COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN ENGLISH - University Of Calicut

COMMUNICATION SKILLSIN ENGLISHFIRST SEMESTERB.A/B.Sc/B.Com/B.B.ACOMMON COURSE IN ENGLISH(2012 Admission Onwards)UNIVERSITY OF CALICUTSCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATIONCalicut University, P.O. Malappuram, Kerala, India-673 635101(A)

School of Distance EducationUNIVERSITY OF CALICUTSCHOOL OF DISTANCE EDUCATIONFirst SemesterB.A/B.Sc/B.Com/B.B.ACommon Course in English(2012 Admission)COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN ENGLISHPrepared byDr. C.K Ahammed,M. A, M.Phil, Adib-i-Fazil, Ph.DAssociate ProfessorCentre For Advanced Studies And Research In EnglishFarook College, Calicut – 673632Scrutinized byDr. M.A Sajitha M.A, B.Ed, Ph.DAssistant Professor,Centre for Advanced Studies and Research in EnglishFarook College, Calicut – 673632.Layout & Settings:Computer Section, SDE ReservedCommunication Skills in EnglishPage 2

School of Distance EducationCONTENTSUNITIBASICS OF PHONETICS05-22UNITIIENGLISH ICATION SKILLS147-171Communication Skills in EnglishPage 3

School of Distance EducationCommunication Skills in EnglishPage 4

School of Distance EducationUNIT IBASICS OF PHONETICSObjectivesThis module will helpa.b.c.d.e.f.To understand the basics of “Phonetics”.To familiarise the students with the sounds and symbols of English.To identify the various reasons for incorrect pronunciation.To understand the Syllable, Word stress and IntonationTo help students learn to pronounce vowels, diphthongs and consonant sounds properly.To familiarize the students with transcription, strong forms and weak forms of words.IntroductionThe international language, English is a window to the outside world. As a global languageit has a unique status . English has no one-to-one correspondence between the letters of thealphabets and the sounds they represent. For example, the letter /i/ is pronounced differently in“ink” and “ice”. The letter /K/ in “keep” and /C/ in “cat”is pronounced alike . In English, one letterof the alphabet stands for more than one sound. Thus there is no one to one relationship betweenspelling and pronunciation.It is a fact that some speakers of English attract us with their good command of languagewith correct pronunciation. English is a foreign language and we are not the native speakers ofEnglish. In India it is a second language and so there exists a serious problem with regard to thecorrect pronunciation of the English words. Since there are varieties of English spoken indifferent parts of the world, we often come across, incorrect pronunciation and mispronunciations.Some of the reasons for incorrect pronunciation are given below:1. In countries where English is the native or first language, the children get enough exposureto English. They learn to respond to sounds and tones which their elders habitually usewhile talking to them. Later they imitate and learn to speak in the mother tongue accent.2. In countries like India where English is a second or foreign language, children listen towrong sounds and tones spoken by their teachers or grownups. Thus they tend to pick upfaulty pronunciation. This happens mainly due to their lack of sufficient exposure to theright variety of the language.3. Very often we tend to speak English as we speak our mother tongue. Thus due to theinfluence or interference of our mother tongue we make a number of mistakes.The Phonetic AlphabetThe twenty six letters of English alphabet are used for writing English. There aredifferences between the writing and pronunciation of English. So we need more alphabets torepresent all the speech sounds in English. The distinctive sound units that help to pronounce arethe phonemes. Phoneme is the minimal sound unit. There are 44 phonemes in English. The studyof phonemes is known as phonology. The 44 sound units in English contain 44 symbols. Thesesymbols are classified as given below;Communication Skills in EnglishPage 5

School of Distance EducationTotal Sounds 44 Consonants 24 Vowels 20 (Pure Vowel 12 Diphthongs 8)IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)These are the alphabets accepted by the International phonetic Association to represent all thesounds that exist in all the languages of the world. These alphabets are based on the Romanalphabets.Received Pronunciation (RP)Since English is a world language, it is spoken in every parts of the world. In somecountries like U.K, U.S.A, Canada and Australia, English is the native or first language. But incountries like China, Pakistan, India etc, English is the second language or non-native language. Asthere are variations in accent, tones and pronunciation, it is essential for us to follow a standardvariety of English that is received or accepted by all people in the world. Such a native regionalvariety with an accepted accent that has gained a social prestige and status is known as theReceived Pronunciation (RP) of English . It is the pronunciation of the people of South EastEngland and is used by all educated English speakers all over the world.Misconception about soundsThere are 26 letters in English and so most of us believe that there are only 26 sounds inEnglish. Because of this misconception most of the Indian students fail to get acquainted with theright pronunciation and accent. Actually, though there are 26 letters, there are 44 different soundsin English. An alphabet is different from the sound. Look at the following words1) cat,2) keen,3) occasion,4 )Chemistryin these words c, k, cc and ch have /k/ sound. Sometimes same alphabets may have differentsounds.1) Chemist2) Character3) Cheese4 ) Chess‘Ch’ give /k/ sound‘Ch’ give / tʃ / soundTranscriptionTo indicate standard sounds in English there are some standard symbols. These symbolsthat are accepted by the educated class of people are known as IPA (International PhoneticAlphabet). Using standard symbols for standard sounds is known as Transcription. There are twotypes of transcriptions (1) Broad Transcription and ( 2) Narrow Transcription or phonetic andphonemic transcription.Communication Skills in EnglishPage 6

School of Distance EducationVowelsVowels are pronounced with an open tract and so there is no formation of air pressure at any pointabove the glottis. A vowel is a sustainable vocal sound made without audible stopping of thebreath or friction in its passage out through the mouth. A vowel sound, the quality of which doesnot changes over the duration of the vowel is called a pure vowel. There are 12 pure vowel soundsin English which are given below with examples.PURE VOWELS1./ɪ/as in sit /sɪt/2.3.4./i:/as in beat /bi:t//e/ as in bet /beg//æ/as in sat /sæt/5./ɑ:/as in farm /fɑ:m/6./ɒ/ as in got /got/7./ɔ:/ as in all /ɔ:l /8./ʊ/ as in put /pʊt/9./u:/ as in fool /fu:l/10. /ʌ/ as in but /bʌt/11. /ɜ:/ as in bird /bɜ:d/12. /ə/ as in ago /əgəʊ/Vowel sounds may appear in the initial, medial or final position. Examples are given below:Sound i: i or /I e æ ʌ lMedialFinalInitialMedialFinalInitialExamplesEat, eachPiece, thief, seed, dreamSee, pea, keyIt, in, inkSilk, thick, slip, hit, cityDuty, beauty, lonely, quicklyEmpire, enter, existBed, dead, head, wet, redDoesn’t occur in the final positionActor, axe, appleBank, man, sad, mangoDoesn’t occur in the final positionUtter, uplift, understandMedialFinalBus, dull, dust, gun, munchDoesn’t occur in the final positionCommunication Skills in EnglishPage 7

School of Distance Education α: ɔ InitialMedialFinalInitialAunt, art, answerCar, hard, farm, march, fastCar, bar, jarOffice, oxygen, ɔ: MedialFinalInitialHot, bottle, dog, lockDoesn’t occur in the final positionAll, awkward, ought ʊ MedialFinalInitialBall, call, morningSaw, raw, clawDoesn’t occur in the initial FinalInitialMedialFinalBook, cook, look, woodDoesn’t occur in the final positionDoesn’t occur in the initial positionRule, groove, suit, stupidNew, shoe, twoEarly, earnThird, murder, suffer, nurse, dirtDoesn’t occur in the final positionAbout, effort, ago, allowSentence, condition, factoryMotor, colour, doctor, beggar u: ə : or/3:/ ə DiphthongsThese sounds indicate vowel quality beginning in one vowel sound and later gliding intoanother vowel. So they are gliding vowels. The eight diphthongs in English are given below:DIPHTHONGSCommunication Skills in English1./eɪ/as in hay /heɪ /2./aɪ/ as in life /laɪf/3./ɔɪ/as in boy /bɔɪ/4./əʊ/as in go /gəʊ/5./aʊ/ as in cow /kaʊ/6./ɪə/ as in hear /hɪə/7./ʊə/ as in pure /pjʊə/8./eə/ as in care /keə/Page 8

School of Distance EducationCONSONANTSA consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of thevocal tract.Examples: p : pronounced with the lips t : pronounced with the front of the tongue k : pronounced with the back of the tongue h : pronounced from glottis f and v : pronounced by forcing air through a narrow channel. m and n : While pronouncing the air flowing through the nose .( So nasal sounds) .There are 24 consonants in English. They are given below:NoSoundExample1. p pin, spill, keep2. b bit, imbibe, jumble3. t tin, after, what4. d dog, order, lead5. k cut, character, neck6. g get, girl, eager7. tʃ cheap, nature, watch8. dʒ jeep, jealous, judge9. m map, man, remind, mine10.nap, near, line, Christian11. n ŋ 12. l leaf, relate, detail13. f fat, feather, half14. v van, wave, velvet15. ө thin, thank, wrath16. ð then, feather, breath17. s Sap, sound, cross18. z maze, gaze, zenith19. ʃ she, nation, shout20. ʒ measure, pleasure, treasure21. h harm, house, he22. r run, ruin, ray23. w we, wicked, watch24. j yet, yesterday, yousang, song, bring, singingCommunication Skills in EnglishPage 9

School of Distance EducationProblems of Indian English1 ) In Indian English S and z are not pronouncedconfusion between pairs. Examples are given below: z s ctly in words and this leads to2) Interchanging of the sounds ʃ and s s ʃ ShaveSaveSheSeeSheetSeatShineSign3)Confusion between the sounds v and w v w VeryWhiteVestWestVineWhyVoiceWearTo understand the distinctions between sounds enough practice with tongue twisters isessential. Example :She sells sea shells on the sea shore.Practice Test(A). Identify the sounds of the underlined letters in the following words.1. Curious6. Trunk2. Boat7. Approve3. My8. Aware4. Tragedy9. Exploit5. Birds10. DeathCommunication Skills in EnglishPage 10