💼 Business & Workplace English

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🏭 The Hidden Life of Products

Added: 2026 • Level: Intermediate • Business English / Passive Voice

A recall notice goes out, and suddenly nobody can say who made the battery. Supply chains are where business English and the passive voice meet — things are sourced, outsourced, monitored and recalled, and the company doing it often stays carefully out of the sentence. This lesson follows a product backwards from the shelf to the factory floor with vocabulary like mass-produced, sourced, distributed, monitored, recalled, refurbished, discontinued, automated, outsourced, counterfeited, and released, plus the people behind them — supplier, manufacturer, courier, retailer, watchdog, and consumer. Activities include The Recall dialogue between Lena and Marco, a How Your Smartphone Is Made lecture, The Replacement grammar role play, three critical thinking sets (Automation and Jobs, Who Is Responsible When Products Fail?, Supply-Chain Transparency), a Life of a T-Shirt flow diagram, and a six-card Talk Zone press interview.

🥤 The Beverage Wars

Added: 2026 • Levels: Pre-Intermediate & Intermediate (two versions)

A 70-year partnership. A surprise new rival. McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and Red Bull are suddenly fighting over what goes in your cup — and this lesson tells the story at two levels. The Pre-Intermediate version builds core business vocabulary like rival, supplier, brand, launch a product, boost sales, loyal, exotic, and innovate, while the Intermediate version levels up to market share, brand loyalty, saturated, diversify, flagship product, and joint venture. Each version includes a dialogue, a listening quiz on brand loyalty, a grammar role play (word formation or reported speech), three critical thinking sets, a graph worksheet, and a Talk Zone meeting — and the Pre-Intermediate pack ends with a Launch Your Own Drink! capstone where teams pitch a new drink Shark Tank style.

🎯 Doing the Job Well: Workplace Idioms

Added: 2026 • Level: Pre-Intermediate and Above

On the ball. By the book. Asleep at the wheel. The way we talk about doing a job well is full of vivid idioms. This lesson covers the expressions people use for staying alert, following the rules, working with colleagues, and bouncing back from setbacks, with vocabulary like on the ball, up to speed, by the book, asleep at the wheel, see eye to eye, meet halfway, the big picture, back to the drawing board, and throw in the towel. Activities include a listening quiz on what makes a good team, a present perfect vs. past simple role play between two business partners after a system crash, critical thinking sets on staying sharp and facing setbacks, a graph comparing successful and failing firms, and a Talk Zone where students run their own coffee shop, food truck, online store, or pet yoga studio.

🤝 Projects and Teamwork: Workplace Idioms

Added: 2026 • Level: Pre-Intermediate and Above

Every workplace has its elephant in the room — the big problem nobody wants to name. This lively collection teaches the colorful idioms teams use for mistakes, risks, and awkward topics, with vocabulary like the elephant in the room, hot potato, can of worms, barking up the wrong tree, digging into a hole, the blind leading the blind, head in the clouds, put all your eggs in one basket, and every cloud has a silver lining. Activities include a listening quiz on handling problems, a dialogue about whether to risk everything on a single product, a mixed-tenses role play between a manager and team leader after a tense meeting, critical thinking sets on spotting mistakes and difficult topics at work, a chart on where four teams lose project hours, and a Talk Zone built around real project problems.

🗺️ Strategizing: Workplace Idioms

Added: 2026 • Level: Pre-Intermediate and Above

Should you map out every step — or just play it by ear? Smart strategy means knowing when to plan and when to stay flexible. These carefully sequenced activities teach the language of planning, from the first idea to the long view, with vocabulary like game plan, road map, lay the groundwork, get the ball rolling, test the waters, cover all the bases, weigh the pros and cons, plan B, in the pipeline, and play it by ear. Activities include a listening quiz on building a good game plan, a sequencing task for an AI product rollout, an advanced-modals role play between a strategy consultant and a startup founder, four critical thinking sets including Strategy in the Age of AI, a flowchart mapping an app launch, and a Talk Zone planning meeting with Marketing Lead, Product Manager, Finance Director, and Operations Chief roles.

🏢 Asking for Information in an Office

Added: 2026 • Level: High Elementary and Above

“Could you tell me where the meeting is?” “I was wondering when the budget is due.” Knowing how to ask politely is its own skill — and a critical one at work. This lesson covers workplace communication across both digital and face-to-face channels, with vocabulary like budget, deadline, pressure, expenses, inspect, and parcel, plus indirect question forms (could you tell me, I was wondering, do you have any idea). Activities include a listening quiz on digital vs. in-person communication preferences, a new-employee-and-IT-support grammar role play, three critical thinking worksheets (communication habits, polite vs. impolite language, choosing the right method), a graph-reading activity based on a 200-worker survey, and a Talk Zone with four role cards — New Employee, IT Help Desk, Reception Desk, and Remote Worker.

💡 Starting a Business

Added: 2026 • Level: Pre-Intermediate and Above

Specialty coffee shop or online boutique? Branding. Pricing. Word of mouth. Every founder faces the same first decisions. This collection covers the essentials of launching a business, with vocabulary like branding, target audience, competitive, affordable, layout, word of mouth, and promotions. Activities include a listening quiz comparing online and physical business models, a dialogue between two friends debating a coffee shop vs. an online boutique, an opinion completion worksheet where students plan their own business, three critical thinking activities (content creator businesses, medical science influencer ethics, offline business essentials), a grammar role play with a wellness entrepreneur pitch, a graph-reading task comparing what online and physical store owners value most, and a Talk Zone wellness business pitch fair with four business cards.

🚀 Startups & Product Development

Added: 2025 • Level: Pre-Intermediate-Advanced

Prototype. Pivot. Scale. The language of startups has its own rhythm — and learning it is essential for anyone in modern business. This set of exercises covers the full product development cycle, with vocabulary like prototype, pivot, beta testing, product-market fit, scale, and monetize. Activities include visual vocabulary matching, listening quizzes, role plays set in investor pitch meetings and product launch teams, a reading on how a failed basketball app pivoted to become a hit gaming console, and grammar practice with present simple and present continuous in authentic business contexts.

📱 Digital Marketing Language Skills

Updated: May 2026 • Level: Pre-Intermediate and above

Creators or influencers? Algorithms or audiences? Modern marketing has invented a whole new vocabulary, and students need it. This lesson teaches the language behind today’s campaigns, with terms like demographics, focus group, brand awareness, buying behavior, cold calls, segment, brick and mortar, unethical, and micro-influencer. Activities include a Creators vs Influencers brainstorm, a picture-matching vocabulary set on Customer Insights, a classroom discussion between Emma, Jake, Lily, and Ryan on digital vs traditional advertising, a dialogue between Hank and Amy about marketing a charity coffee brand, an Influencer Marketing Lecture, a Kai and Mia dialogue, and a Creator vs Influencer word formation role play between Alex and Jessica.

👥 Human Resources (in the Age Of AI)

Added: 2025 • Level: Pre-Intermediate

From bellhops to payroll clerks, HR keeps the workplace running — but what happens when AI starts screening résumés and answering employee queries? This collection examines roles, rights, and responsibilities in the modern workplace, with vocabulary like personnel manager, probationary period, payroll staff, apprentice, candidates, equal pay, wheelchair accessible, organizational skills, and onboarding. The lesson opens with a brainstorm sorting workplace skills and HR functions, followed by a “What Makes a Good Employee in 2025?” classroom discussion with five students, an HR and AI dialogue between Mei and Luca, an AI Recruitment role play between Jake and Ana on résumé-screening tricks, plus passive voice grammar, pronunciation work, and a three-part critical thinking set on Training Methods, AI in HR, and Performance Evaluation.

🤖 AI in Business

Added: 2025 • Level: Pre-Intermediate

Chatbots that never sleep. Algorithms that predict tomorrow’s trends. Cybersecurity systems that learn as they work — AI is rewriting how businesses operate. These activities help students discuss the technology and the debates around it, with vocabulary like machine learning, neural network, cybersecurity, virtual assistant, predictive analytics, automation, cloud computing, chatbot, algorithm, and decision-making. The set opens with a brainstorm sorting AI tools across customer service, office tasks, data analysis, and marketing, followed by a picture-matching vocabulary exercise, a Raj and Sofia dialogue about their company’s AI rollout, an Expressing Opinions activity on whether AI should replace jobs or control marketing, a Manager and Olivia word transformation role play, and a critical thinking set on AI Tools, Business Benefits, and Implementation Challenges.

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