Noida: Oxford University Press India organized a successful workshop on ‘Emerging Trends for English Language and Communication Skills – A Practical Approach’ on July 22, 2017. The two-fold objective of the workshop was to experience best practices in teaching-learning communication skills to students of 21st century and a focused group discussion to identify gap areas in teaching-learning communication skills which act as deterrents in students being employable. Thereby, it comes up with a proposal on how change can be brought about at the content, assessment, and delivery level to UG, PG and research scholars of English language.

Mr Shashank, the co-ordinator of the workshop representing Oxford University Press India, welcomed the august presence and encouraged the participants to make use of this opportunity. Furthermore, he said that team OUP has been making significant efforts in training and collaborating with the faclulties who are teaching English language at different levels in universities, colleges and schools.

Dr Mukti Sanyal, Principal, Bharati College, University of Delhi, also thanked team OUP for effectively conducting the workshop and reflected that such types of workshops give opportunities to the aspirants to experience the joy of fruitful imagination, invention and implementation of language skills. She advised the participants to explore and explicate English language and communication skills for the betterment of our country, particularly in the field of employment and teaching-learning modules. The session was moderated by Ms Sunila from OUP.

Workshop Schedule:

The participants- Dr Manoj Kumar, Dr Sam Raj Nesamony, Dr Abnish Singh, Dr Anannya Dasgupta, Dr Nandini Bhattacharya, Dr Jamuna Narayanan and twenty others who represent different government and private universities of Delhi-NCR, enjoyed and actively participated in the workshop and their opinions and field experiences were valuable to make the workshop a success. They also got the opportunity to meet and interact with the other faculty members of various universities and explored the present scenario of language lab softwares and their utility for the development of communication skills among the students, particularly in the field of Engineering, Technology, Medical Sciences, Management, Commerce, Humanities and Social Sciences.

In Focus Group Discussion, the invited participants were divided into three groups. Each and every group collectively gave its suggestions to team OUP. Dr Sam Nesamony, who thanked team OUP for organizing the workshop, pointed out that OUP has been doing innumerable plans and programs for developing English language and literature, which was once very important for Humanities and Arts. But, in the global era, OUP has come out with some of the outstanding programs for the the faculties of English, who are part and parcel of every subject and hence, it is the obligatory responsibility of the teacher that every student of every subject is to be inculcated and imparted with the skills of English language- listening, speaking, reading and writing (LSRW). Dr Abnish Singh, who gave some remarkable suggestions and appreciated the efforts of team OUP, said that now a days language skills are taught through the language lab for the development of communicative competencies and socio-cultural experiences; therefore, the government and private universities, institutions and schools are focusing on modern language teaching, especially in English- that is the most predominant aspect of any student's employability. He also thanked Dr Mukti Sanyal for her marvellous presentation techniques, friendly communication and meaningful messages. The workshop ended with a vote of thanks by team OUP.

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Felicitation of Dr Abnish Singh by Dr Mukti Sanyal