General Education Office

1. General Education Office BUSINESS ENGLISH LA.231/LA.331/LA.3501 Unit 3: Problems

2. Objectives By the end of this class you should be able to… • Express your opinion in a personal environment using English. • Identify problem situations in a work environment. • Use adjectives and present simple to describe problems.

3. Problems What are some of the problems we face everyday? Traffic, angry bosses, crowds, noise, sleeplessness, money… These are problems we all deal with in our daily lives.

4. Problem-Solving A) Match the sentences about problems

5. Problem-Solving B) Listen to five telephone calls. Identify the product and the problem. • Work in pairs. Make a list of three other problems businesspeople • sometimes have.

6. Vocabulary - Adjectives A) Complete the sentences below. Use the adjectives from the box. beautiful broken clean fast flexible helpful high incorrect • Our employees enjoy having flexible hours. • The new sales assistant got a(n)___________ promotion. • Marketing executives earn a(n) ____________ salary at that company. • My colleagues are usually very ____________ . • We want a(n) ____________ and well furnished apartment. • Your office has got a(n) ____________ view. • Their old printer is ____________ , so they want a new one. • This invoice is ____________ ; please can you send a new one? fast high helpful clean beautiful broken incorrect

7. Vocabulary - Adjectives • Work in pairs. Ask and answer questions about adjectives and their opposites. • Student A : Turn to page 134 • Student B: Turn to page 138 C) Look at these sentences. • The bed is too hard. It isn’t soft enough. • The seats aren’t wide enough. They’re too narrow. Make sentences. Use too or enough and adjectives from exercise B • The report doesn’t give much information. (too/enough) • It’s too short. / It isn’t long enough. • 2 I can’t carry these suitcases.(too) • I can’t meet you at 6 o’clock in the morning. (too) • I don’t want this car. It’s top speed is only 100kilometres per hour. (too/enough) • Don’t take any visitors to those areas late at night. (too/enough) • That camera doesn’t fit in my pocket. (too/enough)

8. Workplace Problems A) Four people answered the question “ What is the biggest problem at your workplace?” Read their replies on Page 24. Reading • Match the replies in Exercise A with an appropriate heading. • a) Wasting energy • b) Overwork • c) Sex Discrimination • d) Job insecurity

9. Workplace Problems • Find words in the replies which mean the following. 1)hours that you work after your normal working hours (reply 1) overtime 2) using more of something than you need to (reply 2) 3) to keep someone or something safe (reply 2) 4) afraid; unhappy about something (reply 3) 5) a feeling of interest or enthusiasm for doing something (reply 3) 6) people you work with (reply 4) 7) when you move to a higher level in a company (reply 4) Reading waste protect worried motivation colleagues promotion D) Work in pairs. Put the problems in Exercise B in order, starting with the biggest.

10. Problems – Language Focus Present simple: negatives and questions • The present simple negative of full verbs is don’t / doesn’t + verb • In present simple questions, we usedo / does. • Negatives Questions • They don’t come to work on time. Does he work well with colleagues? • He doesn’t go to meetings. Where do you work?

11. Problems – Language Focus A) Work in pairs. Match the questions (1-8) to the answers (a – h)

12. Problems – Language Focus • Put these words in the correct order to make questions. • 1) weekend work they Do at the ? • 2) Pierre in sales Does work? • 3) you do travel abroad How often? • 4) you spell How business do? • 5) finish does the meeting When? Do they work at the weekend? Does Pierre work in sales? How often do you travel abroad? How do you spell business? When does the meeting finish?

13. Problems – Language Focus D) Work in pairs. Ask and answer these questions. Student A Turn to page 134 Student B Turn to page 140 1) What time / start work? What time do you start work? 2) When / finish work? 3) Where / you work? 4) Who / report to? 5) How often / work at the weekend?

14. Problems – Language Focus have got • We use have got to talk about possession. • We’ve got a new printer. • The office hasn’t got a lift. • Have you got a problem with cashflow? Yes, we have. No we haven’t. A) Make sentences about what Marco has and hasn’t got. 1 Marco’s got a company car. He hasn’t got a fax machine • a company car  a fax machine  • a high salary  a great boss  • a personal assistant  a lot of free time  • two telephones  free broadband Internet access 

15. Telephoning – Solving problems A) Listen to four phone calls. Write the number of the call after the problem. Some calls have two problems. 1

16. Telephoning – Solving problems B Listen again and complete these sentences. 1 How can I help you? Please ____________ it, and we can ____________ at it for you. 2 A Hold ____________, I’ll ____________ you through. I’m ____________, the ____________ ‘s engaged. Would you like to ____________ ? B No. Can he ____________ back please? 3A I’m sorry to ____________ that. Which model is it? B ____________ on, I’ll check. Here it is. It’s the PX2054. A Sorry, could you ____________ that please? 4 Right. Let me ____________ down the ____________ . return look on put sorry line hold call me hear Hold repeat note details

17. Telephoning – Solving problems C Look at the Useful Language box. Listen and tick the expressions you hear. Answering Getting through Hello. This is [Carl Fisher]. Can I speak to [Janet Porter], please? Good morning. [Marta Gomez] speaking. Can he call me back, please? Apologizing Stating the problem I’m very sorry about that. I’ve got a problem with …. I’m sorry to hear that. There are some problems with …. Gettingdetails Giving details Can you give some more information? The invoice is incorrect. Which model is it? There is a piece missing. It’s the wrong part / model / item. Finding solutions We can give you a refund. Finishing a conversation I can talk to the manager. Thank you. We can send you a new one. Thanks for your help.

18. Telephoning – Solving problems D Work in Pairs. Use the role cards below to role play the conversation. Use some of the expressions from the Useful language box. Sales Representative Customer Answer the phone. Introduce yourself. Say you have some Ask for details. problems with order. Give details of first problem (shirts are Apologise for the first problem. wrong colour and size). Apologise again and offer solutions. Give details of second problem (want 2000 not 200, as soon as possible). Thanks the sales representative. Say goodbye. Say goodbye.

19. Summary Today we have learned how to: • Express your opinion in a personal environment using English. • Identify problem situations in a work environment. • Use adjectives and present simple to describe problems.