Cambridge DELTA Module 1 Terms

end-weight

DISCOURSE A principle in which new information is placed at the end of a sentence rather than at the beginning, which is normally reserved for given information.

discourse marker

DISCOURSE Also called pragmatic markers. Words or expressions that normally come at the beginning of an utterance, and function to orient the listener to what will follow. Can indicate some kind of cane of direction in the talk or appeal to the listener in some way.

discourse analysis

DISCOURSE Any connected piece of speech or writing. The study of how such stretches of language achieve both cohesion and coherence.

conversation analysis

DISCOURSE Concerned with describing the structure of conversational interaction, including the sequential organization of talk and the ways that speakers repair communication problems. The basic unit of talk is the turn. Managed by turn taking, includes adjacency pairs, conversational openings and closings, backchanneling and repair strategies. Limited in that it divorces conversation from its context.

coherence

DISCOURSE How the sentences in a text relate to each other.

ellipsis

DISCOURSE Leaving elements out of a sentence because they are either unnecessary or because their sense can be worked out from the immediate context. Very common in spoken language and is also a common feature of certain text types where brevity is a priority (i.e. postcards).

conversational implicature

DISCOURSE The ability to infer from what has been said what has not been said.

co-operative principle

DISCOURSE The principle that speakers try to co-operate with one another. When people take part in a conversation they do so on the assumption that the other speakers will observe certain unstated rules. First articulated by H.P. Grice, included 4 maxims: maxim of quantity: make your contribution as informative as required maxim of quality: make your contribution one that is true maxim of relation: make your contribution relevant maxim of manner: avoid obscurity and ambiguity. be brief and orderly. Has been criticized as being culturally biased.

cohesion

DISCOURSE The use of grammatical and lexical means to achieve connected text. LEXICAL: repetition, synonyms, general words, same thematic field, substitution, ellipsis; GRAMMATICAL: references, substitution, ellipsis, linkers, parallelism

linkers

DISCOURSE Used to connect what has been said to what follows. and, but, or, so, because

futurity

FUNCTION Expressed by will + infinitive going to + infinitive present simple present progressive will + be + present participle will + have + past participle Sometimes determined by speaker's perception of, or attitude to, the future event being referred to.

concord

GRAMMAR Also called agreement. The name given to the grammatical relationship whereby the form of one word requires a corresponding form in another. In English, it's the case with subjects and verbs (I like, He likes...).

non-finite verbs

GRAMMAR Do not show person, number or tense contrasts. The infinitive, present and past participles are forms of these. "Before working for his uncle, Brad used to work for his father."

finite verbs

GRAMMAR Show that they are related to a subject by having person, number and tense. "Brad works for his uncle."

deixis

GRAMMAR The way language points to spatial, temporal and personal features of the context. The speaker's location is the _____ center, and these expressions distinguish between 'near' the speaker and 'away' from the speaker. Can be expressed by certain verbs, which have direction built into their meaning: come, go, bring, take.

aspect

GRAMMAR The way the speaker's 'view' of an event is expressed by the verb phrase, regardless of the time of the event itself. 2 of these in English: progressive and perfect.

function words

GRAMMAR Those words which have a mainly grammatical function (also called grammar words). Includes auxiliary verbs, determiners, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and some adverbs. Contrast with content words. Of the 50 most common words in English, 49 are these.

corpus

LINGUISTICS A collection of actually occurring texts (either spoken or written) stored and accessed by means of computers, and useful for investigating language use.

culture

LINGUISTICS Addresses these questions: What is the relationship between language and culture and to what extent do languages express cultural values? Does learning a second language involve learning a new set of cultural values? Does teaching a second language involve teaching the culture of the language? Is there a homogeneous English culture? How do cultural factors impact on methodology? How and to what extent should methodology adapt to take account of local cultural practices? Is there such a thing as intercultural competence, analogous to communicative competence, and if so, how is it fostered?

appraisal

LINGUISTICS Also called stance; the way speakers and writers use language to express their personal attitude to what is being said or written; one of the main ways that language's interpersonal function is realized; consists of 3 categories: affect (personal feelings), judgment (social values and social esteem), appreciation (opinions). These can all be expressed lexically, grammatically or through the use of paralinguistic devices.

authenticity

LINGUISTICS Became a priority with the communicative approach. The idea of "grade the task, not the text" was born. This kind of interaction is both more communicative and offers more affordances for learning.

applied linguistics

LINGUISTICS Concerned with the application of linguistic theory to solving language-related problems in the real world. Language planning, speech therapy, lexcography, translation studies, forensic linguistics.

communicative competence

LINGUISTICS First proposed by Dell Hymes, what you know in order to be able to communicate effectively. The term contrasts with linguistic competence (Chomsky). Hymes introduced the notion of appropriacy.

Culture

LINGUISTICS Refers to those highly valued activities and artifacts related to the arts.

function

LINGUISTICS The communicative purpose of a language item. It is also the communicative uses to which forms and meanings are put. To assign a ____ to a text or an utterance requires knowledge of the context in which the text is used. Can be micro (speech acts with +ing) or macro (expressive purposes, regulatory purposes, etc). Differ from notions, which describe areas of meaning.

affordance

LINGUISTICS The language learning opportunities that exist in a learner's linguistic 'environment.' Maximized with meaningful activities and giving learners feedback.

corpus linguistics

LINGUISTICS The use of corpora for researching language structure and use; has lead to the development of grammars and dictionaries that claim to be more reliable than their forbears, in that they are based on attested data. Has been criticized on the grounds that the information it reveals relates only to language performance.

form

LINGUISTICS The way a word, phrase or sentence is written or pronounced, independent of its meaning. Often contrasted with function.

formulaic language

LINGUISTICS Those sentences of two or more words that operate as a single unit. They are not generated word by word, but are stored in the memory and retrieved as if they were one-word vocabulary items. Also called lexical chunks, multi-word units, ready-mades, prefabricated language and holophrases. Can be classified in the following categories: collocations, phrasal verbs, idioms, sentence frames, social formulae, discourse markers. They make for easy access in real-time speaking conditions and aid fluency because of the low planning time required. Can also help make speaker sound idiomatic, a feature of the target speech community. The central platform of the Lexical Approach.

competence

LINGUISTICS What we intuitively know about a language in order to be able to use it. Contrasts with performance. This motivates he use of corpus data to inform grammars, dictionaries and classroom materials. I language (internalized language) and E language (I language put to use externally).

dictogloss

METHODOLOGY A form of dictation in which students hear the complete text (short) and then reconstruct it from memory. Learners first work individually, then in pairs, then in groups, each time comparing their versions of the text and negotiating changes.

action research

METHODOLOGY A form of teacher-driven research, the twin goals of which are to improve classroom practice, and to 'empower' teachers. Typically motivated less by the desire to answer the 'big' questions than by the need to solve a specific teaching problem in the local context. planning->acting->observing->reflecting

examination

METHODOLOGY A formal test that is usually administered by some examining body.

experiential learning

METHODOLOGY A general term for 'deep end' approaches to learning that rate direct practical experience over the learning and application of abstract rules. This might take the form of TBL, discovery learning or content-based learning. Belongs to the constructivist school of learning theory in which knowledge is a mental construct which is subject to constant re-evaluation and reconstruction. The cycle consists of alternating stages of action and reflection. Shares with mentalist theory a belief in the value of inductive learning. Shares with humanism a commitment to whole-person learning and with critical pedagogy a belief in the transformative power of direct experience. Particularly appropriate in teaching young learners.

competency

METHODOLOGY A specific practial skill. sometimes in the form of 'can do' statements.

functional syllabus

METHODOLOGY A syllabus based around a list of language functions. Often combined with notions. They were developed to support a communicative approach. If these have survived at all, it's as one strand in a multi-layered syllabus.

facilitation

METHODOLOGY A way of thinking about teaching that recognizes the fact that teachers do not directly cause learning, but that they can provide the conditions in which learning happens. The notion comes from humanist theory and partly from critical pedagogy, both of which credit the learner with agency in the learning process. Community Language Learning is a good example of this.

communicative activity

METHODOLOGY Activity in which real communication occurs. Key features: purposefulness, reciprocity, negotiation, unpredictability, heterogeneity, synchronicity.

community language learning

METHODOLOGY Also called counseling learning, a teaching method developed by Charles Curran in the 70s in the US. The learners (clients) sit in a circle having a conversation. They consult with the teacher-knower, who is outside the circle, to help formulate each utterance. The conversation is recorded, played back, translated, transcribed, boarded and read aloud.

exercise

METHODOLOGY An activity that involves the controlled manipulation of the forms of the language. Contrasts with more meaning-focused, and less tightly controlled, activities such as tasks. Usually written, like the equivalent of drills. Closed=only 1 answer; open=more than one possible. include gap fills, sentence transformations, ordering exercises, matching exercises, insertion exercises, deletion exercises, translation exercises, error-correction exercises.

strong CLT

METHODOLOGY An emphasis on deep-end communication. You learn language by using it. Led to task-based learning.

weak CLT

METHODOLOGY An emphasis on shallow-end communication. You learn language and then you use it. Learn the language systems first and then put them to communicative use.

direct method

METHODOLOGY An umbrella term for a wide range of language teaching methods that emerged in the later part of the 19th century. They shared the belief that only the target language should be used in the classroom and that therefore translation should be avoided at all costs. Started with Maxmilian Berlitz. Borne out of the demand for learning languages for international commerce and tourism. Laid the foundations of applied linguistics. In the US, it ingested behaviorist theory and became audiolingualism.

communicative approach

METHODOLOGY An umbrella term used to describe a major shift in language teaching that occurred in Europe in the 1970s. Shift away from language systems and toward how these systems are used in real communication. Linguistic competience replaced with focus on communicative competence. Directly related to functional-notional syllabus.

indirect approach to conversation

METHODOLOGY Argues that conversation is best learned by having conversations. Syllabus might consist of a list of topics to talk about or of situations where conversations are likely to occur.

direct approach to conversation

METHODOLOGY Argues that the characteristic features of conversation, as identified in conversation analysis, should be taught explicitly and in isolation, before being integrated into freer practice activities. These features include conversational gambits, turn-taking, use of discourse markers, appraisal language, vague language, etc.

audiolingualism

METHODOLOGY Became widespread in the US in the 1950s and 60s. Distinctive feature=drilling of sentence patterns. Came from a view of learning as habit formation (behaviorism). Spoken language was prioritized; translation and the use of metalanguage were discouraged; accuracy was considered a precondition for fluency. Shot down by Chomsky in the early 60s and the birth of mentalism.

content and language integrated learning

METHODOLOGY CLIL Teaching a subject through English. Also called content-based teaching. A strong form of the communicative approach in that there is no predetermined language syllabus.

drama

METHODOLOGY Can provide entertaining practice opportunities, as well as offering a useful springboard into real-life language use. A greater range of registers can be practised than are normally available in classroom talk. Can include roleplays and simulations.

eclecticism

METHODOLOGY Combining techniques and activities from different methods in your teaching. Motivated by different reasons, one being a general distrust of a 'one size fits all' method. Ts sometimes think that certain methods are not sensitive enough to such variables as the context, culture and learning styles of the students. Has been criticized on the grounds that it lacks principle and encourages an 'anything goes' approach to teaching. Principled ____ subscribes to a 'post-method' philosophy.

agency

METHODOLOGY Control of your own actions, including your mental activity. A notion from critical pedagogy. Learners are not objects of the teaching process; they are subjects of the learning process. A factor that contributes to motivation.

critical pedagogy

METHODOLOGY Has roots in progressive education and is also sometimes called transformative education. Gained prominence through Paulo Freire. Assumes that education can never be purely disinterested or neutral. It either functions to maintain the status quo or it works to change the status quo. Has been influenced by humanism, learner autonomy, literacy training, critical discourse analysis, identity politics and cultural studies.

evaluation

METHODOLOGY Not to be confused with assessment. Can be ongoing (formative): getting feedback on the curriculum in action. Can be final (summative): when the outcomes of the program are evaluated according to the goals that were established at the outset. Procedures involve the use of questionnaires, interviews, observation, meetings and focus groups.

discussion

METHODOLOGY Opportunity for learners to interact freely and spontaneously, to cope with unpredictability, to voice opinions using language that is both complex and fluent. More structured than conversation. Risks: might get out of hand, learners might feel unduly constrained by the TL, some learners might dominate.

display question

METHODOLOGY Questions asked by the teachers in order that learners can 'display' their knowledge. They typically initiate a 3 part exchange that is characteristic of classroom interaction and is called IRF (interaction, response, follow-up). Usually aimed at finding out what learners can say in the TL. Contrast with real questions.

drill

METHODOLOGY Repetitive oral practice of a language item, whether a word, a sound, a phrase or a sentence structure. Follow a prompt-response sequence. Were a defining feature of the audiolingual method and were designed to reinforce good language 'habits.' Can still be communicative with an information gap type element built in ('find someone who...').

dynamics

METHODOLOGY The actions and interactions, both conscious and unconscious, that take place between members of a group, whether the whole class or sub-group. Instrumental in forging a productive and motivating classroom environment. Determined by the composition of the group (age, sex, status), the patterns of relationships between group members, physical factors such as group size, the task itself.

course design

METHODOLOGY The design of a language teaching program and of the specific materials to be used on a program. Stages include needs analysis, goal setting, syllabus design, materials choice, assessment instruments, evaluation procedures.

adolescents

METHODOLOGY The ideal time to learn a second language. This age group tends to outperform adults and to progress more rapidly than younger learners.

dogme ELT

METHODOLOGY The name of a loose collective of teachers who challenge what they consider to be an over-reliance on materials, including published coursebooks, in current language teaching. Based on DOGME 95, a group of Danish filmmakers who vowed to make films using minimal means for maximum effect. Proponents say they are not so much anti-materials as they are pro-learner, and thus align themselves with other forms of learner-centered instruction and critical pedagogy.

computer-mediated communication CMC

METHODOLOGY The use of networked computers in order to communicate. Can be synchronous (people communicate in real time) or asynchronous (delayed communication).

curriculum

METHODOLOGY The whole complex of ideological, social and administrative factors which contribute to the planning of its teaching program. Embodies several decisions: 1. about the objectives or goals of the program 2. about the content--from these decisions the syllabus will be derived 3. about the method of instruction 4. about how the program is evaluated Concerned with the beliefs, values and theory, not with how they are realized.

highlighting form

METHODOLOGY When a teacher draws learners' attention to features of spoken or written language using: modelling, finger-coding, cuisenaire rods, boardwork, substitution tables. Takes place in close association with the meaning of the item.

elision

PHONOLOGY This happens when a sound is omitted, because another, similars, sound follows. This is common when two plosive sounds occur togeher. walked to=walktuh; baked beans= bakebeans; last week=lasweek; next, please=neksplease

juncture

PHONOLOGY This is the pausing (or lack of pausing) at the boundary between two sounds, which accounts for the difference between ice cream and I scream.

liaison

PHONOLOGY This is where a sound is introduced at word boundaries, especially after words ending in a vowel, as in law and order=lohrandorder

assimiliation

PHONOLOGY When a sound is modified by a neighboring sound, such as when the final /n/ of green is followed by a /p/, and is pronounced /m/; /t/ /d/=/p//b/; /t//d/=/k//g/

cognitive learning theory

PSYCHOLOGY A learning theory that draws upon ideas from cognitive psychology, the branch of psychology that deals with perception and thinking. Piaget first proposed the view that language develops out of the child's thoughts and growing awareness of the world. A later version suggests that the child acquires language by forming and testing hypotheses about the adult language it hears around it. Has been criticized as being mechanistic, and for ignoring social and affective factors.

connectionism

PSYCHOLOGY A model of learning which belongs to what are called usage-based accounts of language acquisition. It does not presuppose any innate language-learning faculty, nor any rule-learning and rule-using. It assumes we are mentally predisposed to look for associations between elements and create links between them in response to frequently encountered patterns of usage.

behaviorism

PSYCHOLOGY A psychological theory popular in the mid-twentieth century that viewed learning as a sort of habit formation and positive reinforcement. Audiolingualism is the teaching method that is associated with this. stimulus-response-reinforcement. This theory rejected any role, in learning, for mental processes such as thought and reasoning.

constructivism

PSYCHOLOGY A theory of learning that claims that individuals actively construct knowledge, rather than passively receiving it. Supports the case for learner-centered instruction and experiential learning. Underscores the argument for personalization. Key figures=Jean Piaget and Jerome Bruner. Contrasts with behaviorist theory and is ideologically aligned with cognitive learning theory, mentalism and, most closely, humanism.

autonomy

PSYCHOLOGY Also called self-directed learning. The capacity to take responsibility for your own learning.

first language acquisition

PSYCHOLOGY It takes place relatively quickly. It is systematically staged. It happens despite the 'poverty of the stimulus.' It results from contact and interaction and not from any formal teaching. Given a reasonable amount of exposure, it is always 100% successful. We are hard-wired to learn a first language.

critical period hypothesis

PSYCHOLOGY Neurological factors occurring at puberty mean that thereafter you can't just pick up a language as you did when you were a child.

deductive learning

PSYCHOLOGY Occurs when a rule or a generalization is first presented to the learners, and then they go on to apply it in practice activities. Associated with approaches such as grammar-translation. Can be very effective in teaching form of the language.

automaticity

PSYCHOLOGY The ability to perform a task without having to focus attention on it. This frees a learner's limited attentional resources for more demanding activities. A process of setting up chunks and associations that link one step with another. This doesn't mean a sacrifice of accuracy. When chunks of language are produced in a pre-assembled form, the speaker has much less chance of making mistakes.

affect

PSYCHOLOGY The general word for emotion or feelings. These factors positively or negatively influence language learning. Often contrasted with cognitive factors such as intelligence and learning style. Low ___ive filter=emotionally well-disposed to processing input High ___ive=won't process input so effecitively.

aptitude

PSYCHOLOGY The innate talent or predisposition for language learning. 3 kinds of ability: auditory, linguistic, memory.

comprehension

PSYCHOLOGY The process of understanding speech or writing. It results from an interaction between different kinds of knowledge. Bottom-up vs. top-down processing is involved. Involves different psychological operations, including perception, recognition and inferencing.

contingency

PSYCHOLOGY The sense that what is happening is connected to what has just happened and what is about to happen.

consciousness-raising CR

PSYCHOLOGY The way that learners become aware, or are made aware, of features of the language they are learning. The term belongs to cognitive learning theory, which claims a central role for conscious mental operations in learning. Things teachers do with this potential: enhancing the input in some way so as to make certain items more salient; asking learners to infer rules from examples (inductive learning); asking them to compare their own output with that of more proficient users of the target language (noticing the gap); problematizing the input; pushed output (noticing the holes in the present state of their language.

avoidance strategy

SLA Abandoning a message or replacing an original messae with one that is less ambitious.

error

SLA An instance of the learner's language that does not conform to accepted norms of usage, and which is attributed to incomplete or faulty learning. Usually defined in terms of adult native speakers. Sometimes distinguished from mistakes, the former being due ot lack of knowledge (i.e. competence), and the latter being due to the demands of performance. Categorized in a number of ways: pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar or discourse; or according to the way they depart from the norm (omission, addition, mis-selection, misformation, misordering); also categorized according to their cause.

bilingualism

SLA At one point it was considered a handicap to second language learners since (according to behaviorist theory) the first language interferes with the second. ADDITIVE=second language added to first without threatening the speaker's first language identity; SUBTRACTIVE=the second language replaces the first, threatening the speaker's language identity.

complexity

SLA Gauged by the following factors: amount of subordination, complex sentences, reference, lexical/linking verb ratio, conjunctions

fluency

SLA The ability to speak a language idiomatically and accurately, without undue pausing, without an intrusive accent, and in a manner appropriate to the context. The ability to produced and maintain speech in real time. This involves: appropriate pausing, long runs, formulaic language, production strategies. Can also be called "communicative effectiveness" regardless of formal accuracvy or speed of delivery.

accuracy

SLA The extent to which a learner's use of a second language conforms to the rules of the language. Once thought to be a precondition for fluency.

feedback

SLA The information, either immediate or delayed, that learners get on their performance. Traditionally takes the form of correction. Can be explicit or implicit.

acculturation

SLA The process by which a person integrates into a particular culture. One of the first theories of SLA that attempted to prioritize social factors over purely cognitive ones. It has been partly rehabilitated under the name socialization.

contrastive analysis

SLA The way the the linguistic systems of two languages are compared and contrasted. Used to be thought that a comparison between a learner's L1 and L2 would predict the errors that a learner would make; the underlying assumption was a behaviorist one--that L1 interference was to blame. Many errors are now attributed to developmental causes, not interference. The best predictions of this are in the area of phonology.

appropriation

SLA To make something your own. Gaining ownership of a skill by first doing it with someone who is more skilled than you are until you can control or regulate the skill yourself. A key concept in sociocultural learning theory. Language is not simply a behavior that is conditioned through repeated practice, but that it is one of collaborative construction, in which skills are transferred in socially-situated activity.

communication strategy

SLA Ways that learners get around the fact that they may not know how to say something, but that help the learner achieve their intended message: paraphrase, word coinage, foreignizing a word, approximation, all-purpose words, language-switching, paralinguistics, appealing for help.

fossilization

SLA When an error becomes a permanent feature of a learner's interlanguage. In theory such errors are resistant to correction. It has been hypothesized that the lack of instruction (and therefore the lack of a focus on form) is the main cause. May also be due to a lack of negative feedback on errors or the lack of a push to make learners' output more accurate. Some learners also have no social motivation to improve their interlanguage.

focus on form

SLA When conscious attention is directed to some formal feature of the language input. It has been argued that this is a necessary condition for language learning. Meaning is not enough. It can occur at any stage in classroom instruction. Correction is also a kind of this.

dialect

SOCIOLINGUISTICS A regional or social variety of a language.

formal language

SOCIOLINGUISTICS A style of language that is appropriate in situations where there is social distance between speakers, or where the situation or topic requires a degree of seriousness. Not to be confused with politeness. It is more common in print, such as in official documents. Characterized by: complex sentences, frequent use of the passive, reported speech, fast modals, long and complex noun phrases, long words with Greek or Latin roots.

appropriacy

SOCIOLINGUISTICS Using language in a way that is suitable for the context and in a way that meets the expectations of the people you are communicating with. An aspect of sociolinguistic competence, which is a component of a speaker's overall communicative competence. (Dell Hymes)

achievement test

TESTING Designed to test what learners have learned over a week, month, term or entire course. Because ___ ___s are directly related to the content of the teaching program, they provide feedback on the teaching-learning process, and are therefore useful data for course evaluation.

affix, affixation

VOCABULARY An element that is added to a word and which changes its meaning. The process of doing this.

collocation

VOCABULARY Words that frequently occur together. Can be grammatical (collocate with specific prepositions: "account for") or lexical: "narrow escape."