Review of business connections elementary--pre-intermediate.

The back cover of Business Connections--Lab Workstation Version software promises a "multimedia course that teaches students to communicate effectively in business situations." It goes on to add that "[b]y using authentic business language in real life business settings, this comprehensive course is ideal for learners who want to develop practical business English skills." Teachers who elect to use Business Connections as a part of their Elementary level course can expect the product to fulfill this commitment.

The material in Business Connections is divided into five modules with themes that closely relate to the business world, but also have wide applicability outside of it, namely, "Talking About Yourself and Your Company," "Giving and Getting Information," "Companies and Problems," "Phone Calls, Tasks, and Procedures," and "Meetings and Schedules." Each module is then further divided into three sub-units, each of which relates to the general theme of the module and centers around a business situation (making fifteen units in all). For example, the situations that learners encounter in Units 1--3 in Module 1, which is titled "Talking bout Yourself and Your Company," are "Meeting People," "Talking about Your Job," and "Talking about your Department." Units 13--15 in Module 5, "Meetings and Schedules," are titled "Speaking in Meetings," "Checking a Schedule," and "Thanking and Saying

Goodbye." By organizing the modules and units around communicative goals, in a manner that is consistent with communicative language teaching (Brown, 2001), the authors have created a product that is applicable to most learners at the target proficiency level (elementary--pre-intermediate), not only those in the business world. While the interaction may take place in an office setting, even learners who do not envision themselves entering the business world could also benefit from learning how to accomplish all of these very practical communication tasks.

Each of the fifteen units in Business Connections follows the same organizational pattern and consists of four sections which address the major language skills, although significantly more time and attention is focused on listening, speaking, and grammar practice than on reading and writing. Section 1 of each unit begins with a short, one to two- minute video, and these videos are, decisively, the strength of the program. The video clips create a cohesive feeling to the program, despite the diverse number of topics and language points, and exhibit a surprising and impressive level of authenticity. The videos follow a team of employees at "World Premiere Solutions" in London as they prepare for an upcoming conference, and these clips introduce the theme of each unit. These videos do not meet Nunan's (1999) standard for authentic texts, which require that the media not be created explicitly for the purposes of language teaching, but instead be organically generated for the purpose of communication. However, this omission does not detract from their value, as the situations that the videos recreate are highly formulaic--such as introducing someone, presenting information about a company, checking a schedule--and it is hard to imagine that a spontaneous introduction would sound or function in an appreciably different manner than that presented in the video. The authors succeed, then, in creating conversations and dialogues that sound spontaneous, genuine and authentic.

An additional benefit of the videos is the international and ethnic diversity of the actors, who provide a variety of native and non-native English speaker accents. The cast includes a native speaking English man, an American woman, and an Indian-English woman, as well as non-native speaking Spanish, French and Japanese men, each of whom provides a different, yet highly comprehensible example of speech in English (see Figure 1 for a screen shot featuring many of the video's cast). This variety of accents serves two important purposes. First, it ensures that even though the fictional company is based in London, students of both British and American English can comfortably use the materials, given that both varieties of English are widely represented. Second, it underscores the important point that there is no "right" way to speak English. The non-native speakers provide the additional benefit of models of successful language learners, with the implicit message that one does not need to be a native-speaker to succeed in an English-speaking workplace (Friedenberg, Kennedy, Lomperis, Martin, & Westerfield, 2003).

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

Unfortunately, the audio clips that begin Section 2 of each unit do not showcase this same level of authenticity. The language and topics are of comparable quality. For example, in Module 1 "Talking About Yourself and Your Company," the topics include "Welcoming a Visitor," which discusses "Welcoming," "Asking Someone About Their Job," and "Finding Out More About a Team,"--but they are delivered at a rate of speech that is exaggeratedly slow. One can only guess that the authors thought this was necessary, given that the learners would have no visual cues aside from a static photograph, but the result is a sample of language that is sadly unrepresentative of how native speakers, or even proficient non-native speakers, would speak.

Following the video and audio clips in Sections 1 and 2 of each unit is a "discovery" phase, in which learners are asked to inductively infer the rule behind a grammar feature that they heard in the previous listening passages. Learners listen again to the video/audio and note where and how the speakers used the target grammar features, which range from "be statements and questions" in the first unit to present perfect simple in Unit 15. Presenting the language first in an authentic context allows learners to use an inductive, top-down approach to grammar, which appeals to certain learning styles, and it is a very effective way to draw the students' attention to the target grammar feature before the explanation (Snow, 1996; van Patten, 2003). Explicit grammar instruction is provided by "Victoria, the Grammar Coach." A short video of a woman explains a grammar feature while examples of the feature are automatically manipulated and highlighted on the screen (see Figure 2).

[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]

The explanations, while precise, effective, and highly contextualized, are also quite brief. In a representative example from Unit 6, "Describing Products," one of the grammar points addressed in this context is comparatives and superlatives. Victoria begins the explanation by telling the learners:

Hello again. Here is some grammar for comparing products. When

you want to compare two products, you add -er to short

adjectives and you put 'more' in front of long adjectives. For

example:

'The PC500 is cheaper than the PC1000.'

'The PC1000 is more expensive than the PC500.'

When you have three or more products, you add -est to short

adjectives and you put 'the most' in front of long adjectives.

For example:

'The PC500 is the most suitable of the three models.'

'The PC1000 is the most efficient of the three models.'

Look at the grammar explanation to learn more.

While Victoria gives this explanation, students can also click on a "transcript" button and read along with what she is saying (Figure 2). Next, they can click on three buttons which allow them to listen to and watch an explanation of a few related examples. In this unit, the examples that appear on the screen are as follows:

1. When you compare two products, use adjective + -er or 'more' + adjective.

The PC500 is cheaper than the PC 1000.

The PC1000 is more expensive than the PC500.

2. When you compare three or more products use adjective + -est or 'most' + adjective.

The PC200 is the smallest of the three models.

The PC1000 is the most expensive of the three models.

3. For adjectives of one syllable, and for adjectives of two syllables ending in -y, use -er or -est.

smallest

cheapest

earliest

4. For adjectives of three or more syllables, use 'more' and 'the most'.

It's more | the most expensive.

It's more | the most suitable.

It's more | the most user-friendly.

5. These adjectives are irregular.

good better the best

bad worse the worst

far further the furthest

While precise and highly contextualized within the theme of the unit this explanation may leave some students wondering what to do with two syllable adjectives that don't end in -y (is the technology more modern or moderner?) or why the must be added in the superlative form. For this reason, the grammar explanations would likely serve better as a review for students who had already been introduced to the feature in class--or as an initial presentation to be followed up with further class discussion. Even though the level of meta-language is appropriate for the proficiency level of the targeted learners, users will likely still have questions and possibly need more explanation or examples. The program also offers a large number of more traditional grammar exercises, such as matching and fill-in-the-blank, where learners are asked to apply the rules, which allow for deductive, bottom-up processing as well. The sentences that the authors construct for examples and follow-up exercises for each grammar point relate closely to the theme of the unit, and as such, they continue to lend a sense of cohesion to each unit.