Foundational Level 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.
Course ID: BSHS1001
Course Credits: 4
Course Type: Foundational
Pre-requisites: None
What you’ll learnVIEW COURSE VIDEOS
Course structure & Assessments
12 weeks of coursework, weekly online assignments, 2 in-person invigilated quizzes, 1 in-person invigilated end term exam. For details of standard course structure and assessments, visit Academics page.
| WEEK 1 | Sounds and Words (Vowel and Consonant sounds) |
| WEEK 2 | Parts of Speech |
| WEEK 3 | Sentences (Phrases and Idioms) |
| WEEK 4 | Speaking Skills (Spoken English Preliminaries) |
| WEEK 5 | Tenses and Agreement in English Sentences |
| WEEK 6 | Reading Skills (Skimming, Scanning and Comprehension) |
| WEEK 7 | Listening Skills |
| WEEK 8 | Aspiration, Word Stress and Syllabification |
| WEEK 9 | Speaking Skills (Presentation and Group Discussion) |
| WEEK 10 | Grammar (Common Errors in English) and Writing Skills |
| WEEK 11 | Writing Skills (Basics of Writing) |
| WEEK 12 | Writing Skills (Professional Writing) |
Prescribed Books
The following are the suggested books for the course:
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
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.
Other courses by the same instructor: BSHS1002 - English II
Karthika has an MA in English Studies from IIT Madras. She has worked as a Language & Education Consultant with multiple government departments and non-government organisations. Currently she is working as project officer with IIT Madras. Her areas of interest include ELT, multilingualism, multiculturalism and second language learning.
Other courses by the same instructor: BSHS1002 - English II