Free Resources

GENERAL BUSINESS ENGLISH LINKS

Keeping up-to-date

Part of the challenge for business English trainers is staying on top of the business news while you also have a full time teaching job to do. Let these sites help you stay on top of everything.

The oracle of online business knowledge is at FT.com. Find reports on companies, profiles of people in the news, country surveys and much more.

The British newspaper The Guardian has a site called Guardian Unlimited. There is a daily business section and a weekly section called 'Office hours'.

Business Week Online has a searchable archive, a global business section and a link to company news from Reuters. If you subscribe to the site, you can also get weekly email updates.

You can access regularly updated video news clips at bbc.co.uk or at cnn.com. Transcripts for the video script are also provided.

Fast Company magazine is one of the most renowned sources for articles about technology, the workplace, and the new Economy.

And of course, the subscription element of this Market Leader website (Market Leader Premier subscription) takes up-to-date articles from the Financial Times and creates interesting English learning activities around them. You stay on top of current business stories and learn English at the same time.

Business English terminology

Business English terminology is vast and ever-expanding. A good Dictionary will be invaluable. The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English has many new business English words like cold call, debt overhang and e-tailer. The following websites will also help.

The Washington Post has definitions for more than a thousand business terms with cross referencing to related terms.

The Web for Students

The Internet is a place of mixed fortunes for the business English student. Sites are of varying quality and there are plenty of resources that are not reliable. The following sites however, get the thumbs up.

The Business site for students has online activities, a talk board, company of the month and more.

For students who need listening, esl-lab offers a large resource of new listenings plus questions to test comprehension.

Other interesting sites

Several sites worth a mention do not fall into any simple category apart from one labelled 'interesting'. Check them out and see if you agree.

Job-interview.net has resources for successful interviews such as mock interviews for different types of jobs and a listing of questions for different stages of the interview.

Careers in Business has information on a variety of business careers in the areas of accounting, finance and marketing. Information includes overviews of the kind of work and the skills and talents required.

Btna.com is a negotiation resource centre with a quick reference guide to negotiations and strategies for difficult negotiations.