Business English B2 Professional Course - Corrigan School of English

Module 1 — Professional introductions and networking

Position yourself clearly

A useful professional introduction answers four questions: who you are, what you do, who you work with and what value you create.

Example: “I work in client operations for a fintech company. I mainly support international customers during onboarding and account setup, and I coordinate with compliance and technical teams when issues arise.”

Write a 30-second professional introduction without using vague adjectives such as dynamic or hard-working.

Module 2 — Meetings

Opening, clarifying, agreeing and disagreeing

Function	Useful language
Open	Let's start with the main objective for today.
Clarify	Could you clarify what you mean by…?
Agree	That makes sense to me.
Disagree politely	I see your point, but I'm not sure that would work in practice.
Summarise	So, we've agreed to…, and the next step is…

Chair a five-minute meeting about a delayed project. Open, invite views, interrupt politely once, clarify one point and close with actions.

Module 3 — Email writing

Clear, concise, action-focused emails

A strong email usually contains purpose, relevant context, requested action and deadline. Avoid over-formal phrases when a simple sentence is clearer.

Weak: “I am writing to inform you that unfortunately there seems to be an issue regarding the delivery.”
Better: “The delivery scheduled for Tuesday has been delayed. Could you confirm the revised arrival time by 4 p.m. today?”

Module 4 — Presentations

Message, evidence, implication, action

Do not narrate slides. Interpret them. Structure each key point as: message → evidence → implication → action.

Present this data in 45 seconds: customer complaints fell 18%, response time improved, but repeat complaints increased.

Module 5 — Problem solving

Describe problems without blame

Use neutral process language: We identified a delay in… The issue appears to be caused by… One option would be…

Separate the person from the problem. “The file was not updated” is often more constructive than “You failed to update the file.”

Module 6 — Customer communication

Empathy + ownership + next step

Professional empathy does not require admitting fault. A useful pattern is: acknowledge inconvenience → clarify facts → take ownership of the next action.

Rewrite: “This isn't our fault. You entered the wrong information.”

Model

“I can see why this has been frustrating. The information submitted does not match the account details we have on file, so the next step is to verify the correct information and update the record.”

Module 7 — Negotiating everyday issues

Trade, don't concede

Use conditional language: If we can agree on the delivery date, we may be able to be more flexible on the payment schedule.

Module 8 — Reports and updates

Status reporting

A useful update covers: current status, what changed, risks, decisions needed and next steps.

Final task

Prepare a 4-minute project update and a 180-word follow-up email. Include one problem, one recommendation, one risk and three next actions.

Source note

Original Corrigan School teaching material. Communicative aims are aligned with CEFR professional-language progression and informed by established business communication practice. Explanations, cases and exercises are newly written.

B2 Professional Communication