Students should have at least a B1-level knowledge of English, according to the CEFR.

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

a) read and compose e-mails, memos and business letters of various kinds in English.

b) read and reproduce a variety of genres: invitations, requests for information, instructions, complaints and replies.

c) understand and reproduce a variety of registers: formal, neutral and informal.

d) use conventional words and phrases appropriate to the world of work along with the correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization and paragraphing.

e) make and change appointments by telephone.

f) ask and answer questions courteously on the phone and provide helpful and useful replies.

g) take telephone messages.

h) explain and resolve problems on the phone.

CONTENTS

Criminal law

Tort law

Commercial law

International law

E-mail

Memos

Business Letters

Telephone calls

Taking Messages

‘Straight to Work / Subito al Lavoro 3’ by Martin Harper, Edizioni Simple 2024.

There is a PDF file for every lesson, available from Martin Harper's Teams page, which should be downloaded at least one day in advance.

• Face-to-face lessons

  Reading comprehension

  Case Studies

  Listening and video-comprehension

• 
  

  At the end of the course, there will be a 90-minute written test in which candidates have to complete a mutilated text with 30 words in the appropriate form. A verb could be in the present, past or future, active or passive, simple, continuous, perfect, the stem the infinitive or the gerund; an adjective could be in the comparative or superlative form, positive or negative; a noun could be a crime or a criminal, a person, a thing or an idea, singular or plural, male or female, positive or negative etc. In addition, candidates must write an email, a memo or a letter in order to to ask for information, make a request, an invitation or a complaint or reply to any of the aforementioned genres.

   

  The speaking test lasts about 10 minutes and consists of two telephone calls to, for example, make or change an appointment, rent a car, book or change the booking of a hotel room, a flight, a taxi, a table at a restaurant or a ticket for a performance, or to explain and/or resolve a problem. Therefore, candidates MUST be able to pronounce the alphabet and email symbols in English as well as numbers, dates, prices etc.

  
  

  
  

  CRITERIA

  
  

  
  

  WRITTEN TEST

  
  

  NB. Candidates are not allowed to consult dictionaries or any other texts during the final exam. 

  
  

  Criteria: 5 points=excellent; 4=good; 3=acceptable; 2=poor; 1=weak; 0=insufficient sample of language

  
  

  Grammatical accuracy - 0-5 points - (16.5%)

  Punctuation, spelling, capitalization - 0-5 points - (16.5%)

  Appropriateness of language - 0-5 points - (16.5%)

  Relevance and adequacy of content - 0-5 points - (16.5%)

  Presentation, organization, cohesion and coherence - 0-5 points - (16.5%)

  Adequacy and range of terminology and lexis - 0-5 points - (16.5%)

   

  ORAL TEST

  Criteria: 5 points=excellent; 4=good; 3=acceptable; 2=poor; 1=weak; 0=insufficient sample of language

  
  

  Pronunciation - 0-5 points - (16.5%)

  Fluency - 0-5 points - (16.5%)

  Grammatical accuracy - 0-5 points - (16.5%)

  Adequacy and range of terminology and lexis - 0-5 points - (16.5%)

  Completion of set tasks - 0-5 points - (16.5%)

  Communicative effectiveness- 0-5 points - (16.5%)

   

English

English