Communication Skills Course 1: Essential

About Course

Communication Skills I is a General Communications Skills Course, specially designed for students reading for a Bachelor’s Degree. It draws on the expertise of international specialists offering an International Communication Skills Certificate (ICSC) on successful completion of the course.

Over the next 10 lessons, this course will guide your studies of communication, i.e. of understanding the basics of how communication works, and to acquire the knowledge and skills to put it to the best use in your academic and social life as well as in your career development. In this first lesson, you will learn what this course is about, how to study it, and how to get the most out of it.

The course is a certificate course. After finishing Course I, you will have the option to take Course II. If you successfully complete Course II, you will automatically get an International Communication Skills Certificate sent to your email address in pdf format. On application, the Certificate is also available as a beautifully illuminated hard copy which you can order by post. This Course will help you develop in the following direction::

Global and local: It helps you to acquire skills for communication in the global marketplace worldwide, which has become so important today, with its challenges, pitfalls and bewildering variety, but also with its breath-taking opportunities and career prospects. At the same time the course is situated in the local here and now: It wants to help you just as much to cope better with your daily life as a student who has to become an expert reader, an expert listener, an expert academic writer and an expert presenter of your ideas to your teachers and fellow students. Also, despite today’s importance of the global perspective, you are not expected to leave your identity as a student at a Nigerian University in Abuja and your national, ethnic or cultural identity behind, but to reflect on it, be aware of it, and make the best use of it.

Digital and online: All the course content will be available online. While you need to spend about an hour per week in an online interaction, there will also be material you can download, even send to your mobile phone, for further study and repetition while you are offline. Although print cultures persist and may do so for the foreseeable future, the digital interaction during this course already prepares you in itself for an important and ever expanding way in which today’s communications and human interactions take place: virtual, digital and in or nearly in real time.

Supplementary and complementary: This course complements your degree courses, as these are specialist courses in a given subject, whereas this course has a general setup and hence includes areas not covered by the degree course in which you specialize. It prepares and supplements the courses you attend and equips you to profit even better from the precious time you have in the collaboration rooms.

Basic and expanding: Students following the course will come from various backgrounds and have very divergent levels of English language proficiency and communications skills. Therefore, the course starts at a basic level and explains in detail. Students at a more advance level may simply skip parts they find too easy or basic, while others may want to repeat these passages again and again and follow the advice occasionally provided for remedial action until they are sure they have mastered them.

Incentive for further learning activities: Finally, the course cannot cover all aspects in this wide-ranging area of study. What it wants to achieve, however, is to make you aware of the difficulties, challenges and opportunities in communication processes and situations, and once you have taken this in, you will be able to proceed and improve on your communication skills on your own. This course wants to equip you well to be able to do this. Remember: As you and your life, and the world you live in will never stop changing, your learning process in communication skills will not be accomplished with the end of this course: They are a life-long challenge!

Course Content

The Communication Skills Course

The Communication Skills Course Package by EduNet Solutions

Lesson 1: Basic Communication Models

Lesson 2: Communication Barriers

Introduction
2.1 Communication Barriers
2.1.1 Main types of Barriers
2.1.2 Physical Barriers
2.1.3 Nonverbal Communication Barriers
2.1.4 Linguistic Communication Barriers
2.1.5 Emotional Communication Barriers
2.1.6 Medial Communication Barriers
2.1.7 Cultural Communication Barriers
2.2 Summing up: Communication Barriers

Lesson 3: Skills vs. Knowledge in Communication

Lesson 4: Listening

Introduction
4.1 Introduction to the Four Basic Skills of Communication
4.2 Listening as an Active Process
Smart Quiz I.3
4.3 Types of Listening
4.3.1 Discriminative Listening
4.3.2 Comprehension Listening
4.3.3 Evaluative (or Critical) Listening
4.3.4 Dialogic (or Relational) Listening
4.3.5 Empathic Listening
4.3.6 Appreciative Listening
4.4 Listening and Memory
4.4.1 Note Taking
4.4.2 Recording
4.4.3 Mnemonic Devices
4.5 Listening: Outward Signs
4.5.1 Smiles
4.5.2 Eye Contact
4.5.3 Linguistic and Paralinguistic Signals
4.5.4 Facial Expression
4.5.5 Posture
4.5.6 Head Nods
4.5.7 General Appearance of Focus on Speaker
Smart Quiz I.4

Lesson 5: Following Lectures, Taking Notes

Introduction
5.1 The Usefulness of Lectures and Presentations
5.2 Before the Lecture: How to Prepare Yourself
5.2.1 Steps to Prepare Yourself for Lectures
5.3 During Lectures: How to Get the Most Out of it
5.4 After Lectures: How to retain most of it
5.5 Taking Notes
5.5.1 The Cornell Method
5.5.2 Outline Method
5.5.3 The Mapping Method
Smart Quiz I.5
5.5.4 The Charting Method
5.5.5 The Sentence Method
Activity: Taking Notes

Lesson 6: Reading and Taking Notes

Introduction
6.1 Reading as an Active Process
6.1.1 Theory 1: Implicatures
Smart Quiz I.6
6.1.2 Theory 2: Reception Theory
6.2 Reading Skills and How to train them
6.2.1 Kinds of Reading
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6.2.2 Reading Techniques and Technicalities
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6.3 Taking Notes from Reading
6.3.1 Why take Notes?
6.3.2 When to Take Notes
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6.3.3 What to Note Down?
6.3.4 How to take notes?
6.3.5 Archiving
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Lesson 7: Academic Writing: Part 1

Lesson 8: Academic Writing: Part 2

Lesson 9: Presentation

Introduction
9.1 Preparing a Presentation
9.1.1 Planning the Presentation
9.1.2 Developing the Content
9.1.3 Media
9.1.4 Rehearsing
9.2 Delivering a Presentation
9.2.1 Language
9.2.2 Body Language
9.2.3 Connect with your audience
9.2.4 Show Confidence
9.3 After Presentations

Lesson 10: Self Assessment

Add this certificate to your resume to demonstrate your skills & increase your chances of getting noticed.

1	Speaker	2	Speech	3	Audience

4	Effect	5	Occasion	6	Aristotle

collocation		solution
to take	aback	surprise
	after	resemble (e.g. a parent)
	apart	dismantle / defeat, criticize
	aside	lead away from a group to talk in private
	away	remove / buy and carry away
	for	assume that sb is sth
	in	receive, include / observe / fool, trick
	off	remove / start to fly (plane)
	on	take on board / employ / undertake /assume
	out	destroy / lead or carry from
	out on	make the scapegoat for
	over	assume control or direction
	round	lead on a tour
	through	read something to somebody, repeat it, to check accuracy
	to	go away to a place, an escape / move towards and enter / adopt a habit or practice / form a liking for /
	up	lift / absorb / adopt (a pastime) /start / continue / mention (a topic) / interrupt in order to disagree / occupy

collocation		solution
to take	the air	go for a walk
	something amiss	be offended by something
	something as /for gospel	believe credulously
	a back seat	change to a less important function
	a bow /curtain	acknowledge applause by bowing
	the cash and let the credit go	put immediate financial advantage above other considerations
	a chance	attempt to do knowing that one may incur injury loss etc, take a risk
	the count	be (knocked) unconscious or helpless
	the floor	rise to address (a meeting, an assembly)
	a lot of stick	suffer a lot of (unfair) criticism, blame
	one’s medicine	submit to something unpleasant
	the plunge	finally do something one has been undecided about
	the strain	endure
	a tumble	fall; diminish sharply or suddenly
	umbrage at something	be offended by something
	wing	rise in flight, become active

Meaning	Collocation /Idiom
something is very unlikely	when pigs fly
something is very easy	a piece of cake
looking in the wrong place	barking up the wrong tree
avoid the main topic	beat about the bush
happens very rarely	once in a blue moon
not wanting to take a decision	sit on the fence
don’t take too seriously what somebody has said	take with a pinch /grain of salt
call for help when you don’t need it	cry wolf
hear as a rumour	on the grapevine
something is very expensive	something costs an arm and a leg
controversial issue unpleasant to deal with	hot potato
be brave in the face of adversity	keep a stiff upper lip
upset about something that happened in the past	a chip on one’s shoulder
an unbelievable tale	a cock and bull story
die	kick the bucket
somebody who is unpredictable	loose cannon
in a risky situation	out on a limb
exact likeness	spitting image

About Course

Course Content

The Communication Skills Course

The Communication Skills Course Package by EduNet Solutions

Lesson 1: Basic Communication Models

Lesson 1: Introduction

1.1 What Is Communication?

1.2 Communication Basics: Some Models

1.2.1 Beginnings

1.2.2 Linear Models

1.2.3 Dynamic and Interactive Models

1.2.4 Schulz von Thun and the “Four Ears” Model of Communication

1.3 Types of Communication

Lesson 2: Communication Barriers

Introduction

2.1 Communication Barriers

2.1.1 Main types of Barriers

2.1.2 Physical Barriers

2.1.3 Nonverbal Communication Barriers

2.1.4 Linguistic Communication Barriers

2.1.5 Emotional Communication Barriers

2.1.6 Medial Communication Barriers

2.1.7 Cultural Communication Barriers

2.2 Summing up: Communication Barriers

Lesson 3: Skills vs. Knowledge in Communication

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Knowledge vs. Skills – a Juxtaposition

3.2.1 Theoretical vs. Practical

3.2.2 Survey

3.2.3 Correlations

3.3 Types of Skills: Hard vs. Soft Skills

3.4 Skills-Based Learning vs Knowledge-Based Learning

3.5 The 5-Stage Model of Skills Acquisition

Lesson 4: Listening

Introduction

4.1 Introduction to the Four Basic Skills of Communication

4.2 Listening as an Active Process

Smart Quiz I.3

4.3 Types of Listening

4.3.1 Discriminative Listening

4.3.2 Comprehension Listening

4.3.3 Evaluative (or Critical) Listening

4.3.4 Dialogic (or Relational) Listening

4.3.5 Empathic Listening

4.3.6 Appreciative Listening

4.4 Listening and Memory

4.4.1 Note Taking

4.4.2 Recording

4.4.3 Mnemonic Devices

4.5 Listening: Outward Signs

4.5.1 Smiles

4.5.2 Eye Contact

4.5.3 Linguistic and Paralinguistic Signals

4.5.4 Facial Expression

4.5.5 Posture

4.5.6 Head Nods

4.5.7 General Appearance of Focus on Speaker

Smart Quiz I.4

Lesson 5: Following Lectures, Taking Notes

Introduction

5.1 The Usefulness of Lectures and Presentations

5.2 Before the Lecture: How to Prepare Yourself

5.2.1 Steps to Prepare Yourself for Lectures

5.3 During Lectures: How to Get the Most Out of it

5.4 After Lectures: How to retain most of it

5.5 Taking Notes

5.5.1 The Cornell Method

5.5.2 Outline Method

5.5.3 The Mapping Method

Smart Quiz I.5

5.5.4 The Charting Method

5.5.5 The Sentence Method

Activity: Taking Notes

Lesson 6: Reading and Taking Notes

Introduction

6.1 Reading as an Active Process

6.1.1 Theory 1: Implicatures

Smart Quiz I.6

6.1.2 Theory 2: Reception Theory

6.2 Reading Skills and How to train them