This module provides links to some of the best stock market educational materials on the web, including articles, research tools, and most importantly, tutorial programs that your students can use to play the stock market: to buy, sell, and track stocks in the portfolio they create.
 

Intro for Instructors	Articles/Vocabulary	Researching Companies
Tracking Stocks	Stock Games & Simulations	Follow-up Ideas

 
 
 

A wonderful tool for those with little business experience, the stock stimulation sites are informative and useful for discovering the basics about how the stock market functions. 

What are the features of this site?

*Initially designed to promote reading and writing but adaptable to incorporate all four skills, these resources use the stock market to build students' knowledge of the business world and their English skills.

*Although most activities require a basic proficiency in English, you can gear them to the level of advanced-beginner, intermediate, or advanced students. The language and content in these sites range from simple to complicated.

*These authentic materials are FREE to anyone and can serve as excellent resources to supplement to rather dry explanations in most Business English textbooks.

*Some ideas for lesson plans are suggested here, yet these are fairly basic and can be viewed simply as a starting point. The activities are not lock stepped; the lessons can be modified easily. Take whatever fits your and your students' needs. Let your imagination and creativity guide you!

*Depending on the availability of computers, your students' levels, or class sizes, these activities can be done by students individually, in small groups, or as an entire class.

*Learning about the stock market can be a semester-long project. Introduce the stock market early in the semester. Throughout the term, have students monitor their stock portfolios (track, buy, sell stocks) daily, weekly, or bi-weekly.

How can instructors use these materials?

*Many lesson materials can be printed, photocopied, and used in class.

*Some materials (like the stock simulations) are best used during class meetings in the computer lab with students working alone or in small groups.

*Others can be assigned as homework--students will work independantly. HINT: email the homework assignments to students (even if you pass out the URLs in class). That way all students need do to access a web site is double-click on the web site address in the email--this is helpful for computer novices.

Why use email for teaching reading, writing, and business English?

*Intermediate and advanced students should be encouraged to learn to write fluently, and email is a great device for eliciting lots of writing and reading.

*It allows students to get to know each other well. They will generally put greater effort into a task they know their peers will see. Finally, in the business world, email is fast becoming a primary form of communication within and between companies: students need to be proficient in its uses.
 
It is suggested that students keep an on-line journal and make two entries a week. Topics can be assigned and/or students can write freely about whatever (business English) topic they choose. If the class is small, entries can be sent to all students. In larger classes, the instructor should assign students to groups of 3-6 "pen pals." Check out Working Smarter, Not Harder -- this site has excellent tips for managing student email efficiently from getting them started to troubleshooting--thanks to Dr. Larry Seibert at Indiana U.

The best way to learn about the stock market is to jump right in the action the no-risk way: via tutorial programs. Many of these have been developed specifically for educators; they teach us how to help students learn about investing in the stock market.

Stock Game for Educators A great learning tool for a step-by-step demonstration on how to pick, buy, monitor, and sell stocks. Students can learn about stock market investment and evaluate their financial gains and losses. The Steps (I-V) in this game can be used as individual lesson plans. Students will need access to computers.
Edustock's educational web page for teaching people of all ages what the stock market is and how to use it. On the Welcome Page you can find links to an educational tutorial on the stock market, company profiles, and a stock simulation program to show how the stock market works. Highly recommended.
The Educator is a stock simulation program that is designed with educators in mind. Instructors can view and monitor each student's portfolio. It can be used with the class as a whole as a demonstration tool or in the case that only one computer is available. Contains helpful set up tips for classes of 20 to 100 students.

For a more challenging tutorial...

Yahoo's Investment Challenge  is a simulation program that's more "real world" than the other educational sites listed above.

*Excellent for advanced students or for use later in the term once students have some familiarity with the stock market.
*Here's a good incentive for success: a new game begins on the first day of each month and awards cash prizes to the top finishers (up to $5,000) for a given 30 day period! (Caveat: minors may not be eligible to win prizes.)
*Another real advantage to this site is that it selects and displays articles from dozens of news sources on the particular stocks currently owned--no extra internet searching needed! Finding recent news stories on companies could not get any easier. It includes links to the articles so students can read them daily, if they wish.
*Students can "cheat"--that is, they can learn from others' expertise or errors. You can view other competitor's portfolios as a way of getting ideas about how to choose high performance stocks.

THE WHATS, WHYS, AND HOWS OF STOCK MARKET INVESTMENT

ACTIVITY: Visit one of the following sites to get articles on the basics of the stock market. These can be used as a tool for planning lectures or as homework or in-class reading/discussion assignments.

As already mentioned, tutorials are an excellent way to learn the basics of investing. Two very user-friendly sites that can be used (especially for instructors who are unfamiliar with this topic) are:

Edustock Great sections on "The Stock Market" and on "Picking a Company" that includes explanations of different types of stocks, buying and selling, stock tricks, and a glossary.
Buck Investor Click on the beginner's Investment Kit: a 5 week program that takes you step by step through the investment process. Each week, you'll have a few things you need to get done to move on to the next week. When you're done with all 5 weeks, you should have a very good idea of how to go about investing. Of course this program doesn't introduce you to every single aspect of investing, that's what the rest of the site is for. But for a beginner, this is the best place to start.

ACTIVITY: Teach students how to read the stock market page of the newspaper using the article on Reading Stock Tables. It gives a clear, concise explanation of terminology and definitions. A good introduction into the world of finance.
Bring some newspapers into the classroom, do a short demonstration for explanation, then have students work in groups to compare/contrast different companies within the same industry (like Coca-Cola vs. Pepsi Cola or IBM vs. Apple). Have students present their findings to the class. As a group, discuss possible reasons one stock may be performing better than another based on what students knowledge of products or information learned in the articles they have read regarding how the market functions.
If you are unfamiliar with stock abbreviations, look a few up before class using Public Company Search Engine (Enter the name of a company and this engine will provide you with the appropriate stock symbol. Caveat: this site loads slowly.)

BuckInvestor Glossary An extremely comprehensive glossary of investment terms with cross referenced definitions. It provides detailed definitions of so many terms that it may be overwhelming for beginners--but advanced students will make great use of it.

ACTIVITY: CHOOSING STOCKS. Students may want to use their daily experience with company products to give them ideas about which companies would be good bets for investments. Here are some ideas for picking stocks:
A) Identify companies that manufacture your favorite things in daily life, such as soft drinks, shoes, clothes, restaurants, etc, and make sure they are publicly traded by checking the labels and packaging of the products.
B) Get company names from work places of parents, friends, relatives, or neighbors--companies with which they have firsthand experience or about which they have information.
CAVEAT: Impressions of companies based on personal or acquaintances experiences can be useful in terms of motivation--tapping into what interests individual students. However, these impressions do not often provide reliable information about the current/future health of companies. Therefore we recommend that students research companies through the internet before they make final decisions about which stocks to invest in. Use the following web site guidelines (print them out) on what to look for in companies before choosing stocks.

ACTIVITY: FINAL STOCK SELECTION. Have students research the stocks they will "buy" first by visiting pages containing company profile information, then by visiting actual company web pages. Have students submit a written report to classmates (via email and/or through oral presentations) of which stocks they have chosen and their justifications for doing so.
        You may want to limit students' investigation of companies to a list of twenty or so, especially if you decide to use other parts of this web site in your Business English class. The BizEd site provides lesson plans for teaching other aspects of business to students -- so you may want to include companies featured in their pages like the Body Shop, British Petroleum, Amway, and McDonald's.

Edu Stock's Company Profiles on selected blue chip (long term quality) stocks.
Biz/Ed's Company Facts on Amway, BMW, The Body Shop, BP, McDonald's and more!

To make the final stock buy list, visit the company web sites. Recommended sites for finding company web pages are:

InvestorWeb for stock picks. Guru is a guide to the site. A bit complicated for newcomers.
Biz/Ed's Top 100 Companies in Britain. This is the company fact page with a link to the top 100 company web sites in Britain at the bottom of the page.
Hoover's Online This is a good source for company information (a good amount is free to all). Go to bottom of page and quick search for news about *companies *industries and *stock prices.

ACTIVITY: MONITORING STOCKS. Ask students to analyze (every two weeks or so) the progress of their stocks in the form of a written report. This could be an email journal activity in which they post their reports to the group over the internet. The report could also be delivered orally to the class as a whole or to small groups. HINT: Each stock simulation game provides tips on how to buy and sell stocks.

Public Company Search Engine Enter the name of a company and this engine will provide you with the appropriate stock symbol. Caveat: this site loads slowly.
Stock Quotes A place for students to check daily share prices of companies. Know your stock abbreviations before entering this site. Advantage: loads quickly. Disadvantage: gives only daily quote.
Hoover's Stockscreener Screen stocks for free--up to 20 different performance criteria. May be overwhelming for beginners, but is very comprehensive. Also has the ability to track the history of stock prices.

News Sources for information searches:
Bangkok Post : English newspaper containing a business section. Current articles with definitions of business terms and difficult vocabulary. A guide for teachers and tips for students on how to use it.
CNN Interactive : Great source for reading current business news.
A Business Researcher's Interests includes academic articles ranging a wide variety of categories such as information search, reengineering, intellectual property, information policy, and web strategy/design. For advanced students.

At the end of the term, have students write essays or give presentations that focus on:
    1) evaluating stock choices--highlighting strengths and weaknesses; or
    2) comparing and/or contrasting companies picked for their portfolios and stock performances.