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me/jntua

COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH
(20A52101T)

LECTURE NOTES

I -[Link] & I-SEM

Prepared by:
Dr. S. FEROZ BEGUM, Associate Professor
Department of Humanities and Sciences

VEMU INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

(Approved By AICTE, New Delhi and Affiliated to JNTUA, Ananthapuramu)

Accredited By NAAC, NBA ( EEE, ECE & CSE) & ISO: 9001-2015 Certified Institution

Near Pakala, [Link], Chittoor- Tirupathi Highway

Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh-517 112

Web Site: [Link]

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R20 Regulations
JAWAHARLAL NEHRU TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY ANANTAPUR
(Established by Govt. of A.P., Act No.30 of 2008)
ANANTHAPURAMU – 515002 (A.P) INDIA
Humanities and Sciences

Course Code L T P C
COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH
20A52101T 3 0 0 3
Pre-requisite English - I
Semester I
Course Objectives:
 Facilitate effective listening skills for better comprehension of academic lectures and English spoken by native speakers.
 Focus on appropriate reading strategies for comprehension of various academic texts and authentic materials
 Help improve speaking skills through participation in activities such as role plays, discussions and structured talks/oral
presentations
 Impart effective strategies for good writing and demonstrate the same in summarizing, writing well organized essays, record
and report useful information.
 Provide knowledge of grammatical structures and vocabulary and encourage their appropriate use in speech and writing.
Course Outcomes (CO): After completion of the course, the student can able to
CO-1: Retrieve the knowledge of basic grammatical concepts
CO-2: Understand the context, topic, and pieces of specific information from social or transactional dialogues
spoken by native speakers of English.
CO-3: Apply grammatical structures to formulate sentences and correct word forms.
CO-4: Analyze discourse markers to speak clearly on a specific topic in informal discussions
CO-5: Evaluate reading/listening texts and to write summaries based on global comprehension of these texts
CO-6: Create a coherent paragraph interpreting a figure/graph/chart/table
Unit – I: On the Conduct of Life: William Hazlitt
Listening: Identifying the topic, the context and specific pieces of information by listening to short audio
texts and answering a series of questions.
Speaking: Asking and answering general questions on familiar topics such as home, family, work, studies
and interests; introducing oneself and others.
Reading: Skimming to get the main idea of a text; scanning to look for specific pieces of information.
Reading for
Writing: Beginnings and endings of paragraphs - introducing the topic, summarizing the main idea and/or
providing a transition to the next paragraph. Grammar and Vocabulary: Parts of Speech, Content
words and function words; word forms: verbs, nouns, adjectives and adverbs; nouns: countable and
uncountable; singular and plural; basic sentence structures; simple question form - whquestions;
word order in sentences.
Unit – II: The Brook: Alfred Tennyson
Listening: Answering a series of questions about main idea and supporting ideas after listening to audio texts. Speaking:
Discussion in pairs/small groups on specific topics followed by short structured talks.
Reading: Identifying sequence of ideas; recognizing verbal techniques that help to link the ideas in a
paragraph together.
Writing: Paragraph writing (specific topics) using suitable cohesive devices; mechanics of writing -
punctuation, capital letters. Grammar and Vocabulary: Cohesive devices - linkers, sign posts and
transition signals; use of articles and zero article; prepositions..
Unit – III: The Death Trap: Saki
Listening: Listening for global comprehension and summarizing what is listened to.
Speaking: Discussing specific topics in pairs or small groups and reporting what is discussed
Reading: Reading a text in detail by making basic inferences -recognizing and interpreting specific context
clues; strategies to use text clues for comprehension.
Writing: Summarizing, Paragraph Writing Grammar and Vocabulary: Verbs - tenses; subject-verb
agreement; direct and indirect speech, reporting verbs for academic purposes..
Unit – IV: Innovation: Muhammad Yunus
Listening: Making predictions while listening to conversations/ transactional dialogues without video;
listening with video.
Speaking: Role plays for practice of conversational English in academic contexts (formal and informal) -
asking for and giving information/directions.
Reading: Studying the use of graphic elements in texts to convey information, reveal
trends/patterns/relationships, communicate processes or display complicated data.

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Writing: Letter Writing: Official Letters/Report Writing Grammar and Vocabulary: Quantifying expressions
- adjectives and adverbs; comparing and contrasting; Voice - Active & Passive Voice
Unit – V: Politics and the English Language: George Orwell
Listening: Identifying key terms, understanding concepts and answering a series of relevant questions that
test comprehension.
Speaking: Formal oral presentations on topics from academic contexts - without the use of PPT slides. Reading: Reading for
comprehension.
Writing: Writing structured essays on specific topics using suitable claims and evidences. Grammar and
Vocabulary: Editing short texts –identifying and correcting common errors in grammar and usage
(articles, prepositions, tenses, subject verb agreement)
Textbooks:
Language and Life: A Skills Approach- I Edition 2019, Orient Black Swan.
Reference Books:
1. Bailey, Stephen. Academic writing: A handbook for international students. Routledge, 2014.
2. Chase, Becky Tarver. Pathways: Listening, Speaking and Critical Thinking. Heinley ELT; 2nd Edition,
2018.
3. Raymond Murphy’s English Grammar in Use Fourth Edition (2012) E-book
4. Hewings, Martin. Cambridge Academic English (B2). CUP, 2012.
5. Oxford Learners Dictionary, 12th Edition, 2011
6. Norman Lewis Word Power Made Easy- The Complete Handbook for Building a Superior Vocabulary
(2014)
7. Speed Reading with the Right Brain: Learn to Read Ideas Instead of Just Words by David Butler

UNIT-I: On the Conduct of Life: William Hazlitt

ON THE CONDUCT OF LIFE -WILLIAM HAZLITT

1) What is young boy’s attitude towards his new school?

A:-The young boy’s attitude towards his new school was that people at a school were a set of
stupid, disagreeable people. He was sure that she would not like the school where he was going.
What he means that he don’t like to leave home. He was expecting some concern from others
which was given by his father. He is caprice, rudeness (or) ill nature.

2) What two things does the author not like about his son’s reaction to his new school?

A:-The one thing author did not like is the saying bad of school as he did not want to go to the
school. He did not like because the boy is not willing to go and criticizing the people around him
and the other thing was the boy making comments on the others boy’s dressing sense and he is
not speaking well with others. The boy is not showing responsibility to author said his son
‘Never despise any one for anything that he cannot help-least for all, for his poverty’.

3) What does he ask his son’s to do instead of reading all the time and why?

A:-The author asked his son to spend time to play because the books are one inlet of knowledge
and makes the mind not to go to other activities. So he said to play for a few hours so that he can
make his body physically well. He also said that not only learning is important but also health
and good spirits are also important in the life. He said to his son not to read in the meal’s time

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because while eating we cannot make the interest simultaneously on eating and reading so that
there will be no use.

4) Why does the author ask his son to be courteous and polite to his classmates?

A:-He said to his son always be responsible and respectful towards others because if we give
respect to others they will also give respect and be courteous with others. He said to his son to be
always faithful. Never make any contrary conversations with others because people around us
behave in the way which we treat (or) behave with them. He said that you should be polite in
nature with your classmates because all are of same age they also think whatever you think. Ill
means beget ill blood even where there may be some repeated trifling provocation. It is better to
be courteous mild and forbearing than captious, impatient and polite. And be respectful with
others in the sense of your teachers.

5) What does the author say about despising people? What justification does he provide for his
advice?

A:-The author says to his son that never despise anyone for anything. It means if anyone says
anything wrong then you do not create own feeling whatever strike at that time. You should take
positively. He also said that you are glad on yourself on their feelings. If the people around you
are depressing you the you never make despising on them. Leave it, you speak truthfully and
make the mistakes come to an end. If you think they were not well behaving with you then you
make them realize but do not make it as their mistake and go in the way of them. He hopes that
his son will neither be the dupe nor victim of vulgar prejudices.
He said to his son that “Never despise anyone for anything for contempt implies a triumph
over and pleasure in the ill of another”.

6) What is the author’s attitude towards how one should behave with other people? Do you agree
with his reasoning? Give reasons for your answers?

A:-one should always be polite and respectful with others because the way we behave with
others will reflect on us. The author said that we have to be most courageous towards others. He
also said that it is a bad habit to speak disrespectfully of others because it leads to think and feel
uncharitably towards others.
Yes I agree with his reasoning because the way we behave with others is also important to
proceed in life and by the way speaking with others will decide our behaviour with others.

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We should not make contrary statements for others because if we say opposite to other then the
person in-front of us think that this person does not like me. And not only speaking truth is
important but also the way we expressing is also very much important. Always be truthful and
polite with others. This is the attitude of author towards how one should behave with other
people.

7) The author stresses the importance of non-judging people or places the first you encounter
them. Why does he say this? What was the reaction to some of you fellow students when you
first met them? Have you become more tolerant of people after coming to college? Give reasons
for your answers.

A:- We should not judge the people or place the first time we see or we go. By seeing at the first
we cannot make the statement about them because the way when we see at the first may be right
or wrong. We already know the statement that “Never judge people by its appearance”. It is very
much important. We cannot judge the people wrong without any experience because at the first
we see they may be wrong but as reality they may be right so by meeting the persons at the first
we should not make the decision of them as the right person or not. When i meet the students for
the first time i make my smile always while talking. I never think them in the wrong way. I will
speak them with a low voice and with respect. I will never make my wrong decisions know to
them so whenever we meet a new person or place we have to behave according to their way

8) The author feels that in being school/hostel will teach his son about how to get along with
others and prepare him for the ups and downs of the life. Do you agree with his belief? Have you
found this to be true on your own situation in college? Explain with examples from the text and
your own personal experience?

A:-Yes, I agree with the authors belief. Whenever we go to new place we learn how to be at that
place. If we go to the new school/college we learn to interact to other people. This is the main
thing to proceed in our life. He thought that if his own son go to school/college he can get a
clarity how to behave with others and he can make sure that he can live alone. The author also
thought that the boy should know to react accordingly to the situations.
I found this to be true because if we go to the college then there we find the different people and
we can get a clarity that how to behave with them. There will be ups and downs so we can learn
how to make our mistakes right by the fallings. We learn how to behave in society,
When i went to the college for the first time i was afraid of that people but by continuing in that
way i learned to interact with others and i learned that not to fall down always. I learnt these
from my college. The way we behave with others is much more important. This can be learnt by
meeting with different people for the first time.
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UNIT-II: The Brook: Alfred Tennyson

“The Brook”
1) How has the poet described Landscape, flowers, plants and colours in the poem?

The poem is an autobiography of a brook. The narrator is the brook itself. It describes the
journey of its life. It comes from the places which are frequently visited by water-birds like coot
and heron. It emerges suddenly and flows down a valley with a lot of noise.

It hurries down the hills and slips by the ridges. During its journey it passes by thirty hills,
twenty villages, fifty bridges and a little town. It then flows by Philip’s farm and joins the
brimming river. Generations after generations of men come and die, but it flows for ever.

The brook makes strange and loud noises as it flows over stony paths and rocks. Sometimes its
water moves in spirals, It gets angry when it makes many curves on its banks and fallow fields. It
also passes with noises by many places and fairy forelands covered with willow-weed and
mallow. Then it joins the brimming river.

The brook moves in a zig-zag manner. Here and there one can see flowers floating on its surface.
Many lusty trout fish or grayling are found in it. Swallows skim over its surface. Foam-ing flakes
are also seen. It carries all these things to join the brimming river.

The brook passes silently by lawns and grassy plots. It slides by small hazel trees. It takes the
sweet forget-me-not flowers for happy lovers. The swallows fly over its surface, The sun-beams
fall on its surface and appear to dance. It slips, slides, glooms and glances merrily while flowing.

The brook passes through thorny wildernesses at nights. Then it murmurs. The moon and stars
shine. It flows very slowly by its shingles. It loiters round the pungent leaved plants like creases.
It then curves and flows to join the brimming river. It says that men may come and men may go
but it goes on forever.

2) How did Alfred Tennyson draw parallelism between the journey of The Brook and the
life of a men?

The poem ‘The Brook’ appears to be a symbol of life. It describes the journey of a brook from its
source to the river that it joins. The poem is an autobiography in which the brook has been
personified.

There is a close parallelism between life and the brook. Like men the brook has a beginning a
middle and an end:

 A child is born, the brook emerges from the haunts of coot and heron. The child grows up
rapidly. The brook too makes a sudden sally.

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 During youth a person in young, vivacious, strong and full of courage and enthusiasm.
The brook too hurries down, ‘sallies’, ‘bickers and ‘chatters’ in its youth. All these words
describe movement and denote youthfulness.
 Men in old age shed anger and become peace-loving and wise. The brook too avoids
clashes with the disturbances it faces on its course. It flows by them quietly and
smoothly.
 Human beings are a source of support and help for others. They preserve life. The brook
too supports life. It has ‘trout’ and ‘grayling’ in its water.
The poem is full of images that come alive through skillful use of words. One image is that
brook flowing rapidly through hills and valleys, under the bridges and by the villages. The
second image is that of zig-zag movement of the brook. It moves on carrying the blossoms or
foam on its waves. We can see ‘trout’ and ‘grayling’ gliding in its water.

Just like the journey of Brook the human beings have to face many ups and downs before they
are finally successful. The message of the poem is that one should not give up, one should
overcome difficulties and keep on moving, happily till the target is achieved.

Man is mortal while the brook goes on forever.

UNIT-III: The Death Trap: Saki

The Death Trap – ‘Saki’ ([Link])

The one act play “The Death Trap” revolves around the conspiracy against the reigning prince
of Kedaria, prince Dimitri, who turns the table on his assassins at the end of the play. Prince
Dimitri, the young ruler of Kedaria, has rivalry with Prince Karl, who desired to capture the
political power of Kedaria by murdering the reigning prince. So, Dimitri’s enemies hatch a plan
to assassin him and they are waiting for the right moment to execute it.

Three Military Regiments namely Andrieff Regiment, Lonyadi Regiment

and Kranitzki Regiment guard the Prince Dimitri, the reigning Prince of Kedaria. Dr. Stronetz,
a faithful physician, is also very loyal to the prince Demitri. The Kranitzki Regiment is being
loyal to the enemy and the three officers of this Regiment, Colonel Girnitza, Major Vontieff and
Captian Shultz are all set to murder Prince Dimitri as soon as the loyal Andrieff Regiment leaves
from its duty. These officers of Kranitzki Regiment are disloyal to Prince Dimitri but very loyal
to Prince Karl, who is willing to kill Prince Dimitri and want to become the king of Kedaria.

When the play “The Death Trap” opens where three guards of Kranitazki Regiment are seen
plotting the assassination of Prince Dimitri so that Prince Karl can ascend the throne. The
conversation among the three disloyal guards reveals that they are openly conspire to murder the
prince. They are very aware that the Prince Dimitri is already suspecting them. Yet, they go
ahead with murder plan because they are being backed by the political support of Prince Karl.

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Following the conversation between the Prince Dimitri and his loyal physician Dr. Stronetz, we
get to know that Prince Dimitri came to power at his very young age when he did not know
anything about the rules of governance or responsibility. This shows his helplessness, which is
now an advantage to his enemies.

Prince Dimitri is well aware that he is “trapped” and that his own guards are plotting to kill him.
This is a painful realisation for him. He also knows very well that he would be killed at any
moment as soon as his loyal Andrieff Regiment leaves. He has no weapons to defend himself.
No one is allowed to see him except his friend and personal physician Dr. Stronetz. Out of
kindness and loyalty Dr. Stonetz devices a clever plan as a physician. Instantly, he asks the
Prince to remove his robes for a fake of physical examination, which will help him to fool the
officers of the disloyal Kranitzki Regiment. His efforts are only temporarily delay the murder of
the Prince. But this delay helps the Prince to take revenge on disloyal officers.

However, the hard truth behind the physical examination of the Prince reveals that he is really
suffering from an incurable heart disease. This is another shocking realization to the Prince. He
decides to commit suicide instead of being killed in the hands of his disloyal guards. He requests
Dr. Stronetz to provide him a phial of poison, which can kill him so that he can invite his death
as a ruler without being killed. Dr. Strontez gives him a phial of poison. But as final act of
revenge, when death is inevitable to him, the Prince Dimitri wants to die only after punishing his
enemies. So he mixes the entire phial of poison in a bottle of wine and invites the three officers
for a final drink. He shares the poisoned wine after drinking it himself. It is a sight of pity for the
Prince but at the same time he shows a clever act of revenge. The Prince thus overcomes his
helplessness by his intelligence even though he cannot avoid his own death.

Thus the title of the play “The Death Trap” projects how the Prince and his helplessness
becomes the ‘death trap’ to the officers of Kranitzki Regiment as result to their

disloyalty.

UNIT-IV : Innovation: Muhammad Yunus

Mohammad Yunus

Mohammad Yunus , the noble Laureate rose to fame with his Grameen bank . He was an
Author, Economist and founder of Grameen Bank. He was awarded Noble prize in 2006. He
listed one among the 12 top Business leaders by Times Magazine. Warton school of business
chose him as one of the 25 most influential business person of the past 25 years. He was born on
28th june 1940. In the village of Bathua in Hathzari, Chittagong, Bangladesh. His father worked
as a jeweller and his mother was a home-maker but he considered his mother as his role model to
focus on micro finance and micro-credit.

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Yunus parents moved to Chittagong when he was only 4 years old. In 1955 Yunus
developed interest in boy scouts and got a chance to travel to Canada to attend a Jamboree. He
performed well in school and studied at Dhaka University. His first job was of a research
assistant. Later he joined as a Lecturer in Economics in Chittagong College in 1965. Yunus
received full bright scholarship to study economics at Vanderbilt University and completed his
Ph.D. after he worked as a Professor in Economics in US for 3 years.

However in 1971 India and Pakistan engaged Bangladesh Liberation war which lasted for
9 months. At that time Yunus was in USA and started an information centre to help his
Bangladeshi friends. After war Yunus returned to Bangladesh and joined Chittagong University
acting as Head of the Department.

After Yunus returned to Bangladesh on 1974, the Country suffered famine accompanied
by flood. People suffered a lot from starvation. Yunus was profoundly affected by this and he
actively participated in poverty reduction. He established a rural economic program as a research
project. He wanted to know the actual damage caused by the famine.

In 1967, as a part of his programme he visited poorest households, there he interviewed a

woman who makes bamboo stools. There he realised exorbitant rates of interest, they were
charged and barely made profits. He decided to give loan equivalent to 27 US dollars to 42
woman. It was his first loan. There he realised micro finance and micro credit could really help
Bangladesh.

Yunus knew that traditional banks could not be interested in loans for poor people. Then
he applied a loan from the Government Janatha Bank to set up his own institution. Finally in
1976, he got loan and set up to work by 1982 Grameena Bank expanded to 28000 members and
in 1983 got its status of fully fledged bank. Then it focussed on irrigation schemes, equity
projects and telecommunication.

By 2007 Grameena Bank issued over six billions dollars to more than seven billions
borrowers. Repayment of this loans was ensured through “Solidarity groups”. These group of
people would apply for loan and the members within a group support one another to ensure
repayment. Nearly 95% of loans were given to women. Grameena Bank Alleviated property and
empowered women.

UNIT-V: Politics and the English Language

Politics and the English Language

GeorgeOrwell
"Politics and the English Language" (1946) is an essay by George Orwell that
criticised the "ugly and inaccurate" written English of his time and examines the connection
between political orthodoxies and the debasement of language.
The essay focuses on political language, which, according to Orwell, "is designed to
make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure
wind". Orwell believed that the language used was necessarily vague or meaningless because it
was intended to hide the truth ratherthan express it. This unclear prose was a "contagion" which
had spread to those who did not intend to hide the truth, and it concealed a writer's thoughts
from himself and others. Orwell encourages concreteness and clarity instead ofvagueness, and

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individuality over political conformity.

Orwell relates what he believes to be a close association between bad prose and
oppressive ideology.
In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible.
Things like the continuance of British rule in India, the Russian purges and deportations, the
dropping of the atom bombs on Japan, can indeed be defended, but only by arguments which
are too brutal for most people to face, and which do not square with the professed aims of
political parties. Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging
and sheer cloudy vagueness. Defenseless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants
driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary
bullets: this is called pacification. Millions of peasants are robbed of their farms and sent
trudging along the roads with no more than they can carry:this is called transfer of population or
rectification of frontiers. People are imprisoned for years without trial, or shot in the back of
the neck or sent to die ofscurvy in Arctic lumber camps: this is called elimination of unreliable
elements. Such phraseology is needed if one wants to name things without calling up mental
pictures of them.

One of Orwell's points is:

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's
real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted
idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.
The insincerity of the writer perpetuates the decline of the language as people
(particularly politicians, Orwell later notes) attempt to disguise their intentions behind
euphemisms and convoluted phrasing. Orwell says that this decline is self-perpetuating. He
argues that it is easier to think with poor English because the language is in decline; and, as the
language declines, "foolish" thoughts become even easier, reinforcing the original cause.
A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, and then fail all the
more completely because he drinks. It is rather the same thing that is happening to the English
language. It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the
slovenliness of our language makes it easier to havefoolish thoughts.
Orwell discusses "pretentious diction" and "meaningless words". "Pretentious diction"
is used to make biases look impartial and scientific, while "meaningless words" are used to
stop the reader from seeing the point of the statement. According to Orwell: "In certain kinds
of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long
passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning.

REMEDY OF SIX RULES

The progressive decline of the English language was reversible and suggested six rules which,
he claimed, would prevent many of these faults, although "one could keep all of them and still
write bad English".

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing
in print. (Examples that Orwell gave included "ring the changes", "Achilles' heel",

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"swan song", and "hotbed". He described suchphrases as "dying metaphors" and

argued that they were used without knowing what was truly being said. Furthermore,
he said that using metaphors of this kind made the original meaning of the phrases
meaningless because those who used them did not know their original meaning. He
wrote that "some metaphors now current have been twistedout of their original
meaning without those who use them even being aware of the fact".)
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you canthink of an
everyday English equivalent.
Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

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