Exploiting hypothetical reported speech in the business English classroom.

This commentary attempts to offer a practitioner's perspective on the use of hypothetical reported speech in business negotiations and how it might be explored in a Business English learning environment to help learners with English and negotiating skills. Some textbook materials on negotiations were reviewed for this purpose and some suggested activities are provided. • A functional focus on teaching negotiation skills. • A communicative approach to language learning. • Provision of some tasks in the classroom which reflect learner realities. • A practitioner's commentary on Koester's article (2014) on Hypothetical Reported Speech. • Revision of some textbook material for Hypothetical Reported Speech. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]