Workplace talk in action: An ESOL resource

Nicky Riddiford and Jonathan Newton

This textbook is designed for business/workplace ESOL classes or communication training courses. Each unit in the book is based around recordings of workplace interactions (including e-mails) in English as they naturally occurred in a range of professional workplaces. The units each contain a range of activities to encourage reflection, discussion, analysis and communication practice. The units focus on particular kinds of interaction and speech functions that are difficult to manage interculturally such as requesting, refusing, disagreeing, complaining, and apologising. The emphasis on how people really interact at work in English highlights the many subtle features of communication which can be unwittingly left out of artificially constructed conversations.

Through this book we aim to provide learners with critical, analytic tools for interpreting workplace conversations in English in relation to contextual features (e.g. participants, setting, nature of the interaction). This approach aims to empower learners of English for business or professional purposes to more effectively undertake their own analyses of what is going on in workplace interactions. The tasks in this book are designed to help learners develop awareness of the communicative choices available to them and the consequences of choices on the effectiveness of their workplace communication.

Table of contents

  • Introduction p.1
  • Unit 1 Small talk p. 9
  • Unit 2 Requesting p.19
  • Unit 3 Refusing p.35
  • Unit 4 Making suggestions p.53
  • Unit 5 Disagreeing p.67
  • Unit 6 Making complaints p.81
  • Unit 7 Making apologies p.99
  • Tips for effective communication p.113
  • Role-plays p.115