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1.Introduction

The Govt. of Andhra Pradesh released a handbook for students called SHBSG (2016) which has
become viral in social networks, hence it was noticed and shared by many academicians. The
authors who works at Dept of English, Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, Sivakasi was
impressed and influenced by the lessons and decided to use it as a classroom lesson for
Professional Communication Skills Laboratory(Annexure -1), course for III ECE “A” (2017 -
2021 batch). Similarity in the contents of Professional Communication Skills Laboratory course
and Skill Genie (SG) is well realised, hence it has been decided for teaching and learning. The
detailed analysis of the book helped to identify the right combination of communication skills
and soft skills required for engineers and engineering students. Tailor-made content from web
sources and print sources added a fresh look to SHBSG. Munby (1978) stated that, “ESP courses
are those where the syllabus and materials are determined in all essentials by the prior analysis of
the communication needs of the learner.” He also added that the needs of learners can be
identified by investigating the target situation. It appears Govt. of Andhra Pradesh has
meticulously investigated and understood the industrial need across the world and as a resultant
compiled this SHBSG. Government of India has created a new Ministry i.e., Ministry of Skill
Development Entrepreneurship. Under the same scheme, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh has created a
new department called Skill Entrepreneurship and Innovation to convert the services with
education and employment. Honourable Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Mr.N. Chandra Bapu
Naidu released SHBSG, on 26th May 2016 and stated that his vision for students of Andhra
Pradesh is to make them employable at global level through mastery over English and soft skills.

2. Literature Study

At present, engineers occupy a major section of industries and multinational companies.

Increased opportunities for further education and employment is not a cake walk for all
engineering students. Industries demand employees with minimum workplace English and soft
skills. Soft skills definition and classification varies however we can understand it as multiple
intelligences and communicative proficiency. Understanding this persistent demand in industries,
today technical universities are including soft skills as a compulsory subject in the curriculum.
Hence literature review delves to highlight its importance in today’s world. Academicians,
curriculum planners, teachers, placement officers, human resource managers and industrial
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experts suggest many activities based on their domain and expertise to teach soft skills more
interesting and in a practical way. Thus these skills acquisition further take the engineering
graduates to their job and home fronts.

Kiran Karnik former president of NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services
Company) felt that only 25 percent of India’s technical graduates and 10 to 15 percent of other
graduates are employable at once. It was confirmed by various reports and surveys, the major
reason cited behind unemployment of engineers across India is the skill gap. Corporates are not
ready to employ fresh graduates from various tier II and III engineering colleges as they don’t
find them skilled enough to fit in the industry. The core focus of the Indian education system has
always been on theoretical concepts instead of merging it with the practical training aspect as
well. Problems with English language along with skill set deficiency make these students
ineligible for job opportunity. Employability of the students are determined by the amount of
English language he/she possessed and soft skill modules. Communicational skills and soft skills
have become very important in the industrial sector but due consideration is slowly given by the
educational institutes.

The necessity for soft skills was accepted undeniably. Soft skills are needed not only for job but
also for societal recognition and career upliftment. B.Shoba Roa in ELT weekly says that soft
skills can be looked as a combination of personality traits, elegance and skill to use the language
effectively in oral and written communication, and good attitude that makes people different
from the others. Shipurkar (2009) felt that soft skills can be integrated into the college
curriculum by way of the add-on model, integrated model or composite model. So a novel way
of integrating soft skills with the subjects that students learn can help them imbibe skills for life.
Literature review made it very clear the need for communicative skills and soft skills. Thus the
following sections illustrate the relevance of Skill Genie (SG) and its importance to engineering
students.

3. Why Skill Genie?

This project is initiated in association with British Council with clear vision, objectives and
outcomes. The clarity in the physical structure of the SHBSG made it as a learner – teacher
friendly book. This book focused on strengthening skill sets required for students to be industry
ready. For a pilot study, a lesson Yes, I Can was chosen. Material selection is an important part
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of teaching language skills and soft skills. The three ‘M’s are popular in ELT i.e. Man, Method
and Material. Since materials is central to the class room, it occupies the important place. Today
proficiency in English Language is viewed as communicative competency and considered as one
of the prime soft skills. Teaching material for communication skills and soft skills together are
available as text books, videotapes, software, blogs, mobile apps, films, websites, social
networks, etc. Teachers of English at engineering colleges rely heavily on these diverse ranges of
materials to cater to the need of communication skills and soft skills of engineering students.
According to Stephen Krashen (1987) Finding, selecting, assessing and customising the
materials for classroom use was challenging and interesting for the teachers of English. The
sincere study of SHBSG gave an insight to the author that it is a student friendly handbook aims
to assist the engineering learners associated with any domain and also for who are on the verge
of starting their careers. It proposes to serve as a momentous tool to integrate written, verbal,
nonverbal communication skills and foster soft skills to young minds.

3.1 Skill Genie - Review

Academicians, educators, teachers and administrators should understand the combination of print
source and web source from diverse background is more suitable for the young learners. Easy
access to read, comprehend, view, write, listen and speak is readily available in SHBSG.
Teaching materials and methodology is indispensable and inevitable for Teaching Learning
Process (TLP) (Prabhu, 1987 ). It has twenty lessons carefully compiled by the authors. Mr.
Ganta Srinivasarao, Minister of Education and Human Resources Development, Andhra Pradesh
stated that he wanted the students of Andhra Pradesh as the best in the country and to be
competed at international level. The earnest analysis of lessons from 1 to 20 validated the
resourcefulness of the content.

The clear structure of lessons is well depicted with an introduction for every lesson that
served as a platform to set the tempo for learners. Every lesson has a brief note, relevant quote/
quotes, an excerpt from a motivational/best sellers’ book, a reference to movies from Telugu,
English and web links. The quotes sensibly used in all lessons are mind captures and
encompassed the theme of the lesson. Comprehending the quotations do not have complexity and
evidently it may be used by the present generation as motivational greeting messages with their
kith and kin. All lessons are very crisp and focused towards the skill set. Probably a first of its
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kind to have a movie reference in almost all lessons. Perfectly edutainment objective was
exercised in the whole book. Every lesson is followed by a few simple and useful exercises to
cross verify the level of conceptual understanding by learners. No lesson exceeds more than two
pages. As Nunan (1989) felt Handy preparation keeps the learner – teacher time intact. Design of
the book is colourful, attractive, user friendly and mind blowing.

Since the book is available as online and e-material, accessibility is a big advantage. Embedded
web links in all lessons added a new charm to the handbook. Integration of e-material is a big
boon to teach and learn communicational skills and soft skills. As mentioned earlier in the paper,
the similarity and the crystal clear structure of the topics impressed the author to experiment it in
class room as well as in domestic settings. However, before experimenting the SHBSG, data has
been collected from the target group (54) to know their English Proficiency level.

4. Needs Analysis on English Proficiency

A simple needs analysis is conducted using the Ordinal Scale from “0” to “4” with the options as
follows: 0-Do not know, 1 -Below Average, 2 -Average, 3- Above Average and 4-Excellent. The
questions and the responses were incorporated in Table 1.

Table 1.

Q.No. Question 0 1 2 3 4

1 Assess your Listening, Speaking, Reading and

2 7 27 15 3
Writing Skills in English

2 How well did you communicate in English after

0 8 20 20 6
joining Engineering Course?

The data collected stated the respondents’ level on listening, speaking, reading and writing skills
in English. Exactly 50 percent of them assessed as Average, 27 percent as Above Average and
0.05 as Excellent. This interpretation of analysis is a kind of assessment regarding the learners’
proficiency level before and after their engineering course. Further, the interpretation of data
analysis claim the change of material and methodology to enhance the LSRW skills of the
learners.
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5. Class room Experiments, a Share and Review with Reference to the Select Lesson Yes, I
Can (Ln-1)

The select lesson from SHBSG created more space to the learners to pick up the communication
skills and the soft skills. The lesson selected and activities conducted has given due importance
to language functional skills and soft skills which will be illustrated in the following sections.
One of the advantages of choosing the first lesson Yes, I Can (Appendix 2) is that it provided an
opportunity to appreciate the prominence of positive thinking and attitude.

5.1. Experiment I – Presentations and Reviewing Presentations

One of the course objectives of Professional Communication Skills Laboratory is ‘to upgrade the
language proficiency level of engineering students’
(http://www.mepcoeng.ac.in/images/Data/Autonomous/MepcoR2015/UG/ECE.pdf), hence the
first trialling was on presentation. The lesson starts with a mention about A.P.J. Abdul Kalaam,
Steve Jobs and Narayana Murthy. Hence six students were identified to make a pair presentation
about the afore mentioned personalities. To ensure the uniformity in structure, a presentation
template was discussed, it included presentation time, short video clip and query/review session
which altogether for fifteen minutes for each pair. They were asked to rehearse with their friends
before classroom presentation. It enabled the students to perform with confidence and
professionalism. Every presentation was reviewed by the learners which enhanced the peer group
interaction. Authors added their inputs to hone the presentation skill further. Almost all
presentation, had a clear structure of proper beginning, middle and end.

By selecting the presentation activity, authors taught and tested the presentations and
reviewing presentations as language focused activity “...to attain effective professional
communicational skills”. The idea behind introducing admirable personalities is to inspire, reach
and teach the learners. Through the presentations embedded with short video clips, learners were
exposed to the achievement and adversities of the contemporary achievers. The
contemporaneous nature motivated and attracted the learners to know more about them. The
presentations of these iconic examples helped the students to realise the significance of soft
skills. Sasirekha (2018) in her unpublished Ph.D. thesis entitled Redesigning the Anna
University Technical English Course through Select Literary Material: An Attempt mentioned
‘…presentation as a tool to make LSRW skills more captivating’. The presentations done by the
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students revealed how economy, parents, society, gender, education, career etc. can change a
person's life. Rest of the class were asked to listen carefully to review the presentations. Students
were provided with a common template (Appendix I) to review the presentations. Review of
presentation included query to the presenter wherein it created a platform to both presenter and
reviewer to indulge in face to face conversation. For presentation and review, correlation
between the topic, fluency and delivery style was analysed. Though the prime focus is on
presentation skills, as by products it lead to other soft skills practices.

Presentations and reviewing the presentations was an accountable activity and the limited period
did not allow the author to carry out the task for all students. The experience gained by the
learners through this activity brought more clarity on presenting, listening, discussing,
formulating the information as presentation and reviewing to the students. Positive attitude in the
soft skill context are nothing but establishing as successful in their domain is also instilled in the
young minds. The soft skills topics identified in the syllabus are presented here to try out in the
next experiment.

Motivation

Self-image

Goal setting

Time management

Stress management

Career and life planning

5.2 Experiment II - Short Story A Self - Learning Tool for Language Enrichment and
Personality Development

A short story is a self-study material which enables the students to understand the theme.
Continuous practice enables the learners to read fluently, to enrich their vocabulary, to sharpen
the pronunciation and to enjoy reading, listening, speaking and writing. It results in the
expansion of vocabulary and sentence structures and ensures proficiency in the LSRW skills. It
develops the ability to speak English correctly and fluently. Above all it inculcates the soft skills.
The main aim of exploiting short story is to develop the language ability and the soft skill of the
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students. It is the intensive way of introducing language skills and life skills. Penny (1996) felt
that the language ability attained would help the learners to use English language without any
hesitation and the literary content would help them in moulding their personality.

“Attitude is Everything” (SHBSG) an extract from Condensed Chicken Soup is a fascinating

student-friendly and easily comprehensive story for students. Learners were asked to read this
single paragraph story individually. It provides the opportunity to read and develop the other
micro skills like scanning for information, paying attention to the writer’s intensions, characters,
arguments, opinions, style, etc. As a next step, a student with good articulation was identified
asked to read the story loudly to rest of the class with the pre understanding about the story was
asked to observe the story setting, narrating technique and theme. Self reading, silent reading and
aloud reading has its own reward and this story reading activity complimented listening skill.
Reading and word knowledge are highly indispensable in the perspective of fluency. Exactly the
select piece of story used the known and simple words hence ensured reading comfort to the
learners.

6. Result Obtained

Since understanding the story is simple, learners were self-motivated to talk about attitude,
positive thinking, goal attainment, facing problems, stress management, time management, etc.
Communication takes place in an open classroom interaction session, learners associated the
story with their background and described a remarkable incident. As a positive sign, students
with limited English language skill also took part in it. Noam Chomsky (2000) affirms that ELT
accepts the use of literature/short story as a popular technique for teaching learning language
skills (LSRW), language components (Vocabulary, grammar and Pronunciation) and soft skills.
Soft skills enhancement through such simple lessons would present the ethics, values and
morale.

7. Observation

Classroom observation gives satisfaction and understanding about how actively learners
participate in each language activity. The efforts of students to understand the inbuilt soft skills
through language exercises amend the gap. It is realised that even one lesson can teach a multiple
soft skills and language skills. It is viewed as an added advantage in exploiting SHBSG. The
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respondents express a satisfaction towards the materials identified and methodology exploited
for Language Enrichment and Personality Development. A participatory approach helped the
students to interact in English. Such an approach fosters functional language skills and soft skills.

8. Feedback of Students

By the end of the classroom sessions, students were asked to give the written feedback in a few
sentences. Below are the samples:

Reading habit is developed and it helped in acquiring other skills.

Language learning is stress free and meaningful.

Though my language flair is good, I have never participated in the class room activities. But we
were all asked to participate in front of the class, it raised my confidence level. I felt doubly
happy, when I helped some of my classmates.

I studied in a Tamil medium school and afraid of speaking English, now I can understand
English and can reply in English.

The choice of lesson and suitability of the activities are interesting and informative.

9. Limitations

Even though SHBSG is an interesting and enterprising diversion from the routine set of sources,
a few drawbacks were noted. The suggested movies to tap positive thoughts are very suitable but
drawback is it cannot be played due to lack of time, space and technological support. Syllabus
coverage may suffer when we work with alternative material. Sometimes the students need to
work in pair or group to have feasible practice on communicational skill and soft skill
achievement.

10. Scope for Future Study

The choice of material is very important to train the learners on language skills and life skills.
Though employability is common for all studies, expectations on engineers are manifold as it is a
professional course. The prime employability skill set required for engineers are communication
skills hence the present study is carried out with a sample of 54 engineering students at Mepco
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Schlenk Engineering College, Sivakasi. SHBSG can be experimented with different set of non-
engineering students also. Further it has to be tested as a self-learning material.

11. Conclusion

Skills set acquisition opens the job opportunity and improves the career chances. It is so
appropriate that communication skills and soft skills can be acquired through right kind of
material and methodology exploitation. Realisation of the high competition for jobs, students
from all faculties must be empowered with soft skills before they earn their degrees. This will
enable them to get placed at the work front. For this teachers should be willing to think beyond
the conventional methods. There should be a paradigm shift in pedagogy patterns so that students
will be benefited and value these skills. If material selection and suitable methodology are taken
care and planned well, it will imply the success rate of language enhancement and skills set
acquisition. It is proved in the classroom experiment using a lesson from SHBSG.

12. References

Chomsky, N (2000). New Horizons in the study of Language and Mind. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

Munby, J (1984). "Communicative Syllabus Design: Principles and Problems" in Read, J.A.S.
(ed.) Trends in Language Syllabus Design. Singapore: SEAMEO Regional Language Centre.

Nunan, D (1989). Designing Tasks for the Communicative Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

Penny, U. R (1996). A Course in Language Teaching Practice and Theory. Cambridge: Oxford
University Press.

Prabhu, N. S (1987). Second Language Pedagogy. Cambridge: Oxford University Press.

Sasirekha , K (2018) “Redesigning the Anna University Technical English Course through Select
Literary Material: an Attempt” Madurai Kamaraj University.Maduari.

Stephen, D. Krashen (1987). Principles and Practice in Language Teaching. New York: Prentice
Hall International.

Web References
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http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/-43-engineers-in-india-can-t-write-
correct-english-112072500034_1.html

https://www.coursehero.com/file/30321045/Skill-geniepdf/

http://eltweekly.com/2013/05/empowering-youth-with-soft-skills-by-b-shoba-rao/

http://www.mepcoeng.ac.in/index.php/academics/academics-3

https://nasscomfoundation.org