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UNIT 1: LSRW Skills
1.1 Listening
Types of Listening
1. Active Listening
 'Active listening' means, as its name suggests,
actively listening. That is fully concentrating on what
is being said rather than just passively ‘hearing’ the
message of the speaker.
 Active listening involves listening with all senses. As
well as giving full attention to the speaker, it is
important that the ‘active listener’ is also ‘seen’ to
be listening - otherwise the speaker may conclude
that what they are talking about is not interesting
to the listener.
 Interest can be conveyed to the speaker by using
both verbal and non-verbal messages such as
maintaining eye contact, nodding your head and
smiling, agreeing by saying ‘Yes’ or simply ‘Mmm
hmm’ to encourage them to continue. By providing
this 'feedback' the person speaking will usually feel
more at ease and therefore communicate more
easily, openly and honestly.
 The meaning of passive listening is to listen without
asking questions or interrupting the speaker. It may
even mean that you don’t really understand what’s
being said or you are not interested.
2. Passive listening
 The meaning of passive listening is to listen without
asking questions or interrupting the speaker. It may
even mean that you don’t really understand what’s
being said or you are not interested.
The Art of Listening
 Listening is an art. It requires us to be patient,
receptive, open-minded, and non-judgmental. It
requires us not to put words in other people’s
mouths, fill in gaps, or presume to understand the
other person fully.
 Those who can listen to others well can listen to
themselves deeply. This is the foundation of self-
awareness, self-love, and self-knowledge.
 In fact, the art of listening is central to practices
such as meditation and mindfulness. So why not
hone this skill with others each day, and make the
best opportunity of every moment you get?
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How to Master the Art of Listening
1. Make Eye Contact
2. Don’t Interrupt
3. Practice “Active Listening”
4. Show You Understand
5. Listen without Thinking
6. Listen without Judgement
7. Listen to Non-Verbal Communication
8. Create a Suitable Environment
9. Observe Other People
Stages/Process of Listening
1. Receiving: At this stage, we are still only hearing
the message.
2. Understanding: At this stage, we attempt to learn
the meaning of the message.
3. Remembering: Remembering begins with
listening; if you can’t remember something that
was said, you might not have been listening
effectively.
4. Evaluating: The fourth stage in the listening
process is evaluating, or judging the value of the
message. Evaluations of the same message can
vary widely from one listener to another.
5. Feedback/Responding: The responding stage is
the stage of the listening process in which the
listener provides verbal and/or nonverbal
reactions.
1.2 Speaking
Pronunciation
 Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a
language is spoken. Pronunciation refers to the
ability to use the correct stress, rhythm, and
intonation of a word in a spoken language.
 To pronounce words, we push air from our lungs up
through our throat and vocal chords, through our
mouth, past our tongue and out between our teeth
and lips. (Sometimes air also travels through our
nose.)
 To change the sound that we are making, we mainly
use the muscles of our mouth, tongue and lips to
control the shape of our mouth and the flow of air.
 Speakers of different languages tend to develop
different muscles of the mouth for pronunciation.
When we speak a foreign language, our muscles
may not be well developed for that language, and
we will find pronunciation more difficult.
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Tongue-Twisters
Tongue twisters are a great way to practice and improve
pronunciation and fluency. They can also help to improve
accents by using alliteration, which is the repetition of
one sound. They help us to clear sound while speaking.
If you can master them, you will be a much more
confident speaker.
Examples:
1. I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.
2. I have got a date at a quarter to eight; I’ll see you
at the gate, so don’t be late.
3. Can you can a can as a canner can can a can?
4. You know New York, you need New York, you
know you need unique New York.
5. I saw a kitten eating chicken in the kitchen.
6. She sells seashells by the seashore.
7. How can a clam cram in a clean cream can?
8. If a dog chews shoes, whose shoes does he choose?
9. I thought I thought of thinking of thanking you.
10. I wish to wash my Irish wristwatch.
11. I saw Susie sitting in a shoeshine shop.
12. Near an ear, a nearer ear, a nearly eerie ear.
13. A big black bear sat on a big black rug.
Stress in English Language
To communicate clearly when you are speaking in
English, it’s important to stress the correct syllables
in each word. This is called word stress, which means
pronouncing one syllable of a multisyllabic word
with greater emphasis (stress) than the other
syllables in the word.
Here are four general rules to keep in mind about
word stress as you practice pronunciation:
1. Stress the first syllable of:
 Most two-syllable nouns (examples: CLImate,
KNOWledge)
 Most two-syllable adjectives (examples:
FLIPpant, SPAcious)
2. Stress the last syllable of:
 Most two-syllable verbs (examples: reQUIRE,
deCIDE)
3. Stress the second-to-last syllable of:
 Words that end in -ic (examples: ecSTATic,
geoGRAPHic)
 Words ending in -sion and -tion (examples:
exTENsion, retriBUtion)
4. Stress the third-from-last syllable of:
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 Words that end in -cy, -ty, -phy and -
gy (examples: deMOCracy, unCERtainty,
geOGraphy, radiOLogy)
 Words that end in -al (examples: exCEPtional,
CRItical)
Keep these simple rules in mind and you will soon
find your pronunciation getting better and better!
1.3 Reading
Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension is the understanding of what a
particular text means and the ideas the author is
attempting to convey, both textual and sub-textual.
In order to read any text, your brain must process not
only the literal words of the piece, but also their
relationship with one another, the context behind the
words, how subtle language and vocabulary usage can
impact emotion and meaning behind the text, and how
the text comes together as a larger, coherent whole.
Steps to improve Reading skills
1. Read a variety of material and do not limit
yourself to textbooks only.
2. Circle unknown words and try to find its
meaning.
3. After reading recall as much of information as
possible.
4. Consider how interesting the subject matter and
how much you already know about it.
Reading Style
1. Skimming
Skimming is one of the basic methods of reading
comprehension. In this, the reader first quickly read the
passage in order to get a preview of the whole
passage/passages and tries to understand after having
skimmed the text.
2. Scanning
Scanning is the act of searching particular information in
a text with a particular approach.
Purposes of Scanning
 To search for a word in a dictionary or index
 To find a phone number or an address in a
directory
 To check the time schedule of a program in an
agenda
 To check the price of a specific item in a catalog
 To know a particular information from a text
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3. Churning
The process of churning and assimilation comes after
the skimming part. The word churning means
contemplating, analysis of the ideas and information.
This churning and assimilation helps in understanding
the inference and contextual meaning of the text.
4. Assimilation
Assimilation refers to comprehending the text so that
you can answer any question based on the text. It is the
end product of skimming, scanning and churning
processes during the reading of a given text.
1.4 Writing
Basic three sections of a paragraph:
1.Beginning - Introduce your idea.
2.Middle - Explain your idea.
3. End - Make your point again, transition to next
paragraph.
Principle of Paragraph Development
1. Topic sentence: Topic sentence is a sentence that
expresses the main idea of a paragraph. This is also
known as key sentence or theme sentence.
2. Coherence: Coherence refers to the clear and logical
thinking of ideas in a paragraph in such a way that a
thought expressed in a sentence easily leads to the
thought in next sentence and so on. The word
coherence literary means Consistency.
3. Unity- Unity refers to one as a whole or oneness. All
the parts of a paragraph should contribute to one
effect and lead to unified purpose. One idea should
be expressed in one sentence and avoid too much
lengthy sentences.
Writing Methods
1.Inductive Order Method: When the matter
consists of some details or known facts, the
consideration of which leads to a conclusion, it is
desirable to adapt the inductive method. This is a
logical arrangement, beginning with the
supporting information available and concluding
with a topic sentence or a conclusion.
2.Deductive Order Method: The deductive method
is the opposite of the inductive method. It reverses
the arrangement of matter prescribed in the
inductive method. When a statement is made in
the beginning, and it is followed by the facts that
substantiate the assertion or suggestion made in
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the beginning, this method is adopted. In it, one
starts with the topic sentence, and goes on to
record the supporting facts.
3.Exposition Method: These paragraphs explain how
something works or what the reader is to do to
make it work. Such paragraphs demand certain
knowledge. Nevertheless, writing them is a great
exercise to understand the material, because you
keep learning when you teach. In expository
writing, linking words like first, second, then, and
finally are usually used to help readers follow the
ideas. Exposition is explanatory writing. Exposition
can be an incidental part of a description or a
narration, or it can be the heart of an article.
4.Linear Method: Linear means 'consisting of lines'
or 'one dimensional'. Each sentence leads to the
next one in a paragraph, with the purpose of
maintaining a forward movement; and each
paragraph can be a step to take us to a goal. A
logical series can be made even a consecutive
arrangement of information.
5. Interrupted method: Whenever the writer gives a
break to the line of thought and gives a turn to the idea
to produce the desired effect, he uses this method. The
punctuation marks , ( ) _! (comma, parentheses, em
dash, exclamation mark) serve as interrupters and add
emphasis to the sentences. The interrupt the flow of
sentences by breaking chunks of ideas. Remember,
interrupters can be words, phrases, or punctuation
marks.
6.Spatial Order Method: When the matter refers to
certain areas, an area-wise arrangement of the
matter must be preferred to present it
systematically. This method helps the reader to
visualize what he sees and, therefore, it is better
to understand the physical qualities of the subject
matter.
7. Chronological Method: When the matter refers to
some developments in terms of time, a
chronological order introduces system in its
presentation. This order is preferred in historical
narrations.
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