In this webpage you can find all the lessons, grammar topics, vocabulary items, speaking and writing tasks based on the Fifth Semester English curriculum prescribed by Osmania University for BA, BCom and BSc Students.

Each Lesson has pre-reading questions and activities. Attempt all of those before you read the lesson. You will have a better idea about the context of the lesson if you go through the Pre-reading questions. You have an audio of the lesson. You can listen to it and then move on to post-listening/reading questions. Make use of the tasks given to develop your LSRW skills. Try to take notes while reading/listening. You can also listen to the video lecture given with each lesson. That will help you for your exams. What we learn in our English classes should not be restricted only to the classrooms. You need to put those ideas into action. Our education should help develop social consciousness.

All the best!

Ecology

A.K.Ramanujan

Pre-reading Activity

Observe the pictures closely, think and answer the questions given with them

Pre-reading Questions

1. Like a national flag and a national anthem, we also have a national flower and a national tree. Do you know what India's national flower and national tree are?

2. Traditionally some people in Telangana spend a day under a tree. They have family lunch in the woods or at least under the trees. Do you know about this? In which season does this outing take place? What do you think is the significance of this custom?

3. India observes an annual tree-planting festival. Do you know what it is called, when did it start, who started it and why was it started?

4. What do you know about Haritha haram? What are some of the benefits of this programme?

5. While tree worship is a common practice in many parts of India, some trees are also avoided as they are supposed to bring bad luck. Can you make a list of trees that are considered benign and those that are considered inauspicious?

6. What do you understand by the term ecology? How is it different from environment? You can use the following links to understand the terms

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/ecology

https://www.factmonster.com/math-science/earth-environment/what-is-the-environment

7. Are you aware of the ecological movements in India. In the 1970s India witnesses a mass ecological movement for the protection of trees and forests. Find out about various ecological movements in India. Make notes on ecological movements. Use proper note making format.

https://www.slideshare.net/JonayedRousan1/environmental-movement-in-india

About the Author

A.K. Ramanujan (1929-93)was an Indian English poet, translator, folklorist, philologist, critic and cultural historian. He was a Professor of South Asian Languages and Civilisations at the University of Chicago. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1976 and Sahitya Akademi Award posthumously in 1999

About the Poem

Ecology is one of A.K. Ramanujan's famous poems. In the poem there are three champak trees in full bloom. You can see a son and a mother as the main characters of the poem. The son is angry about the tree. Let's see why?

Look for the meanings of the following words from the context

rage migraine pollen sift fog personify scales porous providential dower

You may refer to a dictionary if you are not able to understand the meaning

Post-reading Questions

1. In what season does the 'action' takes pf the poem take place?

2. How often do the "Red champak trees" burst into flowers?

3. The poet says that the "walls had ears and eye" What does this mean?

4. What caused a "binding migraine" to the poet's mother?

5. How did the champak tree take birth in the house? How old is it?

6. How does the mother try to deal with her migraine?

7. Why would the mother not let anyone cut the trees? What does this suggest?

8. How widespread and powerful is the pollen?

9. What does the tee give to the daughters and the cousins?

10. The entire poem, as you may have noticed, can be seen as a single sentence. Identify the connectors that hold the different parts of the sentence together?

11. Describe the champak trees and their effect on the people and the place? (400 words)

12. Compare and contrast the attitudes of the speaker and the mother towards the champak trees? (400 words)

13. Explain how Ramanujan humanises the issue of ecology in the poem.(400 words)

Post-reading Activity

1. Identify the ecological issues that need your urgent attention. How do we address these issues? Discuss with your teachers and classmates

2. Read on the benefits of going green. Write in your own words about it. Prepare and record a voice over for the following audio and send to me.

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What's the Language of the Future

Henry Hitchings

Pre-reading Questions

1. How many languages do you know? In how many of them can/do you speak, read, write and think?

2. Did you learn any language out of interest?

3. Do you know any international language? Name some of the international languages that people widely learn.

4. Where, in what context and for what purpose do you use English in your daily life?

5. How and why do you think English has come to acquire the status of a global language today?

6. What impact do you think the spread of English has had on other languages ?

7. Do you think English should be taught as one of the subjects in schools or used as the medium of instruction? What is the difference?

8. Do you consider English language as a challenge or an opportunity?

9. If some other languages were to emerge as the global language, do you think people would still learn English?

10. Why do you think some languages (eg: Sankskrit) although rich in themselves are no longer used widely?

Pre-reading Activity

Watch the videos and think about the questions given below. Discuss with your classmates.

Look out for the meanings of the following words from the context

insatiable lingua franca propagate ascendency auxiliary infuse unorthodox dissent ardent conviction disconcerting potent diminish

Refer to a dictionary to find the meanings of difficult words

Post-reading Activity

1. Think, jot down and talk about your own experiences of learning English language

2. What are your plans of improving your English moving forward in life. Consult your teacher and make a clear cut plan in writing

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Indianisms

"In the essay What's the Language of the Future, Henry Hitchings states that as a result of English spreading to different parts of the world, the language is "changing" and "acquiring more and more local colour". As a consequence, the "'Englishness' of English is being diluted" and the "number of Englishes is increasing. One such English is Indian English and Indianisms are an essential part of it. Indianisms may be described as words, phrases, expressions or sentence constructions that are used widely Indian English but are not common in other English-speaking countries."

Identify the Indianisms in the paragraph given below and make the expressions more acceptable

It was her 3rd marriage anniversary. Arrangements were made for marriage anniversary celebrations. Many of her college friends came for the party. They expressed their heart felt congratulations. However, her mind told her that she did a mistake long back by getting married too early. Many a times she found it difficult to cope up the married life. She always thought getting married after giving her PG exam would have been more better. She could have got a job. She never replied back to the job offers as she did not write her final exams. She was called as one of the bright students in her class then. Anyways, there is always a second chance to get back to studies.

Framing Questions

What is the Language of the future?

What is the status of Sanskrit now?

Why is English called a global language?

How many people speak English in the world? (Wh-Questions)

Are Science subjects in the UAE taught in English?

Is English the world's auxiliary tongue?

Was colonialism a main reason for the spread of English in India? (Am/Is/Are/Was/Were Questions)

Do you like English?

Did Industrial revolution and technological developments contribute to the spread of English? (Do, Does, Did questions)

English is important to its global ambitions, isn't it?

The consequences are complex, aren't they?

Two challenges stand out, don't they?

Gender Sensitisation

Girl Jamaica Kincaid

Pre-reading Questions:

1. Have you ever heard from your family/relatives that boys should not cry like a girl? Or not to gossip like a woman? Or be brave like a man? Why do you think certain attributes like strong, brave, etc are given only to men. Aren't women brave, strong?

2. What does it mean by "behave like a girl" Aren't the girls familiar with these expressions? Have the girls been told not to walk or laugh or talk or play like a boy?

3. How often have you been told to do something or not to do something because you are a girl or a boy? What were those things?

4. Who receives more instructions, boys or girls? Who is given more freedom, boys or girls?

5. Have you been told to choose a particular course of study or prepare for a particular career because it suits your gender?

6. Some application forms ask you to write your 'sex' and others ask you to write 'gender' Do you think both words mean the same? Note that Sex describes the biological traits of human beings. Gender is a social construct.

7. is there any difference between describing yourself as male or man and female or woman?

Pre-reading activity

Watch the short film given below and write three paragraphs on how the girl and boy are treated differently at home (100 words)

About the Author

Jamaica Kincaid (born 1949) is an award-winning Caribbean-American writer of fiction and non-fiction. In 1973, she changed her name to Jamaica Kincaid to write and publish anonymously. Many of her stories and novels describe the struggles of a young girl's growing up and the mother-daughter relationship.

About the text

Girl is taken from Kincaid's first short story collection titled At the Botton of the Riverr (1983) The stories in the collection are also based on Kincaid's own experiences of growing up in relative poverty with her domineering mother.

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Gender Equality is Your Issue too

Emma Watson

Pre-reading Questions

1. Do men and women get equal wages in the areas of daily labour, employment, sports, films, etc?

2. Do men and women get the same pay for all kinds of work or only for some kinds of work?

3. If an organisation has a choice to employ either man or a woman, whom would they choose and why?

4. What is feminism?

5. Who are feminists?

6. Can men be feminists?

7. How is success defined for men and for women?

8. Who is the Minister of Women and Child Development in the State and at the Centre? Should only women be allotted this ministry?

About the writer

Emma Watson (born 1990) is a British actor, model and activist. She won British Artist of the Year in 2013. She was appointed a UN Women Good Will Ambassador to serve as an advocate for UN Women's gender equality campaign known as he For She

About the Speech

Emma Watson gave the speech on September 20, 2014 at the launch of the He For She Campaign of the United Nations. Utilising her image as a public figure, she brings the issue of women's rights to public attention in her speech.

Analogy and Odd One Out

"Word analogy is an interesting way to enrich your vocabulary...'Verbal' means related to words and 'analogy' means similarity...Verbal analogies are useful tools to achieve a higher-level thinking about words and language."

For example, Warm: Hot:: ___________________:Hilarious

(humid, angry, amusing, summer)

Fill in the Blanks

1. Rose:Flower::Hammer:___________ (a. Tool b.Instrument c. Car d. Song)

2. Pencil: Write::Knife: _____________ (a. erase b. cut c.clean d.cook)

3. Amnesia: Memory:: Paralysis: _______________(a. movement b. limbs c. handicapped d. legs)

4. Selfish: Compassion:: Childish:____________ (a. playfulness b.imagination c. intelligence d. maturity

5. Blatant: Obvious::_______________:_________

a. Preeminent : Important

b. Legendary :Incredible

c. Novel: Obsolete

d. Powerful: Dominant

Choose the Odd Word Out

1. Nylon Silk Wool Cotton

2. Chalk Brush Pencil Ink

3. Banana Cashew Guava Mango

Verbs

• Regular and Irregular Verbs

• Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

Film Review

Pre-reading Questions

1. What was the film you watched recently?

2. Did you like the film?

3. If yes, why you liked the film? If not, why didn't you like the film?

4. What are the things that caught your attention in the film?

5. What are the things that you found could have been better?

6. What is the story/plot of the film?

7. Who is the director?

8. Who are the actors, technical staff?

9. Did they perform well?

10. Anything special about the film?

11. Would you recommend this film to your friends and family? Why?

V Semester Notes

Note: The Lessons in the Section are taken from the textbooks prescribed by Osmania University for First, Second and Third years, The English Turf edited by C. Muralikrishna and Y.L.Srinivas , English in Use and English in Action edited by T.Vijay Kumar, K. Durga Bhavani, Y.L. Srinivas.

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This website is purely for education purpose and no commercial benefit/copyright infringement is intended.

© Roopna Ravindran, Assistant Professor of English