Communication skills in English (ENG259) has been designed for a special purpose. There have been conventional courses of compulsory English in the schools and colleges, but such courses do not teach the use of English for day-to-day communication in a variety of formal and informal situations. Our students need ability to use English in their jobs and careers, where they have to use English for reporting events and incidents, describing people and places, drafting official and business reports, and so on. Our gradutes of any discipline are going to enter a new world created by globalization and ever-expanding market economy. To be successful in this new corporate world they need to be efficient in their use of English in the communicative situations they are going to face. They can achieve mobility in the job market only if they can use English effectively for communication.

We are all aware that it is not possible to teach to learn the whole of language. Our students need English for specific purposes. We have to design courses to cater to these needs. These three books of communicative skills have been designed to make students acquire the skill of formal spoken and written English. The writing team and the editor of these course books are experienced teachers in the field. They have made a commendable effort to introduce some basic skills of communication in addition to the structural patterns of English, which the students will find useful. Each unit contains variety of exercises on grammar as well as a communicative skill. There are answers to these exercises at the end of self-correction by the learners.

Self-confidence - We are sure that all of you strongly wish for a mastery over the English language. Your wish will be fulfilled if you are ready to work hard. Perhaps some of you have already mastered the basics of the English language, but you do not have self- confidence in speaking or writing English. You might feel that people will find fault with your English and therefore, you might avoid using English. In fact, there is no reason for your diffidence in the use of English. Jespersen, a well-known grammarian of English (interestingly enough, he was not an Englishman), said that if one wants to master a foreign language one should first learn to murder it. Therefore, start speaking and writing English without any fear and tension.

Appropriateness in language It is commendable that some of us are very particular about grammatical correctness. It is, no doubt, very important to be grammatically correct in what we say or write, but it is equally important to see that what we say or write is appropriate to the context in which it is used. 
The following sentences communicate basically the same kind of meaning and they are all grammatically correct - 
(1) Give me some water. 
(2) Please give me some water. 
(3) Could I have some water, please?
(4) Would you mind giving me some water? 
(5) Is it possible for you to give me some water? 

We can easily think of a few more sentences communicating the same meaning. Each of these sentences is appropriate only in a certain context and it may be inappropriate in other context. For example, sentence (4) given above is inappropriate if it is addressed to a waiter in a restaurant. The waiter may think that you are taunting him. This suggests that we should be conscious of both grammaticality and appropriateness in learning English. We are sure that this course will be able to create such an awareness.

Syllabus

Book One

Unit 1 : Using a Dictionary

Unit 2 : Narrating

Unit 3 : Say it with Please

Unit 4 : Describing

Unit 5 : Instructions and Directions

Unit 6 : Talking on the Telephone

Book Two

Unit 1 : Reading Diagrams and Graphs

Unit 2 : Taking and Making Notes

Unit 3 : Writing Letter: Personal

Unit 4 : Writing Business Letters

Unit 5 : Reporting

Unit 6 : Paragraph Writing

Book Three

Unit 1 : First Aid

Unit 2 : Reading a News Paper

Unit 3 : Who am I

Unit 4 : Making Communication Work

Unit 5 : Crucial Interactions

Unit 6 : Reading Along, Between and Beyond the Lines

Unit 7 : Influencing Others and Arguing