English Language Skills Textbook | Bachelor of Arts(BA) / Bachelor of Social Sciences (BSS) Programme
School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Languages
Bangladesh Open University
Gazipur – 1705
BEN – 1301
English Language Skills Textbook
School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Languages
Bangladesh Open University
Gazipur – 1705
This study material is prepared by M. Shamsul Hoque (Former ELT Adviser, SSHL, BOU), Dr. Salma Ainy (Associate Professor, SSHL, BOU), Syed Mazharul Islam (IUB, Dhaka) and Meherun Nesa (Former Assistant Professor, SSHL, BOU), and edited by Hasibul Haque (Former Assistant Professor, SSHL, BOU), Mustafizur Rahman (Former Professor, Open School, BOU), Dr. Selina Akhter Jahan (Former Associate Professor, SSHL BOU)
Dean, SSHL
Writers:
M Shamsul Hoque | Former ELT Adviser, SSHL, BOU
Dr. Salma Ainy | Associate Professor of English, SSHL, BOU
Syed Mazharul Islam | IUB, Dhaka
Supplementation:
Meherun Nesa | Assistant Professor, SSHL, BOU
Editors:
Hasibul Haque | Former Assistant Professor, SSHL, BOU
Dr. Salma Ainy | Associate Professor, SSHL, BOU
Supplementation Editors:
Professor Mustafizur Rahman
Dr. Selina AKhtar Jahan | Associate Professor, SSHL BOU
School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Languages
Bachelor of Arts (BA) / Bachelor of Social Sciences (BSS) Programme
(All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without prior permission of the Bangladesh Open University)
Second Edition : 2001
Third Edition : 2003
Fourth Edition : 2004
Fifth Edition : 2005
Sixth Edition : 2009
Seventh Edition : 2010
Eighth Edition : 2011
Ninth Edition : 2012
Instructional Designing
Dr. Salma Ainy
Hasibul Haque
Illustration & Cover Design
Masud Mahmood Mallick
Cover Graphics
Abdul Malek
Computer Graphics, DTP & Composition
Md. Abul Kalam Azad
Shapon Kumar Das
Publisher:
Publishing, Printing & Distribution Division
Bangladesh Open University
Gazipur – 1705
To the Student
Dear Student,
BEN 1301 : English Language Skills has been introduced as a compulsory General Education course of BA/BSS Programme. The course has been designed to help you learn English Language in a way which will fulfill your communicative and academic needs. We have a sincere effort to present the book in a self instructional way so that you can follow the lessons easily.
This course is worth of 3 credits and each credit contains materials worth of 15 hours self study and 10-15 hours additional activities, such as doing intext activities, consulting references, following radio and tv programmes, attending tutorial sessions, discussing with tutor and course-mates and so on. That means the students are expected to spend 75 – 90 hours for completing the whole course.
Unit 1 with the title “Reading Texts Thematically and Linguistically” deals with the topics, such as identifying texts, topics and thesis statements, extracting main ideas from the texts, summarising, dealing with new vocabulary, reading charts and graphs, predicting, understanding writer’s purpose or intention, making notes and using a dictionary.
Unit 2, deals with writing notes, paragraphs, letters, dialogues, reports, accounts and summary. There is the answer Key section at the end of almost each lesson.
Unit 3 deals with “Communicative Grammar”. The topics covered in this Unit are—talking about the present, past and future, talking about abilities and possibilities, wishes and chances, describing processes, using reported
speech and articles, and making reference to people and objects. There are a number of activities in each lesson. Do the activities first and then check your answers with the ‘Answer Key’ where provided. Moreover, you can get sufficient clues from the text for your answer, or in some cases may wish to consult your tutor and compare your answer with those of your course-mates.
As you go through the lessons, you may come across a number of unfamiliar words, terms and expressions. Try to get the meaning from the context and also use a standard English to English dictionary. If you have any difficulty in understanding any part of this book, make notes to discuss them in the tutorial sessions. This may help you understand better. Nevertheless, please remember, you are always welcome to contact us, the faculty of SSHL, BOU, whenever you need to discuss something essential.
In the present edition of the book a good number of ‘Explanatory Notes’ ‘Answer Key’ and ‘Multiple Choice Questions’ have been added to all of the three Units. It must be mentioned that the whole work of supplementation has been done to fit the book for the principles of Open and Distance Learning (ODL) and hence to increase the student’s comprehension. This part has been prepared by the course co-ordinator.
Best of Luck
(Course Coordinator)
Contents:
Unit 1 : Reading Texts Thematically and Linguistically
Lesson 1 : Identifying Texts and Topics
Lesson 2 : Identifying the Thesis Statement and Topic Sentence
Lesson 3 : Extracting Main Ideas
Lesson 4 : Summarising
Lesson 5 : Dealing with New Vocabulary-1
Lesson 6 : Dealing with New Vocabulary-2
Lesson 7 : Reading Charts and Graphs
Lesson 8 : Predicting
Lesson 9 : Understanding the Writer’s Purpose or Intention
Lesson 10 : Making Notes
Lesson 11 : Using a Dictionary
Unit 2 : Writing
Lesson 1 : Writing Notes
Lesson 2 : Writing Paragraphs
Lesson 3 : Writing Letters – 1
Lesson 4 : Writing Letters – 2
Lesson 5 : Writing Letters – 3
Lesson 6 : Writing Letters – 4
Lesson 7 : Writing Letters – 5
Lesson 8 : Writing a Dialogue – 1
Lesson 9 : Writing a Dialogue – 2
Lesson 10 : Writing a Report – 1
Lesson 11 : Writing a Report – 2
Lesson 12 : Writing an Account -1
Lesson 13 : Writing an Account – 2
Lesson 14 : Writing an Account – 3
Lesson 15 : Writing a Summary
Unit 3 : Communicative Grammar
Lesson 1 : Talking about the Present
Lesson 2 : Talking about the Past
Lesson 3 : Talking about the Future
Lesson 4 : Talking about Possibilities and Abilities
Lesson 5 : Talking about Chances and Wishes
Lesson 6 : Describing Processes and how Things are done
Lesson 7 : Reported Speech
Lesson 8 : Generalising and Specifying : Articles
Lesson 9 : Making references to People, and Objects using relative pronouns – who/which/that