ANNA UNIVTIRUNELVELI BE english SYSLLABUS

GE1251 - COMMUNICATION SKILLS AND TECHNICAL SEMINAR I
(Semester III – Common to all B.E/B.Tech Students)
(To be conducted as a Practical Paper by the Depts of English for 3 hrs per week)

OBJECTIVES:

• To improve the learners’ oral fluency in English
• To help the learners acquire the readiness to speak in English
• To develop the sub-skills required for paper presentations and group discussions
• To help the learners improve their vocabulary related to specific fields of technology
• To facilitate the development of the learners’ proficiency in meaningful interaction
• To provide them linguistic support for managing vital sub-functions of communication

COURSE CONTENT:

A) Phonetic practice (7 hrs)
• English phonemes with special emphasis on the diphthongs
• Stress patterns for words that end with specific suffixes.
(‘ion’ , ‘ic’ ‘ical’ ‘ious’,‘ate’ , ‘ise/-ize’, ‘fy’, ‘logy’, ‘ity’ )

B) Speech practice ( 8 hrs)
• Speaking on the themes by developing the hints provided.

The themes are:
1. Cloning
2. Artificial satellites
3. Renewable sources
4. Telecommunication
5. Cyber Revolution
6. Space research
7. Polythene pollution
8. Fossil fuels
9. Climate change
10. Ecological threats
11. Water resources
12. Nuclear technology
13. Scientific farming
14. Thermal power plants
15. Natural calamities
16. Robotics
17. Artificial intelligence
18. Role of Fibre Optics
19. Exploration of Mars
20. Gas turbines



C) Group Quiz on technical aspects related to the themes (4hrs)

D) Language Functions (8 hrs)
• comparing and contrast
• reporting the conversation of others
• talking about future plans and intentions
• giving reasons
• expressing preferences
• quantifying
• expressing certainty and uncertainty
• expressing opinions and impressions
• making suggestions
• expressing assumptions
• evaluating options
• hypothesing/deducing
• defending a point of view

E) Seminar presentation on the themes allotted (18 hrs)

PROCEDURE:

A) Phonetic practice
All the speech sounds should be taught .The learners should be given drills in the pronunciation of at least 30 words for each sound. While practicing stress patterns, they should be encouraged to identify as many words as possible for each suffix endings.
B) Speech practice
Every student should be allowed to choose one theme to specialize in. (However not more than 4 students in a section can choose the same theme).The teacher has to prepare at least 4 hints development tasks on each theme and should provide chance to each learner to speak on those hints related to his/ her theme (5 minutes).The hints may be supplied to the students in advance. When a student speaks, the class should be encouraged to ask questions as well as note down the words related to the different fields.
C) Group Quiz on technical phrases related to the themes.
The class should be divided into groups that specialize on a particular theme. Each group should conduct a quiz (question & answer session) which will be answered by the other groups.






D) Language Functions
The teacher should build micro activities to develop the use of language required to handle these sub-functions of communication. In the process, the learners should get used to the linguistic elements needed for these functions.

E) Seminar presentation on the themes allotted
Each student should collect materials from books, journals and newspapers for his/her theme and prepare a short seminar paper. The presentation should be for 10 minutes. It should be followed ‘open house’ during which others should come forward to question, clarify, supplement or evaluate.

RECORD LAY OUT:

Every student has to maintain a record in which he/she has to incorporate the following details.
• First page containing learner details and the topic of specialization.
• Twenty words for each phoneme
• Twenty words with stress marks for each suffix ending
• Vocabulary list (technical words and compound words)related to the 20 themes identified for this semester.
• Three news paper items, two journal items and three internet sources related to the special theme selected by the student.(To be pasted on the pages)
• The Quiz questions of the group with expected answers.
• The seminar paper presented by the learner with details about the open house.
• Notes of observation. ( Details about any three seminar paper presentations by others)

The record should be duly signed by the course teacher and submitted to the external Examiner for verification during the semester practicals.

MODE OF EVALUATION:

Internal Examiner (20 marks) (10 marks for the Record and 10 marks for the seminar presentation)
External Examiner (80 marks)
The external practical* will consist of the following segments (7 minutes approx. for each student)
1. Pronouncing sentences containing the target words
2. Deploying linguistic elements for language functions
3. Speaking on the hints
4. A conversation with the examiner on the special theme as worked out in the Record)

(*Every learner will be assessed with a different set of question which he/she will choose at random)