Module 1 DELTA revision

6 features of connected speech

1. Elision 2. Intrusive 3. Assimilation 4. Linking 5. Weakening 6. Liason (add all to cards if not already)

to describe a consonant sound, think of which 3 questions...

1. How is the sound formed? (or what happens to the air?) 2. Where is the sound formed? 3. Is it voiced or unvoiced?

the 4 categories of language systems

1. Lexis 2. Grammar 3. Discourse 4. Phonology

corpus (plural corpora)

A collection of real-life texts, either written or spoken, which can by analysed to investigate language use.

notional - functional (syllabus)

A communicative syllabus which is organised according to general meaning categories which are universal concepts e.g. habits, location, frequency, quantity.

affricative / (an) affricate / unvoiced palato alveolar affricate

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

(language) corpus / corpora

A database of real language samples (either spoken or written texts) stored on a computer and which can be used for investigating language use and structure.

mood

A grammatical term used for the imperative, infinitive and subjunctive forms of the verb.

word family

A group of words sharing the same root but different affixes, e.g.love / lovely / unloved / lover.

lexical set

A group of words which belong to the same category, i.e. apple, kiwi, banana, pineapple (lexical set of fruit). Syntactical lexical sets e.g angrily, happily, dramatically, (lexical set of adverbs emotions))

compund noun

A lexical item formed of two words, such as science fiction or passer-by

analytic scoring

A method of scoring where writing or speaking skill is divided into different components and marks awarded to each one e.g. for speaking, pronunciation, fluency etc

gerund

A noun that is not created by adding -ing to the verb-stem (e.g. Parking is not permitted.)

adverb

A part of speech for describing: a verb, adjective, another adverb, or a whole sentence. Adverbs typically answer questions such as how?, in what way?, when?, where?, and to what extent?. Adverbs in English often consist of an adjective with '-ly' added, for example 'extremely', 'quickly', 'mainly', and 'cheerfully'.

adverbs of manner

A part of speech which describe the way something is done. e.g quickly, fast, reluctantly.

allophone

A phonetic variant of a single phoneme/variations of the same sound. e.g. the /p/ in the word 'pill' is slightly different from the /p/ in the word 'spill.'

notional syllabus

A syllabus organised around (abstract) concepts/meanings/ideas and the exponents used to express them. Further points: - It is associated with a communicative language syllabus/CLT. - It is often combined with functional syllabus/functional syllabus more common. - Notions are similar to functions but more general in nature (telling the time vs. time). - It is associated with Wilkins (1970s). Example: The headings in this syllabus would be: duration; location; degree; direction; the past; age; ability; possibility; permission; degree, etc.

summative test or final achievement test

A test given at the end of a course to assess how much has been learned and to see if students have achieved the objectives set out in the syllabus. E.g. an end of year test. A lot of information from this type of test is often wasted because it does not feed back into the learning process.

objective test

A test in which there is a fixed answer and so can be marked without the use of the examiner's personal judgement e.g. MCQ, True / False

indirect (test)

A test where the tasks do not reflect real language use or use of a particular skill and learners' abilities are inferred e.g. a pronunciation test where learners do not speak but match words with their vowel sounds.

cloze test

A test where words are deleted from a text at regular intervals (originally every 7th word) leaving blanks for the learners to fill.

subjective test

A test which is marked according to the judgement of the marker e.g. a piece of writing

integrative test

A test which requires the learner to use several language skills at the same time e.g. dictation - uses knowledge of grammar, lexis and listening.

modal verb

A type of auxiliary verb that is used to indicate modality - likelihood, ability, permission, and obligation. Examples: include the verbs: can/could, may/might, must, will/would, and shall/should. A modal is an auxiliary modifying the meaning of the main verb.

ellipsis

A type of grammatical cohesion which omits unnecessary words from sentences. '...' can be used to show this in written text. e.g. "The ceremony honoured twelve brilliant athletes ... visiting the U.S." (news report)

top-down processing

A type of processing using preexisting background knowledge/information/experience to understand texts. Further points: - mention of 'activating schemata' or 'schema theory' - contrast to bottom-up processing (where the reader is decoding the language itself) - most researchers regard reading/listening as a combination of top-down and bottom-up processing. - modern coursebooks make use of/develop/practise top-down processing through visuals, prediction activities, etc. Example: when reading a text about New York, the reader creates a mental picture/brainstorms/thinks of related ideas before reading the text, e.g. yellow cabs, The Statue of Liberty, crowds of people/any valid example.

bottom-up processing

A type of processing which builds meaning from small units to larger ones in the text itself.

diagnostic (test)

A type of test which is designed to show what language skills or knowledge a learner already has. It is often used by a teacher to find out how much a learner knows before beginning a language course.

verb phrase

A verb phrase can consist of: a single main verb e.g. 'slept', a multi word verb e.g. 'put up with', auxiliary verbs + a main verb e.g. 'might be waiting', two main verbs e.g. 'like dancing', negatives e.g. 'don't waste' or a verb plus the object that follows it e.g. 'make a mistake'.

intransitive verb

A verb that has no direct object. e.g. to age, to die, to sleep. (WITHOUT object).

transitive verb

A verb that takes/requires one or more objects in a sentence. e.g. to give, to like, to want. (WITH object).

copula verb

A verb which connects/links a subject with a complement. e.g. 'he seems sad.' 'He is a teacher', Other copula verbs = appear to be.

stative verb

A verb which describes conditions/states/beliefs/emotions/possession or sense of something. It's not used in the continuous tense. Contrasts with dynamic/action verbs. E.g. 'I know it's true'

de-lexicalised verb

A verb with little or no (dictionary) meaning on its own / must combine with a noun or adjective to have meaning. Further points: - Performs a grammatical or collocational function. - Changes its meaning depending on its collocation. - High frequency / used in multiple contexts. - Forms the verb element in many multi-word expressions/phrasal verbs. - Can cause problems for learners when trying to translate from their L1. E.g. get married Examples: Take (your time) / make (friends) / go (mad) / have (fun) / do (the housework) / give (money) / keep (a pet) / look (sad) / put (on a coat)

quantifier

A word or phrase such as 'much' or 'a few' that is used with another word to show quantity.

modifier

A word or phrase that adds to the meaning of another word or phrase by giving more information about it. e.g. 'This is a red ball', the adjective 'red' is a modifier, modifying the noun 'ball'.

preposition

A word that usually comes before a noun or a pronoun and shows its relation to another part of the sentence. E.g. 'I left it on the table'

determiner

A word used before a noun for showing which thing or things you are talking about. The words 'a', 'the', 'this', 'some', and 'every' are determiners.

superordinate

A word which is more generic than a given word or words. For example, transport is the __________ of train, bus, taxi, tram etc.

lexis

All the words and phrases in a language. The term covers single words (tree), multi-words (by and large, street sign etc.) and phrases (pipped to the post, What I'm trying to say is... etc).

jigsaw reading

An activity where learners read different texts/parts of texts and then exchange/compare/share the information they have read. Further points: - Often used in communicative language teaching/learning. - A task is used to encourage students to share the information they have. - It creates a communicative purpose for reading the text(s)/an information gap, and it allows for the integration of skills to be produced. Example: The same news item from different newspapers which learners compare/a story divided into parts - learners exchange information to make sense of the whole thing.

gradable adjective

An adjective that can vary in its degree / intensity. Can be qualified by adverbs/intensifiers/modifiers such as 'very' and 'rather.' Cannot be used with an extreme adverb (e.g. absolutely) Can be used in comparative / superlative form Contrast with ungradable adjectives e.g. 'huge' Example: big, interesting, etc.

product writing

An approach to teaching writing where the focus is on the final product/outcome/result and a written model is provided as guidance. Further points: - Contrast with process writing (less attention is paid to the writing process of planning, drafting and rewriting). - Contrast with genre approach to writing. Example: Learners analyse a model of a formal letter for its use of layout conventions, paragraphs, etc and then write a similar formal letter.

phoneme

An individual speech sound that makes one word different from another. E.g. the 'b' and 'f' in 'bill' and 'fill'. Phoneme is a more general term compared to 'allophone.

fixed expression

Chunks of language whose constituent parts never change, e.g. Let's face it, Same again, please or Merry Christmas

can do statements

Descriptors of language ability which reflect language competencies (i.e. ability to use language) rather than what learners know about language e.g. I can express myself fluently and spontaneously without much obvious searching for words

zero conditional

If + present simple, present simple. Often used to describe scientific facts or absolute truths.

lexical field

Items which belong to one topic area. They may be different parts of speech. For example, cut, saucepan, flour, onion and washing-up are all part of a __________ of "cooking".

pragmatic competence

Knowledge that enables the speaker to use/understand language appropriately to express a communicative purpose OR in a specific context. Further points: - Research shows that most adults can transfer this type of L1 competence to L2 / there is no need to teach it. - Lack of this may lead to misunderstanding / may be different depending on the language - Has lead to a focus on contextualising language in teaching - Contrast with semantic - deals with literal meaning Example: You shouldn't have = Thank you / I'm in the shower = Can you answer the door? / The window's open = I want you to shut it / etc.

receptive knowledge or passive knowledge

Language which students understand but are not able to produce.

incidental learning

Learning which occurs inside the classroom but which was not planned by the teacher. E.g. when learners are reading a text and notice (and correctly hypothesise) about the meaning / use and form of an item in the text which the teacher does not deal with formally.

affixes

Morphemes such as -ness, ir- and non- which are placed before a root morpheme (as a prefix), or after (as a suffix) in order to change meaning, word class etc. e.g. happiness, irregular, and non-active.

homophone

Pairs of words which are pronounced the same, but have a different spelling and meaning. e.g. heir/air, flour/flower and suite/sweet.

formative test

Progress test. Given during a course to assess how well a learner is doing in specific areas taught; it can therefore highlight areas that need further work e.g. topic related lexis; present simple etc. Based on the teaching content, not on other things. As a result of this test, the teacher and the learners see how they are progressing. They can be used to help the teacher and the learners themselves set their own learning goals.

intrusive /w/

Refers to a linking sound /w/ that is inserted between two consecutive vowel sounds occurring at the boundary of two words. Further points: - eases the transition between words/a feature of connected speech. Example: in the phrase go out /gəʊwaʊt/ or any other example with correct phonemic script.

CCQs

Refers to a type of question designed to check and guide learners' understanding of a new language item e.g. for 'She used to smoke': Does she smoke now? Did she in the past? Did she do it once or regularly?

difference between style and register

Register = This refers to a speech variety which a particular group of people have in common. They usually share the same profession, hobby or interests. There may be a number of words used in a particular way. Style = This refers to the type of language used because of a particular genre or level of formality. There will be structural and lexical considerations.

critical age

Relating to the theory that there is a period (e.g. age 2 until puberty) during which language can be acquired rapidly and perfectly, and after which it is no longer possible to achieve the same level.

discrete item test

Test which assesses knowledge of individual language items e.g. dependent prepositions

denotation

The "core" or dictionary meaning of a lexical item, with no layers of social / regional interpretation.

function

The actual use of a verb in context e.g. asking for permission or apologising.

connotation

The interpretation of a word in a particular context or language variety. For example, propaganda and suburban have particular connotations in English which may not be the same in other languages. Gallant, laddish, trainspotting and square also have very strong shared connotations.

affixation

The morphological process of adding a bound morpheme, to the stem of a word, either at the end or at the beginning. This modifies the word's meaning and/or changes its word class, e.g. adding 'ful' to 'use' or 'un' to 'tidy'.

object

The person or thing that is affected by the action of a transitive verb in a sentence or clause e.g. You heard me.

elision

The practice of leaving a sound out when you say a word or group of words in connected speech e.g. 'Saint Lucia.' The 't' in the middle, disappears when these two words are spoken together (connected speech).

grammaring

The process by which a sequence of words is fine-tuned in order to reduce ambiguity and create a more complex message than just lexical items can express e.g. She work project 3 month >>> She'll be working on the project for 3 months.

lexical density

The ratio of content words to grammar words in a text. Spoken texts (tend to) have more grammar words than written texts.

morpheme

The smallest unit in language / a word / grammar that has meaning. Can be grammatical / show inflection or person Can change meaning / be derivational Used to make prefixes/suffixes/as part of the affixation process Free morphemes can stand alone as a meaningful unit Bound morphemes must be combined with other words A word may be made up of one or more morphemes. E.g: un-love-able / want-ed / un-friend-li-ness / etc.

voice

The ways in which the relationship between a verb and the noun phrases associated with it can be changed without changing the basic meaning of the sentence. The active and passive make up the system e.g. Her driver took her to the airport / She was taken to the airport by her driver.

defining relative clause

These give us essential information to define or identify a person or thing. e.g. 'It is for teachers who wish to develop their skills'

non-defining relative clause

These give us extra but non-essential information about a person or thing and follow a comma. e.g. 'My grandfather, who is 87, goes swimming every day.'

anaphoric reference

These refer back to something which has previously been mentioned earlier in the text.

aspect

This describes the way we view an action or state in terms of the passing of time. There are two aspects in English: continuous and perfect.

finite form/verb

This is a form of a verb that matches the form of other words in a sentence. They have present and past forms. They usually follow other verbs and are not marked by tense. add example....

non-finite form/verb

This is either a participle or an infinitive and so does not show a particular tense. e.g. 'He recalled sending the email.'

illocutionary force

This is the context-specific (and culture-specific) meaning, often described as the underlying meaning. So from "It's raining." We get: "So you need to remember your umbrella" or "We'll have to take the car rather than cycling" or "The drought has finally ended" etc.

tonic syllable

This is the stressed syllable in an utterance where the main pitch movement takes place. The nuclear syllable!

reduced relative clause

This leaves out the pronoun and the verb. E.g. "There were 3 people who were injured." becomes: "There were 3 people injured."

complement

This normally follows a verb phrase, often the verb 'to be', 'seem' or 'appear', and can be an adjective e.g. I'm happy, a noun phrase e.g. That was a lovely meal, a pronoun e.g. Is this yours? or a number e.g. She'll be 50 next month. It can also follow the object of the sentence e.g. Walking makes me hungry.

cataphoric reference

This refers forwards to something mentioned in the discourse/text.

exophoric reference

This refers to something not previously mentioned and which is outside the text.

tense

This refers to the way the base verb form changes in order to place the event in a specific time frame i.e. past, present or future. Strictly speaking, the only tenses are present he cooks and past he cooked. For teaching purposes a rather looser interpretation of the term is generally used and a larger number of verb phrase combinations are usually referred to as 'tenses', including e.g. past continuous, past perfect. If we exclude modals, in this way we can reach a total of eight tenses, all of which are combinations of the two basic tenses in English and the perfect and continuous aspect.

locutionary meaning

This term is used to describe the literal meaning of a word or phrase (e.g. "It's raining" is a statement of fact about an ongoing event happening now).

intrinsic modality

This term refers to a range of meanings to do with how necessary or desirable the speaker/writer views the situation.

proficiency test

This test focuses on what students are capable of doing in a foreign language, regardless of the teaching programme. Used to assess whether a student meets the general standard. These types of tests are often set by external bodies such as examining boards. They may be used within schools to see for example whether students are at the required level to enter for and pass a public exam.

diagnostic test

This test is used at the beginning of a course to find out what the students know/don't know. More finely tuned than a placement test and the content reflects what the students should know or will need to know at this particular level. From test results teacher or course planner can ensure course content is relevant to the students' needs and not teach them what they don't already know.

placement test or entry test

This test is used to find out what a learner's level is before deciding which course or level he/she should follow. It is usually used at the time of enrolment for obvious reasons! The content may reflect the syllabus of the school.

collocation

Two (or more) words which commonly occur together. e.g. steep hill (adj + noun collocation), toss a salad (verb + noun collocation), sorely missed (adverb + verb collocation)

collective noun

Used to define/describe a group of objects. e.g. a panel of judges, a team of players, a flock of gulls. A type of noun which refers to a number of people, animals or things as a group e.g. family or team.

content and language integrated learning / CLIL / content-based teaching / content-based learning

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

semi modal verb

Verbs which combine with other verbs to express modal meaning. Behave in similar ways to core modal verbs but share some characteristics with lexical verbs. E.g. 'need (to'), 'have (got) to' and 'ought to'.

substitution words

When a word or phrase is replaced with a more common word. e.g. 'one', 'so', 'do' 'it.' Used to avoid repetition. e.g. "Have you read the report? I advise you to do so".

inflection

When we put something on the end of the root of the verb e.g. third person 's' or 'ed' ending in past simple. Conjugation

holistic scoring

Where a single score is assigned to writing or speaking samples on the basis of a global impressionistic assessment of the learners' performance e.g. using band descriptors. In contrast with analytic scoring

antonym

Words which have opposite meanings, e.g. pack/unpack

homonomy/homonyms

Words which have the same form but different meanings. e.g. train - 'we took the train to Bristol' and 'You need to train if you want to run the marathon.'

synonym

Words which have the same semantic meaning, e.g. leave and depart, principal and director.

false cognate

Words which look the same in two languages, but have different meanings, e.g. Spanish constipado and constipated

polysemy/polysemes

Words with the same form and a related meaning e.g. head (part of the body), head of a team, etc.

list examples of prepositions...

about, above, according to, across, after, along, around, as, at, before, below, beside, between, beyond, but, by, despite, down, for, from, in, in spite of, into, like, near, of, off, on, onto, over, past, per, since, till, to, than, through, under, until, up, with, without.