English for Life Blog

I am glad to talk about my friend Dharmendra Sheth's blog called 'English for Life.' He is an Indian learner and teacher of English. He finds pleasure in helping people learn English as he believes that English is an enriching and empowering language. I agree with him. For people to move to a higher level in society, English is a ladder. All that we need to do is learn English properly and perfectly, if perfection can be achieved. Whoever comes across this page may visit my friend's blog. I am sure you will find value for your time and energy. Best wishes to my friend and to you all. Here is the link: http://forumlanguages.blogspot.com/
Dr S P Dhanavel

My Doctoral Research Scholars

Here is a list of my research scholars for Ph.D. in the discipline of English.
1. Dr C N Eswari
2. Dr L Saraswathi
3. Mrs. M Renuga
4. Mrs. M Vijaya
5. Mr. S Kumaran
6. Mr S Ramaraju
The first two have obtained their doctoral degrees. The third is submiting her thesis this month end. And the rest are working towards writing their dissertation.One more is also working under my guidance. Depending upon the rate of success in progress this name will be posted later.

Books on soft skills

I came to know about two interesting books on soft skills. One is called Soft Power: An Introduction to Core and Corporate Soft Skills, published by ICFAI University Press. Another is called InCoporate, promoted by Scope International. Of course, some readers may already be familiar with Corporate Soft Skills by Sarvesh Gulati, published by Rupa and Company. These books will be of great help to any one interested in soft skills.
S P Dhanavel

Textbook on soft skills

Textbook on Soft Skills

I happened to watch an interview with Dr Mannar Jawahar, Director, Centre for University and Industry Collaboration, Anna University Chennai, today on a local TV Channel. In the course of the interview, Dr Jawahar was elaborating the role of colleges and students in developing the students' preparation for employability. He used an acronym, ASK (Atttitude, Skills, and Knowledge), to explain his ideas. While colleges give knowledge to students, the students have to acquire skills on their own by participating in various departmental and college functions, he said. It is the family, if I understood him right, that has to bring about right attitdudes in students.

I belive that colleges can impart soft skills to students by adopting my book on soft skills and using it as a course book in the classroom for a semester or two. Of course, the students have to learn the skills by themeselves. They have to interact with the book and all activities given to them. Surely colleges and universities can provide scope for such learning in the classroom.

Topics for soft skills

My proposed textbook on soft skills covers the following ten topics:
1. Listening Skills
2. Teamwork Skills
3. Emotional Intelligence Skills
4. Assertive Skills
5. Learning Skills
6. Problem Solving Skills
7. Interview Skills
8. Adaptability Skills
9. Non-verbal Communication Skills
10. Written Communication Skills
Other textbook writers may choose to focus on different topics. However, I belive that these ten topics are good enough for a comprehensive training in soft skills for students of general and technical courses.
S P Dhanavel

Textbook / coursebook on soft skills

My interest in soft skills has prompted me to write a textbook / course book on soft skills for the undergraduate students of both general and technical courses. This book is the first of its kind in the world so far as I know. The title I have for this book is English and Soft Skills. It will be published by Orient Longman Ltd., Hyderabad, as soon as the review and the editorial process is over. Let me hope that colleges and universities in India will welcome this book and make use of it for developing the employability skills of the college graduates.
S P Dhanavel

An Acronym for Teaching the Parts of Speech

AN ACRONYM FOR TEACHING THE PARTS OF SPEECH
Dr S P Dhanavel
Professor of English
Anna University, Chennai-600 025, INDIA

Problem

Surprising and even shocking may it appear that a large number of students are unable to distinguish between the various parts of speech in English, when they reach the college and university level. A majority of the students do not have any idea of the parts of speech. Some of them who are familiar with the concept are not able to recall all the eight parts of speech. Even those who can remember all of them have difficulties in identifying whether a word is a noun or an adjective.
Remedy
Is there any remedy for this learning problem? Yes, there is an acronymic remedy. If the acronym VIBGYOR stands for violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, and helps students remember all the seven colours of the rainbow, and if the acronym SASCOMP represents size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose and enables students to use adjectives in proper order, the acronym VANPAPCI can be very helpful to the students for remembering all the eight parts of speech in English.

VANPAPCI
VANPAPCI stands for verb, adverb, noun, pronoun, adjective, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. It may be pronounced as /vænpæpsi/. It can, of course, be treated as a noun but there is no need to derive other parts of speech. It can surely be a handy acronym for both teachers and learners.
Order
In the usual list of parts of speech, noun occupies the first place and is followed by pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. In the coined acronym VANPAPCI, however, the order changes as verb tops the list and is followed by adverb, noun, pronoun, adjective, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. It is interesting to note that the order and position of the last three parts of speech remain the same in both lists.
Number
Robert A Day believes that there are nine parts of speech and claims that all words in English could be put into one of the nine pigeonholes. The ninth part of speech, according to Day, is article. If it is included in the acronym VANPAPCI, the latter becomes VANPAPCIA.

Two Groups
Of the nine parts of speech, the words for pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, and articles are very limited and so they can be mastered very easily. On the other hand, the words for verb, adverb, noun, and adjective are unlimited and ever expanding. However, this group will not be problematic for the learners, if they understand that any word can be under one of the parts of speech.
Word Formation
An interesting fact about words in English is that one part of speech can be derived from another without much difficulty. For instance, organization (noun), organizer (noun), organizational (adjective), organizationally (adverb), and organize (verb) are all derived from the same Latin root organum. Further, the root can lead to other words like organ, organic, organism, and so on.
Markers
There are distinct markers for different parts of speech: for example, -ion for noun, -al for adjective, -ly for adverb, and –ize for verb. However, there are exceptions and variations. The only way to overcome the difficulties in learning them is to become familiar with them and identify them as and when they are in use.
Conclusion
Knowing and remembering the parts of speech does not amount to attaining communicative competence in English. Nevertheless, this knowledge gives confidence for communication. Acronyms like SASCOMP and VANPAPCI will definitely be useful to both teachers and learners of English across the globe.
REFERENCES
Dhanavel, P. 1999. “An Acronym for Sequencing Adjectives”. Journal of English Language Teaching (India), Vol. 34, No.6 (November – December), pp.255-256.
Day, Robert A. 2000. Scientific English: A Guide for Scientists and Other Professionals. 2nd ed. Hyderabad: University Press.