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A.NANDA, M.A., M.Phil,

Assistant Professor in English

Research Department of English

Bharathi Womens College (Autonomous)

Chennai 600 108

Simple Strategies Employed In Teaching Communication Skills for

Rural College Students

Introduction:

Communication skill has been defined as the ability to use language (receptive) and

express (expressive) information. The ability to communicate is the primary factor that

distinguishes human being from animals. And it is this ability to communicate well that

distinguishes one individual from another. Globalization in all fields, call for the

learning of a language which is internationally acclaimed. Undoubtedly English

Language has become the lingua franca of the world rather than the language of only

the English speaking countries. This is because the number of the people who use

English as a means of communication exceeds much more than the number of the

people who speak it as their mother tongue. English is said to be the worlds most

important language having communicative and educative value.

In a multi-lingual country like India, the influence of this universal language has been,

directly and indirectly, for more than two centuries. In Indian minds English symbolizes

better education, better culture and higher intellect. Hence it is the most preferred

language in India and the demand for this language increases. So learning English, the

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universal language becomes an inseparable branch and also indispensable in Indian

education system. It has become the synonym of employability not only in India but

throughout the world.

Communication skills:

Communication skills play an important role in getting a job, with the IT revolution and

most of the software and operating system being in English. In this competitive world

communication skills, an important factor, determines ones employability. A person

who is confidently equipped with the necessary communication skills wins the race and

finds himself placed in a decent job in the job market. Now-a-days the recruiters who

go for campus placements are in need of students with good communication skills,

behavior skills, good knowledge of spoken English and basic computer knowledge,

apart from good academic records. However, one has to accept that there is an urban-

rural divide when it comes to campus placements, because there is an obvious gap

between the rural and urban students in art and science colleges. While the demand

increases on the one hand, the proficiency of English language capability of rural

students presents an abysmal picture. The divide between the urban and rural is

further aggravated by the way English language education is making its way as a

medium of instruction.

Students from cities possess higher job skill sets, are competitive for jobs with higher

remuneration or packages, when compared to rural students. Even if students from rural

colleges get through the entry level aptitude tests, they hardly succeed in a group

discussion or interview. Students from rural area with good academic record, despite

their sound knowledge of the subject, are unable to get good jobs even after the

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completion of Degree courses. Where as the students from cities are able to secure good

jobs though they do not have good academic record. The actual gap always lies in the

rural students lack of communicative ability, especially in Spoken English which is a

real need among the youth for opening doors of better career opportunities.

Reasons for lack of Communication skills among the rural students:

As a result of lack of adequate social skills and social networking, that is typically

found in larger cities, rural students find it more difficult to co-ordinate with their

colleagues and employers. When compared with the city college students, the students

of rural colleges are considered to be in their initial stage of language learning and their

exposure to the language is very minimal. There is an obvious difference in the

language ability of the city and rural college students. There are various reasons behind

this difference and they are:

Inadequate foundations.

Vernacular interference.

Socio-economic background.

Lack of motivation.

Lack of awareness.

Let us discuss these points in detail:

The main factor is that, undeniably, in rural schools, language is taught as a subject and

not as a language - a tool for communication. Most of the students in the rural colleges

are first generation learners and they hail from regional medium schools where English

is being taught as the second language by teachers who are not proficient in English.

Learning a second language means acquiring a system of rules, the rural students learn

these rules by rote, as portion to face the examination, without understanding how these

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rules are acquired. This practice of learning a language will not allow them to think

critically and present their thoughts in English. As a result they find themselves unable

to express in English, they have no idea of proper sentence structure and do not know

proper pronunciation, and spelling etc.

Besides, in school most of the time they are listening only to their regional language,

both inside and outside the classroom. Hence the chance of confronting with English

language is very minimal for these students who come from a rural background and if at

all they are exposed to English, they are only exposed to poor and non-standard English

at their school level. As in schools they have been taught English through Grammar -

Translation method, that makes them dependent on their mother tongue. So whatever

they read they translate it into their own vernacular and during exams they just read the

expected questions by heart since they cannot write on their own in English.

The problem of teaching English to the rural students starts from the pre-schooling.

Their environment and family background play vital role in success of learning process.

This is because majority of them come from villages, also their antecedents are farmers

and uneducated who can not support their wards in learning the language and, as

mentioned earlier, they are first generation learners who hail from a poor economical

background too. Hence, the students are mentally discouraged by their family

conditions and this poor socio-economic background of these students naturally

develops an inferiority complex in them.

Another important factor for inadequate communicative skills in rural college students

is due to lack of motivation. It is very important that teachers are required to motivate

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their students to involve in creative thinking and critical thinking, but the teachers in the

rural schools fail to do so. Moreover language teaching by itself, is in fact, a self-

motivated task now-a-days, but the teachers themselves are less motivated and do not

adopt any specific methods of teaching in order to make it easily understandable and

interesting to the students. Instead their teaching is focused on only to meet the

requirements of examinations and not to hone the communication skills of students,

naturally.

One more important factor is that, most of the students do not realize the importance of

English as a language of communication. For them English has not been a language but

only a subject. So their only motive is to get pass marks in the subject and not learning

the language

So it is here, in college, the English teacher has an important role to play. Foremost it is

very essential that, teachers of English must possess the following communication

skills: proficiency in English, positive motivation, effective body language, sense of

humor, interpersonal skills, etc. The teacher, more than being a teacher, has to be very

flexible in her /his role as a facilitator. I strongly believe that if a teacher plays his/her

role effectively in classroom no doubt he/she can create miracles in improving the

communication ability of even the rural students.

Role of the teacher in the language classroom:

1. Understand the psychology of students:

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A teachers primary role is not only to enable the students to understand what he is

intending to say or teach. It is also the duty of the teacher to understand what the

student wants and says. In teaching-learning process, two things play the vital roles; one

is the delivering capacity of the teacher and the other one is the receiving capacity of

the students. Without these two aspects, the teaching-learning process will not be a

successful one. Thus the first and foremost work of an English teacher in a rural college

is to understand the psychology of the students. After finishing the schooling in their

regional language medium, with all its lapses, when these students get into the

collegiate education, they are forced to undergo their studies in English language with

out any choice. This sort of a sudden shift makes them feel that they are unfit and they

feel alienated and thus they develop a very low self esteem of themselves. The teacher

should help the students shun their inferiority complex and to get away with their fear,

shyness and low self esteem but very often it is left unnoticed.

2. Make them realize the importance of communication skills:

Even though Teaching English as the second language to students from rural

background poses a challenge to college teachers, it can be made easy and possible by

making the students realize the importance of learning English and making them

understand that English is just like their mother tongue and there is nothing wrong in

making mistakes in using English . This will help the students feel confident and

comfortable in the English classroom which consequently, will improve the confidence

level of the student in learning the language.

3. Use modern methods of teaching:

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The students of rural colleges are considered to be in their initial stage of language

learning, so when they learn English at their collegiate level, the curriculum should be

designed appropriately to suit their level of learning as well to equip them to be

successful in the job markets through their communicative competence. However, the

curriculum prescribed is only an extension of what they experienced at their school

level. The same old conventional grammar-translation method is being involved in

language teaching, even in college level, the syllabus comprises prose, poetry, grammar

and written work. This method focuses only on the skills of reading and writing, with a

very little emphasis on listening and speaking. Here the learner does not play an active

role, his role is rather passive. The students merely read by heart a few essays and get a

pass grade in examination, which in no way test their over all abilities. Also the teacher

has little scope for innovative planning to incorporate the actual needs of the learner in

the class room and her main concern is to cover all the lessons in the book within the

stipulated time.

The objective of a language classroom is to make the learner learn the language and use

it effectively. So the teacher, who has a repertoire of techniques in teaching different

skills, is more likely to succeed in his/her objective than the one who has limited

number of techniques at command. If the teaching-learning situation is to be made

learner centered, the curriculum in language teaching needs to be employed with new

modern methods in teaching English which emphasizes on listening and speaking, as

speech is the basis in language learning. Here the teachers should act as a facilitator and

a guide. If these methods are employed the classes will be interactive, informative,

entertaining as well as controlled to some extent.

Some of the modern methods are:

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a) Structural Oral Situational Approach (S-O-S): It is the presentation and

practice of carefully selected and graded grammatically structures of English in

effective, meaningful situations, initially through speech and later through reading and

writing.

Techniques used: object description, role-play, small talk, etc.

b) The communicative approach: It deals with the shift from the teacher-fronted

language learning or teaching to the learner-fronted. This method aims to make the

learner attain communicative competence, that is, use language accurately and

appropriately and helps them acquire oral and written communication skills.

Techniques used: language games, mind engaging tasks, role play, retrieving text

order, group work / pair work etc.

c) Humanistic approach: This approach deals with the methodologies developed

by people outside the language teaching profession who believed that the language

teachers should not damage the self-image of the learners, at least in the beginning

stages; the language teaching professional should be supportive, non-critical,

understanding, nurture the qualities of independence, autonomy and responsibility.

Here the learner is an active participant and does all the talking.

Techniques used: group discussion, presentation / seminar, Picture comprehension.

4. Introduce Simple Strategies:

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Whatever methodology the teacher adopts in language teaching, he/she should have it

in mind that it is done in an effective and enjoyable way and this can be achieved by

employing various but simple strategies in the classroom. It is very important that

teachers are required to motivate their students to involve in creative thinking and

critical thinking. My paper attempts to emphasize on the roles of the teachers in

introducing various but simple strategies like language games, pair work, group

discussions, role plays, etc. in the class room in order to improve the communication

skills of the students. I have specifically taken the examples ofLanguage games and

Role plays here and would like to emphasize how these simple strategies help the

students in improving their communication skills.

As discussed earlier the students from rural background are with inadequate

foundations in language learning and are exposed to poor and non-standard English at

their school level. The teacher has to make her/his teaching more effective and

interesting in all possible ways, therefore the very old method of teaching English,

which is even now followed in language classroom, are no longer going to help both the

teachers as well as students, in imparting and imbibing the communication skills,

respectively, because the age old or conventional lecture method makes the students

mute spectators or passive listeners in the classroom and ultimately they feel bored.

I, as an English teacher, strongly believe that language learning could be better in a

relaxed atmosphere. Students would be relaxed and comfortable when they are

introduced to language games and activities like group work, pair work, and role play

and remember things faster and better .In recent years, language teaching has focused

on the learning process rather than the teaching of the language. The emphasis is not

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only on linguistic competency of the language learners but also on the development of

their communicative ability. In order to develop the learners' communicative ability, the

teacher needs to create a situation to teach the language in a vibrant, active and

interesting manner.

Generally there is a misconception that language learning is a hard task which

can sometimes be even frustrating. Constant effort is required to understand, produce

and manipulate the target language. Well-chosen games are invaluable as they give

students a break and at the same time allow students to practice language skills.

Language games are highly motivating since they are amusing and at the same time

challenging. They can lower the learners anxiety, thus making their acquisition of

input more likely. Further, they employ meaningful and useful language in real

contexts. They also encourage and increase cooperation and also promote fluency.

Through games, students can learn English the way children learn their mother tongue

without being aware they are studying; thus without stress, they can learn a lot and even

shy students will volunteer to participate in them participate.

Examples of a few language games and what students benefit through

them:

1. Passing the secret:

The students are divided into groups of 7 to 10. One leader from each group is chosen.

The leaders are given the card which has the sentence, like Georgehad repaired

many cars before he received his mechanic's license."(Any grammatically

correct sentence can be used.)He is asked to memorize the sentence, go back to his

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group and whisper what he has read on the card to the person on his right. Each person

is asked to whisper the sentence to the next person and the sentence is said only once.

The last is allowed to say the sentence aloud. Which ever group repeats the same

sentence as written on the paper wins the game.

Benefits of this game:

The speaking and the listening abilities are improved.

The grammatical structure of the sentence is learnt.

The proper pronunciations are learnt.

2. Pick out the Differences:

Find or draw two pictures which are the same except for seven features. Photocopy

them on separate sheets of paper. Ask students to work in pairs. Give one copy of each

picture to the pairs. The pairs are not supposed to show their copies to each other.

Partner A's will describe their copy and Partner B's will listen carefully and examine

their own copy to find the differences. They can ask questions if they require more

detailed information or need any clarification. The pair that finishes first wins the game.

Pick out the differences out of these two pictures:

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Benefits of this game:

Speaking (describing people and actions) ability is improved.

Listening and grammar is improved.

Role Play:

Language teaching can be an interesting challenge when teachers make the effort to

explore a variety of approaches. Role play is just one of the many methods available for

exploitation. With some attention given to the needs of the learners, both the teacher

and the learners can play active roles in the classroom, making language classes livelier,

challenging and above all rewarding. Role-play make language learning student-

centered and interactive, thereby creating a more spontaneous and realistic learning

environment that prepares teacher and their students for social interaction through the

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medium of a language. It encourages creative thinking in students, also helps thestudents to get away with their inhibitions.

In a role plays though the teachers role is minimal, he/she does play an important role

of an organizer and provider of language items when needed. The teacher only defines

the general structure of the role play, but generally does not actively participate once

the structure is set. The teacher becomes the controller, and controls the event in the

same way as a traffic controller, helping the flow of traffic and avoiding bottlenecks,

but not telling individuals which way to go. Rather than a traditional, teacher- centered

classroom structure, the teacher keeps a relatively low profile and students are free to

interact with each other spontaneously. This reduces student anxiety and facilitates

learning.

The teachers role in a Role play:

Should pair or group the students.

Should present the situation or the role card to the class.

Brief the activity.

The role play shouldn't be scripted out in detail, instead should give the

student a general scenario with different elements and suggested ideas for

complications to occur.

Before asking them to perform a role play you should prepare the students

by asking questions. The questions should incorporate the major parts of the

role play and the vocabulary/idioms involved. After the question answer

session the students should be comfortable with what they need to do.

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Allow them a few minutes to study the role cards and work out some key

sentences. Help, if and needed.

Each role play should be performed at least twice with the students changing

their roles.

The best pair among the class can enact to the class.

Avoid making corrections until the role play is finished.

Example of a Role Play:Here is a role card.

Student A Student B

You are booking into a hotel. You are a hotel receptionist.

Elements Elements

Complications Welcome the guest.

You are on your own. Find them a room.

You want a shower. Complications

You want breakfast in the morning. You can't find their reservation.

You have an early meeting and must not

be late.

You only have a double room with bath

available.

Benefits of Role Play

Creativity thinking and writing skills are enhanced.

Speaking and listening skills are improved.

Shyness and fear is removed.

Confidence to speak is bettered.

Active involvement and a positive attitude are seen.

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The learners ability to express ideas is improved.

Critical thinking and problem solving skills are developed due to the

simulated "real life" problems.

The teacher must take on some additional responsibilities in role playing/simulation. In

particular, the teacher must keep learners motivated by stimulating their curiosity and

keeping the material relevant, creating a "tension to learn". Thus a comprehensible

input is provided by the teacher in role play because the students engage in genuine

communication in playing their roles. Active involvement and participation, and

absorbing interaction tend to make students forget they are learning a new language.

Students have the opportunity to try out new behaviors in a safe environment, which

helps them develop long term motivation to master an additional language.

Conclusion:

Through these simple strategies the teacher helps their students enhance their

communicative skills, encourage their participation, change their attitudes towards

language learning and above all provide them a realistic opportunity to work with

others in the classroom. Constant preparation and practice of such language items make

the learners improve their performance, undoubtedly.

Work cited:

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1. Barber, Charles, The English Language-A Historical Introduction,

Cambridge university press.1993.

2. Lakshminarayanan, K.R., The Communicating Art, SciTech Publications

(India) Pvt. Ltd.2004.

3. Nagaraj, Geetha, English Language Teaching Approaches methods

techniques, Calcutta: Orient Longman Ltd, 1996.

4. C.L. Wrenn, The English Language, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House P.

Ltd, 1989.

5. Randolph Quirk, The use of English, Hongkong: The Hongkong Printing Press

Ltd, 1977

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