Unit 1: Preparing the ground -- Communication Skills: Agreeing objectives, strategy, and roles -- Culture and tactics: Task-versus person-orientation -- Language knowledge: Welcome and introductions -- Negotiating practice: Preparation and making opening introductions

Unit 2: Setting the agenda -- Communication skills: Structuring and controlling the negotiation process -- Culture and tactics: Organic versus systematic working cultures -- Language knowledge: Sequencing and linking -- Negotiating practice: Controlling the negotiation process

Unit 3: Establishing positions -- Communication skills: Presenting your position, getting feedback -- Culture and tactics: Direct versus indirect communication -- Language knowledge: Asking for and giving feedback -- Negotiating practice: Establishing positions

Unit 4: Clarifying positions -- Communication skills: Active listening, effective questioning -- Culture and tactics: Individuals versus teams -- Language knowledge: Asking questions, showing interest -- Negotiating practice: Clarifying positions

Unit 5: Managing Conflict -- Communication skills: Avoiding personal criticism -- Culture and tactics: Conflict versus collaboration -- Language knowledge: Downtoning your language -- Negotiating practice: Handling conflict

Unit 6: Making and responding to proposals -- Communication skills: Encouraging responses, making counter-proposals -- Culture and tactics: Emotional versus neutral behaviour -- Language knowledge: Making suggestions and proposals -- Negotiating practice: Making and responding to proposals

Unit 7: Bargaining -- Communication skills: Maintaining positive communication -- Culture and tactics: High-context versus low-context cultures -- Language knowledge: Exerting pressure and making conditions -- Negotiating practice: Bargaining practice

Unit 8: Conclusion and agreement -- Communication skills: Summarizing and agreeing follow-up -- Culture and tactics: Win-win versus win-lose -- Language knowledge; Concluding and closing -- Negotiating practice: Closing the negotiation

"Negotiating is potentially one of the most challenging areas of business communication. Effective Negotiating is a practical, video-based course designed for professional people who need to negotiate using English. It takes learners systematically through the core communication and language skills needed to participate effectively in negotiations, and helps them to develop these skills in meaningful and realistic ways. Effective Negotiations focuses on communication strategies such as structuring and controlling information, asking the right questions, obtaining feedback, maintaining a positive atmosphere, avoiding personalization, and making proposals and counter-proposals. It extends the learner’s knowledge of the language for undertaking these strategies, and offers authentic practice tasks which draw on the learner’s own ideas and experience. It also looks at key aspects of culture which can influence or impede the progress of any negotiations. With the video as its central component, the course is divided into eight units dealing with the principal elements of negotiations. The video follows the progress of a one-day negotiation, offering both bad and good examples of negotiating behaviour for analysis and discussion, starting with preparation and opening, through clarifying positions and dealing with conflict, to bargaining and concluding. In each unit, it demonstrates what can go wrong in different situations and why, looks at ways to avoid such problems, and provides a positive model for learners to follow. Effective Negotiations is intended for intermediate and upper-intermediate level students, and lends itself both to classroom-based teaching and elements of self-study. It can be used as a short, intensive specialist course, or integrated into a wider-ranging Business English programme. The course consists of four interdependent components: a 30 minute video, accompanying Student’s Book, an audio cassette, and Teacher’s Book. Effective Negotiation was developed from materials used by York Associates, a specialist language and communications training partnership based in York, England." (Book Cover)

Intended for intermediate and upper-intermediate level students (B1-B2).