Retail English for Managers in a Globalized Economy

Retail English: its Goal

Retail English is meant to refresh the students’ English. The goal is to help students:

• Gain a certain level of comfort with the language,
• Communicate intelligibly in English when asked to do so.
• The class is based on reading comprehension and listening comprehension exercises.

Documents studied are taken from the Wall Street Journal or podcasts from Planet Money, Marketplace, the Singapore Management University and from the Open University.

Documents will lead to in-class discussions.

Class organization:

A first exam will determine in which group students are assigned. Groups will be organized by level of student ease with the language.
Both groups will focus on moving along the calendar as it is presented. The first group will focus on discussion around the document studied. The second group will focus on vocabulary and grammar exercises based on the documents studied.

Requirements:

Students must come to class with:

• a computer/tablet,
• headphones,
• a connection to the Internet,
• a valid individual access to the Sorbonne’s EPI: “Licence Pro Commerce et distribution parcours Distrisup”.

Material used in class:

Students will mainly use the website https://be-in-charge.fr to access course material and quizzes.

Eventually, the EPI may be used for quizzing purposes.

If in need of a dictionary or a grammar book students can access for free and respectively:

• https://www.merriam-webster.com/
• https://www.englishpage.com/

Class evaluation:

• On going online quizzes: 20%
• In class participation: 15%
• Final exam: 35%
• Oral presentation: 30%