HIGHLIGHTS OF THE ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

The Department offers courses for the following levels-

Intermediate - General English
Degree - General English for all
English Language & Literature for B.A course

GENERAL ENGLISH

I. Functional English taught at three levels, to suit the differential proficiency of students in English is a unique feature of St. Joseph’s College for Women and the only one of its kind in A.P.

The teaching components of English are -

General English
Intensive Reading Extensive Reading
Text Written (Selections-Prose Communication & Poetry)

Based on the performance of the students in the Placement Test (administered within a week of admission into college) the I Year B.A/B.Com/B.Sc. students are placed in three streams of General English identified as S1 (Advanced level), S2 (Higher) and S3 (Basic level). For further aid to the low achievers, S3 is divided into two - S3 and S4. The text for all the streams is the same but the teaching - learning strategy followed is different and planned according to the level.

Study material: - The text is prepared by the Faculty in the department and is common to all the streams. The selections are taken from a variety of topics like Science, Biographies, Philosophy, one-act plays, some poems dealing with different themes like love, war and others. It is changed once in five years.

Handouts: prepared by the Faculty of the department provide guidelines and include leading / topical questions to understand the lessons. For each lesson the handout is given while teaching the lesson. Handouts include global, local, summarizing and extension questions.

Extensive Reading: Two novels, to be studied by the students in each semester, are selected and prescribed according to the ability of the students in the three streams. The students are required to read these books on their own within a period of a week / ten days. At the end of that period, a snap test is conducted for 5 marks for each of the novels. Its main purpose is to inculcate and encourage the reading habit. By the end of the IV Semester each student would have read eight novels.

Teaching Learning Process: Written communication includes a number of writing skills to suit the different streams. These exercises train the students to express themselves concisely and correctly in different types of writing such as dictionary work, jumbled stories, pictocomp, carrying out instructions, problem solving, letters, schedules, telegrams, notices, essays, reports, reviews, note making, story writing, advertisements and brochures. All these exercises are found to be very useful and relevant.

Verbal Skills – A fully equipped language laboratory to teach communication skills to suit different situations.

This program of General English enables even Science graduates to perform well in PG Entrance examinations and secure admission into PG courses in English.

II. ENGLISH LANGUAGE & LITERATURE
The unique features of the syllabus, not offered by any other college of Andhra University, includes:

1. Linguistics - to teach the students the phonetic symbols of the language, its mechanism and correct pronunciation.
2. Literary Appreciation and Practical Criticism teaches the concepts underlying literary enjoyment and helps the students to make a proper analysis of a given literary piece.
3. Contemporary British Literature.
4. Indian Writing in English.
5. American Writing in English.
6. The course content in the first three semesters is based on the literary periods of British History.

    Use of Aids like film (e.g. to teach Shakespeare’s Plays prescribed for study) use of audiocassettes and OHP and charts in the teaching of Linguistics.
Preparation & Text Selections (mostly representative writers from each period), made by the Faculty of the English department are subject to approval by Board of Studies and Academic Council.

Head of the Department - Sr. Fatima Edwin M.A.M.Phil.