DIALOGUE

Practice by reading the dialogue with your tutor. After you are done, switch roles and do it again!

• K: Our manager said we will be having a meeting soon. He wants us to submit our expenses for our business trips.
• D: Is that all we are going to discuss?
• K: No, we will also discuss the 3rd quarter sales results.
• D: I need to follow up with my clients. In addition, I need to write up my sales and expense reports.

NEW SKILL

Scheduling an internal meeting via email

Usually, internal meetings are scheduled by email. The inviter creates a meeting notice and sends it out to the invitees. Read the sample email below out loud with your tutor.

---

Sample Email: To: kevin@BE.com; dorothy@BE.com; tim@BE.com; joe@BE.com; tom@BE.com cc: director@BE.com From: john@BE.com Subject: Meeting Hi Everyone: We will be having a meeting next Monday from 8:00 am to 10:00 am in my office. Everyone is expected to attend. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the 3rd quarter sales results. In addition, I will be collecting your expense reports. Please ensure you are prepared for the meeting and remember to put your cell phones on silent before the meeting starts. Thank you, John

Discussion questions: Have you written any meeting notices or meeting emails? If so, describe the occasion. Do you need to write in English at your job or school? If so, how often and for what?

Using Business English phrasal verbs

Read the diagram below out loud with your tutor. Practice making some sample sentences using the new words.

VOCABULARY

Go over the vocabulary and phrases below with your tutor. Try using each one in a sentence.

business meeting	📘
presentation	📘
negotiation	📘
communicating in English	📘
meeting clients	📘
entertaining clients	📘
business trip	📘
telephoning	📘
writing reports	📘
business emails	📘
taking notes	📘
overseas visitors	📘

EXERCISE

Fill in the blank with the correct Business English phrasal verb using the photo above.

• It’s getting late. Let’s wrap things up and go home.
• The end of the year is approaching quickly. I need to (1) __________ my goals for the next year.
• Kevin has been working too many hours lately. I think he is (2) ___________.
• There are many projects to finish before the end of the 2nd quarter. I need some volunteers to (3) ________ them ________.
• If you don’t (4) ______________ after a job interview, it could prevent you from securing the job.

 

Match the vocabulary in the table above with its meaning.

• When you and your co-workers go to a designated place to talk with customers. meeting clients
• A journey to another city to conduct work for your company.  (5) ______________
• The act of summarizing information from a business meeting. (6) ______________
• Information is written down during a meeting with clients. (7) ______________
• You are giving a slide show to management about a new product. (8) ____________

 

Write your own meeting notification email. Use some of the words from the table above.

---

To: Cc: From: Subject:

 

Pick four Business English phrasal verbs from the image above and write your own sentence.

• Please follow up with your team members to ensure they arrive on time for the meeting.
•  _____________________________________________________.
• ______________________________________________________.
• ______________________________________________________.
• ______________________________________________________.

 

Discussion Questions

1. What do you do for a living? What kind of tasks do you do day-to-day?
2. When was the last time you had a business meeting? If so, describe what the meeting was about.
3. When was the last time you made a presentation? If so, what was the presentation about?
4. Describe the last time you made a mistake at work. What happened? Why?

(Image source: 1. http://livelearnlanguages.com/en/node/314, 2. http://www.englishandculture.com/)

 

---

Answer Key:

(1) come up with

(2) burned out

(3) carry them out

(4) follow up

(5) business trip

(6) writing up, or writing a report

(7) taking notes

(8) presentation