Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / June 2006

If you're working without a tutor, I would say that you could best
improve your business English vocabulary by buying and using _Business
Vocabulary in Use_ by Bill Mascull. It is published by Cambridge
University Press. There is a companion volume, _Test Your Business
Vocabulary in Use_, by Tricia Aspinall and George Bethell, which is
also well written.

A warning: like most English Language Teaching books published by
British publishing companies, the books are a bit prone to incorrect
generalizations regarding American English. In business English, this
is occasionally quite important to some learners.

The only true howler I have found in the book above is in Unit 29,
where the American acronym IRS is confidently proclaimed to stand for
"Inland Revenue Service." That might just be a printing error, so
Emmanuel, IRS in the States stands for "Internal Revenue Service."

It's an intelligent way to spend fifty euros or so, if you're really
interested in learning about contemporary business English.

Good luck.