EFL Teacher's Jargon

Flashcards for EFL Teachers Jargon

Absolute Beginners

Students that never have heard about the English language.

Acquisition

The process of picking up a language by means of exposure to it in a natural environment and without sustained effort to learn it.

Assessment

Procedures for measuring the extent to which students have achieved their objectives.

Attempt

When the teacher knows what the students have not yet learned the language necessary to express what they want to say, we can call their mistakes.

Attitude

Feelings of the student towards the foreign language, the people who speak it, and his/her own capacity (self-confidence) for communicating in it.

Background Knowledge

The knowledge of the world which the reader or listener makes use of in interpreting a piece of spoken or written language.

Bottom-Up Processing

Decoding the smallest elements first, and using these to decode and interpret words, clauses, sentences and the whole texts.

Brainstorming

A technique for the spontaneous gathering of ideas/information in which all the members of the class participate.

Caretaker Talk

See modified input.

Chunk

If a paragraph is too long for your students to read or to study all at once, you can divide it up into smaller sections which are still meaningful.

Classroom Language

The language used in class (easier, simpler,…).

Cognate

A word in a second language that is very similar (in spelling, meaning,…) to the equivalent word in the mother tongue.

Controlled Practice

Exercises where the pupils is not free to chose the answer.

Communicative Competence

The ability to use language in a variety of settings, taking into account relationships between speakers and differences in situations.

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)

CLT is based on the premise that successful language learning involves not only a knowledge of the structures and forms of a language, but also the functions and purposes that a language serves in different communicative settings.

Comprehensible Input

A term introduced by Stephen Krashen to refer to language which a learner can understand.

Comprehension-Based Instruction

A general term to describe a variety of second language programs in which the focus of instruction is on comprehension rather than production.

Content-Based Instruction

Second language programs in which lessons are organized around topics, themes, and/or subject matter rather than language points.

Corrective Feedback

An indication to a learner that his or her use of the target language is incorrect.

Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH)

The proposal that there is a specific and limited time period for language acquisition.

Cuisenaire Rods

Coloured plastic material used to teach languages.

Delayed Correction

The teacher makes correction, not when it happens but later (in order not to interrupt a conversation, an explanation,…)

Display Question

A question to which the asker already knows the answer.

Drilling

Making students practise intensively, they normally aim to practise the form or structure of an item, but often do not attach much importance to what it means.

Emergency Activities

Activities (always ready to develop) that can be developed if we have time left over, at the end of a session, or if an activity doesn’t work quite well,…

Error

It is a sort of mistake. The student cannot self-correct the mistake in his or her own English, but the teacher thinks that the class is familiar with the correct form.

ESL

Abbreviation of English as a Second Language. This refers to the learning of English for use in a setting where English is the principal language used.

Evaluation

Student’s and teacher’s analysis of the process and end product which provides constant feedback throughout the project and allows for changes to be made.

Extra - Curricular Activities

Useful activities to be done but don’t appear in the official curriculum (e.g. play readings,…).

False Cognate

A word in a second language that is quite close to its equivalent in the mother tongue but only in terms of its spelling, not in meaning.

Feedback

The response you get from an activity, explanation,…

Fill - In Exercises

See cloze procedure.

Flash Cards

It is effective if picture cues or verbal cues are on flash cards that can be held briefly or "flashed" in front of the class to cue an answer or a response.

Fluency

The use of the language freely to express our own ideas.

Foreigner Talk

See modified input.

Formal Language Learning Setting

A setting in which second language learners receive instruction and opportunities to practise.

Formative Assessment

Student’s and teacher’s ongoing analysis of the process and end result of a task or set of tasks.

Formulaic Patterns or Routines

Expressions which are learned as unanalysed wholes or "chunks".

Fossilization

A lack of change in interlanguage patterns, even after extended exposure to or instruction in the target language.

Free Activities

Activities where children say what they want to say; it gives genuine communication, focus attention on the message,…

Function

The communicative purpose of an utterance or unit of language which can be learned/memorised as a formula.

Genuine Question

Genuine questions are asked when there is a focus on information: the asker does not know the answer in advance.

Guided Practice

It follows on directly from controlled practice and gives the pupils some sort of choice, but the choice of language is limited.

Hearing

For a teacher, it requires mere presence plus ears. See listening.

Here and Now Activities

Very contextual activities done according to the children’s reality.

Homographs

Pairs or words that are written the same but are pronounced differently.

Homophones

Pairs of words that are written differently, but sound the same.

Icebreaker

Activity used as a warm up.

Immersion Program

Programs in which a second language is taught via content-based instruction.

In Service TT

Teachers who learn things but that work yet in schools.

Informal Language Learning Setting

A setting in which the second language is not taught, but rather, is learned naturally through informal conversations and interactions with native speakers of the language being learned

Input

The language which the learner is exposed to (either written or spoken) in the environment.

Integrative Task

A task which focuses not only on the practice of a single area of language or strategy.

Interlanguage

The learner’s developing second language knowledge.

Jigsaw

Any kind of puzzles (cartoon jigsaw,…).

L1

It refers to the mother tongue (native language).

L2

Any language other than the first language learned; it’s also called second language.

Language Acquisition

This term is most used interchangeably with language learning.

Language Acquisition Device (LAD)

A metaphor for the innate knowledge of the "universal" principles common to all human languages.

Language Learning

it’s a "conscious" process which occurs when the learner’s objective is to learn about the language itself, rather than to understand messages which are conveyed through the language.

Lesson Plan

It helps the teacher to know what to do in a class (prepared by themselves) with quite specific activities.

Metalanguage

The language used to describe language items

Modified Input

Adapted speech which adults use to address children and native speakers use to address language learners so that the learner will be able to understand.

Modified Interaction

Adapted conversation patterns speakers use in addressing language learners so that the learner will be able to understand.

Native-Like

The ability to comprehend and produce a second language at a level of performance which is hardly distinguishable from that of a native speaker.

Native Speaker

A person who has learned a language from an early age and who has full mastery of that language.

Negotiation of Meaning

Interaction between speakers who make adjustments to their speech and use other techniques in order to facilitate communication.

Noisy Activities

Activities that provoke noise, perhaps too much, depending on the situation.

OHP

Abbreviation of Over Head Projector.

Out of Class Learning

The learning that is produced not inside the class but outdoors (because of the T.V., an English pen friend,…).

Output

What is produced by the students (in writing or orally) throughout a task or a set of tasks.

Out - Of - Class Activities

Activities that are done outside the class (clubs, libraries,…).

Pair Work

Work in groups of two.

Pace

When a teacher spends a long time introducing a new item, the pace is slow. When a lot of new material is introduced the pace is fast

Paralinguistic Feature

Include sounds like "er", "ah", and facial expressions, gestures, all of which can communicate something without actually using words. See non-lexical forms.

Peer Correction

The teacher, when someone can’t answer a question, asks if anyone else in the class can do it correctly.

Pre Service TT

What someone do (study) in order to become an English teacher.

Processing

Dealing with content/information in order to complete a task.

Productive Skills

The main skills of speaking and writing. See receptive skills.

Quiet Activities

Activities that don’t provoke noise, movement or excitement on the child.

Realia

Photos, posters, books, souvenirs, postcards,… any kind of material from an English- speaking country that we can bring to class (to make activities, talks,…).

Recall

To remember something. To aid recall, you can use visual aids, to make something memorable.

Receptive Skills

Listening or reading and understanding. The receptive skills are different from productive skills.

Role Play

In role play, the pupils are pretending to be someone else.

Routines

Things that we do regularly (perhaps in each class): forms of address, how to "have the floor",…

Scanning

A reading technique which involves glancing quickly through a text to locate a specific piece of information.

Self Correction

A form of correction; the pupil corrects a mistake on his or her own.

Summative Assessment

The gathering of information about the results of learning (concerning language, strategies, and attitudinal change) at the end of the project.

Target Language

The language which is being learned, whether it is the first language or a second (or third or fourth) language.

Task Authenticity

When moving from first (mother language-based) to second and third generation tasks, authenticity increases.

Teacher Training College

The place where someone studies in order to become a teacher.

Topic-Based Teaching

A way of organising the communicative syllabus which gives emphasis to the topics or themes through which language is practised.

Universal Grammar

Children’s innate knowledge which, it is hypothesized, consists of a set of principles common to all languages.

Warm Up

An activity you do at the very beginning of the class.

WH- QUESTIONS

Questions that have a word starting with WH-. Examples: What’s your name?,…

Word Stars

Around a "key" word, we add some words related to it, in some way or another.

YES / NO QUESTIONS

Questions answerable by yes or not. See Polar questions.