Why Good Communication Skills?
Within a few months after Vijay passed his B.Tech with a distinction,
his ordeals began. He knows all his subjects thoroughly well, but
unfortunately his English is not good. All his attempts to get a good
job have been going in vain and he now has several sleepless nights. He
regrets his negligence while at the university towards improving his
communicative abilities and has now realized that unless he improves
his English, he has no chance of getting a job in a good company.
This is the story of not Vijay alone, but thousands of engineering
graduates. While on campus, they did not recognize and appreciate the
need for improving their proficiency in English language and their
communicative abilities. They did not improve their English language
skills, soft skills and interview techniques.
The need for good communication skills, a good command over English
language and proficiency with soft skills cannot be ignored. Today, the
ever expanding industry is craving for youth with vibrant personality
and first-rate communication skills. Often we hear in the recruitment
corridors, particularly in the multinational companies, that
innumerable jobs remain vacant for want of suitable candidates equipped
with good communication skills. Effective communicative abilities not
only decide whether one gets a job or not; but when one does get a job,
they decide what kind of responsibilities one can be assigned and how
attractive the pay packet is. So, possessing effective communication
skills is not only the golden key to getting a good job, but also the
fabulous route to go up the ladder in any organization.
Syllabus and Strategy in Engineering English
Keeping the need for well groomed engineering graduates in mind and in
view of the increasing demand for English as a tool for global
communication, universities such as Osmania University, Hyderabad and
J.N.T. University, Hyderabad and Anantapur have redesigned their
English curricula recently. These universities and several such others
have been continuously revising their English syllabus with the
objective of developing the communicative competence of students and
also to cater to the needs of the industry.
Osmania University offers a course in Engineering English with
components in interpersonal communication; listening and speaking
skills; writing paragraphs, reports, resumes and letters; vocabulary
enrichment techniques; remedial language with special emphasis on
common errors and reading strategies and techniques in the first
semester. In the second semester, the syllabus includes soft skills
such as presentation skills, Powerpoint presentations, role plays,
group discussions, interview skills and public speaking skills. The
entire course is taught in a student centred method with lots of
opportunity for activity and interaction, using pair work, group work
and language games. In both the semesters, students get ample
opportunity to use the English Language Laboratory for practising
English sounds and speech and to improve their listening and speaking
skills. The two prescribed textbooks ‘Communicative English’ and ‘A
Handbook for English Language Laboratories’ help the students achieve
the objective of improving their English proficiency and communicative
competence.
The JNTU also has similar components in its English syllabus with
stress on skills development and practice of language skills. The
course includes listening & speaking skills, reading & writing
skills, remedial grammar, vocabulary building with plentiful
opportunity for classroom discussion and interaction. The two
prescribed textbooks ‘Enjoying Everyday English’ and ‘Inspiring
Speeches and Lives’ serve as tools to achieve the objective of
improving the English proficiency of the students. The syllabus also
includes the English Language Lab with focus on production and practice
of English sounds with emphasis on use of English in everyday
situations and contexts.
Be a Better Communicator
With the syllabus now designed to serve as a most useful launch pad for
equipping oneself with the required communication skills, students of
engineering in these and other universities should take advantage of
and capitalize on the opportunity. They should realize that being a
better communicator paves them the way to rewarding careers in the
existing and emerging industry. There need not be any more Vijays
losing exciting job opportunities because of poor communication skills.
CALL is calling you
Computers have revolutionized the way language is learnt today and the
one most unfailing tool that helps students equip themselves with
listening and speaking skills is the Computer Assisted Language
Laboratory (CALL), a student centred language learning equipment. With
emphasis on personalised and individualised learning process, CALL
materials create real-life like situations in the laboratory and
facilitate the language learning process. With built-in structured and
interactive lessons, CALL promotes the language learning process,
besides serving as a tool to help learners with limited language
proficiency.
The most interesting and useful feature of CALL is its adaptability to
suit individual needs with provision for a student to go at his or her
pace. Further, CALL makes language learning interesting and enjoyable.
It is a boon to engineering students in that it offers them a reliable
and dependable learning tool, literally, at the click of a mouse. More
than being a mere tool for language learning, CALL products also serve
as ready-in-attendance teacher specialists ever willing to offer more
freedom to the student to experiment with language and more opportunity
for self dependence.
Make the most of it
Thus CALL Lab or Language Lab as it is commonly referred to offers a
new dimension to language learning experience and every student should
exploit it and benefit from it to polish and perfect his communication
skills. Students should realize that technology has become a powerful
and useful tool for those who wish to hone their communicative
competence in the Language Laboratories of their colleges.
Take-it-easy-attitude towards English is often seen among the students
of engineering. They somehow get to feel that they do not have to
concentrate on English language since they can pass the subject without
much difficulty. Unfortunately, they fail to realize that passing the
subject itself is not enough. What is learnt through that subject is
more important. In some universities language lab sessions are
conducted for the benefit of students, so as to give them exposure to
the practicalities of the English language. Since all of this is there
only in the first year of the engineering course, by the time the
students reach their final year, they forget what they had learnt
during their English classes. After the first year, students
concentrate on their core subjects and ignore English. Many students
also keep a deaf year to the suggestions offered by the teacher in
their English classes in the first year and only realise its importance
during placements when they face the interviewers in their 3rd year or
final year. By the time they realise the importance and usefulness of
communication skills in English, it is too late to make amends. Hence,
all the students who joined engineering courses are advised to
concentrate from day one of their joining college on how to improve
their communication skills in English while striving to gain a command
over their own branch of engineering. Communication skills alone are
not sufficient for getting a job therefore command over their own
branch of engineering is also equally important.
Interestingly, most of the English teachers use English text as a
pretext to improve the communicative competence of their students. So,
the students should not miss this opportunity of updating their
language skills. The first year engineering is the final year of
English subject. Hence, students should take this as a one time
opportunity and gear themselves up right away for taking interviews in
their future, that is, 3rd year and final year of engineering. The
inputs they receive from their English teacher in the first year should
be honed further in their 2nd, 3rd and final years with the help of
their seniors and the faculty.
Students are advised to follow the suggestions offered throughout their
course. It must be remembered that without practice nothing can be
achieved. Some of them are good at speaking while others are good at
writing. Integration of all the four language skills viz. listening,
speaking, reading, and writing (LSRW) - is a must.
Some Useful Tips
Some tips are presented below for improving English language skills.
Try to follow them. They can be practised inside and/or outside the
classroom.
- Practise summarising or elaborating on your thoughts in a place
where you feel comfortable. For example, you can tell your parents or
your close friends about a TV programme or a movie you have just
watched.
- Try to read aloud any English text in the presence of a group of
people. This helps you shed all your inhibitions on using English
language.
- Try to run a ‘mental movie’ of what you are reading by framing pictures in your mind, especially when you are reading stories.
- When reading, underline all the important and difficult words and
phrases you come across, learn their meanings and then write a
meaningful paragraph, story or conversation by using all the new words
you have just learnt.
- Listen to as many English programmes (on T.V or Radio) as possible
and try to repeat the dialogues of the character by imitating them.
Listening has direct impact on speaking. This improves your
pronunciation and conversational skills, too.
- Do not hesitate to speak to your friends or classmates in English.
Do not ever worry that you may speak wrong or broken English. It is
always better to loose your image before your friends than before the
interviewer. It is easy to achieve success after making some errors.
Hence, go ahead and speak in English whenever and wherever possible
with confidence.
- Listen to music in English and repeat lyrics later even though you
do not understand what is being said. This greatly improves your
ability to listen to and to speak the language. If you can manage to
get the lyrics and try to sing along, it will work wonders for you.
- Play as many grammar games / language games as possible. This helps
you make your grammatical structures perfect and expressions effective
and interesting. This can be done once you have crossed the basic level
of English language.
- Use CDs with listening activities and practise listening exercises using headphones.
- Participate in co-curricular activities of your college. Write
articles or book reviews for your college magazine. This can boost your
confidence.
- Try to speak on telephone enquiring about a product / service.
- If you have friends or relatives abroad, try to speak to them in
English continuously enquiring about their culture, habits, life style
etc,
- Maintain vocabulary notes. New vocabulary can be learnt from
newspapers, books, dictionaries, thesaurus etc. Try to learn at least
twenty words each day. Use all the new words you have learnt in real
life situations.
- At a later stage, you may read the editorial of an English newspaper and paraphrase it in your own words.
- You can use newspapers in the classroom for improving your English
- Match stories and summaries: Each student can choose a story in
newspaper and write a three-sentence summary. Students cut their
stories from the paper and place them around the room. Redistribute the
summaries; so that each student has someone else’s summary. Students
must try to match the summary to the story.
- Practise story chains: Groups can find some stories interesting for
them and cut them out. Then they can arrange them in a chain so that
the stories are somehow connected. They can explain the connections to
other groups. Alternately, other groups can try to guess the
connections.
- Play hide and seek: Groups can find a story, and then write one
line about where to find it and a fact from the story. e. g. it’s in
the sports section.
- Participate in story guessing: Students can find a very short
story. In groups of four to five, they can guess each other’s stories
in turn by asking ‘yes/no’ questions.
E.g. Is it a sports story? Is it a crime story?
Work
with advertisements: Students can choose classified ads, call their
partners to find out more information. Students can read a display and
then work with a partner and think of good reasons to own the product.
They can also try to convince others in their groups to buy it.
Try to
follow the above mentioned tips and practise the exercises diligently
so that you can become proficient in English. Try to read the books
recommended below and also make an attempt to browse the websites
mentioned below. They will remain as a constant resource for updating
your communication skills in English.
Some Very Useful Books:
- A Handbook for English Language Laboratories. E Suresh Kumar and P Sreehari, Cambridge University Press India Pvt Ltd.
- Communicative English. E. Suresh Kumar and P Sreehari, Orient Blackswan.
- Effective English. E. Suresh Kumar, P. Sreehari, and J. Savithri, Pearson Education.
- English for Employment. E. Suresh Kumar, P. Sreehari, and J. Savithri, Cambridge University Press India Pvt Ltd.
- Communication Skills and Soft Skills. E. Suresh Kumar, P. Sreehari, and
J. Savithri, Pearson Education.,
- Murphy’s English Grammar. Raymond Murphy,Cambridge University Press.
- English Pronunciation in Use. Mark Hancock, Cambridge University Press.
- Spoken English. V Sasikumar and P V Dhamija, Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Co. Ltd.
- Spoken English for You. G. Radhakrishna Pillai and K. Rajeevan, Emerald Publishers.
- The Oxford Guide to Writing and Speaking. John Seely, Oxford University Press.
