Communicative English Fundamentals

• Communicative English covers fundamentals of technical communication, the communication process, barriers to effective communication, styles, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills and development.

Fundamentals of Communicative English

• Technical or professional communication is necessary for business purposes.
• Technical communication conveys scientific and technological information.
• Technical communication is structured, formal, and precise.
• Technical communication provides specific information and logical ideas using technical terms.
• Technical communication includes reports, proposals, notices, and meetings.

Language Functions

• Language functions encompass specific expressions, utterances and phrases used in speaking or writing for particular purposes.
• Examples include asking about preferences or expressing gratitude.
• Expressions can vary based on politeness and cultural context.
• Choosing appropriate expressions requires considering setting, topic, social relationship, and attitude.
• Expressions for inviting someone to a party include "I'd like you to attend my birthday party this evening" , "Why don't you attend my birthday party this evening?" and "I should be delighted if you could attend my birthday party this evening."

Communication Process

• Communication is a dynamic process starting with conceptualizing ideas.
• The sender transmits the message through a channel to the receiver.
• The receiver gives feedback, completing the cycle.
• There are seven elements to the communication process

Elements of the Communication Process

• Sender: Initiates conversation with an idea.
• Encoding: Translates information using words or non-verbal methods.
• Message: Can be written, oral, symbolic, or non-verbal.
• Communication Channel: The medium used to convey the message.
• Receiver: Targets the message and tries to understand it.
• Decoding: Interprets the sender's message.
• Feedback: Ensures the message was received and understood correctly.

Barriers to Communication

• Barriers include lack of attention, differing perceptions, disabilities, linguistic, psychological, emotional, physical, cultural, organizational and attitude barriers.
• Linguistic barriers arise from different languages or dialects.
• Psychological barriers stem from mental and psychological issues.
• Emotional barriers relate to a person's emotional IQ.
• Physical barriers include noise or faulty equipment.
• Cultural barriers emerge from different cultural values.
• Organizational barriers may occur due to misinformation.
• Attitude barriers are caused by personality traits like introversion or ego.

Interpersonal Communication

• Interpersonal communication involves exchanging information between two or more people.
• Various media are involved, including verbal and non-verbal methods.
• It is seen in group discussions, dialogs, debates, public speaking, and daily life conversations.
• Effectiveness depends on initiating, attending, and responding appropriately.
• Effective communication skills involve verbal, written, listening, and non-verbal communication.
• Only 7% of human communication takes place through verbal means, 38% is through para-verbal means

Intrapersonal Communication

• Intrapersonal communication occurs within oneself.
• It can be spoken, written, or just random thoughts.
• There are three main types: self-awareness, perception, and expectations.
• Self-awareness determines beliefs and attitudes.
• Perception involves how you see yourself and others.
• Expectations relate to hopes for the future.

Improving Interpersonal and Intrapersonal Communication

• Cultivate a positive outlook and control emotions.
• Acknowledge others' expertise and show real interest in colleagues.
• Find one good trait in every co-worker and practice active listening.
• Be assertive and practice empathy.
• Maintain relationships and understand oneself.

Ways to Improve Intrapersonal Skills

• Use the mirror to assess and improve your appearance and self-perception.
• Overcome self-consciousness by accepting statements and criticisms.
• Engage in short and long conversations to learn how to communicate.
• Open up to new ideas and be bold in your feelings.
• Become your own master and practice patience.

Phonetics

• Phonetics is the study of speech sounds, their production, combination, and representation.
• Phonetics involves how sounds are produced, perceived, and analyzed.
• There are three sub-disciplines: articulatory, acoustic, and auditory phonetics.
• Articulatory Phonetics studies the production of speech sounds.
• Acoustic Phonetics studies the physical production and transmission of speech sounds.
• Auditory Phonetics studies the perception of speech sounds.
• Phonology studies the sound patterns of language.

Morphology

• Morphology is the study of word formation and structure.
• Morphology studies how words are put together from smaller parts.
• Morphemes are combined to form words.
• Morphemes are the smallest unit of meaning in a language.

Grammar

• Grammar was traditionally prescriptive but should record actual usage and rules.
• Traditional grammar mixes notional and formal elements, leading to inconsistencies.

Silent Letters

• Silent letters are not pronounced.
• The letter 'b' is usually silent before 't' and after 'm' at the end of a word.
• Silent 'n's often come at the end of words after 'm.'
• The letter 'c' is usually silent after 's.'
• The letter 'a' should is not pronounced before ‘lly’ at the end of a word.

Shift Stress

• English stress can occur on any syllable and is difficult to predict.
• Affixation often causes English stress shift.
• Stress shifts to the following syllable, but the stress pattern remains the same.

Orthography

• Orthography is a way to represent words by having set ways to spell and write them.
• Orthography helps you identify words so you can figure out their meanings.

Homonyms and Homophones

• Homonyms are pronounced the same and differ in meaning or spelling and differ in pronunciation.
• Homophones have the same pronunciation but different spellings and meanings.

Vowels and Vowel Sounds

• Vowel sounds are pronounced without blocking air flow.
• Vowels can be classified into two groups, pure vowels, and diphthongs.
• Vowel/vowel sounds are categorized based on the length of the vowel sound and the number of vowels.
• Pure vowels have a single vowel sound.
• Pure vowels are further classified into checked vowels and free vowels.

Consonants

• Consonants usually have sounds unrelated to vowel sounds.
• There are some consonants that blend in with a vowel to form a vowel sound.
• Common examples are w, r, l and y.

Parts of Speech

• Parts of speech are word categories with similar grammatical roles.
• Eight parts of speech in English: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.

Nouns

• Nouns name a person, place, thing, or idea.
• The different types of noun include proper, collective and possessive

Articles

• Articles are used with nouns or noun phrases to clarify them.
• Articles can be definitive (the) or indefinite (a, an).

Verbs

• Verbs describe an action or state of being and include main, action, linking and modal verbs.

Pronouns

• Pronouns replace nouns.
• Reflexive pronouns refer to self.

Adjectives

• Adjectives describe nouns or pronouns.

Adverbs

• Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.

Prepositions

• Prepositions indicate relationships between words.

Conjunctions

• Conjunctions link words, phrases, or clauses.

Interjections

• Interjections express strong emotions.

Vocabulary

• Vocabulary is crucial for reading, listening, speaking and writing
• Four types of vocabulary: listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Question Tags

• A question tag is a short clause at the end of a statement.
• Adds question tags like isn't it? can you? or didn't they?
• A positive statement uses a negative tag, and vice versa.

One-Word Substitutions

• One-word substitutions replace sentences with an appropriate word.

Strong and Weak forms of words

• Strong forms occur when words are emphasized.
• Weak forms are unstressed and often use a schwa sound.