Communicative Competence in English - Dr. R. Ramesh (essential reading txt) 📗

among learners through writing advertisements, tape script, video script, etc.

Table: 4:15 Check list: Publicity Campaign: Level/Tasks Non–Satisfactory Satisfactory Excellent 1. Newspaper advertisement of prevention of Dengue fever Ö 2. Newspaper advertisement in road safety Ö 3. Video script on the consequence of global warming Ö 4. Video script on the importance of polio vaccination Ö 5. Documentary script for HIV/AIDS awareness programme Ö

Description Publicity campaign activity demands vocabulary skills from learners. Through this tasks learners were asked to select apt words which clearly indicate what they have intended to convey. Familiar themes were given as tasks. All the tasks were done well and the last two activities did excellently by all the learners except three.

Activity XVI: Public Talk In this activity learners were asked to give a speech on given topic. This activity intended to develop their speaking skills, presentation skills and coordination of ideas.

Table: 4:16 Check list: Public Talk Level/Tasks Non–Satisfactory Satisfactory Excellent 1. Election speech of college union chairman Ö 2. Importance given to IT field Ö 3. Youngsters and drug addiction Ö 4. Privatization of higher education Ö 5. National Integration Ö

Description Public talk was given as an individual work. They were given topics beforehand for preparation and they were asked to present a talk less than ten minutes. Thus learners collected point and they presented it. For the presentation of this activity, learners need a good background in current affairs. Most of the learners lack newspaper reading habits. This adversely affected the fourth task. They were not able to provide adequate points on that topic on privatization of higher education. Learners did well for all other tasks.

Activity XVII: Telephone Conversation Telephone in the most frequently used medium of communication. One cannot talk for a long time as he/she is talking in person. The words should be limited and clear. Simple words should be used for easy understanding.

Table: 4:17 Checklist: Telephonic Conversation Level/Tasks Non–Satisfactory Satisfactory Excellent 1. Enquiring about admission procedures Ö 2. Between two friends Ö 3. Between father and son Ö 4. Interview for the receptionist Ö 5. Complaining about theft. Ö

Description In telephonic conversation activity, learners were divided into pairs and groups and were asked to write about conversation on given topic. After written work, they were asked to speak accordingly. All the group members were actively participated in this activity. They were able to produce excellent performance in both written and spoken tasks.

Activity XVIII: Review Writing In Review writing learners were asked to write a critical summary of a book, a film or a documentary. Through this activity the researcher wanted to develop the quality of summing up a work of art without losing its main points.

Table: 4:18 Checklist; Review Writing Level/Tasks Non–Satisfactory Satisfactory Excellent 1. Review for a book recently read Ö 2. Review for a novel Ö 3. Review for a film Ö 4. Review for a documentary Ö 5. Review for a newly published book Ö Description Review writing demands in-depth reading habits among learners. But today, most of our learners lack this habit. So the learners were not able to given expected results from these tasks. They were more interested in watching films than reading book and newspapers. Half of the students were able to do this exercise well.

Task XIX: Pros and Cons In this activity learners were given some situations and they need to analyze advantages and disadvantages of the given topic.

Table: 4:19 Check List: Pros and Cons Level/Tasks Non–Satisfactory Satisfactory Excellent 1. Living abroad Ö 2. Being only one child Ö 3. Growing up in city Ö 4. Loss of grandparents Ö 5. Nuclear family Ö

Description By giving pros and Cons activity the researcher wanted her learners to analyze each minute points of given situation and express their own ideas individually. The situations given to the learners were contemporarily relevant one and they were able to did well. All the learners produce excellent results in these tasks.

Activity XX: Picture Difference In this activity the learners will be given a set of pictures which contain almost identical pairs of pictures. The researcher wanted her learners to identify differences in that identical pairs.

Table: 4:20 Checklist: Picture Difference Level/Tasks Non–Satisfactory Satisfactory Excellent 1. Picture 3.9 Ö 2. Picture 3.10 Ö 3. Picture 3.11 Ö 4. Picture 3.12 Ö 5. Picture 3.13 Ö

Description Picture Difference activity was given as an individual work. It demanded much attention to minutely different items. So the learners paid full concentration while doing this activity. Through this activity learners were asked to observe the pictures and then write down the difference they have noticed with these two pictures in grammatically correct sentences and talk about that differences in the class. Because of some careless mistakes half of the learners committed mistakes while doing the first two tasks. Last three tasks they did well and produced excellent results.

Assessment
The researcher has prepared about twenty activities in order to develop communicative English among the learners. These activities mainly focused on developing speaking, listening, reading and writing skills. At the beginning stage, they were not able to express themselves freely in English. During the end of the course all the learners were improved in their communication skills. All learners know the fundamentals in English. It was observed that they did not know where to apply it and where to use it. Most of the learners had completed their degree course in Tamil medium. Due to this fact they felt a kind of inferiority complex. They showed an extra interest and intention to speak in English. This initiative spirit helped them to attain their goal at the end.

Graphical Representation of Performance of the Learners
Graphical representation of data analysis shows the percentage of learners’ overall performance separately as non satisfactory, satisfactory and excellent. Graphical representation of table 4:21 is given in Fig 4.1. It shows the success of the present research. Table 4.21

Non Satisfactory Satisfactory Excellent 60 40 0 60 40 0 40 60 0 20 80 0 40 60 0 60 40 0 80 20 0 40 60 0 60 40 0 0 100 0 40 60 0 0 100 0 0 100 0 0 60 40 0 60 40 0 40 60 0 20 80 0 60 40 0 0 100 0 40 60 Fig.4.1


CHAPTER–V

SUMMATION

Language is an important medium of communication. Communication will be meaningful when we use words and actions together instead of mere jesters. Language is an essential medium of communication. Language development is a gradual process. Language learning is a skill developing process. It needs continuous training and frequent practice. One cannot learn a new language all of a sudden. It will develop gradually from Listening, Speaking, Reading and then Writing. This is the normal course of development of mother tongue in a child. Here child learns language at first as utterances, single words, phrases and then sentences.

English is a foreign language to Indians. The students have not been grown up in this language atmosphere. The grammatical structure of English and our regional languages are entirely different. Thus this language is an alien one and became a ‘promissory note’ for most of us. Indians feel this language more difficult to learn because of their attitude towards this language. They hate English because they hate British people.

Now this situation has changed and people understand the value of English education. Soft skills and communication skills are unavoidable elements in today’s job market. This demand changed the condition of school and college education scenario. Now more students are opting for English medium education. Even parents who were uneducated were ready to provide English education to their children. But even after these changes, the condition of English language in our learners were not changed. Though these learners are undergoing their education in English medium schools, they were trained in rote memorization. Defective execution of curriculum and evaluation system were some reasons behind this. Again teachers were not concentrating on the communicative part of language than their syllabus. Traditional method of teaching will not provide adequate development in target language. This condition forced most of our learners and job seekers to buy ‘spoken English’ books and materials or to attend some crash training programme for 24hrs, three weeks, Six months etc. One can find a great rush in spoken English institutions. Today it has become a flourishing business. But it is not sure that, whether the learners were able to attain their target after attending these crash courses. In most of the training programmes, they were given training only in the fundamental rules of grammar. They will be provided with some example. They will not get any chance to use this language. Thus these learners lack practical usage of grammar.

Present research is also dealt with this problem. Learners, who had completed their degree course need to have good communication skills in order to communicate with his occupational settings, use language with more generalized set of academic skills like research, seminars etc and ability to use language in everyday informal talk.

This present research is aimed at developing communicative English among learners of post graduate course. For this the researcher has framed some activities according to their needs. These activities were not focusing on the grammatical accuracy but on the development of communicative ability which lead to grammatical accuracy. At the end of this course, it is viewed that all the learners who were participated in this course were able to perform well in their second language.

Observation Learners in this course are undergoing their post graduate degree in various subjects. They know the grammatical rules of second language.. They were aware of tenses. Due to direct translation of matter from mother tongue to English they have committed lot of mistakes and they were confused with its usage. Another defect the researcher noticed was lack of reading habits. Because of this, they find it difficult to use suitable vocabulary to express their ideas. They were often confused with numbers and tenses,usage of plural forms and pronouns. Stage fear was another problem for committing frequent mistakes. Often they know the answer and idea but were unable to express that in second language. After the practice of fifth activity, they felt confidence to express themselves before the class.


Consolidation The researcher had prepared twenty activities with five tasks each in every activity. One task in each activity was given as a model of how to do that activity. After that they were asked to do the same task once again. This helps to give confidence to do the remaining tasks in the learners.

First activity demands the ability to describe persons and objects. Learners did only the first activity as satisfactorily. They commit lot of mistakes in tenses. And personal pronouns, For e.g.: She’s, He’s, They’s instead of Her, him, them etc.

Second activity was also the continuation of first activity. Here learners were asked to describe objects they were familiar to. Here researcher helped learners to select suitable vocabulary for describing. While doing guessing activity they were confused with the uses of tense in present and future forms. Case study demands practical experience and newspaper reading from learners. Here they felt difficult to support their ideas with suitable examples. Group activities helped to overcome fear in learners. At first they used mother tongue for discussion. But later they were encouraged to use second language and they were asked to correct with in their peer groups. For each group activity, the group members were rotated and all the learners get chance to became leader and present their group’s ideas. After fifth activity learners were ready to express themselves even if they did not have much idea about the given topic. This indicates the success of this course.

For the sixth activity, they were asked to write dialogue and role play. Dialogue writing needs knowledge of colloquial language usage. At first most of the learners wrote it in indirect speech. For activity VII, learners were asked to find out solution for the given problems. Here also they felt lack of vocabulary to express their views. In the next activity learners were given training in brain storming. In Improvisation learners felt difficult to express themselves freely in the given situation. They took much time for its preparation and utterance of words in immediate situation.

Letter writing was a familiar activity for learners and they felt easy to do this activity and they were