Business English (5 cr)

Objective

The studies help the students to gain skills in English that allow them to acquire information from texts in English and operate professionally in their position with clients and colleagues.The studies include Construction and Real Estate Management vocabulary.
The competencies include good interaction skills in client and expert situations and transmission of knowledge from different sources and documents. The studies support the students to gain a realistic understanding of their own communication skills and the ability to develop them through lifelong learning.

Content

• Using the English language in engineering studies, career planning and recruitment
• Industrial management: collaboration within working environment, industry and business
• Oral interaction practice: company and product presentations, trade fairs, telephone calls, oral reporting
• Written documentation: short messages, letters, reports and processing relevant texts

Evaluation scale

0-5

Assessment criteria, satisfactory (1)

In communication situations related to their field the students
• trust their communication skills and manage professional communication situations by asking questions and speaking relatively briefly
• understand the communication partner enough to be able to interact in the professional task in question
• express their thoughts simply, mainly coherently, and relatively understandably, even if there may be deficiencies in professional terminology and structural inaccuracies, which may prevent full understanding
• draw up simple, standardised texts independently and more extensive texts using linguistic help tools.

Assessment criteria, good (3)

In communication situations related to their field the students
• trust their communication skills to manage in the professional context in line with the objectives set for the task
• interact professional content as an equal partner with an independent language user
• take the initiative in professional discourse and can take into account participants’ cultural and language backgrounds to some degree and the demands of the context
• express themselves promptly in clear and detailed manner
• use professional terminology to the point
• pronounce English clearly with matching stress and intonation
• produce genres for different purposes, where linguistic inaccuracy does not interfere with understanding.

Assessment criteria, excellent (5)

In communication situations related to their field the students
• trust their communication skills to allow them to take initiative in professional communication situations in their field
• interact clearly and fluently as an equal partner with a proficient speaker
• take initiative also in demanding professional communication situations where participants’ cultural and language backgrounds need to be taken into account
• express themselves effectively and accurately
• use accurate professional terminology
• pronounce English clearly, with the correct emphasis and rhythm
• are able to produce clear, well structured and effective texts.

Assessment criteria, approved/failed

In communication situations in their field the students
• trust their communication skills and manage professional communication situations by asking questions and speaking relatively briefly
• understand the communication partner enough to be able to interact in the professional task in question
• express their thoughts simply, mainly coherently, and relatively understandably, even if there may be deficiencies in professional terminology and structural inaccuracies, which may prevent full understanding
• draw up simple, standardised texts independently and more extensive texts using linguistic help tools.

Qualifications

The prerequisite is CEFR B2 level, demonstrated through testing or preparatory courses.