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Author Insights

Authentic business language


Bill Mascull, author of Natural Business English, looks at authentic business
language learning

In this article, Ill look at various aspects of authenticity in relation to learning business
English. One of the key features of authentic business English is collocations. These
particular language blocks are combinations of two or more words that go together to make
a particular meaning. Business English learners who can memorise these blocks and use
them appropriately will have made a key step to becoming effective communicators.
Exposure to collocations means that learners will be more able to spot and use others. This,
I think, should be one of the key functions of language teaching materials: of course the
language input is important, but so is the process of increasing learner awareness of key
areas to look out for in future.
Look at this example taken from Natural Business English. This features in Unit 3
Organisations where students listen to an engineer talking about the company that he
works for with the related exercise asking students to identify the collocations and then
match them to their meanings:
1 Listen to Robert Fleming, a wind turbine engineer, and match 16 with ah to make
collocations.
1 multinational
2 massive
3 state-of-the-art
4 cutting
5 early
6 technical
7 useful
8 subsidiary

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a pioneers
b synergies
c company
d resources
e facilities
f conglomerate
g edge
h expertise

2 Listen again and match the collocations 18 in exercise 1 to the meanings ah.
a ways in which one part of an organisation can help another
b people and organisations who are among the first to work on a particular subject
c a firm that is part of a larger group
d large amounts of money, equipment, etc., available for particular work
e ideas, methods, etc., that are the most modern and advanced
f buildings, equipment etc., that are the most modern and advanced
g a large group containing companies in different countries and with different activities
h specialised knowledge about a particular subject
The extract above also illustrates another aspect of authenticity: audio input, through which
learners hear speakers use business language naturally and in context. Audio material is
essential to business language learners for both initial input and further practice. In addition
to understanding words and expressions by hearing language in a natural spoken context,
students can also hear how they are pronounced. Natural Business English contains a variety
of audio inputs like the one above where business people are speaking, as well as market
research interviews and informal conversations between company employees.
Now let us look at the role of idioms. Language learners often say that they want to sound
more authentic by using idioms. But anyone who hears non-native speakers (usually of a
certain age!) saying that its raining cats and dogs knows how difficult this area can be.
There are idioms that are definitely out of date, others (e.g. batting on a sticky wicket) that
can be difficult to understand, even by some native speakers, and a third category that
shouldnt be used by non-natives at all. The idioms that we choose to teach our students
should therefore be of a type that non-native speakers are likely to hear, will find useful,
and that they should be able to use.
Here are some examples of such idioms presented in Natural Business English Unit 14
Human resources.
Audio track 33
1 One day the human resources manager came in and said that we were being given the
boot. Id been working there for thirty years, and I was so angry.
2 Id been there ten years and I was steadily climbing the career ladder, but one day they
fired me and just told me to clear my desk and go.
3 We were in the coffee room one day and a manager came in and told us without any
sort of warning that they were letting us all go.
4 Id been working in local government and I never thought Id lose my job, but one day I
was just given the sack.
5 I knew it was going to happen, but for several days after I got my marching orders, I felt

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very depressed.
6 The airline I was working for went bankrupt and so they just threw us all out pilots,
cabin staff , check-in staff , everyone.
Another area of authenticity for business English learners is the language of financial
journalism. Students should be able to spot this sort of language in the business pages of
newspapers. For example, Unit 3 of Natural Business English looks at the success and failure
of company acquisitions in terms of metaphors such as shipwreck and meltdown:

Audio track 11
Hello. Im Stephen Preston and Im a financial journalist. Of course, financial journalists try
to make what they write as interesting as possible. For example, we sometimes write
about companies as if they were ships. A company in trouble might be described as a
shipwreck like a ship that has ended up on the rocks. Or we might refer to them as train
wrecks like trains that have been involved in an accident. Sometimes we compare
companies to buildings, saying that they are built on solid foundations if they are
financially strong or on weak foundations if they are not. We might write that companies
in severe difficulty are in meltdown, like nuclear reactors that are out of control. And we
sometimes write about the sickness of companies as if they were people with health
problems. We might even write about a company with really bad problems as being on its
deathbed.

7 Listen to the financial journalist and match the expressions in the box with categories 1
4.
solid/weak foundations sickness meltdown deathbed shipwreck train wreck

1 accidents (x2)
2 buildings
3 nuclear power
4 human health (x2)
The final aspect of authenticity that I want to discuss is topicality. Of course, students need
to learn the standard business English vocabulary related to areas such as people,
organisations, manufacturing, services, strategy, finance and so on, but we live in changing
times and it is also essential to expose students to expressions that have entered the
language relatively recently, or that have become more frequent in discussion of business,
finance and economics. For example Unit 19 of Natural Business English The Global
Economy looks at the issue of happiness economics, the degree to which happiness is
related (or not) to economic prosperity:

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2 Read the article, and match the expressions underlined to the definitions 110 below.
Are we happier than in 1950?
In the developed world regions such as Europe, North America, Japan and, increasingly,
other parts of Asia people are much richer now than sixty years ago, but are they
happier? Research has shown that beyond a certain point, increased income levels do not
mean increased levels of happiness. Some researchers say that this point is reached when
GDP per head reaches $15,000 per year. This is one of the claims of happiness economics.
Some thinkers in the area prefer the expressions quality of life, well-being or life
satisfaction. This could include happiness with family life or with achievements in ones
job. Some economists say that international development helping countries improve
their standard of living should concentrate on this as much as on traditional ideas of the
standard of living. The King of Bhutan, a small country in the Himalayas, has said that the
idea of Gross National Happiness the total happiness of all the people in his country is
a better measure than GDP. However, others point out that happiness for people in
developing economies depends mainly on basics like access to clean water, education and
healthcare, and so on. Attitudes to happiness will continue to evolve and this debate will
certainly continue in years to come.
1 the study of how happy people feel
2 one proposed measure of how happy people feel
3 successes
4 the most essential things needed for a reasonable life
5 helping countries to improve their standard of living
6 countries that have the highest standard of living, as a group
7 one expression for how happy people feel
8 another expression for how happy people feel
9 countries that need to improve their standard of living
10 the different amounts that people earn
To sum up I believe that collocations, audio input, idioms, financial journalism and topicality
are all key aspects of authenticity needed in business English language learning. I hope this
overview has been useful to you and I also hope it has given you a flavour of Natural
Business English, and will make you want to explore it further.

References
Mascull, B Natural Business English Delta Publishing Ltd 2013

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