Course

English I

This course aims at achieving fluency and confidence in spoken and written English. This course will use insights from theories of learning and dominant methods of teaching language.

by Prof. Rajesh Kumar

Course ID: BSHS1101

Course Credits: 4

Course Type: Foundation

Pre-requisites: None

What you'll learn

Acquiring wide range of vocabulary and linguistic competence that is required for functional performance;

Identifying patterns of basic sentence types and structural accuracy;

Building elementary foundations for the knowledge related to conventions and use of language in society, particularly in speaking and listening skills;

Developing the basic skills for creative reading and writing with precision.

Course structure & Assessments

4 credit course, weekly online assignments, 2 in-person invigilated quizzes, 1 in-person invigilated end term exam. For details, visit Academics.

WEEK 1	Sounds and Words (Vowel and Consonant sounds)
WEEK 2	Parts of Speech and Articles.
WEEK 3	Words and Phrases (Vocabulary, Phrasal & Modal Verbs and Idioms)
WEEK 4	Speaking Skill (Spoken English Preliminaries and Telephone English)
WEEK 5	Functional Grammar (Tenses)
WEEK 6	Reading Skills (Skimming, Scanning and Comprehension)
WEEK 7	Listening Skill (Active, Passive and Effective Listening)
WEEK 8	Nuances of Words (Stress, Aspiration and Syllabification)
WEEK 9	Speaking Skill 2 (Presentation and Group Discussion)
WEEK 10	Writing Skill 1 (Basics of Writing)
WEEK 11	Writing Skill 2 (Note, Business Writing and Essays)
WEEK 12	Writing Skill 3 (Professional Writing)

Prescribed Books

The following are the suggested books:

Aarts, Bas (2011). Oxford Modern English Grammar, New York: Oxford University Press

Murphy, Raymond (2012). English Grammar in Use, New York: Cambridge University Press. 4th Edition

Krishnaswamy, Subashree and K. Srilata eds. (2007). Short Fiction from South India. Delhi: OUP.

Dhanavel, S.P. (2010). English and soft skills (V-1). Chennai: Orient Blackswan.

References:

Oxford English Dictionary

Croft, Sebastian (2018). How to Analyze People: The Ultimate Guide to Speed Reading People Through Proven Psychological Techniques, Body Language Analysis and Personality Types and Patterns (Available on Kindle)

Malgudi Days: A collection of short-stories (RK Narayan)

365 Jataka Tales (Om Books International)

365 Panchtatra Stories (Adil Mukesh)

365 Tales from Indian Mythology (Om Books International)

About the Instructors

Prof. Rajesh Kumar

Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras

Rajesh Kumar is professor of linguistics in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai. He obtained his PhD in linguistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to joining IIT Madras, he taught at IIT Kanpur, and IIT Patna in India and at the University of Texas at Austin in the USA. He has been a visiting faculty at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai in India. His book on Syntax of Negation and Licensing of Negative Polarity Items was published by Routledge in their prestigious series Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics in 2006. He is associate editor of the journal Language and Language Teaching. He has been part of the language teaching program at all the institutions he has been affiliated with. The broad goal of his research is to uncover regularities underlying both the form (what language is) and sociolinguistic functions (what language does) of natural languages.

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