Communicating Effectively in English
General and working English for professionals
This intensive course, which is available from a fairly low level, is less commercially focused than the International Business Communication course. Participants come both from business and from a wide range of other professional backgrounds. The course develops practical skills such as the English used for meetings and presentations alongside more general communication skills.
You can choose to do the full day, or follow the morning-only programme (15 hours per week). Some people taking only the morning programme choose to follow a combination course, which offers individual tuition in the afternoons. The morning-only option is also ideal for those wishing to combine serious study with the opportunity to do other things in London.
Fact check
- Group size:
Maximum 8
- Course level:
Levels 3 - 8 on the school's level scale
- Fees:
£670/week (mornings and afternoons)
£510/week (mornings only)
£1635/week (Combination 15 hours group + 15 hours individual tuition)
- Participants age:
Minimum age: 23
Average age: 39
- Course length:
1 - 8 weeks
Start any Monday
- Full programme:
25 hours per week (15 x 60 minutes mornings + 10 x 60 minutes afternoons)
09.00 - 16.00 Monday - Friday
- Morning only:
15 hours per week (15 x 60 minutes)
09.00 - 12.35 Monday - Friday
- Location:
- Is this the right course for me?
Who's it for?
This course is for professionals who want to develop their English in a work and social context. They may be working in business but don't need a strong commercial focus. Typical participants include:
- Academics
- Administrators
- Architects
- Automotive engineers
- Business people
- Charity workers
- Consultants
- Doctors and healthcare professionals
- Education and training professionals
- Engineers
- Fashion designers
- Hospitality and tourism industry professionals
- International executives
- IT professionals
- Journalists
- Legal professionals
- Media communications professionals
- Military and police
- Public officials
- Sales people
- Secretaries
- Sports professionals
– in fact, any working professional who needs to develop professional English communication skills.
Course content
Course participants can expect the following areas to be covered in the course:
- presentation about one's own work and organisational structure
- simulated meetings
- communication in a professional environment
- presenting figures and graphs and describing social and political trends
- comparing national economies, working practices and social conditions
- aspects of international relations including intercultural understanding
When working people are speaking with their counterparts, discussion often turns to broader matters. The course reflects this with practice in the context of a range of topical issues such as:
- current affairs
- social, political and environmental issues
- political systems and developments
- education and training
- advertising and the media
- technology and society
In order to give participants greater confidence in taking part in discussions and handling meetings and negotiations, time is usually spent looking at appropriate communication strategies such as:
- agreeing and disagreeing
- interrupting
- clarifying and confirming
- asking for comments
- summarising
- asking appropriate questions
- challenging/defending an opinion
- persuading and compromising
- making proposals, offers, suggestions
- opening/closing meetings
Professional hospitality, entertaining visitors and handling social situations are important for many professional people. Areas include:
- meeting and greeting
- dealing with enquiries and offering advice
- arranging and cancelling appointments/social engagements
- travel arrangements, bookings and reservations
- giving and understanding directions
- restaurants and pubs
- small talk
The benefits
Whichever Communicating Effectively in English course you take with us, you can expect to improve your English in the following ways:
- communicate more confidently
- speak more accurately and fluently
- participate more successfully in meetings
- improve your written English including emails
- expand your professional vocabulary
- improve your understanding of grammar
- socialise and network with greater confidence
- work successfully in a cross-cultural environment
In addition to the benefits outlined above, you can expect to communicate more confidently in a range of life and work situations, do better presentations, and use the telephone for effective communication.
Dates & Fees
2012 Dates & Fees
Course dates
You can start on any Monday from 3 January* - 17 December.
*Please note the school is school is closed on Monday 2nd January, Friday 6th April and Monday 9th April , but is open on all other public holidays.
Course fees
- £670/week (Mornings and afternoons)
- £510/week (Mornings only)
- £1635/week (Combination 15 hours group + 15 hours individual tuition)
Case Study
Carlos Domingos, Angola
Carlos works for the Conselho Nacional de Carregadores – Angola National Shippers’ Council and is responsible to the Managing Director’s Office. They work with a broad range of clients who do business through Angola’s ports and they have contact with shipping lines/ship owners, forwarding agents and importers involved in the international maritime trade.
He came to the school in order to improve his confidence, accuracy and fluency in English. It was important to Carlos to be in the UK, where English is the native language, and to be surrounded by people speaking the language naturally. He was also keen to work with course participants from around the world to gain a greater understanding of how other professional cultures operate.
In his six weeks on Communicating Effectively in English Carlos is particularly pleased with the progress he has made in his confidence and technique for giving presentations. He said ‘By practising presentation skills every week you really improve. Even though we only give a five minute presentation each week we are learning all the skills we need, so we can use them in any presentation we do at home’. He is also especially pleased with the meetings language and skills he has learnt. Other useful areas where he has gained a lot of confidence include emailing, telephoning and writing official letters.
For the six weeks that he has been in London Carlos has stayed with a homestay family. Here he has really enjoyed getting to know the family and using his English. He said ‘In the evening we talk about what we have been doing during the day. They have really cared for me and it has been very interesting to see how a British family lives’.
When he returns to Angola Carlos looks forward to sharing some of what he has learnt with his colleagues.
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Akiko
London School of English