English Exercises for Basic English Learners

English Exercises for Basic English Learners

NounsPronouns

Adjectives

Adverbs and Adverb Phrases

Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases

Conjunctions

Sentences

 Direct and Indirect Speech

Active voice and Passive Voice

Verbs and Tenses

Auxiliary Verbs

Vocabulary in English

The importance of learning English has been gaining importance at all levels.

Though mother tongue is the main focus of learning at primary and upper primary levels, it is also equally important to develop such language skill among learners in English for their future education.

The language has been gaining importance after globalization in recent years. Even though a variety of learning materials have been designed and developed, varied techniques to learn and teach English have been tried out in different context, but a successful model is yet to emerge for our school children.

Communication skills are important to everyone - they are how we give and receive information and convey our ideas and opinions with those around us. Communication comes in many forms:

• verbal (sounds, language, and tone of voice)

• aural (listening and hearing)

• non-verbal (facial expressions, body language, and posture)

• written (journals, emails, blogs, and text messages)

• visual (signs, symbols, and pictures)

It is important to develop a variety of skills for both communicating TO others and learning how to interpret the information received FROM others. Knowing our audience and understanding how they need to receive information is equally important as knowing ourselves.

To an employer, good communication skills are essential. In fact, employers consistently rank good communication skills at the top of the list for potential employees.

During an interview, for example, employers are impressed by a job candidate who answers questions with more than one-word answers (such as yeah…nah…dunno), demonstrates that he or she is listening, and shares information and ideas (by asking questions for clarification and/or follow-up). The interview can be an indication to employers of how the candidate or employee will interact with supervisors, co-workers, and customers or resolve conflicts when they arise. Remember, non-verbal communication is also critical in an interview. Employers expect good eye contact, good posture, and “active” listening.

One of the challenges in the workplace is learning the specific communication styles of others and how and when to share your ideas or concerns. Though some supervisors may specifically ask for your opinion, others may assume if there is something important they need to know, you will bring it to their attention – or if there is something you are unsure about, you will ask. Knowing how to listen carefully and when to ask for help is important. If an employee and a supervisor learn to communicate well (in whatever method that works), there is a greater likelihood of job retention and promotion.

The activities in this section will not only help participants practice and recognise how they provide information to others, but also help them consider how others may prefer to receive information. It is important to reinforce with participants that communication skills involve give and take – and they can, indeed, be learned and strengthened over time.

Communicative English:

The phrase ‘Communicative English’ refers to that English which

helps us to communicate effectively with people using language functions.

What are Language Functions?

Language functions are the purposes for which we use specific expressions /utterances / phrases when we speak or write. Some examples of language functions are: Asking someone for his/her likes and dislikes, expressing our thanks to one who has helped us, etc. For making a request, we may use one of the following expressions: Could you tell me where the post office is?

or

Tell me where the post office is.

Both these sentences convey the message. The first one carries something of the speaker’s cultured behavior that is, being polite.

Thus, the expressions we use speak about the culture of the speaker.

There are a number of expressions for a particular function. For inviting someone to a party, we can use one of the following expressions:

1. I’d like you to attend my birthday party this evening.

2. Why don’t you attend my birthday party this evening?

3. I should be delighted if you could attend my birthday party this evening.

Of the three expressions, the first one can be used to a person just known to you, a sort of neutral situation: the second your intimate friend, an informal situation and the third to your employer or someone highly respectable, a formal situation.

Along with these three kinds of situations we need to consider the following four main factors before using an expression:

The setting: Where you are and when you speak

The topic: What you are talking about

Your social relationship: Who you are talking to

Your social relationship: Who you are talking to

Your attitude: What you feel about the topic or the other person

Ever since man started living in groups, he has felt the need to communicate. Communication might have begun with gestures. It might have found expression when gestures expanded into pictorial depiction on rocks and in caves. It might have become more meaningful when man trans formed his gestures and pictures into sounds. But without doubt, communication transcended itself into a vital force of compulsive necessity when man began to create, capture and harness a rich vocabulary seasoned with modulations of voice and tone.

Today communication is not just, “saying the right things to the right people at the right time at the right place in the right manner”, but also saying it well enough so as to create the right response.

Communication depends on two factors for effective response. One is the art of narration, while the other is the art of description -narration is in itself a description of sequential events. 

Description enhances the clarity of expression and keeps the listener / reader moving with the speaker / writer in thoughts and feelings.

For example, when you say, “This is a bag,” you convey only an outline of an object with no clarity in the image and no motivation for response. But when you say: “This is a large red cloth bag with white polka dotted print”, you have, through the description of the object, made the image bright and distinctively clear and kindled a comprehensible emotional or reasoning response.