English Workshop

English Workshop on Writing Skills . Speaker Nadeem Khan English Workshop on Writing Skills . Speaker Nadeem Khan

 Prose Section

   

Activity Sheet on Non Textual Extract

Read the extract and complete the activities that follows :

As far as the technical study of body language goes perhaps the most influential pre-twentieth-century work was Charles Darwin's The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals' published in 1872. This spawned the modern studies of facial expressions and body language and many of Darwin's ideas and observations have since been validated by modern researchers around the world. Since that time, researchers have noted and recorded almost one million non-verbal cues and signals. Albert Mehrabian found that the total impact of a message is about 7 per cent verbal (words only) and 38 per cent vocal (including tone of voice, inflection and other sounds)and 55 per cent non-verbal. Professor Birdwhistell made some similar estimates of the amount of non-verbal communication that takes place amongst humans. He estimated that the average person actually speaks words for a total of about ten or eleven minutes a day and that the average sentence takes only about 2.5 seconds. Like Mehrabian, he found that the verbal component of a face-to face conversation is less than 35 per cent and that over 65 per cent of communication is done non-verbally.

Most researchers generally agree that the verbal channel is used primarily for conveying information, while the non-verbal channel is used for negotiating interpersonal attitudes and in some cases is used as a substitute for verbal messages. For example, a woman can give a man a "look to kil!': convey a very clean message to him without opening her mouth.

Regardless of culture, words and movements occur together with such predictability that Birdwhistell says that a well-trained person should be able to tell what movement a man is making by listening to his voice. In like manner, Birdwhistell learned how to tell what language a person was speaking, simply by watching his gestures.

Many people find difficulty in accepting that humans are still biologically animals. Homo sapiens is a species of primate a hair-less ape that has learned to walk on two limbs and has a clever, advanced brain. Like any other species, we are dominated by biological rules that control our actions, reactions, body language and gestures. The fascinating thing is that the human animal is rarely aware of his postures, movements and gestures that can tell one study while his voice may be telling another.

A1 : Complete the sentences by choosing the correct information from the extract. (2)

I. Charles Darwin's book inspired many studies on .. ( facial expressions and body language)

II. The total impact of a message according to Mehrabian is __% non-verbal (55%)

III. The verbal channel is used for.... ( conveying information )

IV. Non-verbal  channel is  used primarily for ( negotiating interpersonal attitudes )

A2: Give reasons : (2)

We can generally convey a lot without actually speaking because 

Ans : We can generally convey a lot without actually speaking because we use facial expressions, body language. There are millions of cues and symbols for communication.

A3: True or False : (2)

 Rewrite the following sentences stating against them whether they are true or false :

I. Human beings are very rarely aware that their posture and gestures are telling different story from the voice which is telling a story. ( True)

II. 355 Words and accompanying gestures are generally predictable regardless of culture. ( True)

III. The non-verbal channel is used for conveying information. ( False)

IV. Darwin's work is the most influential study of body language. ( True)

A4. How important are movements and gestures when we are communicating face to face? (2)

Ans : Movements and gestures are important when we are communicating face to face. They add extra meaning to the conversation. There is a smoothness in the conversation. Some unspoken are conveyed through the gestures.

A5. Grammar :

Rewrite the following sentences in the ways instructed : (2) 

1. Most researchers generally agree that the verbal channel is used primarily for conveying information. (Rewrite as a simple sentence)

Ans : According to the most researchers the verbal channel is used primarily for conveying information.

 2. We are dominated by biological rules. (Change the voice)

Ans : Biological rules dominate us.

A5. Give antonyms of 

Modern , Similar,  able,  aware. 

Ans : Modern - ancient , Similar - different,  able - disable,  aware - unaware

B Summary Writing (3) 

Write a brief summary of the above extract with the help of given clues and suggest a title.

Channels of communication, research, use of non-verbal ....... Importance. 

Verbal and Nonverbal Communication

Charles Darwin's book about body language gave vent to modern study about facial expressions and gestures. According to Albert Mehrabian the impact of message is 7% verbal, 38% vocal and 55% nonverbal. Professor Birdwhistell made similar observation stating nonverbal impact is about 65%. Verbal channel is used for conveying information whereas nonverbal for negotiating attitudes. Humans are dominated by biological rules that control body language. The voice tells the different story while gestures a different story.

Grammar Test on 1.8 Voyaging Towards Excellence

Unseen Extract Activities and Summary

Blog on : Cycling - A better way to commute

Write a bog in a proper format on 'Cycling - A better way to commute', with the help of following following points. 

• Choice of bike
• Safety equipment
• Road Safety rules
• Benefits 

Cycling - A better way to commute

🚴🚴🚴🚴🚴🚴🚴🚴🚴🚴🚴🚴🚴

Cycling is one of the best way to commute these days. In the wake of pollution  everywhere, it has become our duty to reduce the pollution. We all know any other vehicle adds pollution. So we should make a choice of bicycle to commute from home to school or office. 

While making a choice of bike we have to arrange certain safety equipment such as helmet. Expense on such equipment is not as much as we incur on safety equipment for motorbike or car. Everyone should follow the traffic rules. They are for our safety. Don't consider them as burdens. Riding on left side, stopping at red signal and knowing the sign boards placed at various places are some of the rules we have to follow. This helps us to reduce accidents and human loss. 

There are a lot of benefits of  cycling. Cycling will save a lot of money for us as it needs no  fuel. It will save fuel for future generation for the essential. Cycling  is a good exercise. It is good for health. It prepares you for your work by reducing the stress. Even you can enjoy the sights on your journey. You can find a way through traffic congestion. Instead of cycling in the Gyms, cycling to the office will save your time and money. 

Blog on 

Child Labour : A Curse to Humanity

Book Review

Book Review

Click here for Group Discussion

You have recently read a book. Write a Review on the same with the help of the following points. 

• Title of the book
• Subject/ Story/Information
• Language/Style/Presentation
• Benefits/Message

Review on Ek Hota Carver by Veena Gavankar 

Recently I have read a book 'Ek Hota Carver' by Veena Gavankar. The book is in Marathi on the life of George Washington Carver. It is a biography of a great researcher of nineteenth century.  George was the son of Mary a negro slave. She was living with Mozes Carver's family as he has bought her. One day Mary and her son were taken away by some dacoits to resell the slaves as were the practice in those days.  Mozes tried to get back them and he succeeded in getting back only Mary's son in exchange of a horse. Mozes and his wife Suazanbai brought up this child as their child. He developed his interest in gardening. He was very weak and dumb child. He was sent to Neose for schooling. It was a school for Negros. By doing some odd jobs, he completed his schooling. He developed interest in painting and music too. He was good at education and started to speak without staggering. He was neglected higher education at Highland University because he was black. He got admission in State Iowa College. George got his MS degree in Agricultural and Bacterial Botany and became a professor of the same. Then he was invited in the school of Tuskegee . He accepted the invitation and joined the school. Here he joined hands with Dr. Washington Booker to serve his people. He did many researches there for the welfare of farmers nearby. George Carver invented peanut butter, paints and cotton product.He prepared laboratory instruments from the waste. He made researches in groundnut, sweet root, cotton. He discovered some eatables. 

The book is very interesting. The narrator creates mental picture of that period before us.

The language used here is simple and appropriate to the period. While reading the book we became the part of it. The author of this book Veena Gavankar has used her unique style giving details. The book introduces us with great researcher. It teaches us the hard work, sacrifice and gratitude.

 

Poem 2.2 Indian Weavers

How to deal with novel genre

I am very thankful to Dr. Suhashini Jadhav, Dr. Dipak Damodare, Dr. Gajanan Malokar , Avinash Rade , Pravin Muley, Dr. Shubhra Roy, Suniti Moharil, Anil Bagade and Sunil Patil for guiding and inspiring to come with this write-up. 

    Students are very much concerned about the preparation of the novel genre for some reason.The major shift in this section of Novel Genre is that this is memory based. So far as students are used to writing answers from the extracts in the activity sheet itself. For these 16 marks there will be no help from the activity sheet itself. So thorough knowledge of all 4 items in this section is very necessary. Students should follow the guidelines to understand the novel genre. In the Activity Sheet activities on History of Novel are MCQ based. These activities are True/ False, Match the pairs, odd out, fill in the blanks, chronological order, complete the table, choosing the alternative etc. For completing the activities of True/False, Fill in the blanks, Choose the alternative, students should write complete sentences. Only options are not acceptable. To match the pairs, write pairs. Matching only alphabets and numbers is not acceptable. In chronological order use numbers in order 1234. 

 1. Reading of the novel extract twice is essential. 

 2. Think about the happenings in the chapters of novel ie. plot of the chapters.Try to narrate important events. 

 3. Point out places and occurrence of events there. Look for the time ( year, season, period) references. Think about its relation with the story. It will help you to understand the setting of the novel. 

 4. Point out main characters, know their physique and qualities.Every fictional character has one dominant disposition, along with subsequent or supporting character traits. Usually there are two ways to understand a fictional character - what he does and what he says. Along with this, what he says about himself, what other characters say about him, how are his reactions to the events and actions in the novel, these things also help us to understand the character. Try to find out strength and weaknesses of the characters. 

 5. Point out important dialogues and their speaker, their effect ( change in thinking, working, turning the novel etc.). Find out the use of uncommon words, sentence/s, phrases etc (language ). Focus on the language used there. 

 6. Focus on the central idea of the novel and extract. Try to know what the narrator wants to tell. 

7. Identify the type of novel.... 'To Sir With Love' autobiographical novel, 'The Sign of Four' detective novel 'Around the World in Eighty Days' adventurous novel . 

8.Find out the twists and turns in the novel (conflict ). Try to know about the inner struggle of the character and also struggle between two characters. 

9. Study the impact and influence of events/incidents/language/even characters etc on the readers (you). 

10. Point out references where the reader ( here the student ) is motivated/ forced/ compelled to read the full length novel. 

11. We need to understand the message or moral of the novel.

Prafulla Mahure 

Mahatma Gandhi Jr College Gadchandur Moderator Nagpur Division

Grammar Competancy