FUNCTIONAL LANGUAGE
UNIT1
EX1
D: As I mentioned in our last call, Karl, I think quality is becoming a concern on this
project. To be honest, I feel a little worried about delivering a quality product to
the customer.
K: Really? I can see you’re concerned about quality, but I thought you were happy
that we had managed to reduce costs.
D: Yes, we both want to keep to budget, but frankly I’m concerned that we’re losing
quality and our customers won’t buy the software. Could we help you to test
quality more effectively in some way?
K: Well, until now, we’ve only tested the software using a small number of people.
One way to solve this is to test it using another group with very different needs,
but we don’t have a budget for that.
D: I like your suggestion, Karl, and I realise testing is expensive. Based on your
experience, how do you think we can test the software without increasing the
budget too much? Could we reduce the number of testers in the first group, and
then create a second group for testing?
K: I understand what you’re saying but it’s important to have at least twelve
people in each group and currently we have one group of eighteen testers.
D: Would it be useful for us to create another group of twelve testers, but reduce the
first group from eighteen to twelve? That would mean paying for only six more
testers.
K: Sure. That could work. But let’s wait until we have the test results from this
week and then decide together. And we need to make sure the second group have
different software requirements.
EX2
Hello. My name’s Lotte Smit and I’m based in the Tokyo office. I’ve been with this
company for around two years. We work on engineering projects. I’m a Key Account
Manager. In the past I used to work in Europe, but since last year I’ve been working on
projects in South-East Asia as I’m now responsible for key accounts in Japan and
Australia. What else? Well, I have to travel quite a lot; half of my time is spent travelling
around Japan, Australia and New Zealand. The job is quite stressful but I really enjoy it.
And I have to say, it’s going to be great working with you on this project and I’m proud
to be involved. Finally, if you need my help in any way, don’t hesitate to ask. I’m here
to collaborate. Thank you.
UNIT2
EX1
1. What do you think we should do? / What’s the best way to handle this?
requesting ideas
responding to ideas
giving ideas
2. One option could be to create more detailed requirements.
moving from idea to decision
requesting ideas
giving ideas
3. I don’t think it makes sense to look at the requirements again.
requesting ideas
developing ideas