Finance & Banking Syllabus
SAMPLE SYLLABUS – FINANCE AND BANKING
WHO IS THIS SYLLABUS SUITABLE FOR?
This Finance and Banking syllabus is suitable for second language learners working in the finance or banking industry, who want to improve their competence in the target language, using meaningful real-world contexts relevant to their professional working lives.
Actual course content and training format will be tailor-made after a process of consultation. The sample outline below gives an idea of what may be covered. The language levels are based on the Common European Framework.
SAMPLE COURSE OUTLINE
Higher level B2-C2 Level (Intermediate-Advanced)
1. Communicative/Thematic Content may include:
• The economy – industry, manufacturing, services
• Finance & economics (macro-/micro-)
• Companies
• Financial institutions – central banking/retail banking
• Trading
• Figures – cardinal, ordinal, percentages, fractions, phone numbers
• Accounting
• Sales & costs
• Profit & loss
• Assets, liabilities, balance sheets
• Stocks & shares
• Capital – loans & credits, security, leverage
• Mergers, acquisitions
• Derivatives
• Debts, bankruptcy
• Careers
• Leadership & management
• Professional Development
• Ethics
• Regulations
2. Key functional content
• Introducing yourself & others
• Talking about your company
• Using the phone
• Writing effective emails & business correspondence
• Making enquiries
• Making & declining offers
• Making suggestions, giving advice
• Giving instructions, making requests
• Giving an opinion
• Giving praise
• Planning
• Negotiating
• Agreeing and disagreeing
• Describing trends
• Making presentations – preparation and delivery – dealing with questions
• Organising, chairing and concluding a meeting
• Socialising – greetings, introductions and inviting
3. Pronunciation
• Key sounds/phonemes
• Word and sentence stress & intonation
• Common Problems
4. Structural Content / Grammar
• Tenses: present & past (walk verb in its base form/ irregular verb walked)
• Perfect aspect: progressive & perfective (be + ing/ have + been past participle)
• Modal Verb structures: use of modals in discourse (I think I might…)
• Imperatives: the base form of the verb typically used to issue instructions
• Word order
• Building longer sentences
5. Non-thematic Vocabulary
• Complex prepositions: phrasal & mixed types (over & above)
• Linking words: (because, so, however, therefore, etc.)
• Word-building (prefix and suffix patterns)
• Common idioms and collocations
6. Cultural content
• Everyday conventions: greetings, time-keeping, making phone calls, meals, etc
• Body language and gestures
• National traditions/customs & culture
• ‘Do’s & Taboos’
• Intercultural Communication
• Business Culture
• Social Life