Authors: Iwonna Dubicka and Margaret O’Keeffe
Publisher: Pearson Longman – 184 pages
Book Review by: Paiso Jamakar
This book has a unique organizational format, which is practical and relates to real-life experience, including readings and photos you see in newspapers. The best way to describe it is that it is non-academic.
Pearson developed this third edition in association with one its business units, the Financial Times newspaper. The book’s mission is to teach you basic business English.
One expects in a book like this is that the authors’ mother tongue would be English. But the authors – Iwonna Dubicka and Margaret O’Keeffe – who reside in Spain and have had work experience there, are likely people who do not speak in English at home.
So like most people whose native language is something else other than English, they assumably understand the experience one goes through learning a new language. In any case, let us not dwell too much on assumptions and get right into the purpose and contents of this book.
The authors write that Market Leader is a course for students of business English. It is also for business people who are not that proficient in English, to communicate with others in the business world whose native language is English. It is therefore a book with a practical purpose. It has multiple levels of difficulty, although it has the description “Advanced” in its title.
Having gone through some of its chapters, this book should greatly improve your ability to communicate in English in different business settings and situations. If you are in business but English is not your main language, this book is for you, as it will help you develop your communication skills by making you more fluent in English, instill confidence in you, and propel you further to use English more often and become comfortable with it.
The Contents section presents lessons in the book in “units.” You could call these chapters in the book. There are 12 units all related to business and requiring proficiency in English for easy, clear and effective business communication.
The 12 units are respectively on these topics: first impressions, training, energy, marketing employment trends, ethics, finance, consultants, online business, new business, and project management.
In each of the units of study or chapters, the student learns business English in four different modes or ways, namely through listening and discussion; reading and language, acquiring business skills, and going through case studies. There are clearly-marked, small, colored rectangular tabs at the top of the pages to indicate to the reader in what mode he or she is in.
Some of the specific benefits you can derive from the use of this course book on business English are to: develop a larger vocabulary; sharpen your listening skills; learn to take notes, including jotting down key pieces of information; write summaries of what you have read, or listened to, or watched; and develop your reading skills.
Other benefits you can derive with diligent study and practice of lessons offered in this book are to: revise language and the structures of your sentences and paragraphs to mzke them more effective; and develop business communication skills such as giving presentations, negotiating, answering questions effectively, playing an active part in networking, and meeting new potential customers.
The case studies presented in this book that are linked to the topics of each unit are opportunities for you to practice your listening, speaking, reading and writing skills for real-life events.
All in all, this is a great resource for learning business English. We commend the authors Iwonna Dubicka and Margaret O’Keeffe for a job well done for this third edition of this book.
