A presentation in progress at the Cambridge ESOL Best Speaker of Business English Competition at Rotary Sadan. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

Communicating effectively in a multicultural context is about much more than just sound English. This became clear at the regional finals of the Cambridge ESOL Best Speaker of Business English Competition (BEC), organised by the British Council and Cambridge ESOL, a department of the University of Cambridge which specialises in English language testing.

The competition, held on November 14 at Rotary Sadan with 20 participants, was divided into two levels — one with 10 students from the Business English Certificate preliminary level; the other with five students each from BEC Vantage and BEC Higher level. All 20 students were selected according to the BEC test they took between May 2007 and June 2008.

Candidates participating in each level had two rounds: a round of presentations and another comprising extempore, used to evaluate communication skills. Presentations were on topics such as the nationwide smoking ban in public places being fair (it was an unanimous “yes” on this one), whether the government should make it difficult for people to buy and own cars in order to cut down on pollution.