Communication

Welcome to a preparatory course on English Communication skills for the workplace!

We are delighted to offer this online self-learning course that will hone your English
communication skills before you embark on the Initial Learning Program (ILP) of Tata
Consultancy Services (TCS).
This 30-hour self-study course is intended for completion at your own pace within a
three- or four-week period. We recommend that you complete the course before the TCS-
ILP starts.
You are presented a wide variety of specially selected online resources for theory
and practice in the four primary communication skills: listening, speaking, reading
and writing. Further, input on professional communication skills, phonetics and
pronunciation, vocabulary building, grammar and writing style provides additional value.
Do accomplish each of the 30 hour-long units in the prescribed order and watch your
confidence in your communication skills grow steadily. Strong communication skills
are the bedrock of a successful career -- make the most of this opportunity for self-
enhancement.
Tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today!
10 November - 16 November
LESSON 1:
● Hi! Are you wondering what this part of ASPIRE would bring to you??
● I’m sure you are. Well think no further as we are going to take a peep into a world
that would help us make it big in future..start our own companies, become leaders
at various levels, earn as much as we can….mmm….does that sound familiar??
● There is no end to the number of certifications or courses that you would do to
enhance your technical skills, is there?
● But what you probably don’t seem to realize is the importance of the other set of
skills that would help you GET there…make it big; the skills we call softskills.
● While softskills can never be a replacement for the hard or technical skills, they
complement the latter.
● A technically well qualified person performs more effectively with the right set of
softskills.
However, my friend, Softskills is not easy to acquire. It is a lot of hard work and
discipline! For instance, knowing what to say where, when and how, is a measure
of your softskills and that ….. doesn’t come easily to all. And that dear friend
is what we would be talking about in this part of your programme. To be more
precise, we would talk about how we could express ourselves better or rather,
communicate effectively.
Before we go on, here’s a bit of home work we need to do. (Well, it is hard work!
)
I would like you to prepare a little article on how important you think softskills
are. You may “google”, read books..but it would be very helpful if you could do
some reference before you actually write.
Oh!..one more thing.. “in your own words please.”
 Thank you.
LESSON 2:
Pronunciation – how important is it?
“Is it really important to get the sounds right?” A possible question that one might ask
oneself and a good one too.
Well the answer is, it is important. Sounds influence their neighboring sounds. A
mispronounced sound could result in a misinterpretation.
Look at the following example:

1. Speaking: Pronunciation: Phonetics, British English (http://www.bbc.co.uk/

worldservice/learningenglish/grammar/pron/)
2. Listening Comprehension - Listen to this audio and answer the questions (http://
www.esl-lab.com/lawsuit/lawsuit-rd1.htm)
3. Reading Tips, Reading Skills and Reading Comprehension- 1. (http://esl.about.com/od/
englishreadingskills/a/rtp_list.htm)
4. Talking about the Present (Simple Present tense - Rules) (http://
www.englishpage.com/verbpage/simplepresent.html)
5. Talking about the Present (Present Continuous -Rules) (http://www.englishpage.com/
verbpage/presentcontinuous.html)
6. Talking about the Present (Exercises)
(http://www.better-english.com/grammar/presentforms.htm)
7. Listening Comprehension- Listen to this audio and answer the questions file (http://
www.esl-lab.com/health/healrd1.htm)
8. Talking about the Present (Present Perfect - Rules) file (http://www.englishpage.com/
verbpage/presentperfect.html)
9. Talking about the Present (Present Perfect Continuous -Rules) file
(http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/presentperfectcontinuous.html)
10. Talking about the Present (Exercises) file (http://www.better-english.com/grammar/
presentforms2.htm)
11. Listening Comprehension- Listen to this audio and answer the questions file (http://
www.esl-lab.com/expense/expenserd1.htm)
12. Talking about the Present (Non continuous or stative verbs - Rules) file (http://
www.englishpage.com/verbpage/types.html)
13. Talking about the Present (Present Continuous / Present Perfect Continuous -
Exercises ) file (http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbs10.htm)
14. Reading Tips, Reading Skills and Reading Comprehension-2. file (http://
esl.about.com/od/englishreadingskills/a/readingskills.htm)
15. Reading Tips, Reading Skills and Reading Comprehension-3. file (http://
esl.about.com/od/readingintermediate/a/r_social.htm)
16. Reading Tips, Reading Skills and Reading Comprehension-4. file (http://
esl.about.com/library/lessons/nblwrong.htm)
17. Listening Comprehension- Listen to this audio and answer the questions (http://
www.esl-lab.com/market/marketrd1.htm)

Assigment 1
Identify the sounds in the following words. How many sounds can you find in each
word? Try and rewrite the words using the phonetic symbols.
1. added
2. project
3. man
4. king
5 duck
6.come
7.here
8.chocolate
9.comfortable
10.environment
11.technology
12.bear
13.computer
14.English
15.Manager
2. What do you understand by the term schwa? Explain what you have understood with
the help of examples.

3. How many sounds do we have in English?

4. 'Put'and 'Cut'are spelt in a similar fashion but pronounced differently. Could you
explain why?
5. Could you explain connected speech?
6. Why does 'Who is' sound as who(w)iz is connected speech?
7. Why does Visit us sound as 'Visi tas'?
8. Based on the lessons you have accessed, write a brief note on what you have
understood
about pronunciation in English.
9. What is linking /r/?
10. What are voiceless and voiced sounds? Please explain this with the help of examples.

Web Technology
10 November - 16 November
Objective:

This is a preparatory course on web technologies. The online tutorials and "Try-it-
yourself" activities, would help you to understand the basics of web technologies. We
recommend that you complete the course before the TCS-ILP starts.

Activity 1

The topics that need to be covered under HTML/XHTML are:

1) Basic HTML
2) HTML Forms
3) Basic XHTML
4) Differences between HTML and XHTML
5) Advantages of XHTML

HTML, XHTML Reference site - w3schools (http://w3schools.com/html/default.asp)

Activity 2

The topics that need to be covered under CSS are:

1) What is CSS?
2) CSS Basics
3) CSS Syntax – Grouping, Class Selector, ID Selector
4) Ways to put together CSS and HTML – Internal, External, @import, Inline
5) Advantages and Disadvantages of CSS.

CSS Reference site - w3schools (http://w3schools.com/css/default.asp)

Activity 3
The topics that need to be covered under JavaScript are:

1) What is JavaScript?
2) What can a JavaScript do?
3) How to put a JavaScript into an HTML page?
4) Where to put the JavaScript?
5) External JavaScript
6) JavaScript variables
7) Conditional Statements
8) Pop-up Boxes
9) Functions
10) Events
11) Form Validation
12) Document Object Model (DOM) – Retrieving Elements
13) DOM – Working with Attributes

JavaScript Reference Site - w3schools (http://w3schools.com/js/default.asp)

17 November - 23 November

Activity 4

The topics that need to be covered under PHP are:

1) What is PHP?
2) How does PHP work?
3) How to put a PHP code into an HTML page?
4) PHP variables – scalar, array
5) Form Handling
6) Include(), Require()
7) Session
8) Error Handling

PHP Reference Site - W3schools (http://w3schools.com/php/default.asp)

24 November - 30 November

Activity 5

The topics that need to be covered under MySQL are:

1) MySQL Components
2) MySQL – establishing connection to the server, creating database and tables,
inserting/selecting/deleting records to/from the table.
3) Connecting to database from PHP
4) Data Validation
5) Cross Site Scripting (XSS) – htmlentities()
6) SQL injection – mysql_real_escape_string()

Note : Before running the php code which uses mysql, create a database, create the
required table and insert the records, so that you will be able to retrieve the records from
the table using the php code.

MySQL Reference Site - W3schools (http://w3schools.com/php/php_mysql_intro.asp)

1 December – 7 December

Activity 6

The topics that need to be covered under XML are:

1) Features of XML
2) XML Components
3) XML DTD/Schema
4) XML DTD/Schema Validation
5) XML with XSLT
6) Generating XML with PHP
7) Generating XML from database
8) XML DOM
9) XML DOM Node
10) Accessing DOM Nodes
11) XML Parser

XML Reference Site - W3schools (http://w3schools.com/xml/default.asp)

Unix
Activity 1:

Unix online Tutorial (http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Teaching/Unix/)

Please complete all the eight tutorials.

Database Concepts
19 November - 25 November

Objective:
This is a preparatory course on Database Concepts. The books and online tutorials ,
would help you to understand the database concepts. Understand Relational Databases
and develop the ability to write Structured Query Language (SQL) – Data Definition
Language (DDL) and Data Modification Language (DML).
We recommend that you complete the course before the TCS-ILP starts.
Activity 1
Database Concepts and Relational Database Management System (RDBMS)
· Database System Concepts, Fifth Edition by Silberschatz, Henry F Korth
Chapter 1 -Introduction
Chapter 2 - Relational Model
Chapter 3 - SQL
Chapter 4 - Advanced SQL
Chapter 6 - Integrity Constraints
· Introduction to Database Systems, 7 edition CJ Date
Part I - Preliminaries
Chapter 1 -An Overview of Database Management
Chapter 2 -Database System Architecture
Chapter 3 -An Introduction to Relational Databases
Chapter 4 -An Introduction to SQL
26 November - 2 December
Activity 2
Database Concepts and Relational Database Management System (RDBMS)
· Database System Concepts, Fifth Edition by Silberschatz, Henry F Korth
Chapter 7 - Relational Database Design
Chapter 11 - Indexing and Hashing
Chapter 12 - Query Processing
Chapter 13 - Transaction Processing
Chapter 14 - Concurrency Control
3 December - 9 December
Activity 3
Database Concepts and Relational Database Management System (RDBMS)
· Introduction to Database Systems, 7 edition CJ Date
Part II - The Relational Model
Chapter 5 -Types
Chapter 6 -Relations
Chapter 7 -Relational Algebra
Chapter 8 -Relational Calculus
Chapter 9 -Integrity
Chapter 10 - Views
10 December - 16 December
Activity 4
· SQL
SQL is the language used to query all databases. It's simple to learn.
Understanding SQL and using it efficiently is highly essential in designing an efficient
database application.

Practice queries using MySQL database (http://www.mysql.com/).

Use SQLyog (Opensource Freeware) to write queries.(http://www.webyog.com/
en/).

● http://www.w3schools.com/sql/default.asp

7 December - 23 December

Activity 5
SQL
● http://www.w3schools.com/sql/default.asp