AEC- 2 (English)

Introduction
This Course aims at providing students familiarity with all components of language learning;
listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar and vocabulary which will eventually help in
development of communication skills. This is an activity-based, goal-oriented, functional
course, which aims to make the students able and efficient communicators by helping them to
be self-reflexive about English. This course has a predefined context of being supportive and
complementary to the core courses in various disciplines. Therefore, unlike most other courses
in English Communication on offer, it does not seek to build facile fluency that passes off as
communicative competence. Rather, it intends to equip the students with the relevant skills of
presentation and expression needed in the academic as well as in the professional domains.
While reading skills exercises are meant to promote the acquisition of analytical and
comprehension skills, writing skills exercises are centred on sentence construction, paragraph
development and précis writing. In this course there is ample scope to build the speaking and
listening skills of students with an emphasis on interactive learning and articulation.
Course Objectives
Develop in students the required knowledge, skills, and judgement around human
communication that facilitate their ability to work collaboratively with others.
Enable the students to understand and practise different techniques of communication.
Through this course, they will familiarise themselves with different types of communication.
Enhance the employability of students by developing in them the required skills of
communication in English, so as to enable them to: 2 i. Speak correctly, intelligibly and fluently
as well as to listen and comprehend accurately when spoken to, so as to be able to communicate
effectively and with confidence in a variety of social, academic and work-related situations; ii.
Read and comprehend accurately the various kinds of written texts which they may be expected
to deal with; iii. Write effectively in a number of different genres (forms) of writing, relevant
to social, academic and work-related needs;
Develop interpersonal skills and the attitudes required for effective functioning in different
social and work-related situations.
Provide cognitive and cultural enrichment through exposure to a variety of humanistic
learning experiences. General Pedagogical Principles
1. Instruction will essentially be activity-based. Each session will provide a variety and range
of activities, pitched at different levels of linguistic competence. Group activities will be
encouraged. The links between theory and practice will constantly be exemplified and
highlighted. Theoretical inputs will be provided, as far as possible, in a non-technical manner.
2. Periodical tests may be conducted to assess skills and application of theoretical principles
and not recalling information from memory. The skills of Listening and Speaking may be tested
through oral examinations in the classes, depending on time and scope.
3. An inventory of available software, including audio/ audio-visual materials should be made,
and the use of such materials be standardised across all colleges. If necessary, software tailored
to the requirements of the program should be produced in collaboration with appropriate
agencies.
4. Although portions of selected texts will be used to develop the skills, a teacher is free to use
material recommended by the experts.
5. The course cannot be effectively implemented unless all instructors are properly oriented. It
should be ensured that orientation programs are organised before the curriculum is
implemented. Handbooks must be produced and made available to all instructors.
6. Workshops for the development of instructional materials by members of college faculties
should be organised periodically, as a part of on-going orientation.
Attention
The course drives away the myth that communicative competence in a language is honed,
built and effectively practiced by learning and mastering the grammar, phonetics of a
language or appropriating the accent and structures of the native tongue. Rather it is an
adaptation with equal blend of the first language and the context in collaboration with
the foreign tongue achieved by suitable use of texts from literature. So the teachers as well
as students are advised to use as much literary texts as possible from the texts prescribed
and other sources for providing an exposure to the students to be aware of the truth that
literature enables skilful communication. The examination questions will be set according
to the texts and topics prescribed.

Unit-I
English Language and Communication: Introduction (9 hours)
Communication, its importance and factors that determine communication (sender, receiver,
channel, code, topic, message, context, feedback, barriers) models of communication, the
information gap principle: given and new information; information overload, redundancy and
cliches, the importance of audience and purpose ii. Types of communication: horizontal,
vertical, interpersonal, lateral and grapevine iii. Verbal and nonverbal communication, body
language and its manifestations in different cultures, written and oral communication, bias-free
communication, political correctness. iv. Styles of Communication: formal, informal and semi
formal Note: The topics listed above should be introduced briefly in the theory classes. The
reflections of the students’ understanding may be assessed by the facilitator through exercises.
The teacher/facilitator can refer to the books recommended under ‘prescribed readings’ for
teaching and exercise purposes. He/she can refer to valid and recognised web-resources and
additional titles from renowned publishing houses for the same purpose.
Texts
• 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)
Suggested Readings
▪ 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. T T 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)

I. Types of listening (active and passive), listening to respond (how, when and why), empathic
listening and interactive listening ii. Speaking to communicate effectively: fluency, accuracy.
intelligibility and clarity iii. Style of speaking in various situations: formal, informal and semi-
formal, tentative and cautionary, simple and plain English iv. English pronunciation: vowel
and consonant sounds, diphthong, IPA, syllable division and primary stress in words, stress
shift, sentence rhythm and weak forms, contrastive stress in sentences, intonation: falling and
rising tones, varieties of spoken Englishes: Standard Indian, American and British (R.P.);
‘Neutral English’, newspapers, ad captions and their contribution to the shaping of Indian
English as a standard language
Note: This unit does not go deep into phonetics. The objective 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 and further practice will be
provided during exercises/practices.
The teacher/facilitator will include simple questions on phonemic transcription and the marking
of stress in words and sentences. The teacher/facilitator can refer to the books recommended
under both ‘Texts’ and ‘Suggested Readings’ for teaching and exercise purposes. He/she can
refer to valid and recognised webresources and additional titles from renowned publishing
houses for the same purpose.
Texts
• 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
▪ 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)

Reading methods and techniques: fluency, accessing meaning, levels of competence, skimming
and scanning, global and local reading, silent reading and reading aloud ii. Reading texts to
understand literal, metaphorical and suggested meanings (essays, poems and stories),
identifying the tone (admiring, accusatory, ironical, sympathetic, ambiguous and neutral etc.)
of the writer iii. Writing process: brainstorming, pre-writing, writing and post writing,
coherence, cohesion, style, iv. Writing short texts: paragraph writing; writing longer texts:
literary writing, academic writing and media writing
Note: This unit will focus on the basic principles of reading and writing as forms of
communication. The teacher/facilitator may use reading material from literary texts, media
writings, non-fiction prose and other written discourses. He/she needs to adopt caution in
selecting the reading materials. Reading and writing are related activities. The insights gained
through training in reading can be utilised for effective writing. The teacher/facilitator must
refer to the chapters and topics from the books recommended under ‘Prescribed Texts’ for
teaching and exercise purposes. From which questions will be set for the examination. He/she
can refer to valid and recognised web-resources and additional titles from renowned publishing
houses for the same purpose.
Prescribed Pieces/Texts
• Communicative English OSHEC Publication. Chapters:Unit-III
• From The Winged Word, David Greene, Macmillan.1974 and Melodious Songs and
Memorable Tales, 2015:
• ‘Daffodils’ by William Wordsworth, ‘When we two Parted’ by Lord Byron, ‘The Last
Ride Together’ by Robert Browning, “Self Portrait” by A K Ramanujan.
• From The Widening Arc. Kitab Bhavan, 2016, A R Parhi, S Deepika, P Jani
• ‘No Learning without Feeling’ by Claire Needell Hollander and ‘The Empty Page’ by
Steven Harvey, ‘George V High School’ by Dinanath Pathy
Suggested Readings
▪ 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 (9hours) i. Grammar for
meaning, multiplicity of meaning, grammar in communication ii. 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. iii. Sentence structure: simple, compound and complex, clauses, types of
sentences:statement, questions, exclamations,commands iv. Functions of language,usage-
oriented vocabulary, neutral vocabulary Note: The teaching of grammar and vocabulary in this
unit need to be connected to communication teaching. Teachers/Instructors may select other
areas of grammar for review depending on the needs. They will identify the grammatical errors
commonly made by their students in speech as well as writing.
The remediation of these errors may require some explanations of grammar. Instructors should
use many grammar and vocabulary related exercises and through them will provide all the
grammatical information needed to explain the errors that are identified. The teacher/facilitator
can refer to the books recommended under ‘suggested readings’ for teaching and exercise
purposes. He/she can refer to valid and recognised web-resources and additional titles from
renowned publishing houses for the same purpose.
Texts
• 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
▪ 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
Midterm test: 20 marks
5x1=5 (short answer, short notes, comprehension questions)
5x1=5 (Analytical, perspective-based and critical-analysis questions)
5x2=10 (activity/practice/reports/case studies/response papers/assignments etc.)
The teacher will have the flexibility of conducting internal examinations or assess the
students’ learning outcomes through activities, short projects, case studies etc. from all
20 marks/ in parts

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