Business Lesson Describing Trends

Vocabulary describing economic growth and decline is one of the most important areas for students of Business English. This vocabulary is especially needed to accurately communicate the ups and downs of business when making a presentation using graphs and statistics. The following lesson employs a number of graphs as a means of practicing this area of vocabulary.

Aim: Improving vocabulary used to describe economic activity

Activity: Word charts and graph description

Level: Intermediate to upper-intermediate

Outline:

• Activate known vocabulary by asking students to describe general company/economic growth or decline over the past few years.
• Expand vocabulary by using the vocabulary tables focusing on growth and decline.
• Activate vocabulary usage by using the graphs below and asking students, in pairs, to describe the various growth or decline of the objects presented in the graphs.
• Ask students to plot a graph of their own concerning their business or national economy.
• As a class, have students describe the graphs they have developed.
• Encourage students to ask questions and explanations concerning the information presented.
• Follow-up by asking students to write a composition based on a graph of their own design.

Economic Trends

Exercise 1: Complete the following tables supplying the appropriate vocabulary.

VERB	NOUN
to rise
to increase
to improve
to fall
to decrease
to recover

ADJECTIVE	ADVERB	HOW MUCH CHANGE?
slight	slightly	very small
sharp		sudden, large
dramatic		sudden, very large
steady		regular

Exercise 2:Use the following graphs and the vocabulary from the above tables to describe the movement of the various objects concerned.

1998 World Clothing Sales

1998 World Clothing Sales Percentages

Travel Expenses

1997 Production and Distribution Costs Compared to Final Profit

Tables and Graphs Printing Page

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