Business trends
Lesson plan overview
This Business English worksheet focuses on current and emerging business trends, guiding learners through vocabulary development, listening comprehension, structured speaking activities, and reflective tasks designed to build awareness of how trends shape industries and consumer behaviour. Other lessons you might like are: “Seasonality in business“, “Phrasal verbs: trends and graphs“, “Emerging markets” and “Productivity and AI tools“.
The worksheet begins with a lead-in activity that introduces students to the concept of business trends through real-world examples. Learners identify expressions used to describe trends, such as “gaining momentum,” “a passing fad,” and “on the rise.” These expressions are later categorised into long-term and short-term trend indicators, helping students recognise the language patterns used in professional discussions about market evolution.
In the next section, students explore several high-impact trends—including remote work, AI and automation, sustainability, e-commerce, subscription models, personalisation, and the gig economy. Each trend is accompanied by targeted discussion questions that encourage learners to analyse its impact on their work, their industry, and society at large. The vocabulary section introduces industry-relevant terms such as “climate-responsive pricing,” “social commerce,” “data insights,” and “pre-loved,” which are then reinforced through sentence-completion and discussion tasks.
Listening practice is centred around a video titled “The Biggest Retail Trends in 2025.” Students complete extracts from the video to practice comprehension, then reflect on the implications of trends like predictive AI, transparent supply chains, and secondhand luxury markets. A follow-up discussion section prompts learners to share their reactions, assess which trends are likely to last, and consider what is already visible in their own professional experience.
For more speaking practice, you can use the conversation cards.
This Business English worksheet is suitable for intermediate to upper-intermediate learners, particularly professionals in marketing, technology, retail, or entrepreneurship. It supports the acquisition of relevant terminology, improves listening and speaking fluency, and encourages critical thinking about innovation, consumer behaviour, and the future of work.
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Pre-class activities
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Additional resources
Each video-based lesson plan includes links to additional resources (videos and articles), which are FREE can be found online (in the pre-class activities page. These links aim to extend the learning experience, enabling students to connect classroom knowledge with real-world applications.
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Teacher’s lesson plan
Student’s worksheet
Student’s interactive PDF
Conversation cards PDF
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