School of Life Sciences, Mysuru
Division of Languages
Keeping in mind the needs of the UG students of Faculty of Life Sciences, the Division of Languages has 4 full time faculties for English and one faculty for Kannada language. English language has two papers, that is Part I which is a compulsory paper and Part II which is an optional paper. Students can opt for either Part II or Kannada .Part I consists of grammar and roots of words , while Part II consists of poetry and prose lessons. Grammar lessons have been incorporated in the Part I paper so that students learn to speak in a clearer and more effective manner and develop skills to communicate effectively in the corporate world, after completing their education. Roots of words from A to Z and Reading Comprehension passages have been introduced in the syllabus in order to improve the vocabulary of the students and equip the students to face competitive exams, either in India or abroad.
Poetry section has been included to justify that poetry should have a central place in our lives because it awakens our senses and helps children and adults to ponder , observe and ask questions. In the prose section, students develop their linguistic skills such as listening, speaking, reading and writing. The students are also exposed to worthwhile values and functional skills.
Students opting for Kannada have the same syllabus which has been prescribed in the University of Mysore. For English, VIBGYOR 1, 2, 3 and 4 for 4 semesters (1st and 2nd year B.Sc) have been compiled by Mrs. Vibha Chaturvedi, who was the faculty of English at Faculty of Life Sciences from 2013 to 2015.
In addition to the VIBGYOR textbooks, the Division of languages has a Language Lab which has software such as translation software, phonetizer, several audio clips like Inspiration Vocab, Learn With Your Ears, Learning Communities, Power English Update and Alan Wats intel Vocab to name a few. These softwares have been installed with a view to help students who find difficulty in communicating in English. The Free Translator software helps students to translate sentences from their mother tongue like Hindi or Tamil into English or Kannada thus helping students from outside Karnataka to converse with the local population . Specific language audio clips like Hindi to English, Malyalam to English , Kannada to English and Tamil to English have sentences translated from these local languages to English. This is especially helpful for non-local and foreign students doing their internship in hospitals. Students opting to go abroad for further studies can have access to writing, reading and listening exercises for IELTS and TOEFL exams in the Language Lab.