English Language Skills PDF - Aruna Koneru (Mc Graw Hill India 2011)

English Language Skills About the Author Aruna Koneru has been a faculty in the languages group at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, Rajasthan for twelve years. She has also taught as a visiting professor in ICFAI Institute of Science and Technology, Hyderabad. Dr. Koneru has been teaching English language skills, technical report writing, linguistics, phonetics, semantics and science-related writing at different levels for the past thirty ﬁve years. She has also taught professional communication to employees of various companies. She has been associated with training medical transcription professionals and GRE aspirants as well. She did her Ph D from BITS, Pilani, on ‘A Sociolinguistic Approach to English Language Teaching in India’. English Language Skills Aruna Koneru Formerly with BITS, Pilani (Rajasthan) and ICFAI Institute of Science and Technology, Hyderabad Tata McGraw Hill Education Private Limited NEW DELHI McGraw-Hill Ofﬁces New Delhi New York St Louis San Francisco Auckland Bogotá Caracas Kuala Lumpur Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan Montreal San Juan Santiago Singapore Sydney Tokyo Toronto Tata McGraw-Hill Published by the Tata McGraw Hill Education Private Limited, 7 West Patel Nagar, New Delhi 110 008. English Language Skills Copyright © 2011, by Tata McGraw Hill Education Private Limited. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publishers. The program listings (if any) may be entered, stored and executed in a computer system, but they may not be reproduced for publication. 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However, neither Tata McGraw-Hill nor its authors guarantee the accuracy or completeness of any information published herein, and neither Tata McGraw-Hill nor its authors shall be responsible for any errors, omissions, or damages arising out of use of this information. This work is published with the understanding that Tata McGraw-Hill and its authors are supplying information but are not attempting to render engineering or other professional services. If such services are required, the assistance of an appropriate professional should be sought. Typeset at The Composers, 260, C.A. Apt., Paschim Vihar, New Delhi 110 063 and printed at Avon Printers, Plot No, 16, Main Loni Road, Jawahar Nagar, Industrial Area, Shahdara, Delhi 110 094 Cover Design: K Anoop Cover Printer: SDR Printers RALYYRDCRBQXY Preface The almost universally expressed needs of a learner in the 21st century are: enrichment of vocabulary, correct pronunciation and acquisition of language skills namely listening, speaking, reading and writing (LSRW). It is strongly believed that the sound knowledge of language and continuous practice of various skills help in developing the competence of the learner. The aim of this book is to provide knowledge and the application of that knowledge to achieve proﬁciency in all four language skills (LSRW). Although the learner would have been acquiring these skills right from school, this book provides a new and fresh approach to meet day-to-day requirements of the use of language in a comprehensive and effective way. Effectiveness in using language requires the possession of sound knowledge and deﬁnite skills. Without knowledge, skill is wasted and without skill, knowledge loses its power. Knowledge provides concept and skill helps you to apply that concept in everyday situations. To have skill and no knowledge leads to loquaciousness and bombast. To have knowledge and no skill leads to rancour and discontent. Hence the main purpose of this book is to develop proﬁciency in using language for speciﬁc purposes of speaking, listening with concentration, reading with different speeds and writing correctly. The approach of this book is speciﬁc and unique inasmuch as it is based on long experience. It provides, in addition to the explanation of the concept, instructions and guidelines to employ all four language skills; it also creates interest, curiosity, excitement and motivation in the learner to get himself or herself immersed in the process of learning. By simply scanning the pages of the book, the learner gets an idea of certain facts such as the pronunciation of some sounds, some letter combinations with ‘th-’, the analysis of the word like the preﬁx ‘un-’ as a negative marker, the part of the word, and also the positive marker, homophones, etc. The learner can register a lot of information by going through the book. A single exercise cannot form the habit of vocabulary building or correct pronunciation or effective speaking and writing skills. Thus, the continu- ous process of acquiring knowledge and applying it to various situations is essential.. Hence, the scope of this book is broad, the arrangement of the material is cumulative, activity is the method and acquisition of effectiveness is the aim. The method is effective because each concept recurs in a variety of different situa- tions at different degrees of complexity. Lecturing time is less and activity time is more, through a number of skillfully crafted exercises after every chapter. So activity reigns supreme. Effective training in language skills integrates the work of other professional subjects. It ensures quick grasping of the concept and helps the learner present his views effectively. vi Preface The learner by absorbing the contents of this book gains the mastery of knowledge acquires the clarity of concepts puts in consistent effort to reach the set goal follows purposeful and target oriented practice by using knowledge and concepts ensures continuous application of the knowledge based on various situations at the workplace develops the ability to integrate what you have learned into everyday communicative activity at the workplace and acquires proﬁciency in language. The aim is to provide a practical approach which will guide the learner through the methods of knowing – learning – practicing. Although this book is designed to be used in the classroom, it is hoped that it may prove useful to those who wish to study the subject by themselves and develop proﬁciency, or a personal reference book for those who teach English or to use it as a source of reference book for training programmes offered by consultancy ﬁrms, corporate sectors and government establishments. It is hoped that this book with its unique and com- prehensive coverage of all four language skills (LSRW) will prove to be relevant and useful to all learners of language and also to professionals. I put together the material in the book during my teaching of courses ‘English Language Skills’ I and II at Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, and at ICFAI Institute of Science and Technol- ogy, Hyderabad. While teaching at BITS, Pilani, I was instrumental in introducing phonetics in a way that is useful for learners to improve upon their pronunciation and to increase the average rate of delivery of words per minute. While teaching at these institutions, extensive research has been done to identify and compile all the relevant material suitable to non-native learners. It has been planned and designed meticulously. Material has been tested at every available opportunity in the classroom and modiﬁed several times, Some topics from this book were tested for competitive examinations like GRE, GMAT, etc. wherein I had an opportunity to work as a consultant. I referred to articles, pamphlets and books of several authors. Many of their ideas I adopted and modiﬁed to suit our real life situations. Over a period of more than three decades of my teaching experience, many students at several levels participated in these activities and have really been most useful in revising the material and consolidating the approach. The feedback they have given on the continuous beneﬁts they gained from this approach has been an incentive for me to produce this book. The presentation strategy of the material used in this book is highly practical, that is, the knowing–learning– practicing method, hence this is not just another theoretical book. It demands a high degree of the learner’s involvement to achieve competence. This book consists of 24 chapters, categorised under six units. Appendices provide supplementary infor- mation as well as additional information. Unit I (Chapter 1) explains ‘Listening Skills’. It gives an idea how phonetic features of language create ambiguity for the listener. It further explains the barriers to listening and how to overcome them. Unit II (Chapters 2 to 7) discusses ‘Speaking Skills’, the most desired requirement nowadays. It prepares and equips one for participation in speaking activities (Chapters 2 to 4). The attention given to the sound system and stress patterns is planned and designed to make the learner’s pronunciation intelligible nationally and internationally and also to increase the speaker’s average rate of delivery of words per minute. Effective speech is the ultimate goal. The other chapters (Chapters 5, 6 and 7) in this unit are actual speech activities to prepare the learner to participate effectively in the art of conversation, debate and group discussion. Unit III (Chapters 8 to 15) mainly covers ‘Study Skills’ that provide sound knowledge to equip the learner with the necessary competence to read and comprehend effectively, to speak efﬁciently and to write correctly. This unit also provides the basic material that helps the learner in developing competence in all Preface vii four language skills. It starts with a basic requirement for the learner, that is, to know the use of a dictionary and the thesaurus (Chapter 8). The next two chapters namely Prepositional and Phrasal Verbs (Chapter 9) and Vocabulary Extension (Chapter 10) provide substantial knowledge of the English language. Chapters 11 and 12 help the learner know how to use the correct word and then how to make correct and effective sentences. ‘Learning Spellings’ (Chapter 13) is the next chapter which helps the learner avoid not only spelling errors but also confusions of spellings in the English Language. For instance, some words have an additional letter (or letters) in pronunciation which are absent in spelling. And in some other words a letter or letters present in the spelling are silent in pronunciation. The topic on Punctuation (Chapter 14) guides the learner in writing correctly and helps the learner in understanding the exact meaning of the sentence. Broadly, punctuation is based on three principles: thought and meaning, the structural pattern of the sentence and the conventions of the age. The chapter on Common Errors (Chapter 15) is mainly useful for non-native language learners as it is essential for them to use language correctly so that their communication is effective. Acquiring this background knowledge helps the learners to understand the intended message of the speaker or the writer and also helps them in attempting any competitive examination with ease. Unit IV (Chapter 16) on ‘Reading Skills’ explains in detail the various ways, purposes and speed of reading the given material and comprehending it. It is strongly believed that this skill will help the learner to acquire a sound vocabulary, as well as word usage and sentence construction skills. It will also be of aid in avoiding spelling errors. Unit V (Chapters 17 to 20) guides the learner in developing different types of ‘Writing Skills’. Chapters 17 and 18 teach different types of summerisation techniques which are useful at the workplace. Chapter 19 discusses different types of paragraphs with examples and guides the learner in writing different types of paragraphs based on the requirement. The next chapter, Chapter 20, deals with the techniques of writing essays and types of essays. Unit VI (Chapters 21 to 24) covers ‘Business Communication’ which is required for every professional. Chapter 21 gives detailed information on the structure, layout and style of writing business letters. This unit further includes discussions on various types of business letters. It specially explains how sales letters should be written. Writing job applications and resume preparation, which are the most important topics for any learner, are also discussed in detail. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to Sri N J Yasaswy, Member, Board of Governors, for his encouragement and for making the necessary facilities available for the completion of this project. It is my pleasant duty to acknowledge my gratitude to Dr V Panduranga Rao, Chief Academic Advisor, ICFAI and Dr G P Srivastava, Vice Chancellor, ICFAI University, Dehradun for giving me an opportunity to teach this course on English Language skills and for providing necessary facilities for the completion of work on this book. Their valuable suggestions from time to time have greatly enhanced the value of this study. My special thanks to Sri T S Rama Krishna Rao, Associate Dean, Academic Wing, ICFAI, Hyderabad, for his help and continuous encouragement to complete this book. I am thankful to Sri G R K Murthy, Managing Editor, ICFAI University Press, for his encouragement. I would like to place on record my deep gratitude to Prof. Krishna Mohan, formerly Group Leader in Languages Group, BITS, Pilani, who has been a constant source of inspiration. I sincerely wish to thank my former colleagues of the Languages Group at BITS, Pilani. My thanks are due to the faculty who taught this course at various ICFAI University Campuses and who gave their suggestions so generously. I am especially thankful to Ms P Bhargavi for reading the manuscript and discussing the subject and also to Mr C Radha Mohan for his encouragement. I would like to thank to Mrs Padma Sundari for word processing the material with speed and meticulous care. viii Preface I extend my appreciation to the members of industry and academic institutions who gave their valuable time and shared their knowledge and experience with me. I would like to express my special appreciation to the Tata McGraw-Hill team particularly Ms Vibha Mahajan, Mr Tapas Kumar Maji, Mr Hemant Kumar Jha, for their help, suggestions and continuous monitoring for early completion of this project. I have greatly beneﬁted through continuous discussions with my husband Dr V Panduranga Rao, who has been a pioneer in integrating the workplace needs with education through the famous ‘Practice School – An Industry and University Linkage’ at BITS, Pilani, as its Dean during 1987–95, and subsequently as a Founding Director, ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad, and as a First Vice Chancellor, ICFAI University, Dehradun. His deep insights in terms of professional needs at the workplace and his commitment to the cause of higher education have greatly helped me in completing this project. Finally, I would like to place on record my deep sense of gratitude to my parents. I would like to ac- knowledge my children Mr V Uday Kiran, Mrs V Kranthi and Dr V Kalyan Kumar for their patience and invaluable support throughout my career. I would like to thank my son-in-law Sri A Sriharsha for his help in collecting the material and providing some examples of real situations at the workplace, and also to my daughter-in-law for her appreciation of my work. I highly appreciate my grand children for their innocent cheerfulness when I was doing this project. DR ARUNA KONERU Contents Preface v Unit I: Listening Skill 1. Listening Skill 3 Introduction 3 Hearing and Listening 4 Phonetic Features of Listening 4 Purpose of Listening 7 Barrier to Listening 9 Guidelines for Improving Listening Skill 10 Summary 11 Self-Analysis Evaluation Form of Your Listening Skill 12 Review Questions 12 Exercises 13 Unit II: Speaking Skill 2. English Sound System 17 Introduction 17 Distinction Between Letters and Sounds 18 Classiﬁcation of English Sounds 20 Syllable: Its Structure 30 Silent Consonant Letters in Some Words 31 Confusing Sounds for Practice 35 Words and Sentences for Practising Vowel Contrasts 38 Summary 39 Review Questions 39 Exercises 40 x Contents 3. Accentual Pattern of Words and Sentences 44 Introduction 44 Accentual Pattern of Single Words 46 Accentual Pattern of Compound Words 47 Accent Change According to Function 51 Sentence Accent 52 Summary 57 Review Questions 57 Exercises 58 4. Effective Speech 60 Introduction 60 Elision of Sounds or Syllables 61 Addition of Sounds or Syllables 62 Transposition of Sounds 62 Pronunciation Based on Semantics 63 Pronunciation of Inﬂectional Sufﬁxes 63 Pronunciation of Some Common Word Endings 65 General Suggestions for Pronunciation 67 Enunciation 68 Pronunciation of Consecutive Consonants 70 Word Combinations in Sentences 72 Summary 73 Review Questions 73 Exercises 73 5. The Art of Conversation 75 Introduction 75 Small Talk 76 Body Language 77 Principles of a Good Conversationalist 79 Summary 83 Review Questions 83 Exercises 83 6. Debate 85 Introduction 85 Process of Organisation 86 Purpose 86 Rebuttal 91 Participating in a Debate 92 The Judges’ Decision 93 Preparation for the Debate 93 Summary 95 Review Questions 95 Exercises 95 Contents xi 7. Group Discussion 97 Introduction 97 Conversation, Debate and Group Discussion 98 Kinds of Groups 98 Importance of a Group Discussion 99 Features of a Group Discussion 99 Strategies of a Group Interaction 105 Barriers to an Effective Group Discussion 108 Suggestions for Self-Improvement 109 Summary 111 Review Questions 111 Exercises 111 Unit III: Study Skill 8. Dictionary: Its Use 115 Introduction 115 The Meaning of a Word 116 The Spelling of a Word 117 The Pronunciation of a Word 117 Synonyms and Antonyms 118 Grammar 119 Abbreviations 122 Dictionary Symbols 123 Use of a Thesaurus 124 Summary 125 Review Questions 125 Exercises 125 9. Prepositions and Phrasal Verbs 129 Introduction 129 Prepositions 130 Idiomatic Combinations 133 Phrasal Verbs 137 Summary 148 Review Questions 148 Exercises 149 10. Vocabulary Extension 153 Introduction 153 Context Clues 154 Word Analysis 156 Semantic Changes 167 Word-Formation Methods 167 Synonyms 174 Antonyms 176 One Word Substitution 179 Summary 179 xii Contents Review Questions 179 Exercises 179 11. Effective Use of Words 183 Introduction 183 Word Order 183 Word: Its Meaning 186 Avoid Clichés 194 Summary 195 Review Questions 195 Exercises 195 12. Effective Sentences 197 Introduction 197 Unity of the Sentences 198 Coordination and Subordination 198 Emphasis in the Sentence 202 Use Periodic Sentences 204 Effective Repetition of Words and Ideas 204 Parallel Structures 207 Summary 208 Review Questions 209 Exercises 209 13. Learning Spellings 212 Introduction 212 Spelling Rules 213 Commonly Misspelled Words 222 Variant Spellings 224 Spell-Checker 225 Summary 225 Exercises 225 14. Punctuation 230 Introduction 230 End Punctuation Marks 232 Internal Punctuation Marks 234 Direct Quotation Punctuation Marks 243 Word Punctuation 244 Spacing with Punctuation 252 Too Much Punctuation 252 Summary 253 Review Questions 253 Exercises 253 15. Common Errors in English 256 Introduction 256 Errors in Using Nouns 257 Contents xiii Errors in Using Pronouns 259 Errors in Using Prepositions 261 Errors in Using Verbs 264 Errors in Using Gerund or an Inﬁnitive 268 Use an Inﬁnitive not a Gerund 269 Errors in Using Adjectives 270 Errors in Using Adverbs 271 Errors in Using Conjunctions 272 Errors in Using Punctuations 274 Common Errors Due to Commonly Confused Words 274 Summary 280 Review Questions 281 Exercises 281 Unit IV: Reading Skill 16. Reading Skill 287 Introduction 287 Mechanics of Reading 288 Types of Reading 289 Reading Speed 291 Summary 292 Review Questions 292 Exercises 293 Unit V: Writing Skill 17. Paraphrase Writing and Précis Writing 299 Introduction 299 Paraphrase Writing 299 Methods of Paraphrasing 300 Difference Between Paraphrase and Précis 301 Guidelines for Writing Paraphrase 301 Deﬁnition of a Précis 302 Principles of Writing a Précis 303 Steps for Writing a Précis 303 Methods of Abridging Sentences 304 Summary 305 Review Questions 306 Exercises 306 18. Note-Making and Summary Writing 308 Introduction 308 Note-Making 308 Organising the Information 309 Shortening Process 311 Acquiring Note-Making Skills 314 Taking Notes 315 xiv Contents Summary Writing 316 Basics of Writing a Summary 316 Overall Organisation 317 Guidelines for Writing a Summary 317 Summary 318 Review Questions 319 Exercises 319 19. Paragraph Writing 322 Introduction 322 Unity of the Paragraph 323 The Development of Sentences 324 Coherence in the Paragraph 327 Paragraph Development 329 Types of Paragraphs 334 Summary 337 Review Questions 337 Exercises 337 20. Writing an Essay 342 Introduction 342 Features of an Essay 343 Thesis Statement 343 Organisation of the Material 344 Modes of Developing Essays 347 Revise and Proofread the Essay 351 Summary 352 Review Questions 352 Exercises 353 Unit VI: Business Communication 21. Structure and Style of Business Correspondence 357 Introduction 357 Structure 358 Layout of a Business Letter 364 Styles of Presentation 365 Style of Writing 368 Summary 381 Review Questions 382 Exercises 382 22. Various Types of Letters 385 Introduction 385 Enquiry Letter 385 Important Points 386 Some Useful Expressions 386 Quotation Letter 387 Contents xv Important Points 387 Some Useful Expressions 388 Orders and Acknowledgement of an Order 390 Orders 390 Important Points 390 Some Useful Expressions 391 Acknowledgement of an Order 392 Important Points 392 Some Useful Expressions 392 Complaint and Adjustment Letters 394 Complaint Letter 394 Important Points 394 Some Useful Expressions 395 Adjustment Letter 396 Important Points 397 Circular Letter 398 Summary 400 Review Questions 400 Exercises 401 23. Sales Letter 403 Introduction 403 Features of a Sales Letter 404 Structure of a Sales Letter 405 Main Body of the Letter 407 Concluding Paragraph 407 Some Useful Expressions 408 Summary 408 Review Questions 409 Exercises 409 24. Job Application 410 Introduction 410 Locating Job Vacancies 410 Preparing a Résumé 411 Elements of a Résumè 413 Selection of the Organisational Plan 415 Preparation of the Final Copy 416 Writing a Job Application Letter 418 Summary 424 Review Questions 424 Exercises 424 Appendix A: Grammar and Usage: A Review 425 Appendix B: Speech Acts 429 Appendix C: One Word Substitutes 436 xvi Contents Appendix D: Lexical Items 442 Appendix E: Commonly Confused Words 467 Appendix F: Idiomatic Expressions 475 Appendix G: Semantic Problems of Singular and Plural Nouns 483 Appendix H: American and British English 486 Appendix I: Foreign Words 490 Unit I Listening Skill Chapter 1 Listening Skill After reading this chapter, you should be able to: Know the importance of listening skill. Differentiate between listening and hearing. Identify the various purposes of listening. Identify the barriers to listening. Know how to overcome listening barriers. Develop the ability to become a good listener. Understand the cognitive process of listening. INTRODUCTION The ability to listen effectively is a vital skill since most of our learning comes from listening. It is interest- ing to note that people discuss so many facets of communication but inadvertently overlook the listening skill. Research studies have proved that it is the most important link in the process of communication. The effectiveness of the spoken word depends not so much on how people talk but mostly on how they listen. We have focused our attention on reading, considering it the primary medium by which we learn a language and we have practically forgotten the art of listening. Some emphasis is placed on speaking while almost none has been given attention to the listening skill. People never thought of listening as an important subject by it. Now, we all feel the need for a training programme in listening skill. Generally, we spend more time on listening than we spend on speaking, reading and writing. Surveys have shown that listening occupies more time than any other communication activity. Obviously, we gather information to acquire knowledge and to know about others. As a student, you have to listen to lecturers, instructions, conversations, views expressed in group discussions and in other communication activities. As a professional, you would have to listen to your boss, peer group, subordinates, seminar presentations and views discussed in various forums. 4 English Language Skills Whatever may be the situations if you do not listen with concentration, you are likely to face problems. The cultivation of listening skill, therefore, deserves importance along with other language skills namely, speaking, reading and writing. By acquiring listening skills, you can gain a lot of beneﬁts. Effective Listening Skills Make you understand concepts clearly. Help you to understand the views of your co-workers. Assist you to establish rapport with co-workers quickly. Improve your intellectual ability to understand and evaluate the views and opinions expressed by others. Enable you to gather views, opinions and feelings of others on a particular concept or a problem. Enable you to gather proper and accurate information. Help the speaker to express his views clearly in dyadic and group communication situations. Hence, it is necessary to cultivate the habit of listening skill with high concentration. HEARING AND LISTENING The common notion is that listening and hearing are same but there is a signiﬁcant difference between them. Hearing is a psychological process in which vibration of sound waves carry through the eardrums to reach the central auditory system of the brain. The brain transmits this into sounds that we hear. The process is automatic and fast. So, hearing means that sound is going on around us and our ears catch it. But listening is something more than what your ears permit you to hear. It is simply a sound but our mind enables to recognise these sounds as words and expressions and interprets them into thoughts or ideas. Your interpreta- tion ability helps you to react to that hearing. For hearing, you do not require physical cues but for listening you consider physical cues⎯such as eye contact, gestures and body language⎯in order to get the message effectively. You may not have considered the physical cues to be important tools in understanding the mes- sage while listening. Yet, what you see when a person is speaking, contributes to its meaning. All the facial expressions, hand and body movements and mannerisms of a speaker may alter the meaning of the message. Thus, we can deﬁne ‘listening is a process of hearing with understanding, interpreting and responding’. Listening is a ﬁve-stage self-generated activity. The ﬁrst stage is the reception of sound waves through ears. The second stage is relating the sound to sound system of language. The third stage is comprehending the utterances. The fourth stage is interpreting the message in the context. The ﬁfth stage is the reaction to the message. We can present this interpretation as follows: Listening = Hearing + Relating + Comprehending + Interpreting + Responding. PHONETIC FEATURES OF LISTENING Our hearing of sounds of the English language is often inﬂuenced by the sound system of our mother tongue. This inﬂuence leads to ambiguity in communication. These phonetic features may cause ambiguity in the spoken language. So, it affects the listening comprehension skill. Phonetic ambiguity may arise from the phonetic structure of the word, phonetic structure of the sentence and substitution of one sound for another sound. Let us analyse these features with examples. Listening Skill 5 Table 1.1 Substitution of One Sound for Another Sound S.No. Word Actual Pronuncia- Pronounced as Understood as Sentence tion 1. Fans /f{nz/ /f{ns/ fence Let us see our fans. Listen as: Let us see our fence. 2. Peas /pI:z/ /pI:s/ peace or piece Let’s have some peas. Listen as: Let’s have some peace/ piece. 3. Knees /nI:z/ /nI:s/ niece Her knees got hurt. Listen as: Her niece got hurt. 4. Lock /l¡k/ /l¡:k/ luck Her lock was not very good. Listen as: Her luck was not very good. 5. Guards /gA:dz/ /gA:ds/ Gods I will depend on guards. Listen as: I will depend on Gods. 6. Fears /fI@z/ /fI@rs/ ﬁerce 7. Falls /fO:lz/ /fV:ls/ false Hence, it is imperative that you ﬁrst acquaint yourself thoroughly with the sound system of the target language so that you can avoid ambiguity. Homonyms and homophones are two categories in English language that may create ambiguity to the listener (see Appendix D). Homophones Two or more words that are identical in sound but different in spellings are called homophones (see Appendix D). In listening comprehension, this feature of English leads to a confusion. Let us look at the following table: Table 1.2 Homophonic Words S.No. Words Pronounced Meaning 1. Soul /s@Ul/ The spiritual part of a person, believed to exist after death. Sole /s@Ul/ The bottom part of the foot, on which one walks and stands. 2. Bow /baU/ To bend the head or body as a sign of respect or as a greeting. Bough /baU/ Any of the main branches of a tree. 3. Cite /saIt/ To speak or write words taken from a passage, a book and an author. Sight /saIt/ The ability to see. Site /saIt/ A place where a building, town etc., was, is or will be situated. 4. Sum /sˆm/ An amount of money. Some /sˆm/ A certain number of people or things. (Contd) 6 English Language Skills (Contd) 5. Know /n@U/ To have something in one’s mind or memory as a result of experience or learning. No /n@U/ Not any. 6. Knew /nju:/ To have something in one’s mind or memory as a result of experience or learning. New /nju:/ Not existing before, introduced, made, invented or recent. Homonyms This is another category of words which are spelt alike but differ in meaning and sometimes pronunciation. They belong to a different part of speech. These words are called homonyms. If you are not able to identify these words, they create problems in listening comprehension. Let us look at the following table (refer to Annexure D): Table 1.3 Homonymic Words S.No. Words Pronounced as Stress Parts of Meaning Speech 1. Invalid /In'v{lId/ on second Adjective Not ofﬁcially acceptable syllable /'Inv@lId/ on ﬁrst syllable Noun A person made weak by illness or injury 2. Minute /'mInIt/ on ﬁrst syllable Noun Equal to 60 seconds /maI'nju:t/ on second Adjective Very small in size or amount syllable 3. Lead /lI:d/ no stress Verb To show somebody the way especially by going /led/ symbol pb Noun A chemical element 4. Wind /wInd/ Verb To make somebody too tired to be able to breathe properly for short time /wInd/ no stress Noun Air moving as a result of natural forces /wAInd/ Verb To follow a twisting or twisting of course 5. Compact /k@m'p{kt/ on the second Adjective Closely packed together syllable /'kVmp{kt/ on the ﬁrst Noun 1. A formal agreement between two or syllable more people/countries 2. A small ﬂat box containing a mirror and powder 6. Sow /s@V/ Verb To put or scatter seeds in or on the no stress ground /saV/ Noun A fully grown pig (Contd) Listening Skill 7 (Contd) 7. Tear /te@(r)/ Verb To pull something apart or into pieces with force no stress /tI@(r)/ Noun A drop of salty water that comes from the eyes when one cries 8. Slough /slaV/ Noun A very soft wet area of land no stress /slˆf/ Verb To let skin, dead tissue Accent One of the important features of spoken English is accent. It is also an important aspect for listening comprehension. It brings out the phonological unity of the word. In some words in English, the placement of stress brings the change of sound and brings about a change of meaning and forms a new word. For instance, CONduct (N) means a person’s behaviour, especially its moral aspect while conDUCT (V) means directing, controlling and managing. Let us look at the following table: Table 1.4 Formation of New Words Based on Stress S.No. Noun Verb Adjective Verb 1. OBject obJECT PERfect perFECT 2. PROduce proDUCE comPACT COMpact 3. REcord reCORD 4. PROgress proGRESS 5. IMport imPORT 6. INcrease inCREASE 7. DIgest diGEST 8. SUBject subJECT If you are not aware of the stress patterns of the English language, you will face problems in listening comprehension. PURPOSE OF LISTENING Listening requires intensive concentration. It demands conscious effort to get the essence. It depends on the knowledge of the listener and also on his attitude towards the message, the sender and the purpose. Gener- ally, we listen for a purpose and with certain expectations. When we go to hear a talk we are aware of the topic and expect to acquire some knowledge. We listen to acquire knowledge, to compare our opinions and to be polite. Let us now categorise the different purposes of listening. These are content listening, critical listening and appreciative listening. 8 English Language Skills Table 1.5 Types of Listening: Its Purposes S.No. Type of Listening Purpose Situation 1. Content Listening To understand and retain the information. Students listen to a classroom lecture. To get the main aspects of the topic. Professionals listen to paper presenta- tions in seminars, conferences. Lawyers listen to legal arguments. 2. Critical Listening To accept or reject the message. Listening to a lawyer’s argument while To evaluate critically. arguing the case. To evaluate the validity of the conclu- Listening to a salesperson. sions. Listening to politicians making their To ﬁnd the logic of the argument. election campaign. To ﬁnd the strength of the argument. To ﬁnd the implications of the message for you and for your organisation. 3. Appreciative To derive aesthetic pleasure. Listening to a musician. Listening To understand the speaker’s feelings, needs Listening to a lawyer’s arguments. and tone, so that you can appreciate his/ her point of view There are other purposes too for which people listen but these three are the most common and apply most directly to you as a professional. Cognitive Process of Listening The process of learning depends on cognitive processing in the mind of the listener. The following ﬂowchart explains clearly of what happens when you listen: Hearing the sound ↓ Assimilating the sounds cognitively ↓ Recognising the sounds ↓ Making sounds into words ↓ Examining the context ↓ Integrating the context into message ↓ Interpreting the message ↓ Evaluating the message ↓ Remembering the message ↓ Responding to the message Figure 1.1 Cognitive Process of Listening Listening Skill 9 BARRIER TO LISTENING Listening is a cognitive activity. The cognitive process gives a clear picture of what happens when you lis- ten. Due to some reasons, we fail to listen effectively. Learning requires both mental and physical activities and is subject to both mental and physical barriers. You may be aware that there are numerous barriers that interfere with our ability to listen effectively. Here are some of these barriers. Table 1.6 Barriers to Listening Lack of rapport between speaker and audience. Inadequate physical conditions such as extraneous noise, improper arrangements or the location of the room. Pre-conceived notion of the speaker or on the physical topic environment. Inappropriate use of language. Inappropriate pronunciation of sounds and words. Lack of perspective. Lack of knowledge on stress patterns of words and sentences. Lack of awareness of homophonic words. Lack of awareness of homonymic words. Lack of concentration. Taking extensive notes. Overcoming Listening Barriers So far, we have discussed what listening is, the need to listen, difference between listening and hearing, purpose of listening and barriers to listening. The major concern is now directed to how we can improve our listening habits. Here are some practical hints which may help you to overcome the listening barriers and enable you to become a good listener in the future. Table 1.7 Overcoming Listening Barriers Have a deﬁnite purpose of listening. Have a prior background of the topic. Pay unquestionable attention to what is said. Be effective in taking notes. Keep away the prejudice and personal opinions. Be emotionally stable. Be aware of non-verbal communication devices. Allowing the speaker to complete the speech. Be aware of stress patterns of the English language. 10 English Language Skills The following table describes the qualities of poor and good listeners: Table 1.8 Qualities of Poor and Good Listeners S.No. Poor Listener Good Listener 1. Inattentive listening impairs hearing. Shows conscious attention which supersedes all other distractions. 2. Gets distracted easily. Avoids distractions. 3. Listens casually. Listens carefully for facts and ideas. 4. Shows little/no interest. Shows immense interest. 5. Lacks concentration. Shows unquestionable concentration. 6. Tunes out dry subjects. Tries to ﬁnd out what is necessary for him. 7. Takes extensive notes. Takes less notes: only the important points. 8. Tunes out if delivery is poor. Concentrates on content not on delivery. 9. Ignores non-verbal communication tech- Pays attention to know the importance of the message. niques. 10. Gives no importance to vocal techniques. Gives importance to get clarity of the message. 11. Draws hasty conclusions without complete Draws conclusions after complete comprehension of comprehension. the topic. 12. Tends to enter into an argument without Interrupts only for clariﬁcation. complete comprehension. 13. Does not show interest in difﬁcult exposi- Takes the difﬁcult expository material as an exercise or a tory material. challenge to the mind. 14. Reacts to slogans and emotional expres- Interprets and comprehends slogans and emotional sions. expressions and does not get carried away by them. 15. Tends to entertain in day dreams with slow Tries to anticipates the message mentally and draws and monotonous speakers. conclusions out of it. 16. Does not show any interest to summarise Listens carefully and summarises the important the important concepts. concepts. 17. Does not exercise the ability of inference. Tries to draw inference wherever it is required. 18. Ignores the tone. Tries to comprehend the message from the tone of the speaker. GUIDELINES FOR IMPROVING LISTENING SKILL You should realise now that listening effectively is not as easy as one may have supposed. Therefore, listen- ing requires a positive attitude, concentration and willingness. If you are smart enough to bring all these requirements to the listening situation, you will gain much more in classes, in your job and in everyday communication. Let us now brieﬂy touch upon the guidelines for improving listening skills. Listening Skill 11 Table 1.9 Guidelines for Improving Listening Skill Think about the topic in advance. Develop a desire to learn. Focus on listening and not on delivery. Determine the personal value of the topic for you. Resist distractions. Concentrate on the matter being spoken, carefully identifying the main points. Depersonalise your listening so that you decrease the emotional impact of what is being said. Better hold your rebuttal until you have heard the total message. Concentrate on subject while listening. Do not let your thoughts wander while listening. Keep an open mind by asking questions that clarify your understanding. Listen for main points as well as for facts, and know the difference between the fact and principle, idea and example, and evidence and argument. Make meaningful notes which should be brief and to the point. Be ﬂexible in your views it enhances your listening skill. Stay ahead of the speaker by anticipating what will be said next and by thinking about what has already been said. Pay attention to speaker’s non-verbal skills which help you to comprehend the message. Evaluate and criticise the content, not the speaker. Distinguish the important points from the unimportant points. Try to accept other’s views that will build understanding and mutual respect. Practise your listening skill by attending lectures, public speeches and T.V. programmes. Summary Willingness to make a sincere and consistent effort, along with the techniques discussed here, will result in better lis- tening and help you to gain information. Cultivating the habit of efﬁcient listening contributes to one’s success at all levels of life. The student must listen to the teacher in order to understand the subject. The telephone operator must listen carefully in order to handle the requests of hundreds of calls. Professionals must listen carefully to carry on their professional work. Hence, the habits of good listening are very important, so there is a need to check your listening skill. You can test your listening skill by using the following self-analysis sheet: 12 English Language Skills Self-Analysis Evaluation Form of Your Listening Skill 1. Name of the Listener : 2. Name of the Speaker : 3. Topic of the talk : 4. Duration of the talk : 5. Number of words of the material of talk : (If written document is available) 6. Your listening word limit per minute: S.No. Habit Almost Usually Occasionally Seldom Almost always never 1. Feeling the subject uninteresting. 2. Giving importance to delivery techniques and personal appearance. Paying attention to the organisation of the material. Being attracted towards the attitude of the speaker. Focusing attention on non-verbal communica- tion techniques. Giving importance to vocal techniques. 3. Letting personal prejudice. 4. Avoiding difﬁcult and expository material. 5. Submerging the speaker’s point of view in a morass of details. 6. Jumping into conclusions (without listening completely). 7. Making inferences quickly. 8. Summarising the important aspects. 9. Tolerating distraction. 10. Paying unquestionable attention. 11. Getting over-stimulated. 12. Wasting the differential between thought-speed and speech-speed. Check yourself honestly on each one, tallying your score in accordance with the following scoring system. Interpret your total score as follows: Below 70% → You deﬁnitely need training. Between 70–90% → Your listening ability is well. 90% and above → Your listening ability is extraordinarily well-developed. Review Questions 1. Discuss the importance of listening skill as an essential component of communication process. Listening Skill 13 2. What are the beneﬁts of effective listening skill? 3. Describe the psychological aspects of the process of listening. 4. How does accent play a role in listening comprehension? 5. Discuss in detail the most important purposes of listening. 6. What are the barriers to listening? 7. How do you overcome listening barriers? 8. Can you give guidelines for improving listening skill? 9. “The effectiveness of the spoken word depends not so much on how people talk but mostly how they listen.” Discuss. Exercises 1. As a President of Students Union, give a brief talk on students’ extra-curricular and co-curricular activities. Check their comprehension of what they heard with the help of a brief objective type feedback form. Then analyse their listening comprehension skill. 2. Plan and hold a mock seminar on a selected topic and record it. Afterwards, play back the recording. Discuss it in terms of listening skill. (i) Do the oral contributions of different participants reflect good listening? (ii) If not what are the reasons? (iii) Can you give some guidelines so that they can improve their listening skill? 3. Record one of the language skills’ classes which you attended. Prepare a summary of your comprehension. After- wards, play back the recording. Now check your own listening comprehension. Identify your plus points and minus points. What measures you should take for effective listening? 4. Here are some sentences collected from students’ assignments of listening skill. These sentences contain errors in homophonic words. Identify the error and replace it with correct homophonic word in each sentence. (i) It is to be born in mind that hard work brings success. (ii) Kavitha blue out the candle in her study room. (iii) The cowboy controlled the bridal of the horse very skillfully. (iv) Rachna visited the Nagarjuna Sagar Dam last year. (v) Anil tried to meat Kavitha. (vi) Kalpana fell pray to her greediness. (vii) Kavya demanded a share in the prophet. (vii) Please find out some of the numbers. (ix) Ravi was throne into the lock-up. (x) Spandana controlled her desire to veil when her father expired. 5. After the class has been divided into two or more teams, the instructor reads some factual information (newspapers, articles, short stories or the like) to only one member of each team. Each of these team members tells what he or she has heard to a second team member, who in turn tells to a third team member and so on until the last member of each team has heard the information. The last person receiving the information reports what he or she has heard to the instructor, who checks it against the original message. The team able to report the information with the greatest accuracy wins. Unit II Speaking Skill Chapter 2 English Sound System After reading this chapter, you should be able to: Identify the spelling of the words and their sounds. Know that one sound stands for different spellings. Know that letter(s) stand(s) for different sounds. Know the consonant sounds and vowel sounds. Know the structure of the syllable. Identify the number of syllables in a word. Be aware of the articulation of in-ﬂexional sufﬁxes. Be aware of the articulation of some common sufﬁxes. Identify the silent letters. INTRODUCTION We use language as a vital tool for communication with those around us, to share feelings and experiences, to acquire knowledge, to exchange views and to form associations. The importance of language and the social purpose of language as a medium of communication is emphasized in all aspects. People belonging to multicultural and multi-linguistic societies use different languages for communication. Whatever may be the language used for communication⎯English, Telugu, Hindi, French, etc.⎯it is generally accepted that we use two mediums for linguistic communication, namely, speech and writing. In addition to these two mediums, we use two other mediums to acquire proﬁciency in a language. These two are listening and reading. For acquiring proﬁciency in language you have to acquire all four language skills, namely, listening, speaking, reading and writing. In this chapter, we shall discuss the sound system of English so that you can develop the competence to pronounce correctly and make your speech intelligible to all other people. 18 English Language Skills We use language when we want to give or take information. Here we use either spoken language or writ- ten language. The former consists of a succession of various sounds and the latter consists of a succession of symbols arranged visually. Each one of these two mediums is produced by different muscular activities and each is addressed to a different sense. While using the spoken medium of language, we use our lungs, larynx, tongue, palate, teeth, lips and some other organs and the medium is addressed to the listener’s ears. While using the written medium of language we use our arm and ﬁngers and the medium is addressed to the eyes. Written language is only an attempt to represent the sounds used in spoken language. For example, the spelling of the word ‘bat’ represents a succession of three sounds – /b/, /{/, /t/, each represented by one of the letters in the spelling. In Indian languages there is generally a consistent relationship between the sounds and the letters used to represent them in writing. In English, the correspondence between the written form and the spoken form is not consistently maintained. It is, therefore, necessary for Indian students to make a systematic study of English sound system. In this context, it is worth remembering R. K. Bansal’s words: “English as spoken by educated people in India does not differ radically from native English in grammar and vocabulary but in pronunciation it is different from both the British and American English. Even within India there are a large number of regional varieties, each different from the others in certain ways and retaining to some extent the phonetic patterns of the Indian language spoken in that particular region. These regional variet- ies of English are sometimes not even mutually intelligible.” So, this chapter explains the distinction between letters and sounds and the classiﬁcation of English sounds. It includes comprehensive description of consonant and vowel sounds. The peculiar feature of English is that different spellings stand for the same sound. This chapter illustrates this feature with examples. It further discusses the syllable and its structure. It also discusses silent consonant letters in some words. Finally, some suggestions for pronunciation of sufﬁxes and word endings are given, which prove useful to improve pronun- ciation. DISTINCTION BETWEEN LETTERS AND SOUNDS A lot of conscious and systematic effort is needed to acquire good pronunciation and to make one’s own speech intelligible to the other. It is necessary and essential for Indian students to be able to distinguish between sounds and letters. The English word ‘next’ for example, has four letters – n, e, x and t – but ﬁve sounds such as: /n/, /e/, /k/, /s/ and /t/. Similarly, the word ‘debt’ has four letters – d, e, b and t – but only three sounds: /d/, /e/ and /t/. Here, the letter ‘b’ is silent. The following explanation will help you understand the exact distinction between sounds and letters. We are aware that the English alphabet has 26 letters and these represent 44 distinct sounds. For example, the consonant sound /k/ is represented by different spellings as given here. Table 2.1 Sound /k/: Different Spellings Sound Letters Words k kind c call /k/ cc accord ck back ch character qu queen qu conquer English Sound System 19 Similarly, different sounds are represented by consonant letters ‘ch’ in different words as given here. Table 2.2 Letters ‘ch’: Different Sounds Letter Sound Words /k/ chemistry ch /tS/ bench /S/ machine Similarly, the vowel ‘a’ is represented by many sounds as given here. Table 2.3 Letter ‘a’: Different Sounds Letter Sound Words /eI/ age a /@/, /A:/ banana /{/ man /O:/ chalk /I@/ ear /I/ village Further, some letters do not represent any sound. These are silent (see Chapter 2). Here are some ex- amples. Table 2.4 Silent Letters Silent Letter Words b tomb c rack d Wednesday p psychology t satchel k know Another interesting feature of the English language is that you would often ﬁnd a letter or a group of letters representing different sounds but with no graphical indication. Here are some examples. 20 English Language Skills Table 2.5 Letter(s) Represent Different Sounds Letter(s) Words Sound rough gh enough /f/ x examine /gz/ x luxuriant /gZ/ x box /ks/ x xerox /z/ x luxury /kS/ ph photo /f/ CLASSIFICATION OF ENGLISH SOUNDS This, however, does not mean that there is no systematic classiﬁcation of English sounds. In fact, a very extensive and scientiﬁc classiﬁcation of sounds and the comprehensive description of the sounds have been made. A symbol from the internationally accepted system of signs is used for the representation of each sound in English. These symbols are called ‘International Phonetic Association Symbols’, in short I.P.A. Symbols. For the production of speech we need an air-stream mechanism. The sounds are produced by the speech organs by pushing the air-streams out of the lungs either through the mouth or the nose. Thus, each sound is either oral or nasal. In the production of oral sound, the air is completely pushed out of the mouth whereas the nasal sound is released either fully or partially through the nose. Speech sounds can be voiced or voiceless. Voiced sounds are those in the production of which vocal cords vibrate. In English, all vowel sounds and some consonant sounds are voiced sounds. Voiced consonant sounds are: /b, d, g, dZ, v, D, z, Z, m, n, Œ, l, r, j, w/. In the production of voiceless sounds the vocal cords do not vibrate. Many consonant sounds are voiceless; some are: /p, t, k, tS, f, T, s, S, h/. The details of voiced and voiceless sounds are given in Table 2.6. All speech sounds are usually divided into two broad categories – vowels and consonants. In the pro- duction of vowel sounds, the air comes out through the mouth freely and continuously without any audible friction and all other sounds are called consonants. Description of Consonant Sounds Consonants can be classiﬁed according to the place of articulation and also according to the manner of articulation. Place of Articulation Bilabial: Articulated by the two lips. Examples: /p, b, m, w/ Labio-dental: Articulated by the lower lip against the upper teeth. Examples: /f, v/ Dental: Articulated by the tip of the tongue against the upper teeth. Examples: /T, ð/ Alveolar: Articulated by the blade of tongue against the teeth-ridge. Examples: /t, d/ English Sound System 21 Post-alveolar: Articulated by the tip of the tongue against the back of the teeth-ridge. Example: /r/ Palato-alveolar: Articulated by the blade of the tongue against the teeth-ridge, with the front of the tongue raised towards the hard palate. Examples: /tS, dZ, S, Z / Palatal: Articulated by the front of the tongue against the hard palate. Example: /j/ Velar: Articulated by the back of the tongue against the soft palate. Examples: /k, g, Œ/ Glottal: Production by an obstruction or narrowing between the vocal cords. Example: /h/ Manner of Articulation Plosives: There is a complete closure of the air-passage in the mouth; pressure is built-up and then the air is released with an explosion. Examples: /p, b, t, d, k, g/ Affricate: There is a complete closure of the air-passage in the mouth; then the organs are separated slowly so that friction is heard. Examples: /tS, dZ / Nasal: There is a complete closure of the mouth; the soft palate is lowered and the air escapes through the nose. Examples: /m, n, Œ/ Lateral: A lateral consonant sound is produced by a stricture of complete closure in the center of the vocal tract. The air, however, has a free passage on the sides. Example: /l/ Fricative: There is a narrow passage for the air between two organs and friction is produced when the air passes through it. Examples: /f, v, T, D, s, z, S, Z, h/ Frictionless Continuant: There is no closure or friction, but the sound has a consonantal function. Example: /r/ in words like rain, red etc. Semi-vowel: A vowel glide with a consonantal function. Examples: /j, w/. Table 2.6 Classiﬁcation of English Consonants (24 Sounds) Place Bilabial Labio- Dental Alveolar Post- Palato- Palatal Velar Glottal Dental Alveolar alveolar Manner Vl Vd Vl Vd Vl Vd Vl Vd Vl Vd Vl Vd Vl Vd Vl Vd Vl Plosive p b t d k g Affricate tS dZ Fricative f v T ð s z S Z h Nasal m n Œ (Contd) 22 English Language Skills (Contd) Lateral l Frictionless r Continuant Semi-vowel w j (w) Vl stands for voiceless sounds. Vd Stands for voiced sounds. Description of Vowel Sounds The air escapes freely and continuously without any friction when we produce vowel sounds. Let us il- lustrate this point. Say the word ‘bee’. Here, the vowel sound is represented by the letters ‘ee’. It is found that when we say this sound the air escapes freely and continuously without any friction. So this sound is a vowel sound. We classify vowel sounds into three categories taking into account the part of the tongue raised. These are front vowels, back vowels and central vowels. Front vowels are those during the production of which the front of the tongue is raised in the direction of the hard palate. The vowel sounds in the words bee, bag, bet and bit are examples of front vowels. Back vowels are those during the production of which the back of the tongue is raised in the direction of the soft palate. The vowel sounds in the words soft, chalk cool and put are examples of back vowels. Central vowels are those during the articulation of which the central part of the tongue is raised towards the central part of the palate (meeting point of the hard palate and the soft palate). The vowel sounds in the words but, skirt, amount and dark are examples of central vowels. We can also divide vowels, according to the degree of rising of the tongue, into two broad categories: open and close. Open vowels are those during the production of which the tongue is far away from the roof of the mouth. Close vowels are those during the production of which the part of the tongue raised is very close to the roof of the mouth. A third criterion we consider for the division of vowels is the position of lips: rounded, neutral, un-rounded or spread. The lips can be rounded as in /u:/; neutral as in /e/; and un-rounded as in /i:/. If the quality of vowel sound does not change, it is sometimes called a pure vowel. A vowel sound which changes its quality is called a diphthong. There are twenty distinct vowel sounds in British Received Pronunciation. Out of these twenty vowel sounds, twelve are pure vowel sounds and the remaining eight are diphthongs. Table 2.7 Pure Vowel Sounds IPA Symbol Description Words i: see these i Front sit bit e set bet { sat bat ˆ shut bus @: Central shirt bird @ ago about A: start bark O soft boss O: Back saw bought u put bull u: shoe boot English Sound System 23 Table 2.8 Diphthongs IPA symbol Words eI say gate AI shine bite OI soil boil @U so go AU house bow I@ sheer here E@ air bare U@ poor doer Different Spellings for Same Sound In the English language a single sound stands for different spellings. Some examples are given herebelow. Table 2.9 Consonant Sounds S.No. Words Letters Sounds /p/ 1. pin pen pack pot p /p/ appoint appear apply opposite pp /p/ phonetics phone physics photo ph /f/ psychology cupboard receipt p silent nephew ph v /b/ 2. bat bag big about b /b/ rubber bubble pebble rabbit bb /b/ tomb comb doubt debt b silent /t/ 3. tin take rat bat t /t/ better settle little bitter tt /t/ talked laughed passed ed /t/ soften rustle Christmas listen cabaret castle t silent /d/ 4. day date drill meadow d /d/ riddle eddy sudden dd /d/ Wednesday handsome handkerchief d silent (Contd) 24 English Language Skills (Contd) /k/ 5. call music basic act come c /k/ account occasion accord accrue accuse cc /k/ accent accept access accident cc /ks/ attack back sick brick ck /k/ character stomach chronic chlorine charisma ch /k/ conquer cheque mosquito mosque coquette qu /k/ quality queen quiet quarrel qualify qu /kw/ knee know knew k /silent/ box text fox fax x /ks/ coxswain x /k/ /g/ 6. gate go get bag g baggage luggage gg ghost ghee ghat gh /g/ examination luxuriant x /g/ ﬂight sight ﬁght night might gh silent hung long sing bang campaign g silent /tS/ 7. chin chip cheat chain lunch ch /tS/ catch match watch tch /tS/ furniture nature picture rupture ture /tS/ suggestion question tion /tS/ saturate, bitumen tu /tS/ /dZ/ 8. join jeep juice jump j genetic college gentle general cabbage ge bridge edge hedge dg /dZ/ suggest gg soldier di /f/ 9. face defend leaf fate f /f/ afford staff ff /f/ photograph nephew ph /f/ cough rough gh /f/ (Contd) English Sound System 25 (Contd) /v/ 10. vain cover brave v /v/ of f /v/ nephew ph /v/ slough (N) gh /v/ /T/ 11. thick thin thank thought through thread fourth th /T/ /D/ 12. this then the these those there breathe th /D/ blithe the /s/ 13. single slope just purpose books s /s/ essence confess pass ss /s/ parcel face difference ce /s/ city pencil ci /s/ scene science sc /s/ box fax fox explain x /ks/ island isle debris rendezvous s silent blitz hertz waltz z /s/ accept, accident cc /s/ /z/ 14. zero zoo z /z/ scissors ss /z/ puzzle quizz zz /z/ exact examine gz /z/ poison easy bags sums boys s /z/ peas washes noises passes es /iz/ rendezvous z silent cheese se /z/ /S/ 15. shade shine cushion push fashion sh machine chagrin chef ch moustache che sugar sure insure s+u nation motion education portion ti /S/ ambitions cautiously conscience luscious sci special ofﬁcial aﬁcionado racial facial ci (Contd) 26 English Language Skills (Contd) ocean sebaceous ce mission permission emission ﬁssion ss tension mansion -sion /S/ anxious noxious xi luxury xU schist schwa sch fuchsia chs pshaw psh /Z/ 16. decision confusion si measure pleasure s+u /Z/ garage collage ge /h/ 17. habit had haggle hair h /h/ heir honest honour hour hourglass silent rhetoric rhyme rhythm silent khaki silent exhaust exhibit exhort silent vehicle silent what when where which while wheel silent oh! ah! silent ghost ghee ghat ghoul silent /m/ 18. mad man come m summer hammer mm /m/ limb thumb comb mb autumn solemn hymn mn /n/ 19. new no opinion run n manner running nn /n/ know knife knelt kn sign gn column solemn hymn n silent /Œ/ 20. sing song long hang ng /Œ/ sink think monkey uncle nk /Œ/ /I/ 21. laugh glad oil l /l/ yellow kill bottle cattle ll /l/ walk talk l silent (Contd) English Sound System 27 (Contd) /r/ 22. red railroad rag radio raillery broker r r glamour glare deer darken darling court card dwarf silent /j/ 23. yes yard young y union pupil tube excuse u beauty eau due ue /j/ new few ew view iew couture aptitude tu /w/ 24. walk way well west w /w/ when what where which wh quick queen quality quantity qu /kw/ language sanguine u write wreck wrap wrong w siIent coxswain w siIent Table 2.10 Vowel Sounds S. No. Words Letters Sounds /I/ 1. bit ink cliff silk i begin biggest effect neglect reduce useless e city system mystery y baggage private surface a /I/ carries parties handkerchief ie busy minute u build guilty u y carriage marriage ia bargain captain ai women o /I:/ 2. feed tree need feel meet ee beat bread lead sea cream dream reach ea piece chief thief ﬁeld ie (Contd) 28 English Language Skills (Contd) receive deceive seize ei /I:/ police machine i people eo key ey be bee e, ee /e/ 3. bed bet set left melt nest wet e dead feather head lead pleasant weather ea /e/ any many a /{/ 4. bad sad mad apple rat hat tax a /{/ plait ai /a:/ 5. art balm calm park ask castle last dance aunt father a clerk e a: heart ea 6. got hot pot dog moral gone o O /O:/ 7. all ball chalk wall call all corn force horse morning sort nor or before sore more ore bought fought thought ought door ﬂoor oor /O:/ chalk talk walk al + k course fault ou , au saw law awkward aw caught daughter augh + t board oar towards warm quarter w + ar + consonant court four pour our /u/ 8. full put bush cushion pull push sugar u book look cook good took room oo /u/ woman o could should ou (Contd) English Sound System 29 (Contd) /u:/ 9. cool choose food loose tooth moon soon oo noon tool - do lose who move o /u:/ group soup wound through you ou suit juice fruit nuisance uI new nephew view review preview ew /ˆ/ 10. cut bus cup bundle gun uncle thus but u son come month dozen govern o /ˆ/ country rough enough trouble young ou /Z:/ 11. serve term e circle ﬁrm thirst dirt girl i /Z:/ hurt nurse burn surface turn u /@/ 12. about account human substance breakfast a drama India particular backward standard ar sentence problem e liberty otherwise entertain er observe factory condition produce o /@/ centre theatre re effort doctor actor sailor tailor or continuous famous ou surprise ur colour honour favour our through ough creature measure nature picture ure succeed

English Language Skills PDF - Aruna Koneru (Mc Graw Hill India 2011)

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