Your site name

English for Sales & Purchasing

Lothar Gutjahr & Sean Mahoney (Series: Express – Oxford University Press 2009 )
ISBN 978 0 19 457931 5

The information on the back cover of this addition to the Oxford Business English Express Series tells us it has been written for professionals on specialist courses, as a supplement to general English courses or for self study. It is also promoted as an “ideal quick course for the business professional”. In the past I have worked in both sales and purchasing and I was interested to see if the materials measured up to the real world. I was pleasantly surprised.

The book has six units and a multiROM and is aimed at intermediate level learners though I think at least a high intermediate level would be needed for it to be immediately beneficial after a short course. The layout is clear and attractive. The units are well organised and include a warm up activity and plenty of speaking and listening practice in a variety of useful situations using a range of exercises. There are also tips in highlighted boxes on how to have effective discussions. There is an opportunity, at the end of each unit, for practice discussions based on personal experiences.

The vocabulary used throughout is practical. In addition, at the end of the book there is an alphabetical word list with the phonetic equivalent and a helpful phrase list broken down into business areas.

The multiROM includes the course listening and three extra practice exercises for each unit. I liked the use of a wide variety of accents; however, it was all paced at slower than normal speaking speed, which might give the student a false sense of security when thrown out into the real world.

This is a well thought out book which does what it says on the cover. If I was teaching a specialist sales or purchasing course I would definitely use it.

Ruth Cross
Stevenson College Edinburgh