CHAPTER IV:

LISTENING AND SPEAKING

"The More He hears, the Better He speaks:

The Better He speaks, the Best He understands"

Introduction

Listening skill, according to a research team at Loyola University of Chicago, are

the most important attributes a person should have. In the study, the most common
positive response received from thousands of subordinates was, “I like my boss; he/she
listens to me”, or “I can talk to him/her.” It suggests that if you respect the speakers and
listen to them peacefully it creates a positive impact even on your subordinates. A good
listening brings people closer to you.

The principle upon which the integrated approach of teaching English is based
is that of the communicative approach. Communicative language use is promoted in
various methodologies employed by the teachers while teaching English as a Second
Language. Study materials like Instructional manuals, various activities and
procedures have a vital role to play in achieving objectives. As far as teaching and
learning of English is concerned, gaining easy access to technical educational or
professional opportunities has been the main objective. It is a universal truth that in

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order to get engaged in a conversation, one needs to be able to speak and comprehend
at the same time. “Teaching of reading can be easily tied to instruction on writing and
vocabulary, and Oral Skills readily lend themselves to teaching pronunciation,
listening and cross-cultural pragmatics” (Hinkel 113).

In L2 listening pedagogy one can see two complementary approaches that

reflect current perspectives on learning the skills of listening and speaking effectively.
One emphasizes the integrated teaching of listening for communication and in
conjunction with other L2 listening skills. Formally saying, a variety of techniques in
L2 listening have withstood the test of time and have been largely recognized as very
vital, for example, pre-listening , making predictions, listening for the gist or the
main idea and listening intensively. The teaching of pronunciation is also ubiquitously
integrated with both speaking and listening instructions.

Listening skill plays a very important role as far as using any language is
concerned. Much to the surprise, teaching of listening skill is all the way neglected
and not even included in curriculums—especially in Indian universities. It has been
observed that in many of the schools and colleges the four basic skills are taught in
isolation and not in an integrative way. The English teachers do not try to think of
innovative and fresh ideas or to go beyond the textbook and syllabuses for the
teaching of these skills. There is indeed an urgent need to produce self-generated
instructional materials on the part of every teacher.

The complexity level of learning to speak in another language is reflected in

the range and type of sub skills that are entitled in L2 oral production. Speaking in an
L2 requires fluency, accuracy and a sufficient lexico-grammatical repertoire for
meaningful communication to take place. An observation has been that the more the
learners are exposed to communicative interactions in an L2 the better they attain
competency in L2. The research in such area has already demonstrated that although,
for example, the users of L2 who have superficial knowledge of it can speak fluently

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and with ease (like film stars and sportspersons), their speech contain numerous
grammatical, lexical and pragma-linguistic errors.

Various methodological modifications in L2 speaking pedagogy have

proposed an integration of fluency and accuracy within communicative and task
based approaches to teaching. The task based teaching of L2 speaking skill has built
opportunities for online planning that result in more accurate and complex uses of
language, according to Rod Ellis (2003). Ellis explains that carefully designed
teaching materials can boost the development of various aspects of L2. Narrative and
descriptions can be effective in fluency focused teaching; for example, debates and
problem-solving tasks can promote enhanced grammatical and lexical complexity in
the learner’s language use. Another way of improving speaking ability is doing a
rehearsal or a task of repetition. It offers learners an opportunity to accommodate the
demands of fluency, accuracy and linguistic complexity. In content-based and task
based instruction, contextualized uses of specific grammar structures and vocabulary
can be emphasized to connect the subject matter and language learning activity.

The present status of English language at an international level has given a

thought to concentrate on speaking skill as a major skill in the school curricula. In the
age of globalization the goal of achieving the listener’s specialty skill has shifted from
targeting a native like accent to targeting intelligibility, that is, the degree to which the
listeners understand the speaker’s utterances. In an age when English has become a
primary medium for international communication, most cross-cultural interactions
take place between non-native speakers of English rather than between native and
non-native speakers. The aim of the produced teaching modules in the present project
is to help learners achieve overall communication skills rather than drastic accent
modification. The objectives of these modules are to teach all the sub skills of
listening and speaking interactively and in contextualized situations. The purpose of
teaching English is not to make students score good marks but to make them gain
some English for communicative purpose. The teaching of these skills is based on

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realistic rather than idealistic models, by keeping in mind the students from
vernacular medium schools.

The main objectives of this module are to make teachers capable of using
different methods and techniques for teaching of English. Avoiding the conventional
lecture method and using interactive approach they will be able to train their students
to perform various language functions. The module also makes it clear that teaching
of the four skills is not just for scoring good grades but to make students use them in
real-life situations. Apart from these aims, the module also looks forward to develop
students’ level of confidence in using English in various communication situations,
both formal and informal. This module contains a range of activities for the teacher
which can be carried out in the classrooms to encourage students to speak effectively
and with ease. The activities are mainly designed around shared experiences, to be
done in pairs and groups so that students learn to respond spontaneously in any
communication situation.

Listening and speaking skills are not mutually exclusive of each other but they
positively complement each other. Through listening, the students can build an
awareness of the interworking of language systems at various levels and thus establish
a base for more fluent productive speaking. The overlapping nature of both skills
should be taken into account starting from the elementary level English teaching. The
oral/aural skills development is best enhanced through the learner-centered method
and the communicative-language approach. The ultimate aim of this research in the
Integration of Listening and Speaking Skills in Teaching English is to equip the
students with the proper technique of bringing both the skills into one integral part,
with the primacy on listening as a further link for improving the speaking skill.
Students will participate in demonstrations of various activities on successful oral
skills developed through story-telling, video, games techniques. They will also be
provided with teaching tips for listening skills enhancement compiled by the
researcher’s experience over the years of teaching English. By means of studying the
researcher’s experience on teaching oral skills, the students will develop their own

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skills for integration of listening and speaking all together. By the end of the class the
students will be inspired and greatly motivated to speaking and listening in an
integrated way through scaffolding and interaction with the peer.

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 MODULE ONE

LISTENING AND SPEAKING

Contents

Objectives of the Module

Lesson 1 – Pronunciation Practice for Listening and Speaking

Lesson 2 – Speaking about Myself

Lesson 3 – Listening for Personal Communication and Speaking Accurately

Lesson 4 – Active Listening and Communicating in Public Situations

Lesson 5 – Using Language Functions for Listening and Speaking

Outcome of the Lessons

Lesson 1- Pronunciation Practice for Listening and Speaking

Introduction
Activity One –Differentiating Sounds
Activity Two- Identifying Word Accent
Activity Three- Vowel Glides and their Pronunciations
Activity Four- Silent Letters and their Pronunciations

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Lesson 2. Introductions

Introduction
Activity One –Introductions
Activity Two- Talking Personal
Activity Three- Describing Abstract Things

Lesson 3. Listening for Personal Communication and Speaking Accurately

Introduction
Activity One –Greetings and Responses
Activity Two- Giving and Responding to Instructions
Activity Three- Understanding Attitudes

Lesson 4. Active Listening and Communicating in Public Situations

Introduction
Activity One – Debates
Activity Two- Group Discussions
Activity Three- Extempore

Lesson 5. Using Language Functions

Introduction
Activity 1. Apologizing
Activity 2. Asking for Clarifications
Activity 3. Inviting, Accepting and Declining Invitations
Conclusions

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Objectives of the Module
Make teaching and learning of English activity smooth and comfortable

Take students beyond the text and classroom

Help teachers to generate their own teaching material

Making teachers utilize self-constructed activities to boost the listening skill

To equip teachers with practical English exercises to be used in the actual

class room situations. So that the teacher can make students participate
actively in a class

Help out students in boosting their confidence so that they can use English in a
better way and with confidence

Produce materials to support students in using English appropriately following

proper structures, word power and accent

Develop students’ ability to think logically and present the ideas in an

organized manner, so that they can use them in various situations

Train students to use English for a varity of purposes

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Contents of the Module

Lesson 1 – Pronunciation Practice for Listening and Speaking

Lesson 2 – Speaking about Myself

Lesson 3 – Listening for Personal Communication and Speaking Accurately

Lesson 4 – Active Listening and Communicating in Public Situations

Lesson 5 – Using Language Functions for Listening and Speaking

Outcome of the Lessons

how to express oneself effectively

to make teachers use self-made activities to boost the listening skill

equip teachers with practical based English exercises to be used in the class so
that they can make students participate actively in the class

help out students in boosting their confidence so that they can use English in a
better way and with confidence

Familiarity to correct stress and intonation patterns in English

Achieving a desired level of confidence in using the English language

To make the students understand how to use English naturally and with ease in
their personal life.

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Lesson 1- Pronunciation Practice for Listening and Speaking

Introduction
To carry out any activity in the class, a teacher himself/herself must be good at
English. He/she must be aware of the phonetic symbols of English to which students
are usually not acquainted, since they are taught English through letters and sounds.
The very first lesson of the module deals with a varity of activities to improve the
listening as well as speaking skill of students. Here, the students are also made aware
of how sounds in English differ in pronunciation and ultimately lead to the change in
word meaning. The listening comprehension is developed by making them listening
to good English in the class itself.

As far as spoken use of English is concerned, a slight change in pronunciation

may mislead the communication process itself. There has been a tremendous
influence of the local/regional language on English. Many times, even though the
words are mispronounced the context makes the user correlate the meaning. However,
sometimes, the possibility of more than one meaning may lead to embarrassment or
misunderstanding which results into communication gap.

The activities framed in this lesson give students opportunities to listen to

words which may sound similar but have different meanings. This can help them in
using such words in their real-life listening as well as speaking.

Activities

Activity 1) Differentiating Sounds

The major problem faced by the Indian users of English is that they are not
able to differentiate between short vowels and long vowels of English. Some of these
differences are found in get and gate, gull and girl, new and knew and so on. When

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such words are used in isolation, students may pronounce accurately. However, when
they hear the same word in connected speech they are often unable to distinguish the
difference in pronunciation. This may lead to the poor comprehension of spoken
English.

For example A: Would you like to have some breakfast?

B: No I am full.

In this short dialogue if the word ‘full’ is not pronounced properly it will lead
to the miscommunication.

The present activity makes students aware of the length that varies between
vowels sounds and brings out change in the meaning. It is always better to begin a
class by reading out a short story, having similar sounding words followed by the
difficulties encountered by the students regarding the similar looking sounds. Then
provide them with a sheet having pair of words wchich is closer in pronunciation.
Here a teacher can readout one word from each pair and students are asked to circle
the word they listen to.

1. a) six b) seeks
2. a) let b) late
3. a) full b) full
4. a) sit b) seat

Few more examples can be given by the teacher and then students can be asked to
write down some words they find similar in pronunciation.

Activity – Identifying Word Accent

English is a stress timed language, there is a need to maintain the time in a
connect speech. As the non-native user of English lack of knowledge of word accent

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and accent in connected speech leads to low comprehension of what they listen to.
Many of the Indians do not understand the accent of the foreign speakers mainly due
to the lack of knowledge of accent.

English polysyllabic words have fixed stress pattern. This means that a
specific syllable in a word is to be stressed, that it is fixed and never changes; i.e.
stress in English is fixed. One of the syllables in a word is spoken with greater breath
force as compared to the rest of the syllables, which is known as the stressed syllable.
For example, the word ‘examination’ is always pronounced with stress on the fourth
syllable /Ig-za-mI-neI- (a)n/ let that word occur anywhere, in any context at any
position, whereas the word classical will have the stress on the first syllable (kla-si-
kal). English has the feature of stress shift, that is to say the stress shifts according to
the function of that word whether it is used as a noun or as an adjectives. For
example, When we use the word object as a verb then it receives the stress on the
second syllable / b- e-kt/ and receives on the first syllable if used as a noun / b-
e-kt/

By using such kind of activities in a class the students can be made aware of
the variations in accentual patterns, when the words are used in a specific context.
The teacher may begin with the activity by writing a list of words and reading it aloud
by using proper pronunciation and accent.

Noun Verb
1 'Present Pre 'sent
2 'Record Re 'cord
3 'Object Ob 'ject
4 'Resume Re 'sume

For this activity the teacher can use various materials like story transcripts,
audio, video etc. and ask students to write down the word with proper stresses and
their meaning in current context. Students can be asked one by one to repeat the

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words after the teacher on the basis of their listening because unless and until their
tongue is not trained the pronunciation they cannot use them correctly.

Activity – Vowel -gildes and their Pronunciation

One of the major differences between Marathi i.e. the mother tongue of
majority of the students and English language is that Marathi does not have
diphthongs. Instead of diphthongs Marathi speakers use long vowels, this might lead
to further miscommunication. So the word gate get are pronounced almost in the same
way.

In RP English there are 12 pure vowels and 08 diphthongs. Many of the

regional medium students may not be aware of such sound in English as they are
taught English through alphabets and not using sounds if English. The teacher can
carry out different types of activities to make students use vowel glides appropriately
when used in context.

To find out whether students are able to locate the difference in sounds on the
basis of their listening, the teacher can give them dictation test, this can be done by
writing a list of words in pair which are close in pronunciation and differ in only one
vowel sound i.e. minimal pairs. The teacher reads out one word from each and asks
students to listen to it carefully and find out the word read by him. After this activity
the teacher should give students different contextualized sentences in which the
change in the pronunciation of a single sound leads to the change in the meaning of
that sentence.

Monophthongs Diphthongs
1 Bet Bait
2 Fare Fair
3 Get Gate
4 Shut Shout
5 Red Raid

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 The teacher should add some more story transcripts dictations and ask students
to write and see if they can understand it properly, pronounce and write as per
described context. Here, he should take extra care in selecting the manuscripts which
has similar sounding words. Initially students might find difficult in identifying the
difference between pure vowels and diphthongs. After giving the dictation test
students can be asked to read it out loudly for pronunciation practice.

Activity – Silent Letters and their Pronunciation

English has twenty four alphabets and forty four speech sounds. The real test of the
students is to understand the difference between sounds and letters. Here, one letter
may represent different sounds or for one sound there are different letters. The case
becomes more difficult as some of the letters in English remain silent in spoken form.
The present activity gives students a handful practice in pronouncing such kind of
letters.

For example, letter ‘t’ is not pronounced in the words ‘often’ or ‘soften’, in the
word psychology letter ‘p’ is silent,. In this way there are lot many words in English;
if students are not made aware of this feature of English language they may commit
mistakes in pronunciation as well as spellings. The present activity gives them
practice in pronouncing such type of words. The teacher may ask students to find out
as many words as they know this will also help them to boost their vocabulary.

Word Silent Letter 1st Word 2nd Word 3rd Word

1 Calm L Talk Chalk Half
2 Muscle C
3 Thumb B
4 Soften T
5 Knowledge K
6 Mnemonic M

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Lesson- Introductions

Introduction
In the age of globalization English has become a part and parcel of
everybody’s life. One needs to use English every now and then. Today, everyone uses
English in different ways in their day-to-day life on several occasions. Teen age is the
age when everybody loves himself/herself more than anything else. At this age
students are very much keen to express themselves. The major problem for students to
present themselves confidently is lack of proper knowledge of different language
especially English. The present lesion comprises of activities which students need tto
continue in their day-ti-day life, with the only difference that here they need to use
English for their communication. These novel activities will help them in using
English confidently and fluently, not only during the school hours but even in their
personal and social life. The activities include the situations both formal as well as
informal. Here, the teacher needs to carry out these activities in an interactive way by
forming group students or giving them pair activities. Such kind of activities can
create an atmosphere for proper learning at the same time will motivate them for
communicating in English in their real life situations.

Activities

Activity – Introductions
It is a very common thing that we need to introduce our selves at many points of
our life. Being students they need to introduce themselves not only on the campus or
class but even in their personal life, every now and then, either they have to introduce
themselves or introduce others. The major problem for our students in giving
introductions is their knowledge of English. And the reason for lacking this
knowledge could be that they are not exposed to English language apart from the
educational set up. This leads to their fear for public speaking speeches or any other

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social contexts. The present activity is useful in helping students learn and build
confidence in engaging in communications and indulging themselves without any
communication hurdles.

Before starting with the actual activity, a teacher is expected to discuss with
students about different expressions used for self introductions. To carry out this
activity the teacher must distribute a worksheet among students and ask them to work
in group and find out a varity of expressions appropriate for self introductions as well
as for introducing other.

Following is one such sheet for warming up activity:

1. Hey — What’s up?

2. Hi, Kiran! This is my friend Chetan.
3. It gives me immense pleasure to introduce to you Prof. Patil. He is our
neighbor
4. See you on Party!
5. Hello. Nice meeting you. I’m Sheetal.
6. Hello! I’m Manohar. Can I join you?
7. Hi! Don’t you think we have met before?
8. I am Shreyas. May I know your good name please?
9. How do you do?
10. Kiran meet my friend Rohan. Rohan this is my best friend Kiran.
11. Ladies and gentlemen, I am honoured to introduce to you Dr. Patil from
university of Pune.
12. Hello, Students! I am Dr. Patil from University of Pune.
13. Hello! How’s life?
14. Hey — meet Yogita, my classmate.
15. Papa She is my best friend Sonali

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Towards the end of the activity the teacher can provide them the answer key

The teacher should tell the students that though they are asked for introductions they
should go on adding a little information to begin a conversation.

Once students are acquainted with the appropriate expressions for self
introductions as well as introducing others, the teacher can take the activity further,
thus: Divide the students into groups and distribute cards written with topics written
on them. The students can be asked to introduce the person mentioned on their card or
talk about the topic mentioned. It is important that students begin with self
introduction. By the time one group presents the activity other students should be
asked to jot down mistakes if any committed by the presenters. This will make them
to listen to it attentively.

1. Famous Personality
2. College Principal
3. My College
4. National Film Award Winner
5. The Life of a Farmer
6. My Favorite Food
7. My Ambition

The activity should be carried out in such a way that every student gets a chance to
speak (introduce) himself/herself. Such kind of activities boost the confidence of
students as they find it easy and comfortable to talk about themselves. Towards the
end of the activity students can be asked to talk about the mistakes they observed
during the activity. The teacher can discuss all those mistakes with class and make
valuable suggestions to overcome those mistakes. These interactions prove to be very
valuable for students as they will have to introduce formally in their professional life.

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Activity – 2) Talking Personal
Students are always keen and look forward for opportunities to express
themselves and sharing about themselves, their feelings and emotions during the teen
age. Youngsters are always noticed to be talkative, but many of the times lack of the
skills and techniques to be used for sharing information. The present activity will be
beneficial for students in building confidence not only in speaking skill but also in
becoming attentive listeners. Such kind of activities makes students aware of the
importance of attentive listening.

To carry out this activity the teacher must divide students into groups and/or
pairs, as students must participate in pair or groups. Try to group out students who
posses at least three common likes with their respective partners or group members.
For example, in a pair, both of them may like cooking in their spare time and one of
them prefers listening to music as well. The activity will help them share the
information with one another and will try to find out the common likes and dislikes.
The activity continues with sharing the information across the pairs and groups.

The sole purpose of this activity is to teach listening and speaking skills to
students but without mentioning them. Apart from students the teacher too needs to be
active in the class and should take a round of the whole class ad observe students
performing. At this stage the teacher is not expected to correct their mistakes or guide
them on their errors, but should simply note down their errors and can discuss them
towards the end of the class.

Following is an example of Sharing Information within students:

Student 1: Hi Sachin! How are you? Can you tell me what do you do in your leisure
time? I like to play cricket and listen to the classical music.

Student 2: Hi Mahesh! I’m fine. I too like cricket but now a days I don’t play cricket,
I like photography very much. In my spare time I go gymnasium and work out there.

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Student 1: Sounds great! Tour body itself tells that you work out in the gymnasium.
You have got a stunning personality. But don’t you like music? It’s very rare to find a
person who doesn’t like music.

Student 2: Not like that I too love music but these days I don’t listen to it as I don’t
get enough time for it. I’m preparing for competitive examinations. But I definitely
don’t like classical music.

Student 1: Wow its great! Have you joined any coaching classes for it? I don’t like
this field. I want to become a lecturer in a senior college. You know these days this is
the most sought field.

Student 2: Yes you are absolutely right. My uncle is a professor of English. Let’s see
how it goes.

The activity shows that because of sharing information students also listen to each
other carefully and then only respond.

While students are sharing their personal information the teacher should only observe
them and must not disturb them by correcting mistakes to make the activity more like
real life. Give them enough time for the discussion so that they come up with their
thoughts.

Activity 3) Describing Abstract Things

As already mentioned, it has become almost a fashion to talk in English in

personal communication. Students too need to describe their feelings and emotions to
their near and dear ones. We cannot keep our feelings hidden in our heart or minds
and need to let them flow through our interactions. For example, when we are
extremely happy we share our happiness with our relatives or with our friends, in the
same way even when we are in sad mood we need someone with whom we can share
it. This activity is based on such topics where students are likely to share their

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personal feelings and emotions. Students can practice this by engaging themselves in
speaking activity in a class.

The teacher can initiate and introduce students to the activity by allowing them to
put forward their opinions on very common topics life “India should stop plying
cricket against Pakistan.” This is a very popular topic for students to give their
opinions on; still there is a possibility of some students not opening their mouths. The
teacher can motivate such students by poking them with some questions. Suppose
they respond by saying that they do not like cricket, especially some girl students, the
teacher can ask for reasons and also about their favorite game. Here, the main purpose
of the activity is to make them share their feelings. This kind of introductory session
does the role of warming up activity and prepares students for further activity.

To carry out this activity, divide students into groups of four to five and involve
them in group-activity. The purpose behind having this activity in group form is to
make the activity more interactive. The teacher must take great care while selecting
the topics for activity.

1. English is the most difficult language to speak

2. India needs a dictator
3. Dowry practice should be allowed
4. Politicians should have basic qualifications
5. Some of the TV channels must be closed down
6. There should be a ban on some of the reality shows
7. Girls are more serious students than boys
8. Love marriages are better than arrange marriages
9. Colleges must have elections for students council
10. Examinations should be abolished

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 Before starting with this activity students must be provided with some expressions
so that they can initiate the activity. These expressions are helpful for students as they
might struggle with proper expressions and vocabulary.

1 To me _______________________________________________
2 According to me ____________________________________________
3 I think __________________________________________________
4 I absolutely agree with you, because ___________________________
5 I’m afraid I don’t agree with you _____________________
6 Right, even I too think _______________________________
7 From my point of view _____________________________
8 Can we look at it from different angle? __________________
9 I may be wrong but I think _____________________________
10 Yes absolutely right _______________________
11 Don’t you think __________________
12 I don’t agree with you _____________________________
13 Look at the other side of it _______________________

As an example the teacher can select the subject “Girls are more sensitive than
boys” and with the help of above statement can guide students as:

1. I feel that girls are more emotional and have less logical thinking capacity.
2. In my opinion, boys are always taken for granted so it implies that they are not
sensitive at all.
3. I agree with what you said about sensitivity level amongst boy and girls but I
would like add one more point here.
4. I look at it from the different perspective because boys are more emotional
than girls.

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Teacher can motivate students to use such expressions and get them involved in
discussions. Sometimes students might struggle with the appropriate use of
vocabulary; in such cases the teacher should help them out.

Due to the interesting topics students start sharing their opinions and participate in the
activity. Gradually little bit difficult topics can be given for the activity.

Lesson – 3) Listening for Personal Communication and Speaking Accurately

Introduction
In this modern era, due to inventions of modern technology like TV, Radio
and, Internet English has become unavoidable part of our daily lives. Our personal
life is completely dominated by both oral as well as written English. It has become
almost a fashion to use code switching during the conversations; therefore, it is
important on the part of students to develop their confidence while using English in
real-life situations. Students must be made aware of that for a better communication
listening is equally important. Students must listen to the speakers carefully then only
they will be able respond appropriately. Here are some of the activities to help
students improve their listening skill.

Activities
Activity- Greetings and Responses

The very first thing that the teacher must teach is ‘how to greet’ with
appropriate expressions. At the same time students must be made aware of differences
between formal and informal expressions for greetings i.e. expressions they use while
greeting their teacher and expressions they use to greet their friends. Not only this, but
they must be taught ‘how to respond’ appropriately to such greetings. Otherwise we
find that when students are greeted by someone they simply smile and do not respond
verbally to the greetings. This may happen due to the fact that they are not exposed to

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a varity of expressions used for greetings. During such activity the teacher should
provide students with good opportunities to listen to various expressions used for
greetings and responding to such greetings.

Under the warming up sessions, the teacher may begin with the activity by
asking them various expressions usually used for greeting their teachers as well as
classmates or friends. Here, the teacher can also encourage students to think of
different ways of greeting people, though in their mother tongue. Later, the teacher
should help them translate those expressions into English. Here, the teacher can also
make them understand the difference between English and their first language as far
as use of such expressions are concerned.

Following is a list of utterances used in our day-to-day conversations; students

need to identify the expressions that they think are used for greeting one another, and
as responses to greetings.

1. Good morning teacher.

2. Please come in
3. My dear friends!
4. So happy to see you after a long time
5. Nice to see you too, Kiran —thanks for remembering me
6. Great to have you and Sanjay join us, sister.
7. Hi! How do you do?
8. I’s sure you must be fine
9. Hay what a great surprise!
10. That sounds like a great idea!
11. Hey Raj, Shilpa was just asking about you!

Here the teacher can read out few conversational passages having expressions for
greeting and ask students tom listen to it carefully and then write down expressions
for greetings. The activity includes both listening and speaking skills.

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Activity – Giving and Responding to Instructions

Most of the times students are busy following a few expressions from the teacher
in the class room, like take out your books / take down the points / Am I audible to
you? / Can you give the answer? …etc. Whatever instructions they listen to in the
class are limited to their academic purposes and are not sufficient for their personal
life. In their real-life instances they need to follow a lot many instructions, but they
fail to follow them appropriately. This activity includes a set of most commonly used
instructions that students shall listen, comprehend and respond to, which are very
helpful for students in their real life situations.

Humor can be considered as the best option to begin with the activity. This will
not only arrest the attention of the students towards the activity but will also make
them learn effectively. The teacher can begin with a few funny instructions like Touch
the student sitting to your left / Lift your note book/ Touch the nose of your bench
partner/Scratch your partner’s head /Put out your tongue… etc. Before giving the
instructions the teacher must make students aware of the fact that they need to listen
to the instructions carefully so that they would do exactly what they are asked to.

After this warming up session, the teacher can continue the activity by dividing
students into pairs. Write down different types of instructions on a slip of paper, fold
it and ask the pairs to pick it up one by one. One of the students reads out the
instruction while the other one need to listen and follow it t perform the action. His
activity also gives practice in proper pronunciation of the words and reading with
appropriate speed.

The teacher can have a good collection of instructions, especially relevant to their
day-to-day life. These instructions can be used in classroom activities. Ask students to
follow the instruction and act accordingly. Some of the students may not be able to
follow the instructions properly, due to the poor vocabulary. The teacher should
motivate such students by providing similar words for those of the difficult one. Due

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humor element the activity is enjoyed by the students and at the same time helps to
generate English.

Activity - Understanding Attitudes

One of the interesting things about language is how our words and sentences are
accompanied by tones that give listeners information about our mood and attitude. In
fact, the same utterance, when said in different ways, can produce very different
meanings and show the speaker’s attitude. For example, the short utterance below can
mean:

• Surprise: India lost the match! (= I don’t believe it)

• Confusion: India lost the match? (= How is it possible? The chasing score was
so low!)
• Pleasure: India lost the match! (= See? What I said in the morning was right.)
• Annoyance: India lost the match? (= Why don’t Indians play well in the
finals?)

Usually what we find is that, especially while speaking in English, the students
utter each type of the sentence in the same tone, which might result into the further
confusion on the part of the listener. On such occasions the listener is likely to ask for
clarifications and the speaker needs to explain what he/she really wants to know.

The present activity will help students to learn, understand and respond
appropriately to the speaker’s attitude while communicating. To carry out this activity
the teacher must be a good user of English language, so that he/she can be a good role
model before the students. As students follow their teachers blindly, the teacher must
take extreme care while speaking in the class or uttering such expressions.

It is the tone of the sentence that decides the attitude of the speaker as well as
meaning of the expression; English utterances spoken in different tones show the
speaker’s positive, negative or neutral attitude.

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 To carry out the activity the teacher can use some of the audio or video tapes of
some personalities from different fields like film, politics and education. Make
students listen to them carefully a d then ask them to use it in their speech for
practice. Here few examples can be cited, where due to wrong way of saying things
lead to miscommunication or misunderstanding.

Lesson 4 – Active Listening and Communicating in Public Situations

Introduction
The students need to speak in a variety of real-life situations, sometimes even
in academic situations such as debates, group discussions and extempore speech. This
lesion provides a variety of activities for boosting students’ confidence, fluency and
stage daring. They need the skills, listening and speaking, to become active
participant. Most of the students hesitate to participate in such activities, perhaps due
to lack of self confidence and fluency in speech. The teacher can make students active
in the class by organizing speaking activities such as debates, extempore, speech,
group discussions etc. This lesson comprises of various activities that will help
students to develop and master public speaking qualities. These activities will make
students aware of the different sub skills of speaking skill such as eye contact,
gestures and body language.

Activities

Activity- Debating
If one is willing to prepare for public speaking he/she must proactively participate
in debates whenever find opportunities. This shall help students to build their
confidence and think in logical manner so that they can respond appropriately. All of
which are essential for oral communication skills.

The activity can be carried out with following steps considering it as a warm up
activity so that they can come up with their own ideas and some expressions.

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1. Select the topic as such that students are more interested to willingly
participate in discussion and put before their opinion on the topic. Such as:

Can women be better entrepreneur than men?

2. If students are comfortable with the topic, we can proceed further and form
different groups of students and allow them some time to brainstorm on the
qualities of a good entrepreneur. For example:

a. Idea of market, finance, sales, leadership

b. Ability to understand the staff
c. Mastery over communication skills
d. Team-Building ability
e. Time Management Skill, etc.
f. Leadership Qualities
g. Total Quality Management

3. Allow both the group some time to make the list of points that support their
motion.
4. Once they are ready with the list of views, each group must now select three
speakers from their group to debate over their viewpoint.
5. When they are ready the teacher can proceed ahead with the debate. The
teacher must play the role of judge and also direct the proceedings of debate
— for example, time given to each speaker, being respectful and having good
attitude towards speakers in the opposite group, taking turns to speak and not
interrupting, and so on.
6. It is good practice to record the debate, and play it back as students can again
listen to their conversations, learn from their experience and improve
accordingly. Teachers can also extend the debate experience by allowing
students from other classes to participate.

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Activity- Group Discussion
Besides being an excellent method of classroom learning, Group Discussions are
now commonly used by business schools as well as employers to select candidates for
jobs. When students look for opportunities to apply for jobs at or after their college
level, the important interview level they may come across is group discussions also
referred to as GD. When students participate in the group discussion, they are tested
for their knowledge and communications skills. Since communication is a two way
process it is important that, besides speaking, one has to be an attentive listener; hence
the present activity sharpens both skills of students.

In a GD, generally five to seven candidates are put in a group who analyze a
topic and share information and opinions on it. The group is given a few minutes to
think about the topic and then is asked to discuss among themselves. Candidates are
judged by their ability to initiate, argue and conclude a discussion, make their
opinions heard, speak audibly with good pronunciation and grammar, and behave
politely.

Group Discussions are carried out in schools very rarely. The reason for this
could be that the classes are overcrowded with students at the same time students do
not have enough mastery over language to participate in the activity. Therefore, it is
very difficult on part of the teacher to conduct the activity. By the time students come
to the First Year of their degree course they have enough exposure to English so that
the GD can be carried out in a class. Through this activity the teacher can develop
students’ ability to argue logically, agreeing with others as well as tactful
disagreement

Before carrying out this activity the teacher should talk about the different features
of communication skills as well as qualities of a good speaker

Following are some of the qualities that a participant should have for taking
participation in Group Discussion:

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 • Mastery over language
• Practice in good accent
• Subject knowledge
• Patient listener
• Use of polite tone
• Appropriate use of body language
• Ability to use creativity
• Open mindedness
• Leadership qualities
• Presence of mind

At the end of the allotted time, the class should reassemble and the observers
present their observations on each member of their group. You need not encourage a
debate on whether the members agree or disagree with the observer; the focus should
be on the qualities of a good presenter that emerged. In the next two or three classes,
give students more practice in group discussions, with different observers in every
group. The experience of participating effectively in group discussions and adhering
to the norms of polite behavior will develop students’ self-confidence and clarity of
expression.

Teacher can carry out the Group Discussion in the simple way explained here:

Form triads (groups of three persons each) and name yourself A, B and C.

For the first phase A will be the speaker, B will be the listener, and C will be the
referee. The exercise involves 3 phases so that each member can adopt the 3 roles.

For each phase, the speaker selects his own topic from sample “Topics for
Discussion” sheet given. After the speaker has discussed his topic for about 7
minutes the listener must summarize in his own words without notes, what the

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speaker has said. If the summary is thought incorrect either the speaker or the referee
who takes down notes and keeps time may clarify misunderstandings.

As has been mentioned above, the roles are exchanged and the process
repeated.

Sample topics have already been stated above, but to add few more some are
mentioned below:

• Inter-caste marriages in India - good or bad? Why?

• The teacher should not teach but make the students learn.
• The role of a Technician as a middle level personnel.
• English should be eliminated form engineering curricula.
• General Election a hectic activity.
• Correspondence courses should be started at the Polytechnic level.
• Workers' participation in the management - good or bad?
• Should college students participate in political activities?

After you have worked in triads discuss the following questions in your group of
three. Elect a leader who writes the agreed answers and will present in the plenary
session.

• Why do we omit certain portions of what we listen while summarizing?

• How do nonverbal signals (facial expressions, head nods, hand movements,
Body postures, eye contact, gestures, etc.) affect what we listen?
• What were the causes that made listening easier or more difficult?

Sample of Group Discussion

Jobs or Post graduation after UG

Gaurav: I think the topic of the discussion is very relevant to all of us

here. As students at the undergraduate level, this is a question we

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often ask ourselves. Although many students go for their master’s I
would prefer to take a job.

Rajesh: Gaurav, you may have something there, but I’m afraid I see
it rather differently. You get so used to having a completely different
routine when you’re working, and feel that a break would make it
rather difficult to go back to the ‘student’ frame of mind. Also, in my
opinion, we could lose touch with our subjects and find it hard to go
back to attending classes and taking examinations.

Sheetal: I agree with Rajesh. I’d like to add that in the case of girls,
parents often fear that postponing higher education might, in turn,
delay our settling down in life. Many parents also believe that if we
take a break before continuing our education, we might find it hard to
cope with the job and course.

Kiran: I do understand how this could be a source of concern for

parents, but times have changed. Women today are quite well
prepared to handle situations when they have to juggle different
responsibilities. Besides, I feel that by taking break for a few years,
we would gain some financial independence.

Rajesh: Absolutely. Also, certain courses and colleges insist on a

couple of years of work experience don’t they?

Gaurav: We mustn’t forget that practical experience also gives us a

deeper understanding of real-life situations and how we can apply
what we learn in books to solve everyday problems.

Kiran: Taking the points discussed into consideration, I think we can

say that although enrolling for PG courses immediately after UG is
usually preferred, taking break from study to gain a few years of
work experience does seem to have a lot of advantages

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Activity – Extempore

Extempore is one of the very common activities carried out at school as well
as college levels. A lot of extempore competitions are being organized by many
colleges and institutions. Usually, the activity is carried out in regional languages with
exceptions to English medium colleges where the activity is conducted in English.
For this activity, students need to master certain skills like mastery over language,
communications skills and, presence of mind. We find that for other speaking
activities the speaker gets time to think and plan, where extempore activity is more
spontaneous and the speaker does not get any time to think and plan as well as does
not get immediate feedback from the listeners To be an expert in extempore the
students must get mastery over vocabulary, grammar and most importantly self
confidence.

Teachers can help out their students in developing speaking as well as

listening skills through this activity. Avoiding the lecture method, the teacher can use
an audio tape for the listening purpose. It will give students an opportunity to listen to
standard varity of English language. To find out whether students are listening to the
tape attentively or not, the teacher must ask students to mark down the certain
qualities of the speaker, to talk about what makes the speech interesting or boring.
This may be followed by a discussion.

To begin with the activity, do not ask students to speak spontaneously on any
topic. Initially the students can be asked to speak on the topic of their choice so that
they get confidence as well as stage daring. Usually students find interest in talking
about the topics related to sports, films and education, so let them speak on any topic
of their choice. Once they start participating in the activity then some difficult and
unknown topics can be given to speak on.

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 The teacher is expected to start the activity with some demonstrations of
sample extempore before actually asking students to come up for speaking extempore.
It will help them understand the techniques and make them feel at ease to speak in the
class. Teacher must once again bring into notice the norms of effective speaking
mentioned in the previous lessons and activities. After these preliminaries the teacher
may call students one-by-one to come up and pick a topic to speak on. The teacher
must encourage students specially those who are shy and quieter. Also ensure that all
of the students get a chance to speak, and compliment them for their efforts even if
they were weak in speaking confidently. Students’ speaking abilities are definitely
bound to improve if the teacher repeats this activity for several times during their
academic year.

Lesson- Language Functions

Introduction
This lesson provides students with opportunities to learn various functions of
language they actually use in their day-to-day life. Students in this lesson will learn to
use language for various purposes through varied activities in an interactive way.
Apart from functions like requesting for permission, asking for information and
making a request there are various other uses of English in daily life. For effective
social communication the teacher must make students practice and perform these
linguistic functions in English. In this section, teachers will introduce a few
innovative activities that will help students acquire and develop skills in performing
these language functions effectively and efficiently.

Activities

Activity 1.- Apologizing

“To err is human.” And therefore, ‘sorry’ is the most common word that we
either hear or use in our day to-day life. One may say sorry to apologize for the

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inconvenience caused. Apology is a reactive behavior. Somebody does something that
causes inconvenience or embarrassment to you; you complain; and the other person
apologizes by saying sorry. But it is a point to note that sorry is not the only
expression that one can use for apologizing.

Teachers, with this activity will provide students with some more expressions
that they can learn and practically use the same in order to apologize to others in
social situations. This activity demands proactive involvement of students devising
different communication scenario.

As a warm up exercise to prepare students for this activity teacher must

himself or ask one student to read the transcript that has relevance to subject of
apology and ask them to understand what is happening. Of course they must answer
in the same voice that: situation is on making an apology. Once again read the
transcript and this time ask student to make note of the words or phrases that people
use for apologizing and also the reaction of person accepting apology.

Sample Dialogue

Aseem: Hello, Nitin. Come in.

Nitin: Thank you. Sorry to call on you so late, Aseem.

Aseem: That’s all right. How’s your grandfather?

Nitin: Now he is fine.

Aseem: Ah, well, would you like to have coke.

Nitin: I’d love one, thanks. The thing is, I need to ring my family.

Aseem: Well, use my phone.

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 Nitin: Oh! thanks a lot. Sorry to trouble you.

Aseem: Don’t worry. The phone’s there.

Nitin: (after ringing) I’m afraid I have to go home. And

there isn’t a bus at this hour.

Aseem: That’s simple. Take my scooter. I don’t mind.

Nitin: Oh! Really? Are you sure? That’s really very nice of you.

Aseem: And sorry to bother you.

Aseem: Not at all here is the key.

Allow students some time to brainstorm for expression used for apologizing
and have a short discussion on the expression they mentioned. Also bring to their
notice various responses for apology, and ask them to find some other ways of
responding.

Now divide the students into groups of five to six and give them one of the following
situations and ask them to think about the possible expression for apology if they
happen to cause any inconvenience to anybody.

• In the college library

• At the bus stop

• On the college campus

• At the cinema hall

• At the shopping mall

• In the wedding ceremony

• During the meeting

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In their respective groups, each student must think of day to day situation they come
across for an apology, and ask them to note down the dialogue of the conversation
one like in the transcript they heard before. The dialogue will have expressions of
apology and relevant appropriate responses. Once student have done brainstorming
and written their own situation ask students from group to play their roles based on
their transcript. Meanwhile ask other students from another group to note down
expressions used for apology
Such kind of activities is very useful in developing students’ communication
skills. These are not only useful for educational purposes but also in their real-life
situations.

Activity- Inviting, Accepting and Declining Invitations

Invitations are common language function in our social life. And it interesting
to know that various cultures use various and interesting set of expressions for
invitations. As we are well aware that invitations are an essential part of one’s lives, it
is also, therefore, important for students to understand which expression are used for
invitations, formal as well as informal speech. When it comes to accepting the
invitation then there is not much problem but while declining the invitation one needs
to take great care. While declining invitation we are likely to hurt the feelings of the
person who is inviting, if we do not use appropriate expression for declining.

The teacher may begin the activity by asking students to list down different
occasion on which they like to invite people. The teacher may help the by giving
some clues. Students may come up with a long list with inclusions of occasions like
New Year, Birthday Party, Deewali, Charismas, Wedding Ceremony, Anniversaries,
Engagement Ceremony, and Naming Ceremony etc. Next ask them whom do they like
to invite on these occasions and how do they invite. The purpose of this list is to know
whether they are able understand the difference between formal invitations and

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informal invitations. This will also make them feel comfortable in participating in the
activity.

After this, the teacher can ask them to make a list of reasons for which they
decline the invitations and also the way they decline it. On the basis of following table
they can be asked to think of possible situations on which these expressions can be
used by them. This will give them a good practice in using such expressions in their
personal life.

Can I use your mobile for a minute? (Answer is

“Request”)
Let’s have party tonight.
Shall we go for a movie on Sunday?
Let’s meet in the evening for get together party. 1. Request
Please help me out in starting the scooter. 2. Invitation
Can I have tomorrow’s leave? I want to attend my son’s 3. Permission
school.
I hope you will come in time on my birthday.

Conclusion
While using this module in the actual classroom teaching, the teacher needs to
take things naturally. He/she is not expected to tell the students that they are going to
learn listening and speaking skills. The teacher should try to follow the techniques of
the way the students picked up their mother tongue. As far as different activities are
concerned the teacher should stick to the real life situations. In the first warming up
class students should be made to feel comfortable in an English class. Before dealing
with the lessons, the teacher is expected to go through the objectives of the module.

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The purpose of suing this module is to make teaching and learning activity smooth,
comfortable and goal oriented.

After teaching of listening and speaking skills interactively the teacher gets an
immediate feedback, as both the skills are complementary to each other. If the teacher
uses self generated teaching materials and to the class well prepared, it will help him
to conduct the classes fruitfully. As we know the students follow their teachers
blindly, it is important on the part of the teacher to use appropriate accent and
intonation while using English in the class. Along with his own reading the teacher
can use some audio cassettes in the class for the purpose of listening comprehension.
Starting with the individual words selected from the active vocabulary of the students
will help them to gain some confidence at the very beginning of the class. Cashing on
this confidence, students can be asked to repeat the pronunciation after the teacher.
Gradually the teacher may move to connected speech and then situations. All these
activities must be carried out in an interactive way. The teacher should see that each
of the students gets a chance to speak and participate in the activity. While one
student is speaking in the class other may be asked to listen to him carefully and point
out the positive and negative points in the speech as far as pronunciation and grammar
are concerned.

Using communicative approach for the teaching of listening and speaking

skills helps students to get English with ease and quickly. At the same time the
advantages of using self-generated materials are that, a teacher can use the teaching
materials by considering the difficulty level of the students. The teacher can also
make use of situations from the surroundings of his/her students. For the better
involvement of the students the teacher can use the name of the students in the
conversational passages. This is helpful for the students to get involved and recall the
situation or the characters. The benefit of the interactive teaching is that the teacher
gets a chance to talk to each of the students; even students also concentrate attentively
on every instruction, as they know they might be asked to speak any time. Once the
teacher finds a proper rapport between him/her and the students, they will start

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responding the situations in English on their own which is the main objective of this
module i.e. making students use English in the class as well as in their personal life.

The Researcher has tried to carry out the teaching of Listening and Speaking in an
integrated manner. The methodology researcher has used has proved to be extremely
efficient as compared to that of traditional way of teaching English Communication.
With his research over two different groups viz. learning through traditional way and
integrated way. Those with later have shown much improvement in their listening and
speaking abilities. The outcome of the modules can be summarized in the following
way. The improvements observed are from the perspective of students as well as
teachers:

Use of contextual and situational teaching of listening and speaking skills

Use of real-life situations to get students involved in the activities for listening
comprehension
Equip students with appropriate ideas and thoughts so that they can follow
them and use them in their day-to-day life
Provide students opportunities to listen to RP British English
Make students realize functions of accent and intonation

The researcher has been successful in classifying and justifying the outcomes of
Integrative approach of teaching which resulted in far better than outcome. The
activities designed have practical approach and are easy to teach, enjoyable while
learning and efficient in providing valued outcome. The outcome are both tangible
and in-tangible in terms of student’s command over expressing, speaking, confidence
building, abilities to listen, evaluate, comprehend and respond to the situations in
English all at the same time. It is possible with Integrated Approach of Listening and
Speaking Approach.

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 SECTION B

Getting mastery over any language means getting mastery over the four basic
skills of that language i.e. LSWR. To be a good speaker one should be a good listener. It
has been scientifically proved that unless one is able listen one cannot speak and it is
true with English language too. For the better convenience and sticking to the plan of
teaching these skills in an integrative way ‘Listening’ and ‘Speaking’ skills have been
integrated together and rest of the two skills i.e. ‘Reading’ and ‘Writing’ have been
blended together while producing the modules. In today's business world with its
complexities and manifestations, the skill of listening is paramount. It is paradoxical,
but true that our "normal" way of listening is not all that normal! And therefore one fails
to communicate if he/she fails to listen. Good listening is an art. It needs passion,
patience and practice. The fourth chapter contains sample modules for teaching of
Listening and Speaking skills. The modules begin with the individual sounds and end up
with the conversational passages. In chapter four the care of the remaining skills haS
been taken, it contains the sample modules integrating ‘Reading’ and ‘Writing’
skills. These are the skills one learns formally by going to schools and colleges. All of
us read something or the other in our working life. But do we read properly? There are
lot of sub skills of reading skill which need to be taken into account. Reading is one of
the most important of the language skills, which are instrumental in making our
communication effective and efficient. In this chapter the researcher has produced the
modules for

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