club is one  among the many clubs that  Veltech Hightech  Dr.Rangarajan Dr.Sakunthala Engineering College offers to students; there is one that might interest those heading into the field of communication, especially that of journalism and public relations. The students practise their speeches in front of their peers and receive constructive feedback on how to improve their communication skills. They even have game nights where they can just connect with one other. It is, as some would call it, “an enriching experience.” Co-adviser of the club, Sathish, talked about wanting the club to be student-run, while the advisers would just be there for support.

Some of the things organized by the students include field trips. Just to a list a few places, they have been to Nilgris, Ooty and  Kodaikanal , where they would get a behind-the-scenes tour and be able to speak with the anchors and personalities from the network. Therefore, for those wanting to network and possibly improve their communication skills, this club will definitely help with that aim. The club members also watch the debates together during election season.

Those interested in checking out the debates and learning how politicians use communication to sway the public should also come to check out the club.

The students here may be taking communication classes, but that is not to say that they are here for just fun. No, these students also want to be able to pursue their careers in Engineering,  journalism, law, broadcasting and more. By joining the Communication Club, they are able to put this on their application for colleges to look at. Even sometimes the faculty send speakers to the club to help the students write their personal statements. This club is relatively small, usually consisting of 10 to 25 people that meet consistently.

 The  goals of the Communication Club are  as follow:  serves multiple purposes: (a) helping the students to excel in Communication skills (b) providing our students with exposure to exceptional organizations, and beyond; and (c) developing working partnerships and relationships with the local business community, affording them the opportunity to benefit from hosting and mentoring students who contribute to their operation.

Communicative language teaching was developed by teachers and applied linguists as a response to the shortcomings of the audiolingual and grammar translation methods. One of the distinctive points of communicative language teaching is the focus on communicative activities that promote language learning. These  activities use real life situations to trigger communication. They encourage and require a learner to speak with and listen to other learners. Communicative activities have real purposes such as finding and exchanging information, breaking down barriers, talking about oneself, and learning about culture.

Characteristics of communicative activities

The success of a communicative activity can be determined by the extent to which learners are dependent on the teacher. Tasks should be devised in a manner that learners gain autonomy and independence while learning.

The role of the teachers is to give clear and to the point instructions and provide the appropriate environment for learners to interact and exchange information.

Communicative activities are motivating. Learners should be at ease and have fun while doing the communicative tasks.

Communicative tasks are realistic. Real communication situations should be the focus instead of isolated structures with no real-life reference.

While in teacher-led classrooms learners were expected to be quiet and listen to the teacher and then, when asked, to respond to the teacher in unison with the one
correct answer, communicative tasks require learners to take initiatives and provide their responses ( instead of a response) to contribute to the success of learning.

Communicative activities are meaningful: They are carried out to fulfil specific purposes such as booking a plane, hotel ticket, inviting somebody to a party, answering  an invitation letter, shopping….

Performance in communicative tests reflects an underlying competence that is linguistic, sociolinguistic, pragmatic, strategic…Communicative activities should consider this multi-dimensional nature of language.

Examples of communicative activities

 Information gap.
This involves two (or more) learners. Each testier  has part of the information. They have to negotiate in order to get the missing information. A clear context must be specified for the test.

Letter writing.
learners may be asked to write, for example, a business letter to ask for information or to respond to a complaint by a customer

Note taking. 
Testees are involved in a listening activity in which they have to take notes and, for example, write a report.

Vocabulary     Building

Vocabulary means a sum or stock of words employed by a language, a group, an individual or a work or in a field of knowledge.  It is the collection of words and terms available for used in communication. Developing good vocabulary is not only important to writers and speakers. It is important in everybody’s life both personally as well as professionally. The three main reasons to improve one’s vocabulary are:

    It sharpens your communication

    It opens your mind

    Vocabulary helps you to become successful

Idioms and Phrases: Understanding and remembering idioms and phrases is very important to improve one’s vocabulary. The word ‘Phrase’ can be defined a small group of words standing together as a conceptual unit, typically forming a component of a clause.

Ex: I cannot put up with that fellow. The italicized words are a phrase. The contextualized meaning of the phrase is endured.

An ‘Idiom’ can be defined as a group of words whose meaning cannot be predicted from the literal meaning of the constituent words.

Ex:  To smell a rat: to suspect foul dealings.

One-Word Substitutes: Substituting a long sentence by a single word conveying the meaning of the sentence.

Ex: A person whom one knows but is not particularly a close friend- Acquaintance.

Discussion Questions / Exercises

1. Identify any ten difficult words from a newspaper article and write their synonyms and antonyms.
2. Google to find out the meanings of the following idioms
   1. Bag of Bones
   2. Play Possum
   3. A Hot Potato
   4. A Pretty Kettle of Fish
   5. To Bring to Book

Advantages of communicative activities
 Learning is maximized when students are engaged in relevant tasks within a dynamic learning environment instead of  traditional teacher-centered classes.

Real life communication is the target. learners are trained not only to be linguistically competent but also  communicatively and sociolinguistically competent.

Communicative activities are motivating. Learning is achieved while learners are having fun.

Communication Club :

ORGANIZER:  Mrs.M.Durga Devi, durgadevi@velhightech.com

Speech & Debate         :

Contact advisor:  Mr.Premkumar

Email: premkumar@velhightech.com

Secretary                   :

Name: Mr.Akilesh

Email: akilesh@velhitech.com

Name: Mr.Vimalraj

Email:vimalraj@velhightech.com