Introduction

The unit is called ‘Organizations’. In this particular context, the name refers to a group of people who get together with the purpose of selling a product or service and making a benefit for themselves. The most obvious form of this type of organization is the company, which is also called ‘enterprise’ or ‘business’. A company is the most common setting for the working life of a student of ‘Administració i finances’. In the unit, you will be introduced to some aspects of the companies and will learn the specific vocabulary used in the context of business organizations.

The unit is divided into three sections. Each section develops a different aspect related to the topic of the unit. All the sections are divided into different subsections which explain the contents of the course. You will find a reading text, a glossary of terms, and sections devoted to vocabulary, grammar and communication. The unit will introduce you to the world of the business organizations. The reading texts will allow you to practise your reading skills and acquire the specific vocabulary, which is gathered in the glossaries. The vocabulary and grammar subsections will provide you with the basic material that conforms a language, and the communication subsection will serve you to put your knowledge into practice by giving examples of the use of the language in different situations related to the context of business administration.

The first section is called ‘Companies’ and it is devoted to describing this specific form of organization. It starts with a reading text where you will learn about the SWOT analysis, a technique which is widely used to design the business strategies of a company. The text is accompanied by some language notes and a glossary of terms with a list of commonly used words related to companies. The vocabulary describes the prepositions of time and two related topics: the expression of the dates and the clock times. The grammar section explains the structure of the English statements and the English questions. This will help you organize your sentences and improve your writing skills. The communication section is devoted to the language styles. On one hand, you will learn about the formal and informal styles, whose difference is of great importance in English; on the other hand, you will see the different characteristics of the oral language and the written language, with a special reference to the use of punctuation when writing a text.

The second section is called ‘Markets’. A market is where the commercial activity takes place. It can be a physical territory, sometimes as big as the whole world, or a specific group of people, like women, teenagers or children. A good knowledge of the market is essential for a company to maximise its benefits. The text describes two types of markets: the emerging countries, which have a great potential, and the digital markets, a new form of making business that has been favoured by the technological development. The glossary of terms includes a list of words related to marketing, which is the practice of advertising a product or service and introducing it into the market. The vocabulary subsection is devoted to describe the connectors, which are the words and expressions used to link different sentences and give coherence to a text. The grammar subsection introduces the verb tenses used to speak about the present. These verb tenses are the present simple and the present continuous. You will learn about the formation and use of both tenses. The communication section is devoted to explain the use of the reference material, which is essential for a student of English. The reference material is used to complement the contents of the course material and it is composed of dictionaries, websites, grammar books and other resources as, for example, automatic translators.

The section called ‘Sales and orders’ is devoted to the basic commercial activities: selling and buying. A company produces a certain product, which is introduced into the market, where it is bought by the customers who wish to buy it. The reading text describes the marketing techniques, the sales process, which implies the sellers and buyers, and the customer service, a service created mostly by big companies in order to maintain their customers and to solve the problems derived from the sales process. The glossary of terms lists some basic words related to the world of commerce. The grammar subsection presents two verb tenses used to speak about the past: the past simple and the past continuous. You will learn about their form and their use, with a special reference to the comparison between both tenses. Finally, the communication subsection deals with three types of texts which are very common in the context of business administration: the business letters, which have a high degree of formality, the emails and the text messages. You will learn about the characteristics and special language used in each type of text.

You do not need to follow a particular order to study the contents of the unit. Most probably you will not even need to study all the contents, but only those which are necessary to solve the situations that you will find in the course. When you read a text, you can use the glossary of terms to find the meaning of the specific vocabulary or you can use a dictionary to look up other words that you do not know. The vocabulary and grammar subsections will help you do the grammar exercises whereas the communication subsection will be especially useful to solve the practical situations that you will find in the written activities.