Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching & Applied Linguistics-first 410 words Plus Practical English Usage the first 95 words

adjunction

(in GENERATIVE GRAMMAR) a process by which one CONSTITUENT, such as a word or phrase is adjoined or attached to another to form an extended constituent. For example, in the sentence, He shouldn't do that, we can say that the negative not (in the contracted form) has been joined to the auxiliary should to form the extended auxiliary shouldn't. __________ is governed by rules that may vary from language to language

adjacency parameter

(in GOVERNMENT/BINDING THEORY) one of the conditions (PARAMETERS) which may vary from one language to another. For example, English requires that the element in the sentence which "assigns" the case (see CASE ANSWER) has to be next (adjacent) to the noun phrase that receives the case, e.g.: she liked him very much--verb (case assigner) noun phrase (object case) but not: she liked very much him. Other languages, such as French, do not have this restriction. J'aime beaucoup la France. In second language acquisition research, investigations have been make into this variation of the adjacency condition. For example, how do native speakers of French, which has a [-adjacency] parameter, deal with a language which has a [+adjacency] parameter, such as English? Do they transfer their native [-adjacency] condition into English or not? See also PRO-DROP PARAMETER.

acceptable

(in linguistics) the judgement by the native speakers/users of a speech variety that a certain linguistic item is possible in their variety. The linguistic item could be a written sentence, a spoken utterance, a particular syntactic structure, a word or a way of pronouncing a certain sound. The speech community where such an item is considered ____________could be all the speakers of a region or social class or, alternatively, just the members of an in-group, for example teenagers belonging to a rock club who have created their own in-language. A linguistic item which is ____________to one group or variety need not be ____________to another, for example, speakers of some varieties of English accept such expressions as: I want for him to come and We were visiting with (meaning "calling on") Aunt Lizzie, but speakers of other varieties would not accept these expressions and use instead: I want him to come and We were visiting Aunt Lizzie. Sometimes linguistic items are ____________ in certain situations and not in others. . For example a teenager may tell a friend: I nearly freaked out when I saw that jerk, and in that situation it would be ____________. It would usually be un____________ if the utterance was used in a formal address at a special function (except, of course, if it was said jokingly). The terms ____________ and un____________ are different from grammatical as they cover a wider range of linguistic units and situations. And because they do not have prescriptive overtones they are also preferred to expressions such as CORRECT/INCORRECT, SUBSTANDARD, right/wrong. See also APPROPRIATENESS, CONVERSATIONAL RULES

acoustic filtering

(in listening comprehension) the ability to hear and identify only some of the sounds that are being spoken. For example, when someone is learning a foreign language, the speech sounds of their native language may act as a filter, making it difficult for them to hear and identify new or unfamiliar sounds in the foreign language.

advance organizer

(in teaching) an activity which helps students organize their thoughts and ideas as a preparation for learning or studying something. For example, a discussion which takes place before students listen to a lecture and which is intended to help them follow the lecture more easily, or a preview of the main ideas covered in a reading passage before reading it

action research

1. research that has the primary goal of finding ways of solving problems, bringing about social change or practical action, in comparison with research that seeks to discover scientific principles or develop general laws and theories 2. (In teacher education) teacher-initiated classroom research that seeks to increase the teacher's understanding of classroom teaching and learning and to bring about improvements in classroom practices. ______________ typically involves small-scale investigative projects in the teacher's own classroom, and consists of the following cycle of activities. a. the teacher (or a group of teachers) selects an aspect of classroom behaviour to examine in more detail (e.g. the teacher's use of questions) b. selects a suitable research technique (e.g. recording classroom lessons) c. collects data and analyzes them d. develops an action plan to help bring about a change in classroom behavior (e.g. to reduce the frequency of questions that the teacher answers himself or herself). e. acts to implement the plan f. observes the effect of the action plan on the behaviour

adjunct

ADVERBIALS may be classified as ________s,conjuncts, or disjuncts. An __________ is part of the basic structure of the clause or sentence in which it occurs and modifies the verb. Adverbs of time, place, frequency, degree and manner are examples of __________. He died in England. I have almost finished.

accommodation

In Piagetian theory: changing the child's cognitive structure to understand new information

advocacy

In education, the process of promoting change through demonstrating to others that the proposed changes are desirable, feasible, affordable, and appropriate. In planning or implementing curriculum and other kinds of educational changes it is often necessary to gain the support of influential people or groups who have resources, power, or authority to facilitate proposed changes. __________ may include political action and lobbying but also involves understanding the attitudes and positions of key decision makers and stakeholders and informing them of information and arguments to persuade them of the educational, social, economic and other benefits of proposed changes. See also situational analysis.

affective filter

Negative attitudes (including a lack of motivation or self-confidence and anxiety) are said to act as a filter, preventing the learner from making use of INPUT, and thus hindering success in language learning.

infix prefix suffix

The three types of affix

subtractive bilingualism

When the language of instruction is likely to replace the children's first language

adverbial clause

a clause which functions as an adverb, for example: When I arrived, I went straight to my room. (__________ of time). Wherever we looked there was dust. (__________ of place). We painted the walls yellow to brighten the room. (__________ of purpose).

adposition

a cover term for PREPOSITION and postposition

adaptive testing

a from of individually tailored testing in which test items are selected from an ITEM BANK where test items are stored in rank order with respect to their ITEM DIFFICULTY and presented to test takers during the test on the basis of their responses to previous test items, until it is determined that sufficient information regarding test takers' abilities has been collected. For example, when a multiple-choice adaptive vocabulary test is administered, a test taker is initially presented with an item of medium difficulty. If he or she answers it correctly, then a slightly more difficult item is presented, whereas if the item is answered incorrectly, then a slightly easier item is presented. An ORAL PROFICIENCY INTERVIEW can be viewed as a type of _______________ in the sense that an interviewer (i.e. tester) adjusts the difficulty level of language on the basis of an evolving assessment of the interviewee's (i.e. test taker's) language ability. _______________ finds its most promising application in COMPUTER _______________ .

affective filter hypothesis

a hypothesis proposed by Krashen and associated with his monitor model of second language development (see MONITOR HYPOTHESIS). They hypothesis is based on the theory of an affective filter, which states that successful second language acquisition depends on the learner's feelings. Negative attitudes (including a lack of motivation or self-confidence and anxiety) are said to act as a filter, preventing the learner from making use of INPUT, and thus hindering success in language learning.

affix

a letter or sound, or groups of letters or sound (=MORPHEME), which is added to a word, and which changes the meaning or function of the word. ____________s are BOUND FORMS that can be added to the beginning of a word (= a prefix), to the end of a word (=a suffix), within a word (= an infix)

adaptive control of thought

a model of skill learning, involving a progression from a controlled stage based on DECLARATIVE KNOWLEDGE to an autonomous stage based on PROCEDURAL KNOWLEDGE. Processes involved in this development include proceduralization (the translation of propositional knowledge into behavioural sequences) chunking (the binding together of commonly occurring units, which allows more information to be maintained in WORKING MEMORY), GENERALIZATION, rule narrowing and rule strengthening. Language acquisition is seen in this model as a type of skill learning.

absolute clause

a non-finite adverbial clause or other adverbial construction that is not linked syntactically to the main clause, e.g. As far as I can tell, she is not having any problems with the course.

adjacency pair

a pair of two related utterances by two different speakers. The second utterance is always a response to the first. In the following example, speaker A makes a complaint, and speaker B replies with a denial: A: You left the light on. B: It wasn't me! The sequence of complaint-denial is an ______________________. Other examples of ______________________ are greeting-greeting, question-answer, invitation-acceptance/non-acceptance, offer-acceptance/non-acceptance, complaint-apology. ______________________ are part of the structure of conversation and are studied in CONVERSATIONAL ANALYSIS.

accent

a particular way of speaking which tells the listener something about the speaker's background. A person's pronunciation may show: a) the region or country they come from, e.g. a northern_____ a southern______ b) what social class they belong to, e.g. a lower middle class ______ c) whether or not the speaker is a native speaker of the language e.g. She speaks English with an ______/ with a German ______. See also DIALECT, SOCIOLECT

adverb phrase adverb clause

a phrase or clause which functions as an adverb

adjective phrase

a phrase that functions as an adjective. For example The woman in the corner is from Italy.

adverbial phrase

a phrase that functions as an adverb. For example, After dinner, we went to the movies

ablaut

a process by which an inflected form of a word is formed by changes in the vowel of the stem. For example, the past tense of sing is sang and the plural of goose is geese

acculturation

a process in which changes in the language, culture, and system of values of a group happen through interaction with another group with a different language, culture, and system of values. For example, in second language learning, ____________may affect how well one group (e.g. a group of immigrants in a country) learn the language of another (e.g. the dominant group). see also _______________ MODEL, ASSIMILATION, SOCIAL DISTANCE

affricate

a speech sound (a CONSONANT) which is produced by stopping the airstream from the lungs, and then slowly releasing it with friction. The first part of an affricate is similar to a STOP, the second part is similar to a FRICATIVE. For example, in English the "ch" in child and the "j" in jam are ______________s

ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview

a structured interview carried out to assess a learner's ability to use the target language in terms of the levels described by the ACTFL PROFICIENCY GUIDELINES, used as an assessment of speaking proficiency

affect

a term referring to a number of emotional factors that may influence language learning and use. These include basic personality traits such as shyness, long-term but changeable factors such as positive and negative LANGUAGE ATTITUDES and constantly fluctuating states such as enthusiasm, ANXIETY, boredom, apathy, or elation. One theory suggest that affective states are largely determined by the balance between the subjectively assessed level of challenge in an activity and the subjectively assessed level of skill that one brings to that activity. For example, when faced with classroom tasks that are higher than their level of skill, language learners feel anxious and frustrated; when given tasks that are well below their ability level, they feel bored; giving learners interesting tasks that are challenging but within their ability is most likely to elicit a positive affective response.

achievement test

a test designed to measure how much language learners have successfully learned with specific reference to a particular course, textbook, or programme of instruction, thus a type of CRITERION REFERENCED TEST. An ______________ is typically given at the end of a course, whereas when administrated periodically throughout a course of instruction to measure language learning up to that point, it is alternatively called a PROGRESS TEST. Its results are often used to make advancement or graduation decisions regarding learners or judge the effectiveness of a programme, which may lead to curriculum changes. The difference between this and a more general type of test called a PROFICIENCY TEST is that the latter is not linked to any particular course of instruction and is thus a type of NORM-REFERENCED TEST. For example, an ______________ might be a listening comprehension test if all of its items are based on a particular set of dialogues in a textbook. In contrast, a proficiency test might use similar test items but would not be linked to any particular textbook or language SYLLABUS.

admissions test

a test designed to provide information about a test taker's likely success in a particular programme before entry into the programme in order to decide whether to admit the applicant or not, thus also called a screening test.

accommodation

a theory that seeks to explain shifts in the style of speaking people make such as when a person changes their way of speaking to make it sound more like or less like the speech of the person they are talking to. In communication between native and non-native speakers or between second language speakers with different levels of proficiency, ____________ may serve to promote intelligibility. See also ACCENT

divergence

a type of accommodation. This involves emphasizing speech and non-verbal differences between the speaker and other interlocutors. For example, a person may exaggerate their rural accent because they are annoyed by the attitude of someone from the city.

convergence

a type of accommodation. This is a strategy in which people adapt to each other's speech by adjusting such things as speech rate, pauses, length of utterance, and pronunciation For example, a teacher may use simpler words and sentence structures when he/she is talking to a class of young children.

acronym

a word made from the initials of the phrase it stands for, for example "IPA" for International Phonetics Association or International Phonetic Alphabet

adnominal

a word or phrase which occurs next to a noun and which gives further information about it. For example, an __________ may be: an adjective, e.g. blue in the blue sea, b another noun, e.g. jade in the jade statue, c a phrase, e.g. at the corner in the shop at the corner. An __________ is a type of MODIFIER

adverb particle

a word such as in, on, back, when it modifies a verb rather than a noun. Words like in, out, up, down, on, may belong grammatically with both nouns (e.g. in the box, on the wall) and verbs (e.g. come in, eat up, wake up, die away). When they are linked with nouns, they are noun as PREPOSITIONs and when they are linked with verbs, they are known as adverb particles. The combination of verb+_____________ is known as PHRASAL VERB.

adverb

a word that describes or adds to the meaning of a verb, an adjective, another ___________, or a sentence, and which answers such questions as how? Where? or when? In English, many ___________ have an -ly ending

adjective

a word that describes the thing, quality, state, or action which a noun refers to. For example black in a black hat is an ___________. In English ____________s usually have the following properties: a. they can be used before a noun, e.g. a heavy bag b. they can be used after be, become, seem, etc. as complements, e.g. the bag is heavy c. They can be used after a noun as a complement, e.g. these books make the bag heavy d. they can be modified by an adverb. e.g. a very heavy bag e they can be used in a comparative or superlative form, e.g. the bag seems heavier now see also COMPLEMENT, COMPARATIVE, ATTRIBUTIVE ___________

affricated

adjective form of "affricate"

disjunct

adverbs which show the speaker's attitude to or evaluation of what is said in the rest of the sentence. Naturally I paid for my own meal. I had to pay for my own meal, unfortunately.

additive bilingual education

also additive bilingualism a form of BILINGUAL EDUCATION in which the language of instruction is not the mother tongue or home language of the children, and is not intended to replace it. In an _______________ programme the first language is maintained and supported. For example, the bilingual programmes in French for English-speaking Canadians are intended to give the children a second language, not to replace English with French. When the language of instruction is likely to replace the children's first language, this is called subtractive bilingualism see also IMMERSION PROGRAMME

address form

also address term, form/term of address the word or words used to address somebody in speech or writing. The way in which people address one another usually depends on their age, sex, social group, and personal relationship. For example, many languages have different second person pronoun forms which are used according to whether the speaker wants to address someone politely or more informally, e.g. in German Sie-du, in French Vous-tu, in Spanish usted-tu and in Mandarin Chinese nin-ni (you). If a language has only one second person pronoun form, e.g. English you, other ______________________s are used to show formality or informality, e.g. sir, Mr Brown, Brown, Bill. In some languages, such as Chinese dialects and Japanese, words expressing relationship, e.g. father, mother, aunt, or position, e.g. teacher, lecturer, are used as address forms to show respect and/or signal the formality of the situation, for example: Mandarin Chinese: Baba quing chi--father please eat. Japanese: sensei dozo! (a polite request). teacher/sir please! The ______________________s of a language are arranged into a complex address system with its own rules which need to be acquired if a person wants to communicate appropriately. see also COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

adaptation

also equilibration in Piagetian theory, a cover term for two ways in which a child adapts to his or her environment: assimilation, interpreting new information in terms of the child's current knowledge, and accommodation, changing the child's cognitive structures to understand new information

accuracy order

also known as difficulty order. Some linguistic items, forms, and rule seem to be consistently produced with higher accuracy than others by language learners, permitting such items to be ordered with respect to their relative difficulty. _____________s based on CROSS-SECTIONAL RESEARCH are sometimes taken as evidence for an order of acquisition, although such claims need to be reinforced through LONGITUDINAL RESEARCH

active/passive language knowledge

also productive receptive language knowledge the ability of a person to actively produce their own speech and writing as compared to their ability to understand the speech and writing of other people. In foreign language learning, an active vocabulary of about 3000 to 5000 words, and a passive vocabulary of about 5000 to 10,000 words is regarded as the intermediate to upper intermediate level of proficiency.

AAVE

an abbreviation for AFRICAN AMERICAN VERNACULAR ENGLISH

absolute

an adjective or adverb that cannot have a comparative or superlative form. For example perfectly and unique already express the idea of "to a maximum degree" and cannot therefore be used with comparative forms as in * most perfectly, or *more unique

adjectival noun

an adjective used as a noun, e.g. the poor, the rich, the sick, the old. see also SUBSTANTIVE

infix

an afffix with an word. e.g. Tagalog -um- which shows that a verb is in the past tense: sulat "to write" -sumulat "wrote"

prefix

an affix added to the beginning of a word. e.g. English un-, which usually changes the meaning of a word to its opposite: kind-unkind

suffix

an affix added to the end of a word. e.g. English -ness, which usually changes an adjective into a noun: kind--kindness

acoustic cue

an aspect of the acoustic signal in speech which is used to distinguish between phonetic features. For example VOICE ONSET TIME is an _________ which is used to distinguish between the sounds /t/ and /d/.

screening test

another name for admissions test

prepositional adverb

another name for adverb particle

AAE

another term for AFRICAN AMERICAN ENGLISH

affective meaning

another term for CONNOTATION

accent

another term for STRESS

sentential adverb

another word for disjunct

adverbial

any word, phrase, or clause that functions like an ADVERB. An adverb is a single-word __________.

adaptation

changes made in the use of published teaching materials in order to make them more suitable for a group or learners, e.g. by supplementing, modifying or deleting parts of a textbook.

accent discrimination

discrimination, or bias against speakers with foreign, regional, or social class accents, for example in employment or in legal proceedings. See also FORENSIC LINGUISTICS

adverbs of manner

e.g. carefully, slowly

adverbs of place

e.g. here, there, locally

adverbs of time

e.g. now, hourly, yesterday

accent

greater emphasis on a syllable so that it stands out from the other syllables in a word. For example, in English the noun import has this ton the first syllable im-, which the verb import has this on the second syllable -port. This car is a foreign IMport. We imPORT all our coffee. See also PROMINENCE, STRESS

homogeneous groups

groups composed of students with similar abilities, achievement, etc.

mixed ability groups or heterogeneous groups

groups containing students of different ability levels

address system

how the address forms of a language are arranged, and their rules

grammaticality judgement task

if subjects are asked to judge whether a particular sentence is grammatical

access

in COMPUTER ASSISTED LANGUAGE LEARNING, locating or obtaining information or data

ABX discrimination

in PSYCHOLINGUISTICS, a task in which three stimuli are presented in a trial. A and B are different (for example, the words ramp and lamp) and the subject's task is to choose which of them is matched by the final stimulus.

assimilation

in Piagetian theory: interpreting new information in terms of the child's current knowledge

accidental gap

in WORD FORMATION, a non-occurring but possible form, for example unsad as an antonym of sad. When learners produce such forms, these are considered to be examples of OVER GENERALIZATION

acculturation model

in second language acquisition, the theory that the rate and level of ultimate success of second language acquisition in naturalistic settings (without instruction) is a function of the degree to which learners acculturate to the target language community. Acculturation may involve a large number of social and psychological variables, but is generally considered to be the process through which and individual takes on the beliefs, values and culture of a new group

adjacency principle

in some linguistic theories, the concept that two syntactic constituents must be next (adjacent) to each other and cannot be separated by other constituents. For example, in English, a noun phrase (NP) complement must be adjacent to its verb, e.g. She threw the parcel into the car--verb NP complement. but not: she threw into the car the parcel. verb NP complement. see also ADJACENCY PARAMETER.

adjunct course

in teaching language for academic purposes, an approach to Content Based Instruction in which a language is linked with a content course in an academic area, such as an English course that is linked to a course in economics. The ______________ is designed to give students the language skills necessary for success in the content course.

ability grouping

in teaching, the placement of students in groups or classes according to their ability in a skill or subject, e.g. based on their language proficiency.

accent

in the written form of some languages, particularly in French, a mark which is placed over a vowel. This may show a) a difference in pronunciations (see DIACRITIC). For example, in the French word prés "meadows", the acute ______on the e indicates a different vowel sound from that in près "near" with a grave ______. b) a change in meaning without any change in pronunciation, e.g. French ou "or" and où "where"

ad hoc interpreting

informal translation of spoken interaction, for example during social events or business meetings see also INTERPRETATION

direct access or random access

means locating information directly, in such a way that access time is not dependent on its location

sequential access

means locating information in sequence, for example by fast forwarding an audio cassette

conjunct

not part of the basic structure of a clause or sentence. They show how what is said in the sentence containing the _____________ connects with what is said in another sentence or sentences. Altogether it was a happy week. However the weather was not good.

acceptability judgement task

one of several types of tasks (or tests) that require subjects to judge whether particular sentences are possible or not in either their native language or a language they are learning. If the task instructions specify that subjects are to judge whether or not a sentence is acceptable, the task is called an ____________

ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines

proficiency descriptions developed under the auspices of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Since their latest revision in 1996, the guidelines consist of descriptions of ten proficiency levels: Novice Low, Novice Mid, Novice High, Intermediate Low, Intermediate Mid, Intermediate High, Advanced Low, Advanced Mid, Advanced High, and Superior

accent reduction

programmes designed to help second language learners speak a second or foreign language without showing evidence of a foreign accent. Such programmes reflect the fact that many second language speakers experience discrimination based on their accent. There is no evidence however that reduction in a foreign accent necessarily entails an increase in intelligibility. Hence many educators argue for a greater tolerance of foreign accents. See also English as an International Language

active language knowledge

the ability of a person to actively produce their own speech and writing

passive language knowledge

the ability of a person to understand the speech and writing of other people

acute accent

the accent, e.g. on French prés "meadows"

accountability

the answerability of all those involved in applied linguistics for the quality of their work. For example, text developers need to be able to explain the rationale behind the assessment techniques they use and their results to test takers and test users; language programme administrators are _________ to clients who pay for special courses, as well as to students for the quality of instruction; and public school programme administrators are _________ to parents and other members of the public. _________ includes the documentation and reporting of procedures used to develop curriculum and courses and of practices used in the hiring of teachers, selection of materials, evaluation of teachers and courses and the assessment of learners and learning outcomes.

chunking

the binding together of commonly occurring units, which allows for more information to be maintained in WORKING MEMORY

accusative case

the form of a noun or noun phrase which shows that it functions as the direct object of the verb in the sentence. For example, in the German sentence Ursula kaufte einen neuen Tisch (Ursula bought a new table) in the noun phrase einen neuen Tish, the article ein and the adjective new have the inflectional ending -en to show that the noun phrase is in the ______________ because it is the direct object of the verb. See also CASE

academic vocabulary

the most frequently occurring vocabulary in academic texts. In English a core ______ of some 600 words (e.g. words such as evidence, estimate, feature, impact, method, release) is common to a wide range of academic fields and accounts for around 10% of the words in any academic texts. Students need to be familiar with this vocabulary if they are to complete academic course successfully. The teaching of ______is an aspect of English for Academic Purposes. ______is determined from an analysis of a corpus or academic English. ______may be compared with Technical Vocabulary, which refers to words specific to a particular topic, field or discipline.

affective filtering

the selection of one variety of speech as a model for learning the language in preference to other possible models because of affective factors. For example, second language learners might hear English spoken by many different groups (e.g. parents, teachers, different social and ethnic groups) but model their own speech on only one of these, such as the speech of their friends of the same group (=their PEER GROUP).

academic language

the special registers and genres of languages used in the learning of academic subject matter in formal schooling contexts. Mastery of ______________ is associated with literacy and academic achievement and involves learning specific terms, text types, discourse features and speech registers in different fields of study (e.g. history, maths). Learning ______________ is essential for mainstreaming for second language learners and for students studying English for Academic Purposes.

proceduralization

the translation of propositional knowledge into behavioural sequences

adverbs of manner adverbs of place adverbs of time

three types of adverbs

adjunct conjunct disjunct

what adverbials may be classified into

passive vocabulary

words people can understand. Native speakers of a language can understand more words than they actively use. Some people have a _____________ of up to 100,000 words. In foreign language learning, a ___________ of about 5000 to 10,000 words is regarded as the intermediate to upper intermediate level of proficiency

active vocabulary

words people can use. Some people have a ___________ of between 10,000 and 20,000 words. In foreign language learning, an ___________ of about 3000 to 5000 words is regarded as the intermediate to upper intermediate level of proficiency