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Business Lesson Describing Trends
Vocabulary describing economic growth and decline is one of the most important areas for students of Business English. This vocabulary is especially needed to accurately communicate the ups and downs of business when making a presentation using graphs and statistics. The following lesson employs a number of graphs as a means of practicing this area of vocabulary.
Aim: Improving vocabulary used to describe economic activity
Activity: Word charts and graph description
Level: Intermediate to upper-intermediate
Outline:
- Activate known vocabulary by asking students to describe general company/economic growth or decline over the past few years.
- Expand vocabulary by using the vocabulary tables focusing on growth and decline.
- Activate vocabulary usage by using the graphs below and asking students, in pairs, to describe the various growth or decline of the objects presented in the graphs.
- Ask students to plot a graph of their own concerning their business or national economy.
- As a class, have students describe the graphs they have developed.
- Encourage students to ask questions and explanations concerning the information presented.
- Follow-up by asking students to write a composition based on a graph of their own design.
Economic Trends
Exercise 1: Complete the following tables supplying the appropriate vocabulary.
VERB NOUN
to rise
to increase
to improve
to fall
to decrease
to recover
ADJECTIVE ADVERB HOW MUCH CHANGE?
slight slightly very small
sharp sudden, large
dramatic sudden, very large
steady regular
Exercise 2: Use the following graphs and the vocabulary from the above tables to describe the movement of the various objects concerned.
1998 World Clothing Sales
1998 World Clothing Sales Percentages
Travel Expenses
1997 Production and Distribution Costs Compared to Final Profit
Source: http://esl.about.com
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