Communications- Letter to the Head of the Department, Voicing Concerns (Vocabulary: Common Written Phrases)
- Telephone English- Focus on Pronunciation & Common Errors
- Contracts & Agreements (Grammar Review: Prepositions)
Week 4- Accounting & Finance, Money & Banking
- Listening & Summary Writing: The Origins of Money
- Buying & Selling: Sales & Pricing (Grammar Review: Conditional)
- Reading Comprehension: Foreign Exchange and Import/Export Markets
Week 5- Marketing & Advertising
- E-Marketing Case Studies
- Entrepreneurial Opportunities in the Romanian Economy- Class Presentations- Re-visit the Focus on Pronunciation & Common Errors
Week 6- Economics
- Debate: Globalization vs. Cultural Imperialism
- Reflection: The Future of the Romanian Economy
“Business Casual” is a course designed by American English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Instructor and Teacher Trainer, Marsha Bowersox, along with the invaluable help of UBB’s Camelia Moraru, who has identified the need for the course, shared the typical English language strengths and weaknesses of UBB Lecturers, and has helped to arrange the course logistics.
Prior to moving to Cluj in March, 2010, Marsha was an EFL Instructor at LaGuardia Community College’s The English Language Center in Queens, New York City and an English Language Fellow for the U.S. State Department, teaching and developing teacher training courses at the School of Finance and Banking in Kigali, Rwanda and The Polytechnic of Namibia in Windhoek, Namibia. Marsha is also a Certified Public Accountant who runs her own International Tax Consulting Business for Americans living and working overseas.
The course will begin Friday, November 5th, 2010 and run until Friday, December 10th. Classes will be held each week at the MedSan Building Training Center, Strada Ilie Macelaru nr. 28, on Fridays from 13:00-16:00. Prior to each meeting, participants are invited to join together for a simple lunch of pizza and beverages, from 12:00-13:00. Coffee & Tea will be offered throughout the afternoon, and free parking is available at the MedSan building.
The cost for the 6-week course is 650 Ron ($215) per participant. This fee includes the following: six three-hour classes (for a total of 18 instructional hours), lunch, coffee/tea, and hand-outs.
If you have any questions or suggestions about times, dates, or content, please contact Marsha via email or cell. Also, please inform Camelia or Marsha if you are planning to enroll in the course, and bring the enrollment fee with you on the first day of training.
And a big THANK YOU to my Aunt Marge, Leftside-Rightside aficianada and recently retired Business English lecturer at Vienna's University of Economics and Business. She has shared a lot of resources with me, which has made my job of putting together the "Business Casual" curriculum a million times easier- thanks!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great course. The "Business Casual" idea of serving snacks and including them in the package is a novel idea for Europe anyway. I hope you get the number you want. Not too many or too few. I would have offered to come and help if there are too many, but I'll be at ESJ part of that time!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I wanted to become a follower of Leftside-Rightside, but couldn't figure out how to do it! I post comments using a more or less defunct WU university page.