Roleplay

Role play:

 

Roleplay is the act of imitating the character and behavior of someone who is different from yourself, for example as a training exercise. Group members have to communicate with each other through role-play. 

       Role-play is a technique that allows students to explore realistic situations by interacting with other people in a managed way in order to develop experience and trial different strategies in a supported environment.

The Eight Traits of Conversation

 Be Respectful. Appreciate others' thinking. ...

 Be Prepared. Focus on the topic, activate background knowledge, and make connections. ...

 Be an Active Listener. Look at the person speaking. ...

 Be Clear. ...

 Show Comprehension.

 Check Understanding. ...

 Control Self.

While flow is defined as effortless movement through a conversation, every conversation must come to an end. Having good conversational flow means that you and the other person feel good about ending the conversation and it is left with a sense that something was accomplished through your conversation.

SITUATIONAL DIALOGUES/ ROLE PLAY:

• Role-play is an activity where one would be given a role to play.

• Role Play uses scripts that you read with your partner, like actors in a movie.

• Role play is any speaking activity where you either put yourself into somebody else shoes oryou may stay in your own shoes but put yourself into an imaginary situation

Role Play to Practice English:

 Role Play is a fast way to improve speaking and listening for real life situations.

 Role Play helps you speak English in full sentences.

 Role Play makes you think about what you are saying, so you remember the language.

 Role Play gives you many things to think and talk about.

 Types of Role Play

1. Situation Role Plays: Situation Role Plays give you practice speaking English with correct

sentences and pronunciation.

2. Story Role Plays: In Story Role Plays, you and your partner are characters in a story.

3. Short Discussions: Short Discussions give you practice in asking and answering

questions about atopic.

4. Long Discussions: Long Discussions give you practice in asking and answering questions about atopic, as well as discussing the opinions of other people.

Important components of role play:

1. Speaking skills: includes the ability to use the suitable vocabulary, spoken form of English

ability toconstruct and speak fluently.

2. Active listening skills: includes listening to others with concentration and attention.

3. Non-verbal communication: includes various aspect of communication beyond oral communication.

They are: 1) Eye Contact

2) Facial Expressions

3) Postures

4) Gestures

DO’S:

• Understand and analyze the situation.

• Identify your role and act accordingly.

• Frame your sentences, questions and answers properly.

• Be as natural as possible. Be yourself.

• Check the posture and move a little.

• Use your hands to express your point.

• Maintain very good eye contact with the other person.

• Make sure of shortened forms of words.

• Understand the question before answering.

• Check your voice modulation, stress, intonation and speed.

DON’TS:

• Be in a hurry to say something.

• Keep yourself detached from the given role.

• Put on an accent.

• Bend or move excessively.

• Use your hands excessively.

• Avoid eye contact; roll your eyes/stare continuously.

• Read out the written form of communication.

• Be too fast/slow or shout unnecessarily.

Consonant Clusters

Consonant Clusters:

English permits more than one consonant to release a syllable and more than one consonant to arrest a syllable. Such a sequence of two or more consonants at the beginning or end of a syllable is called Consonant Clusters or Consonant Sequences.

Note: English allows up to three consonants to begin a syllable and up to four consonants to end a syllable.Releasing consonant clusters in English (up to 3)

Two consonants 

Play - /pl-/

Bright - /br-/

Train - /tr-/

Glass - /gl-/

Three - /θr-/

Three consonants 

Spleen, splendid – /spl-/

Scream, screen – /skr-/

Spring - /spr-/

Arresting consonant clusters – some examples (up to 4)

Two consonants 

Clasp – /-sp/

Lamp – /-mp/

Judged – /-dzd/

Robbed – /-bd/

Orange – /-ndz/

Three consonants 

Midst – /-dst/

Amongst – /-nst/

Helped – /-lpt/

Drenched – /-ntst/

Adopts – /-pts/

Four consonants 

Texts – /-ksts/

Sixths – /-ksθs/

Tempts – /-mpts/

Twelfths - /-ifθs/

CONSONANT CLUSTERS IN OTHER LANGUAGES:

Some languages like Russian and German have many consonant clusters & consequently speakers of these languages have no difficulty in pronouncing English consonant cluster. On the other hand, many language do not have such clusters, or if they do, they have very few & short ones. Speakers of such languages find it difficult to pronounce some of the English consonant clusters.

Eg :

Hindi / Urdu speakers have difficulty in pronouncing initial consonant clusters

beginning with /s/. They sometimes insert a vowel /l/ before /s/ & pronounce

schoola

ssleep

Following is a list of words with common consonant clusters.

 Bl: blank, black, blue, blast, bloom, blink, blast

 Fr: fried, French, frank, friend, freak, frozen, frill, fraction, fragment

 St: stare, store, stir, stick, stuck, stroke, state, statement, still, stiff, storm, stammer

 Cl: cluster, clip, clothes, close, clear, clever, class

 Br: Bread, Break, Breakfast, Broom, Brisk, Brain, Bracket, Brush, Brim

 Fl: Flag, Flash, Flim, Flask, Floss, Flamingo, Fleet, Flatter, Fluff

 Gl: Glass, Gleam, Glitter, Glimpse

 Pl: Plush, Plum, Platipus, Plain, Platter, Plaque

 Sl: Slate, Slum, Slim.

 Cr: Cream, Create.

 Dr: Drone, Drum, Drumstick, Dress, Dream, Draft, Dragon

Minimal Pairs

 Minimal Pairs:

A minimal pair is two words that vary by only a single sound, usually sounds that may confuse English learners, like the /f/ and /v/ in fan and van, or the /e/ and /I/ in desk and disk.

Minimal pairs are

often used to show how two sounds contrast in a language.

Eg: Hit and hid, chip and cheap.

Sip - Ship

Face - Phase

So - Show 

Race - raise

Sake - Shake 

sip - zip

Sell - Shell 

page - Pays

Said - Shed 

rage - Raise

Same - Shame

region - Reason

Seat - Sheet 

major - Measure

Self - Shelf 

ledger - Leisure

Minimal Pairs related to vowels sounds:

• Minimal pairs /I/ and /i:/ ( sit and seat)

• Minimal pairs /e/ and /I/ (desk and disk)

• Minimal pairs /e/ and /el/ (wet and wait)

• Minimal pairs /æ/ and /Λ/ (bat and but)

• Minimal pairs /∂√/ and /):/ (so and saw)

• Minimal pairs /∂/ and /∂u/ (not and note)

• Minimal pairs /æ/ and /e/ (bad and bed)

• Minimal pairs /a:/ and /3:/ (fast and first)

Minimal Pairs related to consonant sounds

• Minimal pairs /b/ and /V/ (berry and very)

• Minimal pairs /b/ and /p/ (buy and pie)

• Minimal pairs /n/ and /η/ (thin and thing)

• Minimal pairs /l/ and /r/ (alive and arrive)

• Minimal pairs /t∫/ and /t/ (catch and cat)

• Minimal pairs /s/ and /∫/ (sea and she)

• Minimal pairs /t/ and /v/ (fan and van)

• Minimal pairs /f/ and /θ/ (free and three)

• Minimal pairs /s/ and /θ/ (sing and thing)

• Minimal pairs /f/ and /h/ (fat and hat)

• Minimal pairs /ð/ and /z/ (with and whizz)

• Minimal pairs /∂3/ and /z/ (page and pays)

• Minimal pairs /∂/ and /∂3/ (bad and badge)

LISTENING COMPREHENSION:

LISTENING COMPREHENSION: 

Listening is a process of receiving and interpreting the spoken word.

While receiving and interpreting the spoken word, the listener is concerned with four factors that is sensing, message, decoding or interpreting, evaluation and response.

Listening begins with physical hearing of the message and taking note of it. Sensing it thus the first step of the listening process you hear sounds and concentrate on them in order to receive the message.

Response is the action or reaction of the listener to the message

It is the best stage of listening. If the message has been analyzed, interpreted and evaluated correctly the response will be appropriat.

Listening may be classified into six types on the basis of purpose and output 

Superficial listening :

In this type of listening the listener has little awareness of the content of what is being said. The output in this type of listening is zero because the listener tends to ignore the message and is not able to concentrate on the theme.

Appreciative listening

The main purpose of ‘the appreciative’ listening is to get enjoyment and pleasure. Example includes listening to recording of songs, entertaining stories, and jokes and so on.

Focused listening 

Focused listening involves listening for specific information. The main purpose is to get some specific information that might be used to take a decision.

Evaluate listening

The main purpose of evaluate listening is to evaluate the content of the oral message to select appropriate information.

Attentive listening

As attentive listening is interactive and productive, facilitating proper interaction and more effective listener – speaker relationships it requires conscious effort on the part ofthe listener and demands concentration, involvement and responsibility. Some other examples of attentive listening include listening to administrative instructions.

Empathetic listening 

Empathetic listening is listening not only to what the speaker is saying but also to how he/she is saying that is her/his feelings emotions and state of mind.

Effective listening	Ineffective listening
⮚ The listener is aware of a clear specific purpose of listening and he/she is motivated to listen.	⮚ The listener has no clear purpose and he/she has no motivation to listen to the speaker.
⮚ The listener understands the language of the speaker.	⮚ The listener finds it difficult the language of the speaker.
⮚ The content of the oral message is accessible to the listener because of his/her familiarity with the content	⮚ The content is unfamiliar and far removed from the listener’s knowledge and experience.
⮚ The listener asks questions for clarification to ensure that he/she  has understood the speaker	⮚ The listener does not question the speaker regardless of whether he/she has heard accurately or not.
⮚ The listener has and uses back  ground information to help understand the lecture or speech.	⮚ The listener does not have or does not use background information.
⮚ The listener interprets and analyses while he/she listens.	⮚ The listener does not interpret and analyze while he/she listens.
⮚ The listener is able to use different strategies for different kinds of oral discourses.	⮚ The listener is not able to use  different strategies for different kinds of oral discourses.

Phonetics

PHONETICS 

Phonetics is the systematic study of speech sounds in a language.

The accent is the music of language. Pronunciation of individual words, the way in which words glide into each other, and intonation patterns determine the variety of accents. English, for instance, can be spoken in the British way, the American way, the Indian way, the African way, the Canadian way, and the Australian way.

The music of the English language is different from that of the Indian languages.

 

Human beings produce sounds by using certain body mechanisms. These mechanisms have primary functions to perform such as breathing, smelling, chewing, swallowing and shall also play vital role in the production of speech sounds.

A body from head to abdomen is needed for the production of spoken language. There are 3 groups of bodily organs that are used to produce speech sounds. One group lies in the trunk, the other is in the throat, and the last one is in the head. These 3 groups of bodily organs are respectively known as: 

1. Respiratory system : The respiratory system comprises the lungs, muscles of the chest, and windpipe 

2. Phonatory system: This consists of the larynx (Adam’s apple) and the glottis. The larynx is also called the voice box

3. Articulatory system: The articulatory system comprises the roof of the mouth, the tongue, and the lips.

 

Vowels and consonants are sounds, not letters. Depending on your accent and how thinly you slice them, there are about 20 vowels and 24 consonants.

 

As we all know, the basic components of any spoken language are sounds and written language are symbols or letters of the alphabet.

 Almost all the Indian languages  Telugu, Hindi etc. are much more Phonetic i.e., there is one to one correspondence between the letters and the sounds.

The case with English language is completely different. English is not a Phonetic language because there is no one to one relationship between the letters of the English alphabet and their sounds

Sometimes one letter stands for different sounds. An example of the first type is the letter u in the words

Cut

Put

Rude

Minute

Bury

university.

An example of the second type may be the

k-sound represented differently in different words by the letter

k in kit,

ck in rock,

c in cut,

cc in acclaim,

ch in chemistry

qu in queen.

To overcome the problem International Phonetic Association(IPA) has introduced some symbols to represent the sounds of the languages of the world.

International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)

 

The English alphabet has 26 letters out of which 5 are vowels and the rest are consonants. These letters and letter combinations give rise to 44 sounds. These 44 sounds are divided into 20 vowelsounds (i.e., 12 pure vowels and 8 diphthongs) and 24 consonants. They are as follows 

 

 

There are altogether 24 consonant sounds. They are as follows 

1. /P/ -         pencil        power       put          pen     reply     gap

2. /b/  -    ball           bunch       beauty     bet      table

3. /t/  -         table       tale        teeth   text      attain            fit

4. /d/  -       doll        dog        dance   do        wonder         bad

5. /k/ -     kite        kettle     cat       car        sky walk

6. /g/ -         goat       big    go        ago   mug

7. /t ʃ /  -    chain   chair     church   chin     merchant       match

8./dʒ / -    jam       jump    jug    large                                                    

9. /m/ -        mug     calm   man        tomato   dam

10. /n/ -       nurse  manner    hen      neat    many      ban

11. / ŋ / -     ring    sing         bang    bangles  

12. /l/ -     leaf       tall         leg       life     place  bill    full   nil

13. /f/  -       fan       tough    rough   file     refer   half     

14. /v/ -       van       visit      five     liver   dive

15. /[θ] /      thick     truth      cloth        myth      mathematic

16. / ð / -    that       then       mother     brother     father

17. /s/  -       sink       cell       miss          son          basket   base

18. /z/ -        zero        zoo         buzz        laser  

19. / ʃ / -       shine      ship       caution     sugar      assure   dash

20. / ʒ / -       pleasure             vision                measure   

21. /h/ -         hat        hot         hotel       has        behave

22. /r/ -        car         radio     carrot   parrot

23. /w/ -       water     wet        wall      wait      between

24. /j/ -         you       yes         young    pupil

 

 

Vowel sounds:

Short Vowels:

/I/    -  ఇ    -     pit            sit          pretty    ill     bill     pity

/e/   - ఎ      -    pet      bed    ten      end   bend

/æ/   -                 -    rat           bat   mat     bag       add   land

/ʌ/   -   అ       -     cup        but     turn   burn   up  

/ɒ/  -          -    pot     got    not      on    

/ʊ/ -   ఉ  -     put   book    woman 

/ə/  -    అ -    about    allow    suppose   writer

 

 

Long Vowels

/i:/  -  ఈ   -  bee   people    each    neat     fee

/ ɑ: / -  ఆ   -   father     ask   heart    farm    farmer

/ ɔ: /-       - core    door     fout    all    caught

/ u: /- ఊ -  too    shoe   move    loose 

/ ɔ: /- అ(   - bird    burn  word

 

Diphthongs:

/ eɪ / - ఎఇ  -  day    make   baby   late  

/ aɪ /  - ఐ  -    buy   eye    ice   nine   ice     night  fly

/ ɔɪ /  - ఒఇ  -   boy  oil    employ     coin   toy  

/ əʊ / - అఉ  -  low   go   flow    joke

/ aʊ /  - ఔ -  how    now   cow  

/ ɪə / - ఇఅ – hear   near   fear   ear    clear

/eə/-  ఎఅ -  there   care    hair share

/ʊə/   - ఉఅ  - pure    sure  

Time Confetti

The term was coined by American author Brigid Schulte in her book Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has the Time. Brigid used the term to describe the small scraps of free time she had during the day. It refers to our tendency to squeeze in as many tasks as possible into these tiny fragments of our leisure time. While it appears that we are getting more chores done in the limited time,  it actually adds on to the stress level, leading a person towards burnout. 

GENDER and LABOUR - Share the Load

 In this class, we well read an excerpt from a short essay by Judy Brady, an American writer, that humorously describes what it means to be a wife – to be in the service of the husband and children without expecting much in return. It shows that the roles of wife and husband are not equal and complementary. They are unequal because just by being a husband, a man has many privileges and personal services. The essay questions this male privilege in marriage and also the inequality in a husband-wife relationship. It forces us to think about new relationships that can be more equal and therefore better.

 

I WANT A WIFE!

I belong to that class of people known as wives. I am A Wife. And , not altogether incidentally, I am a mother.

Not too long ago a male friend of mine appeared on the scene fresh from a recent divorce. He had one child, who is, of course, with his ex-wife. As I thought about him while I was ironing one evening, it suddenly occurred to me that I too would like to have a wife. Why do I want a wife?

I would like to join new courses (in college) which will improve my chances of promotion so that I can become economically independent, support myself, and, if need be, support those dependent upon me. I want a wife who will work, earn, and send me to these classes.

And while I am attending the classes. I want a wife to take care of my children eat properly and make sure my children eat properly and are kept clean. I want a wife who will wash the children’s clothes and keep them mended. I want a wife who is good and nurturing attendant to my children, who arranges for their schooling, makes sure that they have an adequate social life with their peers, takes them to the park, the zoo, etc. I want a wife who takes care of the children when they are sick, a wife who arranges to be around when the children need special care, because, of course, I cannot miss my classes. My wife must arrange to lose time at work and not lose the job. It would be good and if my in-laws could join us and take care of the children while my wife is working.

I want a wife who will take care of my physical needs. I want a wife who will keep my house clean, a wife who will tidy up after my children, a wife who will tidy up after me. I want a wife who will keep my clothes clean, ironed, mended, replaced when need be, and who will see to it that my personal things are kept in their proper place so that I can find what I need the minute I need it.

I want a wife who will take care of my parents well. When they stay with us, I want a wife who will take care of their everyday needs and food preferences. I want a wife who will keep the house clean, will prepare special meals, serve them to me and my family. I want a wife who takes care of all the needs of my parents so that they feel comfortable and who makes sure that they have everything. I want a wife who known that sometimes I need a night out by myself.

I want a wife who is sensitive to my sexual needs, a wife who makes love passionately and eagerly when I feel like it, a wife who makes sure that I am satisfied. And, of course, I want a wife who will not demand sexual attention when I am not in the mood for it. I want a wife who assumes complete responsibility for birth control, because I do not want more children.

If, by chance, I find another person more suitable as a wife than the wife I already have, I want the liberty to replace my present wife with another one. Naturally, I will expect a fresh, new life; my wife will take the children and be solely responsible for them so that I am left here.

When I am through with my new course and have a job, I want my wife to quit working and remain at home so that my wife can more fully and completely take care of a wife’s duties. My God, who wouldn’t want a wife?

You may become the first Indian woman CEO of PepsiCo. Even then your priority should be to buy milk for the household!

This is about 14 years ago… And I got a call about 9.30 in the night from the existing chairman and CEO at that time. He said, Indra, we’re going to announce you as president and put you on the board of directors… I got home at about 10, got into the garage, and my mother was waiting at the top of the stairs. And I said, “Mom, I’ve got great news for you.” She said, “Let the news wait. Can you go out and get some milk.” So, like a dutiful daughter, I went out and came back… I banged it on the counter and I said, “I had a great news for you. I’ve just been told that I am going to be President on the Board of Directors. And all that you want me to do is to go out and get the milk, what kind of a mom are you?” And she said to me, “Let me explain something to you. You might be president of PepsiCo. You might be on board of directors. But when you enter this house, you’re a wife, you’re a daughter-in-law, you’re a mother.”