Thank you for choosing to use Win Win English for your business career with your students.
This teachers’ package has been designed to assist you in planning your classes and giving you
flexibility to select and adapt the content of the students’ book to your business English courses. We
hope you will encourage your students to see Win Win English for your business career as an up-todate resource book which they can personalise by adding their own notes and comments.
One of our prime aims with Win Win is to motivate and encourage our target Finnish readers,
undergraduates in business schools in universities of applied sciences, to use English actively. In the
introduction we call on them to hold their heads up high and believe in their English language skills.
We have maintained a positive approach to Finns’ use of English throughout the text.
Win Win has a real world focus on communication and presents realistic business English as used in
various channels and registers.
We presume that the business input comes from the content courses of students’ undergraduate
business degrees and language and vocabulary input comes from the book and the language teachers.
Any business-based input coming from the book is in the context of how the language will emerge in
the readers’ business career. We trust that the way we have structured this book and organised the
contents will ensure that the topics you may cover in your English lessons follows the sequence of
topics in their general business curriculum.
We wrote the texts with largely pre-experience business students in mind, i.e. students who have yet
to set foot in the business world in a professional context.
We concentrate on Business English (which is in the ESP domain) and aim to develop students' overall
communication skills in English. We expect that students who buy this book understand that they need
to develop their English for Business Purposes needs (academic / work-based / cross-cultural business
purposes).
The win-win concept
When deciding on the name for the book we came up with win-win since we advocate audience-centred
communication. The term win-win is used a lot in the text and we hope that using our win-win approach to
communication really will pay off. According to the win-win principle, no one loses. Students will win because they
will learn real English for their career. Their future employer will win because the company will gain an effective
communicator. So in buying the book, students have nothing to lose and everything to gain!
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Structure of the book
Sections
Win Win is divided into 3 sections of 7 units with a Communication Bank and Vocabulary list at the
back of the book for easy reference. We do not expect teachers to cover all 21 units in the 3.5 years of
BBA studies but hope that we have provided you with enough choice and essential content. Teachers
can develop their own routes in the book and select units appropriately. Some suggestions are given
here.
Sections 1 and 2 focus on building English language skills and all business-based input is in the context
in which the language will emerge in working life. We have tried to ensure that the language topics
covered in sections 1 and 2 follow or track the likely sequence of topics in the general BBA business
curriculum.
Business-based input comes in section 3, designed to focus on the areas of specialisation studies in
Finnish universities of applied sciences, but teachers can use this with advanced groups as necessary,
leapfrogging much of the content of sections 1 and 2.
Section 1 Work – internal communication
The focus is language for working in business and in a company. This section is designed to motivate
the business student for the world of work and introduces key communication skills for working life
and business vocabulary at a basic level.
Section 2 International – external communication.
This section moves to working in global business and serving the customer. It develops and builds on
basic skills and language from section 1.
Section 3 Niche – areas of specialisation studies in UAS
These are management, accounting, finance, marketing, logistics, international business and IT. These
units contain specific terms with glossaries English - English. More advanced students/courses can
jump to these units as necessary.
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Communication Bank
This is at the back of the book for ease of use. It contains important phrases for various situations,
networking, meetings, negotiations, telephone calls, emails. Students can use these for role plays, pair
work and simulations given by the teacher. Some ideas are given here. Encourage students to make
notes on these pages and personalise them so they can keep them handy for reference in their work
after graduation.
Units and elements
Each unit of each section is different and stands alone. Teachers can select units they feel appropriate
for the courses they are teaching. Each unit contains authentic or realistic, contemporary material in
English. We have provided a few more texts and examples in this teachers’ package but we know that
teachers prefer to find and use their own current texts in the media. Where we could not use
appropriate real material, we use the fictional company Win Win Com, a communications solutions
company. Some background information about Win Win Com is given in this package. Win Win Com
also features in some of the clips on the DVD.
Elements of the units and suggestions for use:
Anna’s blog
Anna’s blog is a short text which starts all units in sections 1 and 2 to introduce the theme or topic of
the unit. As with most blogs, it is written in an informal, chatty style – almost like a diary or writing
one’s thoughts. There is a thread running through the blogs from when Anna decides to apply for a
graduate trainee post in Win Win Com to her promotion in unit 2.7 but each unit’s blog can be read
independently without the student having had to read previous blogs. Teachers can skip the blog in
class.
Students can be encouraged to write and keep their own blogs in English, either in the institution’s
own learning environment or by using one of the many free blog providers on the internet. Blogs
should encourage comment otherwise they are not a blog. Students could imagine comments they
would post on the internet after Anna’s blog if they were in her “network” for instance.
Some more ideas for exploiting blogs are given in the relevant sections and a list of possible blog topics
are given as extras for unit 2.3. Students can also look at blogs on the internet, use RSS feeds to follow
ones they are particularly interested in. Twitter is a good source of links to current blog postings.
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Quotations
Many units contain quotations which are given in UK quotation marks “66 and 99” quotation marks.
These quotations can be used as discussions, headings for essays or short summaries, presentation
titles. Encourage students to find or come up with their own, based on their ideas, opinions and
imagination. Look at “Favourite quotations” in people’s profiles in Facebook. Collect proverbs –
domestic and international.
Students can grade the quotations for instance on a scale of 1 – 5 if they agree with the statement.
Some scales are given for the “Discuss” element.
The Win Win Post
This is Win Win Com’s internet newspaper and introduces students to how business news is reported
in contemporary, crisp English. The short news items are packed with vocabulary in context. All news
items are loosely based on real cases and companies which were current at the time of writing in 2008.
Some of these may be easily identifiable and you can encourage the students to spot the “real thing”
behind the items. However, the items were written and selected to cover as much relevant business
vocabulary as possible.
In terms of English, some of the items may not be written in complete sentences but use headline
style. For this reason, students have been given a brief overview of headline style on pages 50 – 51.
Skimming and scanning documents and text for keywords is an essential skill in the world of work in
which information comes in many channels. The Win Win Post will help train students to be able to
pick out key words and understand the core message quickly. More advanced students can write their
own news items. Using headline style is a key skill for presenting ideas succinctly in a variety of media.
Encourage students to look at real sources of business news in English and skim and scan for key
words. Some internet links are given for the various units. The teachers’ package gives additional
material, sentences and examples showing further usage of the vocabulary.
The Win Win Post is also given in PowerPoint slides for the teacher to edit and use as necessary in
class.
Interviews
Some units contain an interview with questions and answers, written as if the speakers were talking.
These are used to present a lively, active text rather than a more theoretical, heavy text on the subject.
There are some interviews on the DVD. Encourage students to work on projects involving interviewing
business people, use the alumni from your institution, exchange students etc. When possible, clips
could be posted in your institution’s YouTube channel.
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Job ads
Each unit in section 3 starts with a job ad to show the skills and competencies needed to work in the
various fields and to introduce additional vocabulary in a concise manner. These are also intended to
be motivating. Compare these with current ads and monitor trends in the labour market.
Podcasts
Section 3 contains transcripts of podcasts on business topics introducing another channel and form of
communication. Podcasts are audio but subscribers to podcasts may receive transcripts or texts by
email to accompany these. For this reason the texts are written as if the speaker is talking. Try
podcasting student presentations.
Exercise
The book does not contain many traditional language exercises as the pages of the book have been
used to provide students with a full learning resource. We have provided more language exercises in
this package.
Teachers are also able to design their own exercises according to the level and needs of their groups
and a variety of possible exercises and suggestions are given here for you to choose from. We hope
that you will encourage students to write sentences, answers or vocabulary in the book and
personalise the pages or space available with their own notes in a form that is meaningful and
memorable for them.
Discuss
Our aim is to get the students talking on the topic or situation. There is often no right or wrong answer
for these situations, but students need to see the importance of discussing and talking about the
subjects for their linguistic and personal development.
We give more practical examples for some situations for use in pairs and/or groups, to encourage the
students to use the new words or ideas to brainstorm, share and learn from each other, just as they
will in business life. We also give general ideas for methods which teachers can use to promote
discussion in class which can apply to each situation.
Case
These are real company cases to illustrate the topic in question or show how the theory works in
practice. However, these are not case studies.
Using the real companies in the book, students can create imaginary news items or real items by
checking the companies’ websites. This will also allow students and teachers to update any
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information if the companies have changed since 2008 and compare the text in the companies’
homepages with the similar text in the book.
You can encourage students to use local company examples to create cases of their own. If possible,
write case studies with a challenge or problem.
Company vignettes
These give basic information about the case company in bullet point form. Students can write full
sentences on the basis of bullet points or can adapt company texts on the internet into bullet points.
Where possible the bullet lists are balanced – demonstrating the point we make in presentation skills.
Networking
Networking is an essential skill in today’s business world and we believe students need to practise and
develop techniques for sharing information and topics about themselves, their company and current
business news.
We give ideas for exercises for practising and developing networking skills in face to face situations, on
the phone and in writing. Adapt these and use your own as appropriate. Encourage students to make
notes in the networking spaces provided – as these will not always make sense on their own.
Presentation skills
We have divided presentation skills up throughout the text according to levels and situations. In the
relevant tips materials there are ideas for using them. Also the extras, particularly in sections 1 and 3,
contain plenty of presentation exercises.
Using the various texts
There are various types of text in the units which can be exploited differently.
 Skimming
 Summarising
 Reading for background information
 Reading for specific information
 Exercises and reading comprehension
 Take statements out of the text
Students grade on a scale of 1 – 5 if they agree with the statement
 Read text and answer questions
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Summarising (Intermediate – advanced)
Summarising the text in own words in English to about 30% the length of the original.
Summarising as a skill in business allows the writer to present key facts, findings and
recommendations to busy executives, the team or project group. It aims to practise general
comprehension, understanding main points and extracting key points, which are also essential
skills for writing report and thesis abstracts. Students need to use key words.
Metadata exercises (lower intermediate)
Scanning for key words – if the text was on a website, what would be the key words that should
come up in a browser search?
Students scan text, underlining what they think are key words. You can give a list of keywords on
the board and screen and students read the text in a time limit underlining the words.
DVD
The DVD gives you an opportunity to show language use in context as necessary. We wanted to
provide teachers with some alternative material for use in class to save you time searching for items in
YouTube or other media.
This DVD was made on a very low budget by and with amateurs and on a trial basis. If your students
would like to rise to the challenge of filming some of their own business discussions and role-plays,
with file sharing or using YouTube all can share material.
Suggested routes
For business writing use units 1.7, 2.1 and 2.2. These units cover emails, letters and
reports.
For social language and telephoning use units 1.2 and 2.4.
For working in teams and meetings use units 1.3, 2.5 and 2.6.
For personal and professional development use units 1.1, 1.5, 1.6 and 2.7.
For business and business vocabulary use units 1.4, 2.1, 2.3 and section 3 units.
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Material in the teacher’s package
There are five basic files provided for each unit. The scope of material varies and some units have more
material than others. The material can be used in any unit when necessary depending on the group
and the themes for each session. A lot of the material can also be used for self-study or homework.
We hope to have been able to provide a structure for the package which makes the extensive material
easy to use. Please use the ‘bookmark’ icon when viewing the material in Adobe for easy browsing. 1
Tips for teacher
The tips contain a short introduction into the aims of the unit followed by ideas and suggestions for
using some of the text items in the unit. There are also ideas for activating the group. We have
provided links for further material on the topic.
Unit 2.6 doesn’t have a tips file.
Slides for chapters
The slides contain selected pictures and/or items from the book. They support teaching and make it
easy for you to create your own slides. (The slides are not a complete presentation of the unit and
therefore require customisation.)
Some answers for exercises are also in the slides.
Each slide set ends with a picture related to the theme of the unit. The pictures can be used for writing
or discussion exercises. Students can for example discuss what is going on in the picture, how it is
connected to the unit, what the people in the picture are saying and so forth.
The slides are in Powerpoint format and they can be modified.
Answers to exercises
We have provided suggested answers to the exercises in the book as well as to the extra exercises in
this package. Some exercises do not have simple correct answers (e.g. some discuss exercises) in which
case the many possible answers have been left out.
The answers are in pdf.
Extra material and exercises
The extras contain additional language and vocabulary exercises. There is also more reading and other
material related to the unit which can be used to fit your needs.
The extras are in pdf.
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Materiaali on indeksoitu ja käyttämällä Adobessa (pdf:n lukuohjelma) kirjanmerkki-näkymää tiedostoa on helppo selata.
Kirjanmerkit saa esiin ylävalikosta ’Näytä’/’View’ tai vasemman sivupalkin ikonista.
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Vocabularies
The teacher’s package contains additional, selected vocabularies for each unit. These are sorted out
per page or text item and can be used e.g. for self-study or translation exercises.
The vocabularies are in pdf.
Other
Slides for Win Win Post -newsletters
The Win Win Post slides contain all the text in the newsletters and can be modified to help pointing
out vocabulary and grammar or other language items.
The slides are in Powerpoint format and they can be modified.
Ideas and suggested methods for conducting discussions
Activities for use in section 3
Email template
For email writing exercises with a pair: first one writes an email in the first email, the other one
answers it in the second and so on.
Swot template
The template can be used in presentations or in creating exercises with the companies in the book.
Making a swot-analysis is good practise in understanding and extracting main points and using the
essential vocabulary.
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Acknowledgements
The writers would like to express their sincere thanks to Anne-Mari Raivio, lecturer at Helsinki
Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, for jumping on board so willingly to assist us and contribute
to the teachers’ package. Her ideas and enthusiasm have been a true inspiration. We would also like to
thank the readers of the original version of the manuscript in June 2008 and the language lecturers in
Helsinki Metropolia UAS who tested some of the material in autumn 2009.
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