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ISSN (ONLINE) : 2349 - 3399 ISSN (PRINT) : 2349 - 3380

IJARRAS Volume 3 Issue 3 Page 1254

Developing Communication Skills through Co-operative Teaching Methodology. Dr.P.Sreeramulu

Asst Professor, GITAM University, Bengaluru

“India is a vibrant country brimming with potential… we should develop needed soft skills

throughout India.” -An English Teacher

“With the business environment rapidly expanding in India, there is also huge demand for

quality corporate communication skills training. There is also a lack of providers with the

experience and expertise to give professionals the standard they require.”

-A Private Corporate Trainer

Language is an expression of human activity. English language has become so

popular that among the 1.1 billion people of India who speak and communicate in more than

a thousand languages, a vast majority have a common language-English. This languages is

now an employment passport to a fresh graduate, In fact, it still remains a strong

communicative language. The success of an endeavour hinges on the ability to communicate

effectively in today’s fast paced life, everyone is asked to do more with less. In such a

scenario, effective communication holds the key. Effectively, communication centres’ round

the usage of words, speed of delivery of words, pitch modulation and body language. Using

the right tools to communicate the right messages at the right time can salvage crises and

motivate people to work towards success. Truly said, communication works but for those

who work at it. In the existing globalization scenario, most of the Information Technology,

I.F Enabled Services, management institutes, public and private sector, multi-national

Companies, Union Public Service Commission, and State Public Service Commission search

for a right and suitable fresher for executive posts. Whatever be the recruiting criteria that IT.

ITES, industry giants had in their agenda, once this was clear a first class degree would not



serve the purpose, the candidate has to satisfy the skill sets that the companies were looking

for, And unanimously, the important group in the skills set is the communication skills. It has

been identified in several studies conducted by the MNCs and IT sector industries that many

Indian graduates (around 50% of technical qualifications and hard skill’s at university but

lacking in communications skills essential to getting the right job. There is a need to provide

valuable training to Indian students so they can develop these vital soft skills, making them

more employable and better equipped to achieve their full potential. How can we do it? Is our

curriculum flexible enough?

There are several ways how this can be done. The campus recruitment training

institutions which mushroomed, thanks to the blooming ITES, claim to develop the

communication skills of the students in just as short a time as two months. Some of them

even convince the4 skill deprived enthusiast that they can become effective communicators

within a month, if they choose so. The Indian graduate student in search of a decent job that

requires good communication skills as a prerequisite can be broadly categorized under two

streams engineering and non-engineering Students coming under the engineering stream in

some states like Andhra Pradesh can be regarded fortunate in the sense that considerable

changes have been made to their curriculum to add communication skills development

component in the form of practical/laboratory course work. It is the non-engineering

graduates that we need to care more for. As we know there is a great rural-urban divide

among the student population in India and this division becomes more effective in the

analysis of communicative Performance of the students in English. Most often, English as a

course is present in the 1 st year of the 4 th year B.Tech Programme. Within the curricular

framework and given academic constraints, can we develop the communicative skills of

Indian students?



The fact that 85-90% of college leavers in India are not considered immediately

suitable for employment in the ITES sector presents a huge challenge for the industry. So

what is the solution? One of the action points from the 2008 NASSCOM-Everest BPO report

is to:

“Increase employability and access untapped talent pools by creating greater linkages

between the current education system and the needs BPO industry, and facilitating the

development of BPO-specific education models.”

The report goes on to make a number of recommendations in this area:

“Initiatives related to education are required to expand the employable talent pool in

India. The industry needs to work more aggressively with the Government to create greater

linkage between the current education system and requirements of the BPO industry. This can

be done by 1) Policy changes like liberalization of higher education, 2) increased

collaboration between industry and academic institutions to take up initiatives such as

introduction of BPO-specific curriculum and improving students’ access to funds for higher

studies, 3) introducing coursework changes and teacher training at the school level in

accordance with future requirements of the BPO industry.

The need of the hour is to teach English not as a subject but as a language in use, and

focus on the nuances of oral communication. This will help to develop the ability to use

discourse features of spoken English in regular communication. A concentrated development

of basic skills rather than specific skills (like call centre skills, front office skills, etc.,) will go

a great way in making the students autonomous in choosing their career. What is important in

this context is the need to revisit our teaching methodologies adopted and give more

emphasis on Listening and Speaking skills, In short, instead of calling it development of

communication skills and making it the term ‘employability skills” and make all the teachers



teaching various courses in a college responsible in making a student ready for the job

market. There is extensive material available on the communication skills requirements in

workplaces including different new age jobs; tertiary level learners preparedness to face thse

emerging workplace challenges; the effectiveness of the existing UG Curriculum and

teaching methodology to prepare our learners for the workplace; and the need to change the

existing curriculum or to reinforce it.

Some observations regarding the communicative efficiency of the students are listed

below.

• Some students write well, but they are not able to express themselves orally.

• Some speak fluently, but cannot write without grammatical errors.

• Some are comfortable speaking among themselves in a small group, but are not

comfortable facing the audience.

• Some having problems with their body languages and use inappropriate gestures,

some find it difficult to maintain eye contact.

• Some are always misunderstood. Some students had

• Limited vocabulary

• Inaccurate grammar

• Lack of fluency

• Imperfect pronunciation

• Lack of active listening

• Fear of speaking in public

• Fear of expressing certain views

• Lack of confidence

• Lack of group skills



• Fear of group skills

• Lack of exposure and practice.

It is generally perceived by the managements and academic staff of the

colleges that is the responsibility of the English Teacher Alone to develop the

communication skills of the students. In most of the rural colleges in A.P courses

other than English are taught in vernacular medium. Here, it is important to note that

most of the UG programs like B.Sc, B.Com, B.A., etc. except professional

programmes like B.Tech, B. Pharm, MBBS, etc in A.P, are offered in both vernacular

and English mediums. English is usually taught in the first year of the non

engineering UG programmers along with second language and other branch related

courses. On an average, time allotted for English course in the curriculum on these on

these UG programmers is 4hrs of classroom teaching and 3hrs of laboratory practice

while the total number of teaching hours (if all courses are put together) per week is

40. It is here that we can make some practical adjustments to our teaching methods in

the college. The scenario is not much different.

With B.Tech, B. Pharm and B.Sc Agri programmes. Of course, English is

conveniently left out of the MBBS and related medical programmers for reasons best

known to the curriculum developers.

Let us for example take the First year of a B.Tech Programme (that runs into 33

weeks) in Electronics and communications Engineering of a JNTU affiliated college. The

courses offered for the programme are with hours of teaching and credits are given below:

S.No Courses Hours per week

1. Introduction to mathematics (MI) 4

2. Mathematical methods (MM) 4



3. Applied physics (AP) 4

4. Network analysis 4

5. Electronic devices and circuits (EDC) 4

6. Engineering drawing (ED) 3

7. C programming and data structure (CDS) 4

8. English 3

9. English language communication skills lab (ELCS)

3

10. EDC Lab 3

11. C programming lab 3

12. IT workshop 3

From the table it is very clear that teachers of other courses can make a great

difference in developing the communicative skills of the students. If the teachers of other

courses follow cooperative teaching method (CTM) considerable improvement can be shown,

thus limiting the need for finishing schools that give special employment related training. For

example, if an Applied physics lecturer or an Electronics professor understands that listening

skills play an important part in communication processes, and that they too can develop

listening skills in the students. They can develop patience and desire to understand in the

students. They can encourage them to concentrate on listening and maintain eye contact.

They can also help the student to resist distractions by making him involved in the listening

activity. If the teachers are willing to follow a specific methodology that can lead to

developing the “employability skills” in the students, then there will be reinforcement to what

an English teacher tells them in a communication skills development class. This is where it

can be called co-operative teaching method (CTM). The teachers in a college should

cooperate with one another should be willing to share the responsibility. There should not be

any feeling of division or segregation among the teaching community.



In a C programming class, for example the teacher can, while working on a program,

instead of simply transferring the program from text to the blackboard or by projecting it on

to the screen, he can initiate small group discussion among the students as to what kind of a

logic is used and which is the best way of writing a program if the same program can be

written in more than one way. This brings into the class, the dynamics of team learning and

cooperative behavior. Generally, an English teacher is asked to take care of group discussions

of the students and most often they come up with some general topics that are usually outside

the classroom and curriculum. If the computer science teacher or a network analysis professor

follows the do’s and don’ts of group discussion in his class while involving the students in an

interactive way, the net result of student development would be entirely different. These

teachers should believe that GD is all about communicating with a group of people and not

the subject matter of an English teacher. Simple thing like eye contact and body language

work as indices of confidence. By giving the following ‘Dos and ‘Don’ts for GD to the class,

the engineering subject teacher can play a major role in cooperative teaching. Some ‘Dos’ of

a GD are

• Speak pleasantly and politely to the group.

• Remember that a discussion is not an argument.

• Try to stick to the discussion topic. Don’t introduce irrelevant information.

• Be aware of your body language when you are speaking. Some important

Don’ts are

• Lose your temper. A discussion is not an argument.

• Shout Use a moderate tone at a medium pitch.

• Use too many gestures when you speak. Gestures like finger pointing and

table thumping can appear aggressive.

• Interrupt; wait for a speaker to finish what they are saying before you speak.

During the interaction if the teacher facilitates the use of positive language that is

polite, pleasant, practical, percussive and powerful, there is a chance to develop positive

attitude in the students and make them think positively. It is this positive language that



creates a positive impact on the student and it helps them to attain their goal and achieve

success. Is it very difficult for a non English teacher to try this out in his classroom?

In this way, any teacher, not just an English teacher, can take up the responsibility of

developing the most needed communication skills among the students in a cooperative way.

There should not be any hesitation in sharing the teaching resources as far as cooperative

teaching is concerned. Language skills and communication skills are essential for getting

good placement in the information technology and I.T Enabled Services, M.N. Cs., public

sector and private sector industries etc. Everyone should revise the language habits from time

to time, in accordance with changing life pattern and customs. As motioned earlier, language

is an expression of human activity and because human activity is constantly changing,

language also changes along with it. It shouldn’t remain the exclusive forte of an English

teacher. Every communicator must know the significance of language which is essential for

effective communication. Be it an Engineering Drawing class or a Mathematics class.

The parameters considered here for analyzing and enhancing the communication

skills of the students are Rural- Urban continuum and Economic Status of the student. While

the communicative efficiency decreased towards the rural end, it showed a considerable

increase towards the urban end.