Meeting Essentials This is an e-book brought to you by Business English Pod, the leading provider of on-demand audio and study tools for business English communication skills, on the Web at www.businessenglishpod.com. My name is Clayton and I’ll be your host for this series. Whether you love them or hate them, meetings are part of almost every job. So performing well in meetings is a very important skill. People who can express their opinions, disagree politely, handle the discussion with skill and diplomacy – these kinds of people succeed in their careers and rise to the top in their companies. Meetings come in many types. They include large, formal conferences, like yearend meetings, and small informal discussions, like a quick chat between team leaders and their staff. In this 12-chapter e-book on meeting skills, we will learn useful language for meetings of many different types. The goal is to study all the essentials you need for participating actively in, and, when required, leading and managing the discussion. First we will cover agreeing, disagreeing and expressing opinions in three chapters. The next two parts look at making, accepting, and rejecting suggestions. After that, we’ll handle asking for and giving clarification, in two sections. Finally, in the last four chapters, we’ll look at running a meeting; this includes kicking it off, managing the discussion, dealing with interruptions, and finishing up. In all, this e-book has over four hours of information-packed audio lessons. The accompanying study notes contain a complete transcript of every chapter, vocabulary definitions, extra practice questions, and study strategies. And you can access a wide variety of additional listening and language development exercises on the website, at www.businessenglishpod.com. In each chapter, I will introduce the topic, then I’ll play a dialog that demonstrates the key concepts. Afterwards, in the “debrief” section, I’ll take you through the main points and explain important vocabulary and idioms. For each skill, we’ll learn more phrases that you can use. Then, finally, in the practice section of each debrief, you will have the opportunity to use some of the language you learned. Learners often ask me how to study more efficiently and effectively. I have some suggestions. Listen to each chapter and practice the example phrases multiple times. First listen without the transcript; then, when you have time, go back and listen again with the transcript. Underline and look up words you don’t understand. It’s important to study vocabulary in context: Pay attention to collocations, or word partnerships, and words in whole sentences, with their accompanying prepositions and other grammatical characteristics. Do the practice section of each debrief at least a couple times; try substituting different language the second time you practice. Substitution helps you increase your fluency, that is, your ability to say the same thing in many ways. You can also record yourself, write and act out dialogs, and practice together with a learning partner. These and many more strategies are covered in the study notes for each chapter. Meeting Essentials is targeted for intermediate learners at or around the Common European Framework (CEF) level B2. This corresponds to a BULATS score of 3 or higher or an IELTS score of 5 or higher. The materials are designed, however, to be useful to students at a variety of levels: Intermediate learners will focus initially on language development whereas upper-intermediate and more advanced learners can zoom in on skills development, high-level vocabulary, fluency, confidence and enhancement of overall professionalism. Meeting Essentials is an official publication of Business English Pod, Ltd., copyright 2008, all rights reserved.