1、English for Business Studies2013PAN LIPINGJIAXING UNIVERSITY College of Foreign StudiesUnit 1 The business of business Topics types of business the history of business Vocabulary focus words from general English with a special meaning in business prefixes and suffixes Skills focus Listeningpreparing
2、 for a lecture predicting lecture content from the introductionunderstanding lecture organizationchoosing an appropriate form of notes making lecture notes Speakingspeaking from notes1.1 VocabularyLesson aims identify words for the discipline in context,including words which contain affixes gain flu
3、ency in the target vocabularyExercise AExercise A:bold words in business English(1-10)Exercise B goodscustomers firedservice marketpromotion rawproductioncapitalreturnExercise C(1-5)Exercise D(1-5)Exercise E1 supermarket,non-durable goods,promotion2 production department3 machinery4 sports goods5 co
4、nsumers,durable goods6 raw materials7 service industry8(sales)performance/income9(international)transport1.2 ListeningLesson aims prepare for a lecture predict lecture content make notesExercise AWhat is business?Business is about more than buying and selling things.(The use of business means specif
5、ically commercial activity dates from the 18th century.)See skills bankExercise 1.2B Good morning,everyone,and welcome to the Faculty of Business Studies.Id like to start today by asking a rather simple question.What is business?Of course,like many simple questions,its quicker to ask the question th
6、an to give an answer.Right.Lets take the word business first.First,we need to make sure that it is commercial business we are talking about here,because the word business can mean something more general.So what happens in commercial business?People sell things,dont they?I think everyone would agree
7、with that.And other people buy these things,dont they?So,if I advertise my car in the newspaper,and someone buys it,is that business?The answer is no business is about a lot more than this.Part 1What does the lecturer say about business?Tick the best choice.a The lecturer is talking about business i
8、n a general sense.b Business is mainly about buying things.c Business is mainly about selling things.d Business is about more than buying and selling things.Exercise BExercise 1.2CPart 2 So what does business involve?What do people in business do?Well,lets take a company that makes chocolate.Someone
9、 has to look after the production processes,from ordering and storing the raw materials the cocoa beans,sugar and so on to controlling the number of chocolate bars produced in the factory and deciding on the best production methods.This is the area of operations management.Another important aspect i
10、s finding out what the consumers want through market research.Then prices have to be fixed,and the chocolate advertised and promotions planned.These functions are performed by the marketing department.Businesses employ people,of course,so some people work in the area of human resources,which is conc
11、erned with looking after the employees.This means hiring and firing people,making contracts,questions of health and safety,industrial relations,equal pay,and so on.Naturally,money is a key element in business and so financial management is a highly important function.Finance people pay attention to
12、the flow of money in and out of the business,and also provide information about the businesss performance.Finally,the company may also have a research and development section that concentrates on developing new products.So we can see that there is a variety of jobs to be done in business,and its ver
13、y important,of course,that people doing these different jobs cooperate and work very closely together.For example,if the marketing people do their work well,they mayincrease the demand for the products.So the operations managers may have to rethink their production methods to produce more goods.Youl
14、l have noticed,Im sure,that Ive been talking about what people do in business,and this gives us an idea about how to answer our original question,What is business?So now perhaps we should ask the question a little differently:What does a business do?In other words,we are asking What are the activiti
15、es that a business organization engages in?Exercise C Different areas of business managementExercise 1.2DPart 3 We can look at business activity from the point of view of a process in which something is changed from one state to another.Taking the chocolate company as our example,what has to happen
16、in order that you can buy a bar of chocolate from a shop?The answer is that the company buys in raw materials the cocoa,sugar,etc.and then in the factory the workers use them to make the chocolate bars.Then the bars are packaged and sent to a shop so you can buy one.However,we can think of raw mater
17、ials as inputs that is,they are needed to go into the manufacturing process.These raw materials go through a transformation during the production processes they are mixed together and they turn into solid chocolate.Finally,at the end of the manufacturing process,they come out as nicely packaged bars
18、 of chocolate.So we can call the chocolate bars the outputs.So you can see that at a simple level,we have a basic model which explains the manufacturing process.Exercise D The words in the context of manufacturingExercise 1.2EPart 4 Actually,we can use this model(input transformation output)to look
19、at all aspects of business.To do this,we have to apply these concepts to more than just the transformation of raw materials into finished products.Lets take inputs first.Actually,the list of what we could put into this category is almost endless.Think about it.Suppose you want to start a business an
20、d you have what seems like a good idea.Lets say you want to set up a food bar selling lunchtime sandwiches and snacks.Before you even start making the food,you will have to:carry out some market research make a business plan learn about food regulations and hygiene design the food items and the food
21、-making process find money to start the business buy or rent a suitable building rearrange the building to suit the business invest in equipment and machinery buy and store the raw materials hire and train staff to help make and sell the foodand so on.So we can see that inputs include more things th
22、an just raw materials.There are planning and decisions,time and space,investment,equipment,training all the skills and abilities of the people involved.One view groups these different kinds of inputs into four main factors of production:firstly,land which includes both the buildings or premises and
23、natural resources;secondly,labour that is,the people who work in the business;thirdly,capital which includes both the money invested and alsothe equipment and machinery owned by the business;and finally,enterprise.Enterprise refers to the fact that someone an entrepreneur has to develop a business i
24、dea and then work to put it into effect.Next lets think about outputs.One type of outputis consumer goods.These are sold to the general public.If they are things that last a long time,such as furniture,cars,computers,etc.,they are called durable goods.Or if they can be consumed soon after purchase,l
25、ike food,newspapers,petrol,we call these things non-durable.Another rather different kind of output is services.By this I mean things like banking,transport,hairdressing,and so on.Recently services have become a very important area of business activity.Services are intangible.In other words,you cant
26、 touch them andthey dont last like durable goods.They are not things that you can own or use.Instead,a service provides people with some kind of non-material benefit or help.Exercise E I=input;O=outputExercise FThe business processExercise GThe Business Process In the business process,various types
27、of inputs are required,such as planning and capital.These inputs are transformed into outputs of different kinds.Outputs can be goods such as furniture,or they can be services such as banking.1.3 Extending skillsLesson aims identify different types of lecture organization use the introduction to a l
28、ecture to decide the best form of notes to useExercise AWhat can a business do Exercise BMatch the beginnings and endingsExercise CAnswers:1 flowchart 2 tree diagram 3 two columns 4 table 5 headings and notes 6 timeline 7 spider gramExercise Dquestion and answer=5;problem and solution=5or3;classific
29、ation and definition=2or7;advantages and disadvantages=3;comparison and contrast=4;cause and effect=7;sequence of events=1 or 6;stages of a process=1;theories or opinions then supporting information=3 or 5.Exercise 1.3EIntroduction 1Today Id like to talk about some ways in which we can describe busi
30、nesses.There are two important ways to classify businesses.Firstly,there is the type of production that the business is engaged in.In other words,what kinds of goods or services does it produce?Secondly,we can look at the type of business ownership.That means we need to see who owns it,how many owne
31、rs there are,and so on.tree diagramIntroduction 2 OK,today Id like to follow on from last weeksdiscussion by looking in a bit more detail at business ownership.In particular,I want to compare sole traders and partnerships.What are their advantages and disadvantages?Is it better to be your own boss o
32、r is it better to have a partner?two columnIntroduction 3Good morning,everyone.There are many people who are interested in businesses,both inside and outside the businesses themselves.The different types of people who have an interest in businesses and their activities are called the stakeholders.So
33、 who are these stakeholders?What is their interest in a business?In what ways do businesses and stakeholders interact?We will have a look at each group of stakeholders in turn.spidergramIntroduction 4In todays lecture Im going to look at the history of management.The study of business management is
34、a relatively new subject,compared with,say,mathematics or philosophy it is often said to have begun in the late 18th century or early 19th century.But it may surprise you to know that the roots of many of todays management ideas can be found in practices and activities that took place a very long ti
35、me ago,as early as 3000 BCE.timelineIntroduction 5This week I want to examine some of the effects of the external environment on businesses.Businesses need to keep an eye on what is happening outside the walls of their factories and offices.Why?Because they will have to adapt to changes which are ou
36、tside their control.Im going to look at four types of external influence.Then Ill talk about the effects on business of one type of external influence.tree diagram and flowchartIntroduction 6As we all know,money makes the world go round.In todays talk I want to consider the importance of the role of
37、 money by first tracing its development from ancient times to the present day.Then well look at the flow of money through a business.timeline and flowchart1.4 Extending skillsLesson aims make outline notes from lecture introductions make notes from a variety of lecture types speak from notesExercise
38、 A123541 extracting natural resources 2(someone who works for)a partnership3 plc(=public limited company)4 Egyptians building a pyramid in teams=early management technique5 an early computer=new(at the time)technology6 rise in older age groups over the next 50 years in the UK7 different forms of mon
39、ey:barley,gold coins,banknotes,cowrie shells,cattleresourcespartnershiplimitedteamstechnologyrisedifferent forms of money:barley,gold coins,banknotes,cowrie shells,cattle76Exercise B1.3EExercise DLecture 1 OK.Of course,businesses produce different types of goods.And this is one way in which we can c
40、lassify business activity that is,according to the type of production.Here there are three main production types:primary,secondary and tertiary.First there are the industries which exploit theEarths natural resources.This may be taking raw materials from the Earth,such as metals,oil,coal,and so on.O
41、r it may involve the production of food through farming and fishing.These types of activity are called primary production.Secondary production involves the transformation of rawmaterials into goods.All manufacturing is secondary production,as are building and construction of things like ships,houses
42、,offices,and so on.Finally,tertiary production refers to the service industries.Tourism,entertainment,health care are some examples of services;Im sure youcan think of others.The type of ownership is the second important way to distinguish between different businesses.Its concerned with whether comp
43、anies have limited liability or not.In a limited company,the liability for debts is limited to the company.This means that if the business owes money,the ownersthemselves are not liable for the debts.In other words,they dont have to pay the debts with their own money.A limited company therefore has
44、a separate legal identity from its owners.In a business with unlimited liability,the owners are liable for the businesss debts.This means that they must pay all the debts,even if it means that they have to lose everything they own including their house.If a business that is not limited is owned and
45、run by one person,they are called a sole trader.If there are two or more people,the business is called a partnership.Most sole traders can be found in tertiary production in other words,the service industries.For example,they may be hairdressers,accountants or shop owners.Lecture 2 Lets start with s
46、ole traders.As we know,a sole trader is a one-person business.In the UK,this is by far the most common form of business ownership.Many people like this way of operating because they have total control of everything.They can make all the decisions quickly and easily.In fact,a common reason for people
47、 starting their own business is for exactly this reason.They want to be their own boss.Secondly,sole traders get to know their customers well,which means they can quickly tell when markets change.And because they are small,they can adapt easily to changingmarket conditions and so they can remain com
48、petitive.Another point is that,although a sole trader may employ one or two people,since they own the business,they get all the profits which is of course a major benefit.However,there are some disadvantages of running your own business.The first thing is that because you are working on your own,you
49、 may have to work very long hours.And you may not be able to take a holiday.Also,you have no one to talk to about problems with the business.And finally possibly the worst problem the amount of money you can raise to invest in your business is going to be quite small.One answer to these problems,of
50、course,is to find one or more partners.This is what many people do when they want to expand their business.If you take on a partner for your business,you will obviously gain additional skills because everyone has different skills and abilities.So if you havepeople with different skills from your own
