Delta Module 1 Terms

validity

A concept used in language testing to cover the various forms of relevance of the substance of the test to the person taking the test and/or the people administering the test.

practicality

A concept used in language testing, amongst other areas, to refer to the ease (or difficulty) of producing, administering and marking a test.

affricate

A consonant sound in which the air flow is initially stopped, but then is released slowly with friction, e.g. /tʃ/.

fricative

A consonant sound where the flow of air is partially constricted and released slowly (e.g. / ʃ/, /v/, /s/, /z/).

consonant

A conventional speech sound made by certain movements of the articulatory muscles that alter, interrupt, or obstruct the expired airstream; defined according to manner of production, place of articulation, and voicing. E.g. /p/, /b/, /v/, /k/.

anaphoric reference

A device which refers to something which has been mentioned before in the text. E.g. I live in a large flat in Istanbul. It is very beautiful.

assimilation

A feature of connected speech when a sound changes to another sound because of a neighboring sound e.g. in ten boys /n/ followed by /b/ changes to /m/ as in /tembɔɪz/.

progress test/formative assessment

A form of assessment administered periodically during a course to monitor the learning process. These are set because they encourage revision.

word family

A group of words that share the same root. "Politics", "politician", "(a)political", "politicise/ politicize" all belong to one "family".

lexical set

A group of words which belong to the same category, such as apple, kiwi, banana, pineapple.

guided discovery

A language teaching approach whereby students work out rules and patterns on the basis of a number of samples given. They may be provided with a set of questions aimed at directing them towards the meaning and form of the target language

Lingua Franca

A language that is adopted as a common language between speakers whose native languages are different. E.g. English as international language.

TPR

A language-teaching method that was developed by James Asher in the early 1970s. Like the natural approach, it is a comprehension approach, based on the belief that learners need only understand input, and should not be required to speak until they are ready to (-+ silent period). TPR is modelled on the way that young children receive comprehensible input in their first language. Learners are exposed to input in the form of commands that require a physical response, such as Stand up, turn around, pick up the orange, hand it to me, etc. Hence, teaching sequences consist of a series of such commands that learners first see being demonstrated, and then act out themselves.

Direct Method

A language-teaching method the mains characteristics of which are: only TL must be used in the classroom, no translation is allowed, grammar is taught inductively, form and meaning are established using realia, pictures, demonstrations; T>Ss and S<>S interaction patterns, questions/answers (full answers are important), topic/situation based syllabuses, Ss self-correct themselves, speaking is the most important but all four skills are developed. For example: T: Stand. I'm standing next to the door. Am I standing next to the door? S: Yes, you are standing next to the door. T: Where am I standing? S: You are standing next to the door.

bound morpheme

A morpheme that can't stand alone. E.g. ing (smoking), ful (beautiful), ex (ex-boyfriend)

compound noun

A noun made up of one or more words, with the final element ALWAYS being a noun. To be a ____ the idea ("referent") should be a single item. Often the two words will be hyphenated, sometimes they will be written as one word.

allophone

A permitted variation in a phoneme of the language, usually determined by surroundings. Thus the sound that is normally spelt sh, and which is represented by the phonemic symbol [ ʃ] , is produced differently at the beginning of the word shoe than it is at the beginning of the word she. In shoe the lips are rounded whereas in she they are spread. However, saying she with the rounded lips of shoe, or vice versa, does not alter a listener's perception of the difference in meaning between the two words.

reference

A phenomenon where words "point" to other individual words or phrases - or whole paragraphs even. A: Where's my towel? B: I hung it on the line. The pronoun 'it' refers back to 'my towel'.

endophoric reference

A phenomenon where words refer to other items in the same text. E.g. I like your dress. It's beautiful.

cue

A piece of information like a word or phrase T gives to Ss to use in a drill.

adjacency pairs

A sequence of two related utterances by different speakers, the second being dependent on the first. E.g. Compliment - thanks/downgrading: This cake is wonderful!/Thanks. But it's really simple to make.

language

A system of communication through the use of speech, a collection of sounds understood by a group of people to have the same meaning.

lexis

A technical term for the vocabulary of a language, as opposed to its grammar.

homonym

A term seldom used in the literature as there is no clearly established precedent for its meaning. If it is to be used to contrast with homophones and homographs then it should refer to two different words with the same spelling AND the same pronunciation. One example would be "bear" (the animal) and "bear" (the ver.)

multiple-choice test

A test in which a response is required purely receptively: by choosing one (or more) item(s) from a list of given possibilities. Although this form of testing has been popular in various places at various times, there are serious problems with it. Reliability and practicality are key issues here.

proficiency test

A test taken to assess candidates' language ability regardless of any course of study. E.g. IELTS, FCE, CAE etc.

norm-referenced test

A test which compares test takers to each other rather than against external criteria.

genre

A text type distinguished by specific features. E.g. formal letters, anecdotes, emails.

syllable

A unit of pronunciation that is typically larger than a sound but smaller than a word. Syllables consist of vowel sounds (V) or combinations of vowels and consonants (C). In English, the different possibilities include V, as in I; CV, as in go; CVC, as in got, as well as combinations that start or finish with consonant clusters: CCCV (stray) , VCC (eats) , etc. Some consonants - notably /n/ and /l/ - can form syllables on their own, as in the last syllables of 'button' and 'little', and are called syllabic consonants.

vowel

A vocal sound made without the audible stopping of breath. E.g. /u/, /a/, /o/, /i/, /e/.

hyponym

A word representing a specific type of something. "Bungalow" is a ______ of "house". There are many other types of house. "House" itself is a _____ of "building". The more general term is referred to as a "superordinate".

idiom

A word sequence (usually a phrase or a clause) whose meaning is not literal, ie, it cannot easily be worked out from its individual words. E.g. in the long run, red herring, as a rule of thumb.

homograph

A word which is spelt the same way as another, but typically pronounced differently. The different meanings here of "row": "a row of houses" "a row between husband and wife" are examples.

compound adjective

An adjective made up of two or more elements. These will typically be adverb + adjective (fully formed, well-rounded) or noun + adjective (weather-beaten, shop-soiled.)

principled eclecticism

An approach which encourages teachers to pick and choose judiciously from a wide range of methodologies depending on learner needs and styles. E.g. use both deductive and inductive approaches to teaching grammar. Intersperse pattern practice drills with communicative activities.

visual aids

Any observable resources used to enhance, explain, or supplement the presenter's message.

modal auxiliary verb

Auxiliary verb which expresses the mood or the attitude and modifies the meaning of the main verb in the sentence e.g. must, can, could, will, would, may, might, shall, should. There are 9 pure modal verbs, they do not conjugate like normal verbs & they express functions such as possibility, ability, prediction & obligation. They can have extrinsic (likelihood) and intrinsic (obligation, ability) meaning and each modal verb can express both meanings.

linking words/devices

Commonly used terms in the classroom to refer to discourse markers - more formally specific types of conjunctions and/ or adverbials used to signpost a writer's intentions and attitude and to establish logical relations and sequences. Words and phrases like "eventually", "such as", "however" are sometimes classified in this manner.

distractor

Describes a "wrong" answer in a multiple-choice (M/C) test (or activity). A good M/C test or activity will have ??? which are as plausible as each other and as the correct response.

plosive

Describes a consonant sound made by forming a complete closure of the vocal tract and releasing air (voiced or voiceless) suddenly. /p/ /b/ /t/ /d/ /k/ /g/ are the plosives of English. "Stop" consonant is an alternative term.

labiodental

Describes a sound made by putting the (lower) lip near or on the top teeth. /f/ and /v/ are made in this way in English.

velar

Describes a sound made by putting the back part of the tongue on or near the soft palate towards the back of the mouth. /k/ and /g/ are made in this way as is the final consonant in "sing"

palatal

Describes a sound made by putting the centre section of the tongue on or near the middle of the hard palate - the roof of the mouth. /j/ as in "year" is the only sound traditionally dealt with in this way in English.

palate-alveolar

Describes a sound made by putting the middle part of the tongue on or near the front part of the hard palate - the roof of the mouth. shhh and the zh sound in pleasure are made this way.

dental

Describes a sound made by putting the tip of the tongue behind or near the top teeth. The consonants at the beginning of "think" and "this" are the only two such sounds in English. Some teachers like to teach them as inter-dental, that is made between the teeth. This is not accurate, but can be helpful for teaching purposes.

alveolar

Describes a sound made by putting the tip of the tongue on or near the alveolar ridge - the bit of the roof of the mouth behind the teeth. /s/ /z/ /t/ /d/ /n/ are all made in this way in English.

nasal

Describes a sound made by releasing air through the nose, maintaining a complete closure elsewhere in the mouth. /m/ is a bilabial nasal, /n/ an alveolar nasal and the sound at the end of "sing" is a velar nasal.

bilabial

Describes any sound made by closing both lips and releasing air, by some means or other. /p/ & /b/ are bilabial plosives - air released from behind the lips. /m/ is a bilabial nasal sound, air passing through the nose.

syntax

Describes the rules for sequencing words so as to show their relationships of meaning within sentences. For example, in English the rules of ____ permit the placing of two nouns together, so that one modifies the other: orange juice, bus stop, table tennis.

denotation

Dictionary meaning of a word. It's core meaning.

exophoric reference

Direct reference to the non-linguistic context. They refer to other "world knowledge" and are not found in the text. The use of the definite article 'the', in 'I hung it on the line'. The referent is in the shared world of speaker and addressee.(Compare it to 'I hung it on a line', which has no such shared referent).

construct validity

Do the tests and questions allow you to measure what you seek to measure? i.e. are the instructions simple enough to understand completely. If a St doesn't understand the instructions, then they cannot complete the test to their best abilities. A lot of overlap between content/construct validity.

Fidel charts

Eight-color coded charts that indicate possible spellings of each phoneme. Used to teach English in the Silent Way approach.

noticing

If you notice a feature of the language that you are exposed to, it attracts your attention and you make a mental note of it. For example, a learner might notice (without necessarily understanding) the sign 'Mind the gap', repeated several times on a railway station platform. That same day, the learner hears the teacher say 'would you mind' in the context of making a request in class. A day or two later, the same learner hears someone else say 'I don't mind'. Each successive 'noticing' both primes the learner to notice new occurrences of mind, and at the same time contributes to a growing understanding of the use and meaning of mind.

subordinating conjunction

Members of a word class whose function is to join a subordinate clause to a main clause. E.g. if, because and when. Because I love you, I will let you know.

coordinating conjunction

Members of a word class whose function is to join together words, phrases, clauses and sentences of equal rank. E.g. and. The cat will mew, and dog will have his day. O, banish me my lord, but kill me not. And so he goes to heaven, and so am I revenged.

cataphoric reference

Referring forwards to a portion of a text which has not previously been mentioned. It's brilliant, this song.

reliability

Refers to the extent to which the same score could be expected from a given candidate taking the same test on different occasions. This might be due to the circumstances in which the test was administered, the relevant qualities of the test (e.g. rubric) and also the subjective or objective nature of the test itself. If subjective marking is involved, scorer _____ is also an issue.

drill

Repetitive oral practice of a language item, whether a sound, a word, a phrase or a sentence structure.

substitution drill

Requires the students to substitute one element of the pattern with the prompt, making any necessary adjustments: Teacher: They have been watching TV Student: They have been watchingTY. Teacher: She Student: She has been watching TV Teacher: I Student: I have been watching TV.

affective filter

Stephen Krashen hypothesized the existence of what he called the ______ which acts to control the amount and quality of input learners receive. Learners with a low _______are emotionally well-disposed to processing input, but those whose _____ is set high, because of stress, anxiety, or negative attitudes, will not process the input so effectively, and this will slow down or even block their rate of acquisition.

stress-timed language

Stressed syllables tend to recur at different intervals, and the intervening syllables are accommodated. E.g. English

discrete-point test

Test that tests individual components in isolation

hyponymy

The abstract term for one thing being an example of a more general thing. "Car" is a hyponym of "vehicle." "Vehicle" is the superordinate term.

connotation

The attitudinal meaning of a word, which may be culturally determined, such as whether it carries a positive or negative meaning. E.g. kid, bloke.

sound system

The different phonemes that make up a language's phonology.

elision

The disappearance of an expected sound in (rapid) spoken language. Most commonly /t/ or /d/ when sandwiched between two other consonants Examples: "He must make a lot of money" sounds like "he muss make ..." "my old girlfriends" sounds like "my ole girfriends"

liaison/juncture

The effect produced by a word-final consonant being more vigorously articulated than usual under the influence of a following vowel, and thus appearing to be at the beginning of the following word. examples: "at all" may sound like "a tall" "in anger" may sound like "Inn Nanger" "last entry" may sound like "Lars Tentry" The term "catenation" is sometimes used to describe the same phenomenon.

washback/backwash

The effect that the format of a test or exam has on the teaching that precedes it. Negative ____/ ___ is associated primarily with "teaching the exam" i.e. doing practice tests instead of useful learning activities.

stress

The greater emphasis of some syllable sor words over others during speech.

illocutionary force

The intended, context-defined and culture sensitive meaning of an utterance. (e.g. when a speaker informs us that "there's someone at the door" but really they mean "answer the door please").

tonic syllable

The last prominent syllable in the tone unit where the tone change begins. The syllable in a tone unit / utterance / sentence which carries the main stress / is the start of the main pitch / intonation movement. E.g. live in /Lon/don.

ellipsis

The omission in speaking or writing of individual words, or parts of a sentence, which are not needed to convey the meaning. For example, it can be used to avoid repetition (e.g. 'Got a pen?' 'Yes, I have.').

parsing

The process which involves dividing up sentences into their constituent parts, and identifying each part.

rhythm

The regular repetition of stress in time.

intonation

The rise and fall of the voice when speaking.

cognitive psychology

The scientific study of all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

phoneme

The smallest meaningful unit of sound in a language traditionally identified as consonants or vowels. /p/ and /b/ are phonemes in English, the biggest difference between them is the aspiration after /p/.

morpheme

The smallest meaningful unit of words/ grammar - analagous to the phoneme in phonology. "disinterested" as a word consists of 3 morphemes. "interest" as the "root": "dis-" as a meaningful prefix and "-ed" as a suffix, giving grammatical information ("part of speech"). ";interest" is a "free morpheme" - it exists on its own; it is "free-standing". "dis-" and "-ed" are "bound morphemes"; they do not function as independent words. They can only serve to give extra, defining information about a "free morpheme".

phonology

The study of how speech sounds are produced, used and distinguished in a specific language.

discourse analysis

The study of how stretches of language (spoken or written) achieve both cohesion and coherence.

morphology

The study of of words, their internal structure and the changes they undergo when altered to form new words (word formation - lexical morphology) or when they hav edifferent roles within a sentence (grammatical inflection - inflectional morphology).

phonetics

The study of speech sounds and sound production in general.

scaffolding

The term is used metaphorically to describe the temporary interactional support that is given to learners while their language system is 'under construction'.

interlanguage

The term used to describe the grammatical system that a learner creates in the course of learning another language. It is neither their first language system, nor the target language system, but occupies a transitional point between the two. Lower level Ss saying 'I want to go to a magazine' instead of a shop.

behaviourism

The theory that viewed learning as a matter of habit formation, where habits are formed when the learner's responses to external stimuli are positively reinforced (e.g. in language learning: pattern drills with positive feedback from the teacher to correct answers). Skinner. Language is acquired behaviour. Imitation, repetition, positive & negative reinforcement.

back-channelling

The verbal signals given by the listener to indicate interest, attention, surprise etc. (e.g. 'really', 'uh-huh', 'yeah')

deixis

The way language "points to" spatial, temporal, and personal features of the context. e.g.: YOU have been HERE for three weeks NOW.

schemata

The way that knowledge about a topic or a concept is represented and organized in the mind. It helps us make sense of experience, and hence they are crucial in comprehension. For example, the sentence 'At check-in they told me my flight had boarded' will not make much sense to anyone who does not have an 'air travel schema'.

discourse

The way that language - either spoken or written - is used for communicative effect in real-world situation.

Cuisenaire rods

They are small wooden rods of different lengths and colours. They are used as a classroom resource to visually represent various areas of language. They are used in the Silent Way, a teaching methodology associated with humanism.

prominence

This is part of sentence stress and it shows what the speaker feels important in a sentence by making it longer, higher or louder. It can take into consideration shared knowledge between the speaker and the listener.

content and language integrated learning, CLIL

Using the medium of English to teach a subject such as geography, natural science or history, to learners whose first language is not English.

deductive learning

When a rule or generalization is first presented to the learners, and then they go on to apply it in practice activities. E.g. T: The past tense of regular verbs is formed by adding -ed to the base form of the verb, so, walk - walked, start - started, climb - climbed. OK, can you turn these verbs into the past? Clean? S: cleaned T: Good. Work? etc.

intelligibility

When other people can understand what you are saying. In the teaching of pronunciation, it is generally accepted that ____________ should be the standard to aim for. This is partly realistic: few adult learners of a second language will achieve native-like pronunciation in that language. One of the factors that affect intelligibility is the speaker's accent.

intrusion

When two vowels appear alongside each other in (rapid) spoken English there is often an additional consonant sound created. Typically /j/ or /w/; in some varieties of English an extra /r/. Examples: "high alititude" may sound like "high yalltitude" "low interest" may sound like "lo winterest" "four aces" may sound like "four races".

inductive learning

Where the learners themselves generalize the rule from examples, before practising it. E.g. 1. I have been here since six o'clock. 2. Tom and Anna have been married for six years. 3. It hasn't rained since last September. 4. I've been waiting for Dearlv an hour. At various points, learners can be asked to formulate a rule. Or they can complete further examples in order to test their grasp of the rule.

compound words

Words created by combining two or more words either written as one word, or hyphenated or as separate words. E.g. washing machine, website, mother-in-law.

cognate

Words which have the same or very similar forms and meaning in two languages. For example, a German verb finden and an English verb find, German noun die Name and English name, German das Land and English land.

imitation drill

simply involves repeating the prompt, as in: Teacher: They have been watching TV. Student: They have been watching TV.