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ASSIGNMENT SOLUTIONS GUIDE (2022-2023)

BEGAE - 182
English communication skills
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information, data and solution. Student should must read and refer the official study material provided by the university.

Section A

1. Write short notes on any four (150 words): (4 x 5 = 20)

a) Verbal Communication

SOLUTION

Definition: The Verbal Communication is a type of oral communication wherein the message is
transmitted through the spoken words. Here the sender gives words to his feelings, thoughts, ideas and
opinions and expresses them in the form of speeches, discussions, presentations, and conversations.

The effectiveness of the verbal communication depends on the tone of the speaker, clarity of speech,
volume, speed, body language and the quality of words used in the conversation. In the case of the
verbal communication, the feedback is immediate since there are a simultaneous transmission and
receipt of the message by the sender and receiver respectively.

The sender must keep his speech tone high and clearly audible to all and must design the subject
matter keeping the target audience in mind. The sender should always cross check with the receiver to
ensure that the message is understood in absolutely the same way as it was intended. Such
communication is more prone to errors as sometimes the words are not sufficient to express the
feelings and emotions of a person.

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The success of the verbal communication depends not only on the speaking ability of an
individual but also on the listening skills. How effectively an individual listens to the subject
matter decides the effectiveness of the communication. The verbal communication is applicable
in both the formal and informal kind of situations.

Communication Process

The communication is a dynamic process that begins with the conceptualizing of ideas by the
sender who then transmits the message through a channel to the receiver, who in turn gives the
feedback in the form of some message or signal within the given time fra

Seven major elements of communication process:

1. Sender: The sender or the communicator is the person who initiates the conversation and has
conceptualized the idea that he intends to convey it to others.
2. Encoding: The sender begins with the encoding process wherein he uses certain words or non-
verbal methods such as symbols, signs, body gestures, etc. to translate the information into a
message. The sender’s knowledge, skills, perception, background, competencies, etc. has a great
impact on the success of the message.

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3. Message: Once the encoding is finished, the sender gets the message that he intends to convey.
The message can be written, oral, symbolic or non-verbal such as body gestures, silence, sighs,
sounds, etc. or any other signal that triggers the response of a receiver.
4. Communication Channel: The Sender chooses the medium through which he wants to convey
his message to the recipient. It must be selected carefully in order to make the message effective
and correctly interpreted by the recipient. The choice of medium depends on the interpersonal
relationships between the sender and the receiver and also on the urgency of the message being
sent. Oral, virtual, written, sound, gesture, etc. are some of the commonly used communication
mediums.
5. Receiver: The receiver is the person for whom the message is intended or targeted. He tries to
comprehend it in the best possible manner such that the communication objective is attained. The
degree to which the receiver decodes the message depends on his knowledge of the subject
matter, experience, trust and relationship with the sender.
6. Decoding: Here, the receiver interprets the sender’s message and tries to understand it in the best
possible manner. An effective communication occurs only if the receiver understands the
message in exactly the same way as it was intended by the sender.
7. Feedback: The Feedback is the final step of the process that ensures the receiver has received
the message and interpreted it correctly as it was intended by the sender. It increases the
effectiveness of the communication as it permits the sender to know the efficacy of his message.
The response of the receiver can be verbal or non-verbal.

b) Essentials of a Good Group Discussion

SOLUTION

Essentials of Group Discussion

Professional arena today demands people with good communication skills. In addition to these
skills one must be well acquainted with the facts and figures. interviews and group discussions
plays a vital role in the recruitment of any individual to company in the present scenario. Most of
the people keep aloof from these group discussions, debates, elocution since childhood due to
crowd fear or stage fear. This ultimately makes them weak in communication skills and hampers
further. One must fully participate in such activities because they enhance one's communication,
vocabulary, fluency in English and keeps one abreast with the current scenario. It also instills
confidence in an individual to speak on any topic.

Group discussions makes us to participate in group and put forth our views. there is a lot of
difference in a debate and a group discussion. In a debate there are two sides one in favour of the

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topic and other in opposition. They have to stick to their view. Instead in a group discussion
there are no such groups. there is a healthy discussion to get a positive and a constructive
conclusion. One can agree or disagree on the views of other fellow participants. Following are
the few essentials which have to be kept in mind while participating in a group discussion:

1. Clarity of Topic:
When the topic of the group discussion is announced. One must move the vehicles of his/her
own memory to gather all the points one can recollect. If one is totally unaware about the topic,
one must not step ahead and initiate. He must first listen to the views of other, then understand
the topic and then put forth his/her views.

2. Start where Left:

Start the discussion from where the other person has left the topic. Do not just start giving your
views. Try to synchronise your views with the views of other. Try to show agreement with others
if you are satisfied with the points else you can put forth your views on disagreement.

3. Active Participation:
One must actively participate in the group discussion to have a good impression on the jury as
well as the fellow members. but this active participation should be emulsified with relevant
views. Unnecessary and irrelevant points can put you in trouble and deduct the points. So be
careful with your views.

4. Healthy Tone:
Try to put forward your views in healthy and impressive tone. Do not get aggressive when
anybody opposes you or is against your point. It also reduces the points. Remain calm and cool.

c) Characteristics of a Good Communication

SOLUTION

Characteristics of Effective Communication

Effective Communication is the bloodline of any business. A slight misunderstanding can lead to a
financial disaster. An organization relies on effective communication to sustain and maintain itself.
Here we will see the various characteristics of effective communication.

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Characteristics of Effective Communication

Several researchers have stressed the importance of communicating one’s feelings effectively. This
is as important to a social structure as breathing is to life. Hence we have to understand the various
properties or characteristics that must qualify our communicating activities and processes.

Clear
The primary character of any spoken or written form of transmission of information should be to
state the message clearly. There are several ways to do it. For example, the sentences should be
short and simple. We should prefer the active voice over the passive voice. If we have to convey
several messages then it is convenient to state it in separate bulleted points.

Concise
Time is an essential parameter in communications. The normal attention span is just a few minutes
long. If you present your message in a clear and beautiful manner which is very long, the crux of the
report or the message may be lost altogether. Long and lengthy communique is boring and avoided
by most. So to summarize this point, effective communication has to be concise.

Concrete
Whatever message or information or data is present in your communique, it should be well-footed.
Your arguments should have data that suitably backs it up. A tangible argument is always easy to
understand.

Coherent
Suppose you are telling a story. What if you start from the middle part? Or what if you state the end
in the beginning? Of course, the whole point of narrating a story would become vain. Similarly,
when you are presenting your communique, you need to be coherent. You need to understand what
goes where and what comes when.

The key to a coherent write-up is a well-planned, logical and sequential presentation of the
information. The main ideas should be differentiable and they should follow each other in a way
that is derivative of some rules.

Courteous
We know that all business communications should have some degree of formal flavor. The
presenter should try his best to be honest, respectful, considerate, open and polite with the receiver
of the information. The message when supplemented with proper care and kindness will definitely
find an audience.

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Listening For Understanding

Communication doesn’t only mean presenting or generating information. It also means to receive it.
In fact, an effective communication channel must have a transducer and a receiver. Half of the
faculty for the process is thus a receiver. For the purpose of effective communication, a receiver
should have certain qualifiers.

A good listener will have some qualities. He would be emotionally intelligent and mature, objective
in approach and practical. His understanding of the message should not be influenced by his own
personal judgments of either the topic or the presenter. A good listener should be able to filter
through all of these limitations and reach the actual message that the presenter is relaying before
them.

Focus And Attention

Multitasking is the name of the game these days. However, while receiving or transmitting
information, a certain level of focus is essential. Suppose you are in a star communication channel
and are relaying information to multiple sources. You are replying to emails, sending emails, and
answering phones.

Any misplaced communication could be disastrous. Also, while receiving information, if you lose
focus, you may miss the important parts of the message altogether. Hence we say that focus and
attention are very crucial for effective communication.

Emotional Awareness And Control

This is the last but certainly the most important aspect of effective communication. Emotions will
guide you through any situation of life. Whether you accept a message with the intention it is
relaying with or not, depends on the emotional maturity and your emotional intelligence. Both while
relaying information or while receiving it, you have to take extreme care in keeping yourself in an
emotionally stable state.

d) Homonyms and Homophones (with suitable examples)

SOLUTION

In linguistics, a homonym is one of a group of words that share the same spelling and the same
pronunciation but have different meanings. This usually happens as a result of the two words
having different origins. The state of being a homonym is called homonymy.
A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning.
The words may be spelled the same, such as rose (flower) and rose (past tense of "rise"), or
differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two and too.
All homonyms are homophones because they sound the same. However, not all homophones are
homonyms. Homophones with different spellings are not homonyms.

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Homonym Homophone
Examples Can as in "Can I help you?" and can as in "Here's a can of Flower and
beans."; hide (as in hide-and-seek, or the second meaning Flour; fourth
— animal skin) and forth

Introduction (from In linguistics, a homonym is one of a group of words that A

Wikipedia) share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but homophone
have different meanings, usually as a result of the two is a word
words having different origins. that is
pronounced
the same as
another word
but differs in
meaning.
The words
may be
spelled the
same, such
as rose
(flower) and
rose (past
tense of
"rise"), or

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Homonym Homophone
differently,
such as
carat, caret,
and carrot,
or to, two
and too.

Spelling Homonyms have the same spelling. Homophones

may have the
same or
different
spelling.

Meaning Different Different

Pronunciation Same Same

e) Preferred techniques of Reading for understanding a text.

SOLUTION

Reading Techniques or Styles are the following:

1. Scanning.
2. Skimming.
3. Active Reading.
4. Detailed.
5. Speed.
6. Structure-Proposition-Evaluation
7. Survey-Question-Read-Recite-Review.

Section B

1. An International Conference is being organized by your institute. There are participants

from different parts of the world. You happen to meet one such participant from London.
Write a series of 8 (eight) dialogues exchanged between the two of you introducing yourself,
your country and the socio-political situation of your countries during Pandemic.

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SOLUTION

Rubika: Hi Manisha! How are you doing?

Manisha: I'm doing absolutely great. Thanks! How about you? And how are you? Are
you safe during this pandemic?

Rubika: Absolutely. I'm taking precautions. By the way, what's new these days about the
?

Manisha: The COVID-19 pandemic is far more than a health crisis: it is affecting
societies and econ-omies at their core.

Rubika: yes, The pandemic has affected the governing and political systems of multiple
counties, causing suspensions of legislative activities, isolation or deaths of multiple politicians
and reschedulings of elections due to fears of spreading the virus. What's the situation there in
your nation?

Manisha: Political campaigns switched to online and virtual activites in mid-March to

either avoid the spreading of coronavirus or to be in compliance with statewide social distancing
rules. What's social Impact are there of this pandemic?

Rubika: The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching consequences beyond the spread
of the disease itself and efforts to quarantine it, including political, cultural, and social
implications.

Manisha: we are always to help you. Just tell me once you require anything for the
welfare of citizens of your country.

Rubika: I am thankful to you Mr Manisha. Researchers have identified coronaphobia as a

byproduct of the pandemic, where individuals have an excessive fear of contracting the virus that
causes "marked impairment in daily life functioning"

Manisha: Let's just hope for the best. We need to support mankind by providing all the
sort of help that we can provide while being precautions. The world economy is drowning
drastically, and it will take years to recover from this state. I just hope that things get back to
normal as soon as possible.

Rubika: I also hope the same. Alrighty, I gotta go. I'll call you later,

Manisha! Go and do your studies and best of luck for your examination. Bye!

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2. Make a presentation on the topic (any one).

SOLUTION

Global warming is the long-term warming of the planet’s overall temperature. Though this
warming trend has been going on for a long time, its pace has significantly increased in the last
hundred years due to the burning of fossil fuels. As the human population has increased, so has
the volume of fossil fuels burned. Fossil fuels include coal, oil, and natural gas, and burning
them causes what is known as the “greenhouse effect” in Earth’s atmosphere.

The greenhouse effect is when the Sun’s rays penetrate the atmosphere, but when that heat is
reflected off the surface cannot escape back into space. Gases produced by the burning of fossil
fuels prevent the heat from leaving the atmosphere. These greenhouse gasses are carbon dioxide,
chlorofluorocarbons, water vapor, methane, and nitrous oxide. The excess heat in the atmosphere
has caused the average global temperature to rise overtime, otherwise known as global warming.

Global warming has presented another issue called climate change. Sometimes these phrases are
used interchangeably, however, they are different. Climate change refers to changes in weather
patterns and growing seasons around the world. It also refers to sea level rise caused by the
expansion of warmer seas and melting ice sheets and glaciers. Global warming causes climate
change, which poses a serious threat to life on earth in the forms of widespread flooding and
extreme weather. Scientists continue to study global warming and its impact on Earth.

Section C

1. How can one be an active participant in a meeting? Discuss some of the etiquettes
that must be followed while attending a meeting.

SOLUTION

Etiquette refers to good manners required by an individual to find a place in the society. It is
important for an individual to behave appropriately in public to earn respect and appreciation.

One must learn to maintain the decorum of the work place. It is important to respect one’s
organization to expect the same in return. No one would ever take you seriously if do not behave
well at the workplace.

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Meetings are an important part of corporates where employees sit together on a common
platform, exchange their views and opinions and reach to a solution benefitting the organization
and mutually acceptable to all.

Meeting Etiquette refers to codes of behavior an individual ought to follow while attending
meetings and discussions at the workplace.

Let us go through some meeting etiquette in detail:

 Try to find out what the meeting is all about. Understand the importance of the
meeting. Never go blank. Employees should do all the ground work before attending
meetings to ensure maximum participation from their end. Prepare notes in advance.
 Never attend meetings without a notepad and pen. It is practically not possible for an
individual to remember each and every thing discussed at the time of meeting. A notepad
helps in jotting down the important points for future reference.
 Always keep your cell phone on the silent or vibrator mode. Cell phones ringing in
the middle of meetings and seminars are considered rude and unprofessional. This might
insult others sitting in the same room as well as break the pace of the meeting.
 Do not attend phone calls during meetings unless it is an emergency. It is bad
manners to do the same.
 Superiors must create an agenda before every meeting. The agenda must be circulated
among all employees for them to prepare in advance. Meetings should not be conducted
just for the sake of it. It is important to have well defined plans. Make a list of issues to
be discussed at the time of meeting. Make sure you do not deviate from the key points.
Keep the meetings short.
 Never be late for meetings. Going late for a meeting is something which is not expected
out of a professional.
 Chewing gum during meetings is childish and must be avoided.
 Be a good listener. Listen to what others have to say. Wait for your turn to speak.
 Sit wherever you find a place. Do not run here and there.
 Do not enter the meeting room once the meeting has already begun It disturbs others.
 Avoid taking your cups of coffee or tea to meeting rooms unless and until advised by
superiors.
 Fiddling with pen or notepad is one of the major distractions in meetings. One must
concentrate and stay alert. Be an attentive listener. Do not yawn even if you find the
meeting boring.
 The one chairing the meeting must speak loud and clear. It is essential to take care of
the pitch and tone.
 Meetings ought to be interactive and allow employees to come up with their suggestions
and valuable feedback. A question answer round must be kept at the end for employees to
clear their doubts.

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 Once the meeting is over, minutes of the meeting must be prepared and circulated across
all departments for them to take necessary action
 Use Whiteboards, projectors, graphs, pointers, slides for better clarity.
 Do not convert the meeting room into a battle ground. Speak politely and do respect your
colleagues.
 Never attend meetings in casuals. Follow a professional dress code.

2. List three recommendations on how a meeting should end and what should
happen after a meeting.

SOLUTION

A common complaint among managers is that the conversations they have with employees aren’t
producing results: “We keep talking about the same issue over and over, but nothing seems to
ever happen!” That’s because most managers are missing a vital skill: the ability to deliberately
close a conversation. If you end a conversation well, it will improve each and every interaction
you have, ultimately creating impact.

Meetings are really just a series of conversations — an opportunity to clarify issues, set
direction, sharpen focus, and move objectives forward. To maximize their impact, you need to
actively design the conversation. While the overall approach is straightforward – and may seem
like basic stuff — not enough managers are actually doing this in practice:

 Set up each conversation so everyone knows the intended outcomes and how to
participate.
 Manage the conversation rigorously so the discussion stays on track and everyone is
engaged.
 Close the conversation to ensure alignment, clarity on next steps, and awareness for the
value created.

To deliberately close a conversation, consider these 5 essential tasks:

Check for completion: If you move to the next topic too quickly, people will either cycle back
to the current topic later or they will leave the meeting unclear or misaligned. You should ask:
“Is there anything else someone needs to say or ask before we change topics or adjourn the
meeting?” If the university president had asked this question and waited patiently, lingering
concerns or questions might have arisen and been dealt with right off the bat.

Check for alignment: If someone can’t live with the decisions being made in the meeting, or the
potential outcome of those decisions, you need to ask that person what it would take to get him
or her on board. People prefer to be united with the group, and if they aren’t, there’s a reason

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behind it that needs to be surfaced. Asking the question, “Is everyone OK with where we ended
up?” will surface questions or concerns so they can be resolved as soon as possible.

Agree on next steps: Getting firm, clear commitments is the primary way to ensure progress
between meetings. In order for a conversation to lead to action, specific commitments must be
made. Progress depends on clearly stating what you will do by when and asking others to do the
same. To maintain the momentum of any project, nail down specific commitments and deadlines,
and then follow up often. The question here is: “What exactly will we do by our next meeting to
ensure progress?” In the example of the journalism school, nothing happened because there was
never an action plan agreed upon with next steps, firm timelines, and individual responsibilities
clearly defined.

Reflect on the value of what you accomplished: This is one of the most powerful
acknowledgment and appreciation tools. People rarely state the value created by a conversation,
and therefore lose a wonderful opportunity to validate both the conversation and the individuals
in it. Here’s an example:

Let’s say you’re the university president from the example above, listening to several faculty
presentations for the new journalism school. After the first presentation, you say, “That was
good.” What if, instead, you said: “Let me tell you the five things I’m taking away from your
presentation.” Which do you think has more impact?

Check for acknowledgements: Did anyone contribute to the conversation in a way that needs to
be highlighted? While you don’t want to use acknowledgement and appreciation so frequently
that it becomes a commodity with no value, at times someone’s questions or remarks do help
provide the tipping point that turns an ordinary conversation into and extraordinary one – and
that’s worth acknowledging.

Imagine the impact if the university president had taken the time to use these last two elements –
sharing the value he was taking away from the meeting and acknowledging a few of the
participants. Doing so would have reinforced the conversations that occurred, supported the
people in the meeting, and encouraged everyone’s desire to produce the expected results.

3. Distinguish between ‘Silent Reading’ and ‘Reading aloud’. Also explain the two
techniques of reading needed for the proper understanding of a text.

SOLUTION

Loud Reading

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Loud reading refers to the process that allows the reader to produce sounds using his or her vocal cords and lip or
tongue movement. Loud reading helps to boost the reading skills of a person. It makes the reader more focused on
the reading material and helps him to memorize facts. This happens because the process of loud reading involves the
functioning of more sensory organs such as the eyes and ears. Loud reading also helps readers to develop their
speaking and pronunciation skills.

Silent Reading
In contrast to loud reading, silent reading is the process of reading done only internally with the
mind, without producing any sound. Therefore, in silent reading, you cannot notice any lip or
tongue movement and the functioning of the vocal cords. Silent reading most significantly helps
the reader enjoy what he or she reads. This is why silent reading can also be called reading for
pleasure.

Difference Between Loud Reading and Silent Reading

Definition
Loud reading refers to the process that allows the reader to produce sounds using his or her vocal
cords and lip or tongue movement. Silent reading is the process of reading where the reader only
uses his eyes and mind and does not produce any sound.

Speed of Reading
Compared to silent reading, loud reading is slower as it demands more (vocal) physical effort.
For instance, an average person who reads aloud 200 words per minute is capable of reading 300
words per minute if he/she is reading silently.

Reader’s Focus
Loud reading helps the reader to keep his focus fixed on the text, while during silent reading, his
mind can get easily distracted.

Focus Group
Loud reading is mainly practiced by children, but they develop the habit of silent reading as they
grow up.

Advantages
Loud reading helps the reader to maintain focus on the text, and boosts reading and
pronunciation skills. It also helps to memorize facts. Silent reading, on the other hand, is ideal for
reading in crowded places and helps tp improve fast reading skills.

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Conclusion
The main difference between loud reading and silent reading is that in loud reading the reader
produces sound using his tongue, muscles, and vocal cords, whereas in silent reading, no such
sound is produced as the reader only uses the mind for the process of reading. Although loud
reading cannot be practically applied to many places, silent reading can be done anywhere.

4. Explain the importance of shared assumptions between writer and reader.

SOLUTION

Authors of professional articles and books also make assumptions about their readers, and it
helps to be aware of these while you read. The assumptions affect the style, content, and
significance of the author's ideas in ways that are both obvious and subtle.
One assumption is about the response which an author expects from you, the reader: does he or
she expect you actually to do something new, or simply to consider doing something new? Or
does the author just want you to be aware of a new idea? Consider, for example, an article
reviewing best practices about inclusion of students with special needs. The author may imply, or
even urge you to take a moral position: you should include these students, the author may seem
to say. But in a different article one recommending particular teaching practices the author may
merely ask you to think about alternatives to your normal ways of teaching. Certain strategies
worked under certain teaching conditions, the author says, so simply consider whether they
might work for you as well.
A second, less obvious difference among professional publications is in their un-stated
assumptions about prior experiences and attitudes of readers. This assumption may be either
helpful or frustrating, depending on you actual prior background. A piece intended as a
“framework for understanding” may assume, for example, that you are familiar with basic
theories of learning already. If you have read and understood what we outlined in Chapter 2 of
this book, the article may turn out to be relatively accessible or understandable to you even if you
have relatively little experience in actual classroom teaching, and even if you have never studied
learning theories in detail. The article might seem more accessible than you expect because, for
example, it focuses primarily on how teacher's praise affects students' learning, an idea with
which you may be somewhat familiar already.
On the other hand, a professional publication may assume that you have taught school for a
number of years already, or that you are at least familiar with classroom life from the point of
view not of students, but of a teacher. An author writing about "withitness" (discussed in Chapter
7), for example, may make this assumption, since the concept originated by observing teachers
managing large group classroom activities. If you yourself are experienced at actual teaching,
reading about withitness may trigger a lot of questions about just how withit teachers are able to
be in practice, and about whether in fact they always need to be withit. You can also ask yourself

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these questions even if you have not yet been a teacher yourself, of course, but they may seem
less immediate or urgent.
A professional article intended to advocate for a particular educational policy or practice may
make very different assumptions about you as a reader. It may assume, for example, that you do
in fact enjoy persuading others of your point of view, even when others initially disagree or react
indifferently. This sort of assumption may show up as much in what the writing omits, as in what
it includes: if the term cooperative learning activity is used without explanation, for example, the
researcher may be assuming not only that you are the sort of person ”perhaps a teacher” who
knows what that term means already, but also that you already believe in the value of
cooperative learning and are motivated to explain its value to others.

5. What is meant by efficient Reading? What are the characteristics of reading?

SOLUTION

Reading at college level requires new skills. Here are strategies on the fundamentals of efficient
reading, as well as strategies for reading science textbooks, empirical articles, and argumentative
works.

Components of Reading
Learning to read is one of the most important skills children can learn. When your child takes their
first steps in their learning to read journey, it’s important to keep in mind the five essential
components of reading that every child needs in order to grow into a confident and fluent reader.

Here are the five key aspects of reading for every child:

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1. Phonics

Phonics is the process of mapping the sounds in words to written letters. This is one of the earliest
reading skills children should develop, because it introduces them to the link between letters and
sounds, known as the alphabetic principle.

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2. Phonemic awareness

Children develop phonemic awareness by learning about sounds (phonemes), syllables and words.

Every word in the English language is made up of a combination of individual units of sound, known
as phonemes. For example, the word ‘crab’ is made up of four individual units of sound; c/r/a/b.
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate these individual units of sound. It
is one of the most fundamental skills children need to acquire in order to learn how to read. By
playing word games, engaging in language play, rhyming, and simply listening to a parent read to
them, your child can develop phonemic awareness from an early age

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3. Vocabulary

Having an ever-increasing vocabulary is a fundamental part of academic and reading success. The
more words we know, the better we become at reading and understanding the texts that we read.

Every child approaches reading with varying abilities. The larger a child’s speaking and listening
vocabulary, the more words they will be able to add to their reading and writing vocabularies with
relative ease. Reading a wide variety of books is one of the best ways for a child to grow their
vocabulary. Some of the most fundamental words that a child will learn when starting to read are
sight words. These include high frequency sight words such as ‘on’, ‘I’, ‘the’, ‘and’, ‘is’, ‘an’ and
‘be’. The first 100 sight words make up more than fifty per cent of most texts for early readers, and
are therefore extremely beneficial for your child to learn early on in their reading journey.

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4. Fluency

There is a range of different skills that build reading fluency in young children. These include
strong phonic decoding skills, an expanding bank of high frequency words recognised at sight,
and the amount of time that children spend reading books at an appropriate level. The more
children read, the better they are at understanding and reading with speed and accuracy.

Fluency enables readers to quickly span the gap between recognising a word and understanding
its meaning. Since fluent readers no longer need to concentrate on decoding the words on a page,
they can enjoy the freedom of focusing on the *meaning* conveyed by words and sentences.
Fluency is something that comes as a child develops their phonemic awareness, phonics skills
and vocabulary. Regular reading practice is essential to developing reading fluency. It’s also
helpful to note that by reading aloud regularly to your child, you can provide them with a vocal
model to help them understand what fluent reading sounds like.

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5. Reading comprehension

Great readers are deeply immersed in the stories they read. They visualise the characters, they hear
the dialogue in their heads, and they imagine details beyond the borders of the page. Great readers
think about what is happening in a story and share the emotional journey of the characters.

In nonfiction books, great readers gain new information, increase their vocabulary, and link what
they read with other sources of information in order to deepen their level of understanding of new
concepts and topics.

6. A group of four students have been given the following topic for group discussion
(any one) (10)

(a) Climate Change

(b) Health & Pandemic Write out the discussion giving at least 3 turns to each
student.

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SOLUTION

Rani : Climate change refers to the change in the environmental conditions of the earth. This happens
due to many internal and external factors. The climatic change has become a global concern over the
last few decades. Besides, these climatic changes affect life on the earth in various ways. These
climatic changes are having various impacts on the ecosystem and ecology. Due to these changes, a
number of species of plants and animals have gone extinct.

Kunti : The climate started changing a long time ago due to human activities but we came to know
about it in the last century. During the last century, we started noticing the climatic change and its
effect on human life. We started researching on climate change and came to know that the earth
temperature is rising due to a phenomenon called the greenhouse effect. The warming up of earth
surface causes many ozone depletion, affect our agriculture, water supply, transportation, and
several other problems.

Pinki : These include volcanic eruption, solar radiation, tectonic plate movement, orbital variations.
Due to these activities, the geographical condition of an area become quite harmful for life to survive.
Also, these activities raise the temperature of the earth to a great extent causing an imbalance in
nature.

Rani : Man due to his need and greed has done many activities that not only harm the environment
but himself too. Many plant and animal species go extinct due to human activity. Human activities
that harm the climate include deforestation, using fossil fuel, industrial waste, a different type of
pollution and many more. All these things damage the climate and ecosystem very badly. And many
species of animals and birds got extinct or on a verge of extinction due to hunting.

Kunti : These climatic changes have a negative impact on the environment. The ocean level is rising,
glaciers are melting, CO2 in the air is increasing, forest and wildlife are declining, and water life is
also getting disturbed due to climatic changes. Apart from that, it is calculated that if this change
keeps on going then many species of plants and animals will get extinct. And there will be a heavy
loss to the environment.

Pinki: If we do not do anything and things continue to go on like right now then a day in future will
come when humans will become extinct from the surface of the earth. But instead of neglecting these
problems we start acting on then we can save the earth and our future.

Rani : The Government of India has taken many measures to improve the dire situation of
Climate Change. The Ministry of Environment and Forests is the nodal agency for climate
change issues in India. It has initiated several climate-friendly measures, particularly in the area
of renewable energy. India took several steps and policy initiatives to create awareness about
climate change, and help capacity building for adaptation measures. It has initiated a “Green

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India” programme under which various trees are planted to make the forest land more green and
fertile.
Kunti : We need to follow the path of sustainable development to effectively address the
concerns of climate change. We need to minimise the use of fossil fuels, which is the major
cause for global warming. We must adopt alternative sources of energy, such as hydropower,
solar and wind energy to make a progressive transition to clean energy. Mahatma Gandhi said
that, “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not any man’s greed”. With this
view, we must remodel our outlook and achieve the goal of sustainable development. By
adoption of clean technologies, equitable distribution of resources and addressing the issues of
equity and justice, we can make our developmental process more harmonious with nature.

Pinki : The Earth’s climate has always changed and evolved. Some of these changes have been
due to natural causes such as volcanic eruptions, floods, forest fires etc., but quite a few of them
are due to human activities. Human activities such as deforestation, burning fossil fuels, farming
livestock etc., generate an enormous amount of greenhouse gases. This results in greenhouse
effect and global warming which are the major causes for climate change.

Rani : Climate change is a major global challenge today, and the world is becoming more
vulnerable to this change. Climate change refers to the changes in Earth’s climate condition. It
describes the changes in the atmosphere which have taken place over a period, ranging from
decades to millions of years.

Kunti : The recent report from the United Nations predicted that average global temperature
could increase by 6˚ Celsius at the end of the century.

Pinki : Climate change has an adverse effect on the environment and ecosystem.

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