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  • Blue Monday: new business English lesson idea from Macmillan Posted by Pete on 17 January, 2012

    Macmillan In Company

    2012 Resources

    In 2012 Macmillan’s monthly e-lessons will be based on an article by myself, Pete Sharma, for you to use in class. Each article will investigate something topical to the business world and provide links for further research, information and discussion.

    These articles will offer you flexibility in how you use them. Whether they form the basis of a reading lesson, a discussion activity, vocabulary presentation or extra homework you’ll find them an invaluable, relevant and practical tool for your business English teaching.

    The first article is called ‘Blue Monday’.

    The third Monday of the year is supposed to be the most miserable day of the year, partly due to the weather (in the UK, anyway!) and the fact that our personal debt is usually high just after Christmas.

    For the rest of this lesson idea and a pdf of the article  available for you to download and share with your students, see:

    http://www.businessenglishonline.net/resources/in-company-second-edition-resources/elessons

     

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  • Zounds! – The pronunciation App Posted by Pete on 9 November, 2011

    I’m just about to review Sounds – the Pronunciation app from Macmillan for the ELTJ.

    It is for iPhone and iPad, and adds a new dimension to Adrian Underhill’s well-known Sound Foundations chart. It is easy to use: simply tap a symbol to hear a sound, tap and hold to hear a word with that sound. It is best to rotate the screen to see the chart in a whole page view.

    Students can gain practise in four skills. The app contains 340 useful words they can listen to, practise copying / repeating (i.e. speaking) and compare their effort with an original. They can read a word and then type it in phonemic script (writing); listen to a word and type it; or read a phonemic transcript and type the word itself. A nice feature allows you to import writing in phonemic script into programmes like Notes.

    Looks like great value for students and teachers alike! I’m enjoying putting it through the paces for the full review. So far, ‘app-iness

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  • New business English blog post from Macmillan Posted by Pete on 2 November, 2011

    Once again, the Macmillan business English website invites teachers to revisit an e-lesson from the past. This time, the lesson is: Salaries

    Salaries Revisited

    FTSE directors’ earnings rise by nearly 50%

    Once again, directors’ pay is back in the news. A new report from a research company, the IDS (Incomes Data Services), has revealed that last year the earnings of UK directors of the top 100 FTSE companies rose by nearly 50%. The average increase in CEO salaries was 43%. What’s more, directors’ bonuses have reportedly risen by 23%, making the average bonus a staggering £900,000!

    To read the rest of this blog post,  as well as to download the orginal e-lesson and Teachers’ notes, please visit:

    http://www.businessenglishonline.net/resources/in-company-second-edition-resources/elessons

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  • Revisiting ‘Cost cutting’: an e-lesson for recessionary times Posted by Pete on 9 February, 2011

    Macmillan’s Business English e-lesson on Cost-cutting is available from the e-lesson warehouse.

    It is accompanied by a NEW blog entry which indicates that, as people everywhere continue to struggle financially, now is a great time to discuss cost cutting with students. What’s happening to the economy where they are? Is there light at the end of the tunnel……..?

    For Pete’s latest blog entry, visit: http://www.businessenglishonline.net/resources/in-company-second-edition-resources/elessons

    Meanwhile, I’m just tightening my belt and staving off succumbing to the economic gloom….

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  • YouTube in business Posted by Pete on 15 December, 2010

    Apart from my own session on M Learning and the materials debate, I only managed to get to ONE session at the recent BESIG conference……luckily, it was Carl Dowse’s session on YouTube.

    Carl gave a couple of interesting examples of how YouTube has been used in business contexts – once by a musician voicing a complaint against an airline company in song; another time by an alternative ad agency who actually made their website into a YouTube video! I was inspired to put fingers to keyboard and produced a lesson on YouTube in the business world, incorporating these two examples.

    The lesson has just been posted to Macmillan’s business English resource site on: http://www.businessenglishonline.net/resources/in-company-second-edition-resources/elessons

    Thanks, Carl, for an inspiring session……

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  • Business English e-lesson warehouse Posted by Pete on 30 November, 2010

    I have just discovered that the archive of Business English e-lessons is now searchable by date, level and by topic.

    Topic categories include: current affairs / global economy/ technology / environment / office & management…….

    As a good Brit, I cannot blow my own trumpet, but this resource is seriously worth checking out!

    http://www.businessenglishonline.net/resources/in-company-second-edition-resources/elessons

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  • FELTOM – Malta (Saturday 6th November) Posted by Pete on 11 November, 2010

    It was a great experience going over to Malta again – I hadn’t been since Jade was four & got stung by a bee.

    Thanks to David for introducing me to the delights of a Hitachi board – I feel like punching it (in a positive way! robust…)

    Lovely to meet so many great people…… but so quick!!

    Here are ‘lite  versions of the PowerPoints on:

    Blended-learning

    critical-analysis

    Practical-ideas

    Next Sunday I will write up a one-page Handout with the useful leads / sites which came up and post it in a new blog entry. If anyone wants to add any links to that, please just mail them over!

    Thanks to Macmillan, Nadia  Isabel & everyone for making this happen!

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  • Augmented reality – a new podcast from Pete & Barney Posted by Barney on 31 March, 2010

    What is ‘augmented reality’? Click on the link below to listen to our latest podcast and find out!

    The podcast (created by Pete and Barney as an example of a teacher-produced podcast) is a three-minute clip from a business programme and is based on a forthcoming e-lesson, to be published by Macmillan next month.

    This podcast is not meant to be used with students but was just the result of us trialling microphone and editing with Audacity – and to provide a taster of future ELT lesson material! Enjoy listening!

    Augmented Reality – podcast

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  • Networking in English Posted by Pete on 26 January, 2010

    Our fabulous new book

    Our latest book will soon be in a shop near you.

    For more information, please visit the Macmillan website.

    If you can’t wait until your local book seller can provide you with a copy, you can also pre-order from Amazon.

    Enjoy it!!

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  • Networking in Poznan Posted by Pete on 27 November, 2009

    Networking_on_display@BESIG

    Hovering around the Macmillan stand at BESIG last weekend, I was asked: “What’s your favourite thing about your new book?”

    Without thinking, I said: “the unique ‘Social planner’ at the back.” This is where students can combine the power of print with the fixed sentence head (“I was born in…”), and the power of the pen, writing in their unique personalised ending (“… Pune / Rio / Vladivostock”). The students finish the book with a checklist of key utterances to review before being thrust into their next social encounter.

    I also like the subtle message of the needs analysis circle, suggesting that when all pieces of the jig-saw puzzle are in place, you are a good socialiser.

    Barney saw the book for the first time last night, and no doubt has his own favourite bits! Don’t worry, it won’t be long before it hits the bookshelves……

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