What has grammar go to do with conversation? Michael McCarthy takes a look at corpus data to explore how grammar influences how we organise information and use tenses in natural conversation.

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Disrupting our definition of Business English in the 21^st Century

In a recent Washington Post article entitled ‘The surprising thing Google learned about its employees – and what it means for today’s students’, it was reported that Google had carried out a survey into the key characteristics for achieving success as a Google employee. Surprisingly, knowledge of STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and maths) did not appear first. Instead, the survey placed skills such as coaching, insight, empathy, critical thinking, problem solving, dealing with complex ideas at the top of the list.

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