15 EC TASKS FOR EC PARTICIPANTS

1.  The COMBINATION Game

(This game measures the ability of the students to ask questions according to the rules of English also called "the sentence logic")

PURPOSE OF THE GAME: English communication is all about making the right combinations ie., we need to combine the right verb with the key words to either ask a question or to talk about something.

HOW TO PLAY: 

The teacher first writes some verbs(which are used for making questions) and asks one member from one of the teams to write key words for combining with the verbs already given.  An example is given below:

Do(supporting verb written by the teacher) + book(a key word written by a team member)

Similarly:

Are + class

Is + friend

Will + food

Does + bus

Now the other team has to combine both the words ie., supporting verb and key word to make a question.  For eg.

Do you like this book?

In which class are you studying?

Who is you best friend?

Will you eat your food with me?

Does this bus go to city?

If a question has both the words(verb and key word) combined properly following the English rules then one mark can be given to the team whose member asked the right question.  Now let all members of that team ask questions using the remaining combination of "verb and key word" in the right way as given above. For every right question asked by the team members one mark can be given.

After one round the teacher can change the verbs with new ones like:

Have(supporting verb written by the teacher) + sky(a key word written by a team member) 

Was + teacher

Did + father

Were + mother

Has + brother

Now the other team has to combine both the words ie., supporting verb and key word to make a question.  For eg.

Have you a seen a clear sky this week?

Which chapter was the teacher taking?

Where did your father go yesterday?

Were you talking to your mother just now?

Has your brother got admission?

In the last round the teacher can give modal verbs to combine with the key words written by one of the team members:

May (supporting verb written by the teacher) + games(a key word written by a team member)

Would + tea

Shall + trees

Should + cycle

Can + bag

Now the other team has to combine both the words ie., supporting verb and key word to make a question.  For eg.

May I play games?

Would you like to have a cup of tea with me?

Shall we go near the trees?

Should I bring my cycle?

Can you hold this bag?

2. The "DESCRIBING A PERSON" Game 

(This game measures the ability of the students to ask questions in order to get information about a person and also to "better their describing a person" skills.)

PURPOSE OF THE GAME: Asking " yes/no questions " about a person and also learning to describe people by their physical appearance.

HOW TO PLAY:

 A member from a team comes to the front and asks the opposite team to guess a person's name (whose name will be written on a sheet of paper and shown only to the speaker) by asking only three Yes/No questions. Now this team member or speaker  will say only "Yes" or "No" to the questions asked by the other team about the mysterious person. 

For eg. Is the person male? and the answer may be "No"

             Is she tall? Ans. "Yes"

             Is she very active? Ans. "No"

After three "yes/no questions" have been asked,  the speaker will give a one line description of the mysterious person and this one line description should be about his/her physical appearance only. For eg.

            She is wearing a red dresss today.

Now the opposite team will again ask two more "yes/no" questions and then try to guess the name of the mysterious person.  If they succeed they can be given one mark. But there is one condition ie., the name of the mysterious person can be said only once.  So the team guessing the name should say it only when they are very sure of its accuracy possibly after asking all their "yes/no" questions.

3. A ROLE PLAY - A TEAM IN A CRISIS

To give an opportunity to students to learn how to explore the possibilities in a difficult situation as a team with the help of role plays/drama.

Focus of the exercise: Exploring the possibilities in a crisis/difficult situation as a team.

Manner of doing: 

First divide the batch into a few teams of five students each.

A team will perform 3 acts or scenes.

Act 1: Present a crisis or difficult situation.

Act 2: A solution being found

Act 3: Resolving the crisis.

Narration,songs and humour can also be used. 

4. A ROLE PLAY - Dependence after Independence

Name of the Role Play: Changing "dependence" after Independence

Show two situations Past and Present about how we moved over from one type of system to another (for eg. letter writing to email/sms) in India after independence.

Situation 1: We depended on...

Situation 2: We are now depending on.....

Interaction

5. A ROLE PLAY - Old meets New

Name of the Presentation: Old meets New

A Scene showing anyone of these:

             1.A way of living/lifestyle in the past

             2.A way of livelihood/earning in the past

             3.A way of leisure/enjoyment in the past.

Interaction

6. Role Play: The "Other" in us

Theme: Highlighting the existence of "different" people in our society.

Show three situations having the following content:

Situation 1

Impressions of a "different" kind.

Situation 2

Interaction with the "other" person.

Situation 3

Inspiration from the "other" person.

Interaction with the artists

7. A ROLE PLAY - Social Transformation through ideas and innovations

Name of the Role Play: Social Transformation through ideas and innovations.

Theme: How social transformation is possible through a change in social thinking.

Show three situations having the following content:

Situation 1

A state(present/past) which can be improved.

Situation 2

Introducing a new idea or thinking/technology/method/scientific practice/system as an agent of change.

Situation 3

There is a social transformation.

Interaction with the artists.

8. A ROLE PLAY - The Deciding Factor

A role play having two situations and then an interaction with the audience. 

Situation 1

What to show: In this situation the main character has to take a decision; he/she has to choose a course of action from multiple options. 

Situation 2

What to show: In this situation the main character decides; chooses a particular course of action.

Situation 3

What to show:Now the group can interact with the class on : What were the deciding factors considered while zeroing on that option.  

9. "LIFE-STORY IN 3 MINUTES AND THEN PREDICTING THE FUTURE FIVE YEARS" 

Tell you lifestory to your chatting partner in 3 minutes.....first about the first five years of your life, then the next five years, then the next.Afterwards your chatting partner will have to make a prediction on how will your next five years be in a two minute public speech.

(Tips: The future prediction can start like: S/He will be an accountant. He/She will be working as......  He will have completed/become............by the end of five years.)

10. GAME: NO I's PLEASE

In this exercise a participant will come to the front and others will ask him/her questions about his/her life and things. The only condition is that he/she cannot use the word "I" while answering the questions. If "I" appears in the responses then he/she will step back and another person will come to test his/her staying power without giving into to the urge of using "I".

(Tips: The speaker actually doesn't have to hurry while responding to questions.  S/he can start like: Well....Let me think etc.)

11. 4 I's 

Tell your four life experiences to your chatting partner which should be: 1. A happy one 2. A sad one 3. An achiever's moments 4. Embarrassing moments. Afterwards your chatting partner will have to interpret your character based on your experiences/make a character sketch.

In short: I was sad...I was happy...I was successful...I was embarrassed.

12. THE "EC EXPRESSION" SKIT

Plan a a small skit which ends with one of these EC expressions:

Life is beautiful

Wow! What an idea!

Sorry, I am really very sorry.

Thank you very much indeed. 

Are you OK / happy now?

Please forgive me...

You have been so good / kind to me.

13. SPEECH ONE TO TWO

The participant who volunteers to be the creative speaker will be shown a picture to make a speech. After one minute of speech s/he will be shown another picture. Now after a 10 second break the speech has to continue for another one minute about the new picture with the speaker connecting his new speech with the previous speech in a logical and creative way. 

14. ON THE MOBILE

A picture of a famous person will be shown.  The participant who volunteers to do this activity has to act as if s/he is speaking on the mobile with this famous figure for a minute.

15. THE PROVERBIAL TRUTH

An proverb is shared with the audience. And it is told to them that since it's an old one, practicing it is of no purpose today. So you can argue against it or favour it.

...........................TO BE CONTINUED

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Drama - Tourist

INSTRUCTIONS TO THE STUDENTS:

Imagine that a tourist comes to a village. As a tourist-friendly person guide him/her to understand and appreciate:

1. A indigenous product

2. A local dish

3. A cultural heritage

One of the most impressive team performances is given below:

INTRODUCTORY SCENE

(Two tourists Max and Ann from Germany are at the Thiruvala railway station waiting for an auto.)

MAX: Hello, Can you take us to Gavi?

AUTODRIVER: Sure. Please get in. I will take you to Gavi.

(Max and Ann put their luggage in the auto and occupy the seats.  The journey starts:)

AUTO DRIVER: Hi, Where are you from?

ANN: Germany.

AUTO DRIVER: May I know your name?

ANN: I am Ann and this is my friend Max.

Max: How long will it take to reach Gavi?

AUTO DRIVER: Just half an hour Max.

(They now reach Gavi:)

MAX: How much is the fare?

AUTO DRIVER: 200 rupees only.

MAX: No, I will only give 100 rupees.

AUTO DRIVER: Max, the road is rough. So you have to pay rupees 200.

ANN: Give it, don't waste our time.

(At this time enters Seena, a local tourist guide:)

SEENA: Driver, what's the problem? I have told you several times not to quarrel with our guests.

AUTO DRIVER: Seena, they are not willing to pay Rs.200.

SEENA: Driver, you should not ask them that much. Can't you adjust with Rs.150?

AUTO DRIVER: OK.

SEENA: Hello Madam, I 'm Seena, Govt. authorised guide at Gavi. Can you pay Rs.150 to the autodriver?

ANN: Hmm, OK

(Max gives 150 rupees to the autodriver and thanks him for a nice drive)

AUTO DRIVER: Bye, Max and Ann. Will see you later.

ANN: Seena, Can you guide us to the tourist hotspots of Gavi?

SEENA: Sure, for how many days will you be here?

ANN: Two days.

SEENA: OK. Can we go to hotel Gavi Palace to rent a room?

MAX: Of course, we need to take rest after a long journey.

(They take a room in the hotel. Next morning, Seena comes to meet them:)

SEENA: Good Morning.

MAX: Good Morning Seena.

SEENA: How was your breakfast?

ANN: It was good. What's today's plan?

SEENA: First, we are going to see Seeta chechi. She is good at making eco friendly items. Then we will have a Gavi lunch from a traditional hotel. In the evening we'll go to Saraswathi Temple.

MAX: Nice planning, let's go.

(After ten minutes walk they reach Seeta chechi's home. Seeta chechi is singing a song while woking)

SCENE 1

SEENA: Seeta Chechi they are Max and Ann from Germany. They have come to see you.

ANN: Good morning Seeta chechi. I liked that song. Can you sing that song once again?

(Seena translates the lines and Seeta chechi starts singing the song once again:)

ANN: Really nice song. I liked it very much.

MAX: Seeta chechi, from where did you learn this art of making items with cocounut leaves?

(Seena helps in translation)

SEENA: From her parents.

MAX: For how many years have you been doing this?

SEENA: She says for forty years.

MAX: Oh! That's great!

SEENA: You can buy this hat for Rs.10. 

ANN: Oh sure...here is the money.

MAX: Seena, Can we move now....she can also resume her work.

SEENA: Yeah...Seeta chechi thank you for giving us so much time and talking to us.

ANN: Bye Seeta chechi.

MAX: Seeta chechi, nice to meet you.

SCENE II

ANN: Seena, can we have the lunch now?

SEENA: Yes, I have arranged a special Gavi meal for both of you at the nearby hotel.

MAX: That's great Seena.

(Ann, Max and Seena enter a hotel)

ANN: Seena, what's so special about Gavi lunch?

SEENA: Your lunch consists of rice,sambhar,herbal salad and gooseberry pickle. All these are made from vegetables and paddy cultivated in Gavi itself.

(Waiter serves the dishes on plantain leaves)

MAX: Oh! this will be a memorable lunch for me. For the first time in my life I am having my lunch on this type of leaves.

ANN: Seena, Can you show us the traditional way of eating "sadhya"?

SEENA: Don't worry Ann, you can use spoons.

ANN: Ha, ha, it's better.

SCENE III

SEENA: This is our village temple. It belongs to the Goddess Saraswathi.

Ann: Who is she, I mean Goddess Saraswathi?

SEENA: She is the Goddess of knowledge for us.

ANN: Seena, what's going on there?

SEENA:Ann, that's our cultural dance. It's a ritual followed during the closing ceremony of this festival.

MAX: What's its importance?

SEENA:The whole village participates in the dance ritual. It's meant to make our Goddess happy by showing that the villagers are all united in their pursuit of seeking knowledge and wisdom.

MAX: Seena, Can we join them?

SEENA: Sure, let's dance.

(The play concludes with the dance scene)

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Role - Plays 4

Name of the Role Play: The "Other" in us

Theme: Highlighting the existence of "different" people in our society.
Show three situations having the following content:
Situation 1
Impressions of a "different" kind.
Situation 2
Interaction with the "other" person.
Situation 3
Inspiration from the "other" person.

Interaction with the artists

Name of the Role Play: Social Transformation through ideas and innovations.

Theme: How social transformation is possible through a change in social thinking.
Show three situations having the following content:
Situation 1
A state(present/past) which can be improved.
Situation 2
Introducing a new idea or thinking/technology/method/scientific practice/system as an agent of change.
Situation 3
There is a social transformation.

Interaction with the artists.

THE DECIDING FACTOR

A role play having two situations and then an interaction with the audience.
Situation 1
What to show: In this situation the main character has to take a decision; he/she has to choose a course of action from multiple options. 

Situation 2
What to show: In this situation the main character decides; chooses a particular course of action.

Situation 3
What to show:Now the group can interact with the class on : What were the deciding factors considered while zeroing on that option.  
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EC Presentations

  Conversational Skills Enhancement Exercise

Activities:
1. Divide the class into teams of say about 5-6 participants.
2. Then each of them has to make an individual speech on the given topic for one minute.
3. After that they have to interact with the audience by asking thought provoking questions thus inviting ideas and suggestions to the related issues.
Some of the topics selected by the teams were:
1. Movies and society.
2. Gold's own country.
3. Consumerism and environment.
4. Channel Wars.
5. Hobbies for people.
6. Skill based education.
7. World Citizens. 

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NAME OF THE EXERCISE: CREATIVE PRESENTATION

OBJECTIVE OF THE EXERCISE

To give an opportunity to EC students to try and experiment with different styles/strategies of communication.

Number of students participated: 35

Number of teams: 6

Members in a team:4-5

STEPS INVOLVED

1.Dividing the students into teams of 4-5 members.

2.Asking the students to give a speech about a famous movie which became a classic/ a success story.  The speech will be given by a team member chosen by the team. The speaker should not use in the speech any kind of proper nouns ie., names of people, places, characters, the exact time or year of release of the movie etc.  All the teams will be given a time of say 15-20 minutes to prepare the movie speech and help their respective speakers to deliver the speech in an effective and enchanting manner.

3.While speaking, the speaker should imagine that he/she is talking about the movie to media persons as a part of a media campaign to promote the film among the TV viewers before its official release. So the speech is made at that point of time when the movie is not released yet for the public and so its future is still unknown. 

The movies students chose for giving the speech were:

Titanic

Pather Pancholi

Classmates

Manichithrathazha

Pappeyude Swantham Appus

Roja

Tare Zameen Par

After the speeches there was an interactive session. All the speakers were seated facing the audience and were asked a few questions about some aspects of the movies which needed more clarification.

One of the most impressive team performances seen during this exercise was the speech presentation for the movie "Classmates". 

It went like this:

Friends...I want all of you to close your eyes for a while....yes that's it...thank you.

Now let us travel back in time to those nostalgic days when we were in college....the dreams in our eyes....the desires in our hearts...the fire in our minds...how much we lived and enjoyed every bit of the campus...sharing our joys and sorrows...those moments of togetherness, break ups and then making up..."nothing was impossible' days.

...OK let's come back....you can open your eyes....thank you.

This is what new movie tries to do....it makes you think about those unforgettable days spent with our friends and teachers. It evokes nostalgic memories. It makes you sing and dance again....and again....and again.....(song heard in the background : lalala lala...lalalalala...lalalalala.....)
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EC - VOICE OF THE VOICELESS

I am fed up.....Please help me.

What happened? What's the issue? You can tell me...

My bosses don't understand my feelings.  I do all the work and still they don't respect my  role in the organisation. They ignore me completely whenever I do any good work but never fail to raise their voice when things go wrong even when it's not my fault. Life has become a never ending nightmare. I am dying to put an end to this.

Tell me frankly...what do you want to happen in your life?

I want people to recognize my feelings and emotions. After all I am also a human being.  I too need to be given importance for what I do.

Yes definitely...but then why should others change....I mean they are all very happy and profiting with your behaviour ....your state of being voiceless...in fact I would say that what you are  wishing now may never happen....So it is you who should be able to change....otherwise you will live in this state of being unheard, unrewarded, unrepresented forever.....

It is easy to say all these but changing a person's inherent nature is practically impossible...I have tried that many a time and I keep coming back to my old state.... 

At least now understand this truth plainly and clearly, till now you were using every moment of your life, every occasion, big or small, to suppress your own voice or to put it more appropriately, making it more acceptable to others; now you need to make it more acceptable to your "own" self...you need to take a U-turn. Are you ready?

I will try my best.

No, you are not going to try...you are going to LIVE every moment of your life to find happiness in the present and not DIE every moment of your life thinking that you will find happiness in future. The choice is entirely yours to make: LIVE for a change, not DIE thinking that things will change for better...and remember ...if you keep on delaying this change...soon you will have absolutely NO CHOICE but to CHANGE.

No...not any more....this time I am going to CHANGE...I mean LIVE for a CHANGE...and I thank you for all this time and talk...I will become THE CHANGE I WANT TO SEE IN THIS WORLD...

  

Reading: Why is it so important?

Reading is an ability to decode the text; it also involves thinking skills like imagining,guessing, analysing, questioning, inferring and concluding. Reading is actually seeing the unseen, hearing the unsaid and experiencing something without undergoing the actual experience.

To read faster we need to read not word by word but phrase by phrase.  Phrases are a set of words having an idea or a food for thought. Words like "a, the, was" have no ideas in them. So we need to read them along with the keywords. For eg."The train is coming." Here "The train" and "is coming" should be read together, as a phrase, to make the mind imagine the situation described.

Similarly you can read in a non-linear fashion also if the text is difficult to follow in a linear way. For this we need to find the core idea first or the nucleus of the whole information.

Scanning and skimming are the two sub-skills of reading. Scanning means tracking down an information and skimming means to get to the main idea(s) and leave the unimportant ones.

So in short reading is all about exercising your conscious thinking skills. It involves mental labour. The visual media like TV, Internet utilities like Facebook, YouTube stimulate the sub-conscious mind which actually doesn't know how to think. It acts on instincts. So we should devote more time to textual reading than visual reading if we want to upgrade our thinking skills to higher levels.

EC - Insights !

Just follow this conversation:

You look a bit upset, what happened?

I had gone to attend my friend's wedding....I arrived there two days before and did my best in arranging all things there but once the wedding got over he completely ignored me. He didn't even acknowledge my services. I was shattered.

 
I can understand. It's OK.

What OK? While leaving the place he didn't even give a shake-hand.

 
I think you are playing the same clip again and again.....break that pattern.
 
But how?

Didn't others say good things to you?

 
Yeah..a lot of people there made me happy and gave me very good memories but I am getting bothered by the last part...why didn't he say Goodbye....I was completely cold shouldered...

Now it is you who is ignoring all the good things and running after that one wrong thing....pardon me for saying this but it's simply ungrateful of you not to be happy about all the happiness around you.

 
Yes I am realising where I am going a bit off the track(unable to hide a smile)...give me some more time...I will be OK.

(smiling).........I will see you later...

The four P's we have .....Present Actions, Present Possessions, Present State and Perceptions are our first and the best resources.  So let's manage them well... happily and wisely.

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  I am fed up.....Please help me.

What happened? What's the issue? You can tell me...

My bosses don't understand my feelings.  I do all the work and still they don't respect my  role in the organisation. They ignore me completely whenever I do any good work but never fail to raise their voice when things go wrong even when it's not my fault. Life has become a never ending nightmare. I am dying to put an end to this.

Tell me frankly...what do you want to happen in your life?

I want people to recognize my feelings and emotions. After all I am also a human being.  I too need to be given importance for what I do.

Yes definitely...but then why should others change....I mean they are all very happy and profiting with your behaviour ....your state of being voiceless...in fact I would say that what you are  wishing now may never happen....So it is you who should be able to change....otherwise you will live in this state of being unheard, unrewarded, unrepresented forever.....

It is easy to say all these but changing a person's inherent nature is practically impossible...I have tried that many a time and I keep coming back to my old state.... 

At least now understand this truth plainly and clearly, till now you were using every moment of your life, every occasion, big or small, to suppress your own voice or to put it more appropriately, making it more acceptable to others; now you need to make it more acceptable to your "own" self...you need to take a U-turn. Are you ready?

I will try my best.

No, you are not going to try...you are going to LIVE every moment of your life to find happiness in the present and not DIE every moment of your life thinking that you will find happiness in future. The choice is entirely yours to make: LIVE for a change, not DIE thinking that things will change for better...and remember ...if you keep on delaying this change...soon you will have absolutely NO CHOICE but to CHANGE.

No...not any more....this time I am going to CHANGE...I mean LIVE for a CHANGE...and I thank you for all this time and talk...I will become THE CHANGE I WANT TO SEE IN THIS WORLD...

Remember, you won't offend people if you stick to communicating your feelings, as opposed to telling others what they should or should not do!

The formula for assertive communication is a strategy like this:

I feel "hurt/disappointed" when you "don't value my work" because "it makes me feel like being exploited (or used)". I need to "be properly (and formally/officially) acknowledged and recognised for the work I am doing here."

Here first you mention how you feel when some injustice is done to you and then you state why you feel so. And finally you tell the other persons in clear terms as to how you want them to treat you. 

This formula works a high percentage of time and it gives you a better tool to deal with situations than anger which rarely achieves the desired results. Your tone during voicing your displeasure should convey sincerity, clarity, genuiness and respect towards the other and his/her opinions.