Communication Skills: Key Concepts

• This course aims to enhance communication skills by focusing on listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary.
• The course is activity-based and goal-oriented, designed to help students communicate effectively and reflect on their English usage.
• It supports core courses across disciplines, focusing on practical skills for academic and professional contexts rather than just fluency.
• Reading exercises develop analytical and comprehension skills, while writing exercises focus on sentence construction, paragraph development, and précis writing.
• The course emphasizes interactive learning and articulation to build speaking and listening skills.

Course Objectives

• Develop communication skills for collaborative work.
• Enable students to understand and practice various communication techniques, enhancing employability.
• Improve English communication skills for speaking correctly, intelligibly, and fluently across social, academic, and work-related situations.
• Develop skills to accurately read and comprehend written texts.
• Cultivate the ability to write effectively in various genres for social, academic, and work-related needs.
• Foster interpersonal skills and attitudes for success in different social and work environments.
• Enrich students with cognitive and cultural experiences through humanistic learning.
• Instruction is activity-based, incorporating a range of activities at different levels of linguistic competence.
• Group activities are encouraged, with links between theory and practice highlighted, and theoretical inputs presented non-technically.
• Periodic tests assess the application of theoretical principles rather than rote memorization.
• Listening and speaking skills may be tested through oral examinations.
• Available software and audio/visual materials should be inventoried and standardized across colleges.
• Software may be tailored to program requirements in collaboration with appropriate agencies.
• Teachers are free to use expert-recommended materials, even if portions of selected texts are used.
• Effective course implementation requires properly oriented instructors and organized orientation programs with available handbooks.
• Workshops for instructional material development should be organized periodically for college faculty as part of ongoing orientation.

Attention

• The course refutes the idea that communicative competence comes solely from mastering grammar, phonetics, or mimicking native accents.
• It advocates for adapting and blending one's first language with a foreign language, using literature to enable skillful communication.
• Teachers and students are encouraged to use as many literary texts from prescribed and other sources as possible.
• Examination questions will be based on prescribed texts and topics.

Unit I: English Language and Communication: Introduction (9 hours)

• Focuses on communication, its importance, and determining factors (sender, receiver, channel, code, topic, message, context, feedback, barriers).
• Covers models of communication, including the information gap principle (given and new information), information overload, redundancy, and cliches.
• Emphasizes the significance of audience and purpose in communication.
• Explores types of communication: horizontal, vertical, interpersonal, lateral, and grapevine.
• Includes verbal and nonverbal communication, body language, and cultural variations.
• Discusses bias-free communication and political correctness.
• Covers styles of communication: formal, informal, and semi-formal.
• The topics listed above should be introduced briefly in the theory classes.
• Facilitators assess students' understanding through exercises.
• Teachers/facilitators can consult recommended books and recognized web resources for teaching and exercises.

Texts for Unit I

• Communicative English OSHEC Publication Chapters: Unit-I
• Literature and Art of Communication by Asima Ranjan Parhi, Madhusmita Pati, Subhra Prakash Das and Shakina Mohol, Cambridge University Press, 2019.
• The International Encyclopedia of Communication. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. (ebook) 4

Suggested Readings for Unit 1

• A Cognitive Approach to Language Learning. Oxford University Press Donsbach, Wolfgang. (2008).
• Prospect of Electronic Media as Curriculum in Non-Native Contexts', by Parhi and Dutta in I-Manager's Journal on English Language Teaching, 4(2)2014. https://files.eric.ed.gov. pdf
• 21st CenturyCommunication: A Reference Handbook. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE Reference. (e-book)
• Written and Spoken Communication in English published by Orient Blackswan
• Indian English through Newspapers, A R Parhi, Concept, New Delhi, 2008.
• An Introduction to Professional English and Soft Skills by Das et al
• Communicative Competence. TT Panigrahi, Notion Press, India, Singapore and Malaysia
• Soft Skills for Your Career, by Kalyani Samantaray. OUP
• An Anthology of English Prose 1400-1900 Cambridge University Press 2015.

Unit II: English Language and Communication: Listening and Speaking (9 hours)

• Covers types of listening: active, passive, listening to respond, empathic, and interactive.

• Focuses on speaking to communicate effectively: fluency, accuracy, intelligibility, and clarity.

• Discusses styles of speaking in various situations: formal, informal, semi-formal, tentative, cautionary, simple, and plain English.

• Also covers English pronunciation: vowel and consonant sounds, diphthong, IPA, syllable division, primary stress in words, stress shift.

• Includes sentence rhythm and weak forms, contrastive stress in sentences, and intonation (falling and rising tones).

• Varieties of spoken Englishes: Standard Indian, American, British (R.P.), and 'Neutral English'

• Explores newspapers, ad captions and their contribution to shaping Indian English.

• This unit does not go deep into phonetics

• The objective of this unit is to train students to refer to a Learners' Dictionary to find out the correct pronunciation of words.

• Students will be introduced to phonemic transcription using IPA symbols in theory classes, followed by practice during exercises. The teacher/facilitator will include simple questions on phonemic transcription and the marking of stress in words and sentences

• Teachers can refer to books under 'Texts' and 'Suggested Readings' for teaching and exercise purposes, as well as valid web resources and additional titles from renowned publishing houses.

Texts for Unit II

• Communicative English OSHEC publication. Chapter-Unit I
• The Sound of English by www.pronunciationstudio.com
• 'Towards the Anti-Canon: A Brief Focus on Newspaper English in India', SHSS (Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences, UGC Care), Ed. T.R. Sharma, IIAS (Indian Institute of Advanced Study), Shimla, Vol. XIII, No.1, Summer 2006, pp.143-155. http://14.139.58.200, iias.ac.in.journals Asima Ranjan Parhi.

Suggested Readings for Unit II

• The Sounds of English Around the World: An Introduction to Phonetics and Phonology Cambridge University Press
• "Listening in the Language Classroom", pp. 58 – 76 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511575945.006, Cambridge University Press, Print publication year: 2009
• An Introduction to Professional English and Soft Skills by Das et al.
• Teaching the Spoken Language. Cambridge University Press Speaking. Oxford University Press
• Communicative Competence. Notion Press, India, Singapore and Malaysia
• Exploring Spoken English. Cambridge University Press English Conversation. Oxford University Press The English Language in India: From Racial-Colonial to Democratic", EJBS (The European Journal of Behavioural Sciences) 3 (1): page:8-16, Dec. 2020. DOI-10.33422/ejbs.v3i1.302

Unit III: English Language and Communication: Reading and Writing (9 hours)

• Focuses on reading methods and techniques: fluency, accessing meaning, skimming, scanning, global and local reading, silent and oral reading.

• Covers reading texts to understand literal, metaphorical, and suggested meanings (essays, poems, and stories)

• Focuses on identifying the tone (admiring, accusatory, ironical, sympathetic, ambiguous, neutral) of the writer.

• Discusses the writing process: brainstorming, pre-writing, writing and post-writing, coherence, cohesion, and style.

• Includes writing short texts: paragraph writing and writing longer texts: literary writing, academic writing, and media writing.

• This unit focuses on basic principles of reading and writing as forms of communication

• Teachers may use literary texts, media writings, non-fiction prose, and other written discourses, exercising caution in selecting reading materials.

• Reading and writing are related activities; insights gained through training in reading can enhance effective writing.

• Teachers should refer to chapters and topics recommended under 'Prescribed Texts' for teaching and exercise purposes, from which examination questions will be set.

• Teachers can also refer to valid web-resources and additional titles from renowned publishing houses.

Prescribed Pieces/Texts Unit III

• Communicative English OSHEC Publication Chapters: Unit-III
• From The Winged Word, David Greene, Macmillan. 1974 and Melodious Songs and Memorable Tales, 2015, including selections from various poets.
• From The Widening Arc, Kitab Bhavan, 2016, A R Parhi, S Deepika, P Jani

Suggested Readings Unit III

• The Oxford Essential Guide to Writing Oxford University Press 2000. an Introduction to Professional English and Soft Skills Das et al
• The Classic Guide to Better Writing: Step-by-Step Techniques and Exercises to Write Simply, Clearly and Correctly Oxford University Press, 1996
• Ways of Reading: Advanced Reading Skills for Students of Literature Routledge. 2007.
• 'Semantic Excess or New Canons? Exploring the Print Media', Journal of Media and Communication, 2010. Research Gate https://www.researchgate.net.237. A R Parhi
• An Anthology of English Prose 1400-1900Cambridge University Press 2015

Unit IV: English Language and Communication: Grammar and Vocabulary (9 hours)

• Grammar for meaning, multiplicity of meaning, grammar in communication.

• Stative and dynamic verbs, modals and auxiliaries, tense and time reference, aspect, voice, modality, negation, interrogation; reported questions and tag questions。

• Complex noun phrases, concord phrasal verbs.

• Sentence structure: simple, compound, complex, clauses, types of sentences: statement, questions, exclamations, commands.

• Functions of language, usage-oriented vocabulary, neutral vocabulary

• The teaching of grammar and vocabulary needs to be connected to communication teaching。

• Instructors may select other areas of grammar for review depending on the needs; they should identify common grammatical errors made by students in speech and writing.

• The remediation of errors may require some explanations of grammar. Use grammar and vocabulary related exercises to explain the errors made by students.

• Refer to the books recommended under 'suggested readings' for teaching and exercise purposes

• Use valid web-resources and additional titles from renowned publishing houses for the same, in remediation

Texts for Unit IV

• Communicative English OSHEC publication. Chapters: Unit-III Communicative Grammar of English by Geoffrey Leech. Routledge publications, 2002
• Oxford Practical English Usage (International Edition 2016) by Michael Swan

Suggested Readings for Unit IV

• The Widening Arc, Kitab Bhavan, Asima R Parhi, S Deepika, P Jani, 2016.
• Writing Skills Remapping: An Anthology for Degree Classes Orient Blackswan
• An Anthology of English Prose 1400-1900 Cambridge University Press 2015

Scheme of Evaluation Overview

• Midterm test: 20 marks
• 5 short answer or short notes, or comprehension questions for 5 marks
• Analyitical and perspective-based critical analysis questions for 5 marks
• Activity, practice, reports, case studies, paper assignments, or assignments etc for 10 marks

The teacher has the flexibility of assesing through short projects, activities, etc. from a total mark of 20

• Final Examination: 80 marks
• Unit1: 1 long answer question+ 1 short note/analysis (15+05) =20 marks
• Unit 2: 1 long answer question+ 1 short note/analysis (15+05) =20 marks
• Unit 3: 1 long answer question+ 1 short note/analysis (15+05) =20 marks
• Unit 4: 1 long answer question+ 1 short note/analysis (15+05) =20 marks

Explore essential aspects of communication skills, including periodical tests, standardization across colleges, and effective course implementation. Discover the role of literature, factors determining communication, and principles like given and new information. Learn about communication types, nonverbal cues, professional communication styles, bias-free practices, diphthongs, speaking skills, and active listening.