Session-1
What is Communication?
Communication means sharing of information or ideas, this could take place either between two individuals or a group of individuals.
Importance of communication
If you have good communication skills, you can Inform, Influence, and Express your feelings effectively.
- Inform: To convey a piece of particular information or a fact. For example – I got late because I was stuck in heavy traffic.
- Influence: To influence someone to take a particular action that you want. For example – Influencing the audience to buy your products.
- Express Feelings: Sharing how you feel about an event or a person. For example – Expressing your love towards your parents.
Elements of Communication
Communication is an exchange of information between two parties, one who conveys the information and the other who receives the information.
- Speaking and writing are examples of giving information.
- Reading and listening are examples of receiving information.
Elements of Communication Cycle
- Sender
- Idea/Message
- Encoding
- Communication Channel
- Decoding
- Receiver
- Feedback
Perspectives in communication
Perspectives are ideas, views, or fixed ways of thinking. This affects our conversation a lot. For example, you have a fixed view about a person being rude towards you, so you communicate with that person in a particular way, even when that person is being friendly you assume that to be rude in an indirect way.
Factors affecting Perspectives in Communication
- Language
- Visual Perception
- Past Experience
- Prejudice
- Feelings
- Environment
- Personal factors
- Culture
Effective communication
Effective communication occurs when we follow the basic principles of communication – The 7 C’s of effective communication.
- Clear
- Concise
- Concrete
- Correct
- Coherent
- Complete
- Courteous
Session-2
Verbal Communication: Sharing of Information by using words is called Verbal Communication.
Type of Verbal Communication
- Oral or Spoken Communication: This form of verbal Communication type involves talking.
- Written Communication: Written words or typed words are involved in this type of verbal communication.
Advantages of verbal communication
- Verbal Communication is very quick and easy.
- We get fast responses from other parties.
- We can change communication according to the other person’s reply.
Disadvantages of verbal communication
- Cultural difference between the two parties creates a communication barrier – Like the use of different languages, accent, etc.
- Verbal communication depends only on words, and sometimes the meaning of some words could be confusing and misunderstanding between the sender and receiver may take place.
Public speaking
Speaking in front of a large number of people is called public speaking. Many people become nervous when they speak in front of a large group.
To become fearless and confident in public speaking, you can follow the 3P method –
- Prepare
- Practice
- Perform
Session 3: Non-Verbal Communication
The type of communication in which words are not used to send the information, rather we use signs, gestures, expressions etc to send our message to the other person. Importance of non-verbal communication
- In our daily conversation, most of the communication takes place through body language, voice controls and other non-verbal forms.
- Using the right body language while speaking makes our message more effective.
- Using the right body language while speaking makes us look more confident.
- If in case we can not use verbal communication we can share the message through our gestures.
Types of Non-verbal Communication
- Facial Expression
- Posture
- Gestures or Body Language
- Touch
- Space
- Eye Contact
- Paralanguage
Paralanguage is the tone of our voice, speed and volume that makes a difference in the meaning of the communication.
What is Visual communication?
Visual communication involves sending and understanding messages only through images or pictures. The main advantage of this type of communication is –
- Easy to understand.
- It can convey the message to large audience.
Examples of Visual Communication
Session 4: Writing Skills: Parts of Speech
What is sentence and phrase?
- Sentence – A sentence is a group of words that communicates a complete thought (Example: Raju goes to school).
- Phrase – A group of words, which does not make complete sense, is known as a phrase (Example: Raju goes).
A sentence always begins with a capital letter, and it always ends with a question mark, full stop or exclamation mark.
Using capitals
We know that all sentences begin with capital letters. These capitalization rules can easily be understood using ‘MINTS’: ‘MINTS’ is a set of simple rules that help you capitalize words correctly.
Punctuation
It is a set of marks, such as the full stop and the comma, which help us separate parts of a sentence and explain its meaning. Some common punctuation marks are –
| Punctuation name | Sign | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Full stop | ( . ) | Shows the end of a sentence. |
| Comma | ( , ) | Sometimes, we use a comma to indicate a pause in the sentence. |
| Question mark | ( ? ) | We use a question mark at the end of a question. |
| Exclamation mark | ( ! ) | We use an exclamation mark at the end of a word or a sentence to indicate a strong feeling. |
| Apostrophe | ( ‘ ) | We use an apostrophe followed by an ‘s’ to show that something belongs to someone. |
Basic parts of speech
There are eight basic parts of speech in the English language. These are noun, pronoun, verb, adjective,
adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection.
| Parts of Speech | What they do | Example sentences |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | Nouns are words that refer to a person, place, thing or idea. These are ‘naming words.’ | – ‘Reema wrote a letter.’ – Both Reema and letter are nouns. |
| Pronoun | A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun. | – “Reema wrote a letter. She is tired.” – ‘She’ is used in place of the noun Reema, it is a pronoun. |
| Adjectives | Adjectives are words that describe other words | – “Reema wrote a long letter.” – Long is an adjective that describes the noun ‘letter’. |
| Verbs | Verbs are words that show action | – “Reema wrote a letter.” – Wrote is the verb. It tells what action Reema did. |
| Adverbs | Adverbs are words that add meaning to verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. | – “Reema quickly wrote a letter.” – – Quickly is an adverb. It tells us how Reema did the action (writing). |
Supporting parts of speech types
Along with the main ‘Parts of Speech’, there are some more words we need for making a sentence.
| Supporting Parts of Speech | Use | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Articles | The words ‘a’, ‘an’ and ‘the’ are known as articles. Articles are generally used before nouns. | The car stopped suddenly because a cat ran in front of it. – A book – An apple – An umbrella – The sun |
| Conjunctions | Conjunctions are words that join two nouns, phrases or sentences. Some common conjunctions are ‘and’, ‘or’ and ‘but’. | Do you want oranges or apples? |
| Prepositions | Prepositions connect one word with another to show the relation between them. They usually answer the questions ‘where’, ‘when’ and ‘how’. | Some common prepositions are ‘on’, ‘at’, ‘under’ and ‘in’. – The cat is on the roof. |
| Interjections | These words express strong emotions, such as happiness, surprise, anger or pain. They have an exclamation mark at the end. | Wow! Oh! Oh no! Thanks! Help! |
Session 5: Writing Skills: Sentences
What is subject, verb and object?
All English sentences have a subject and a verb. Some also have an object.
- Subject – A subject is the person or thing that does an action.
- Verb – A verb describes the action.
- Object – Object is the person or thing that receives the action.
For example, “Divya reads a book”.
- Subject – Divya
- Verb – Reads
- Object – a book
Different types of objects?
The object in a sentence can be either direct or indirect. Direct objects are the ones directly ‘acted on’ by the action word (verb). An indirect object answers questions, such as ‘to whom’ and ‘for whom’.
For example, what did Abdul give? The gift. To whom did Abdul give the gift? To his mother. Here, ‘gift’ is the direct object and ‘his mother’ is the indirect object.
Different types of sentences?
A sentence is a group of words that communicates a complete thought. There are two different types of sentences Active voice and Passive voice.
- Active voice – Sentences where the subject does an action are known to be in the Active voice.
- Passive voice – Sentences in which the subject receives an action are known to be in the Passive voice.
Types of sentences according to their purpose
| Statement or Declarative Sentence | This is the most common type of sentence. It provides information or states a fact. It always ends with a ‘full-stop’ (‘.’). |
| Question or Interrogative Sentence | This type of sentence asks a question. It always ends with a question mark (‘?’). |
| Emotion/Reaction or Exclamatory Sentence | An exclamatory sentence expresses a strong emotion, such as joy, sadness, fear or wonder. It always ends with an exclamation mark (‘!’). |
| Order or Imperative Sentence | These sentences show an order, command, request, or advice. It can end with a full stop or an exclamation mark (‘.’ or ‘!’). |
What do you mean by paragraphs?
A group of sentences forms a paragraph, or paragraph is a group of sentences focused on single topic. While writing a paragraph, make sure the sentences have a common idea.
Session 6: Pronunciation Basics
What is pronunciation?
Pronunciation is the way you say a word; correct pronunciation will help you express yourself in a clear and confident manner. It will also help others to understand your words easily.
What is phonetics?
Phonetics is the study of the sounds that we make when we speak, we use more than 26 sounds when we speak English. For example, the word dog is made of three sounds put together: d-o-g.
All English words are made of three basic types of sounds as shown in below table –
| Vowels | Diphthongs (combination sound of two vowels) | Consonant |
|---|---|---|
| The English alphabet has five vowels (a, e, i, o and u) but 12 vowel sounds. This means most vowels can be pronounced in different ways. We make a vowel sound when we read a vowel in a word. | We make a diphthong sound when we combine two vowels. Diphthongs start as one vowel sound and go to another. | A consonant sound is any sound that is neither a vowel nor a diphthong sound. |
Session 7: Greetings and Introductions
What is greeting?
There are many ways to greet a person, greeting is a polite method to acknowledge someone when you meet them.
Different types of greetings?
There are two types of greetings formals greetings and Informal greetings.
- Formal greetings – Formal greetings are used if you do not know the person. for example, like greetings to teachers or customers. This is used more often in schools, colleges and offices.
- Informal greetings – Informal greetings are used when you talk to friends, family or a known person.
Session 9 & 10: Asking Questions I & II
What is asking questions?
A question is a sentence, phrase, or word that either asks for information or is used to test someone’s
knowledge. We always use a question mark (?) at the end of a question.
Different types of questions?
There are two different types of questions, Open ended questions and Close ended questions.
- Open ended questions – When we ask a question, we expect an answer with more details is known as open ended questions. For example, if the answer is “I like to watch movies on TV.” here the answer is not limited or closed.
- Close ended questions – Questions that can be answered with a “yes” or a “no” are called close-ended question. For example, when we ask “Do you have a TV at home?”, the answer could be either “Yes” or “No”.