Language, Listening, and Speaking Skills

Vocabulary flashcards covering core topics in language proficiency, listening subprocesses, communication pillars, and language structure from the lecture notes.

Receptive Skills

The ability to understand language, involving receiving and decoding spoken or written information through concentration and cognitive processing.

Productive Skills

The ability to use language, involving producing and conveying information through active structuring of thoughts for clarity.

Listening (Macro Skill)

Understanding spoken language through receptive, interpretative, and constructive processes involving decoding, comprehension, and interpretation.

Speaking (Macro Skill)

A complex process requiring attention to content, vocabulary, discourse, structure, grammar, sound system, and paralinguistic features.

Reading (Macro Skill)

A cognitive process of decoding written symbols involving linguistic, sociocultural, physical, and cognitive activity to get and give meaning.

Writing (Macro Skill)

The non-linear, exploratory, and generative process of putting ideas into text, whether print or non-print.

Viewing (Macro Skill)

The ability to perceive, interpret, and construct meaning from visual images to improve comprehension of print and non-print materials.

Presenting/Representing

Conveying information through media formats combining visual and verbal elements.

Decoding (Listening Subprocess)

A subprocess of listening involving attending to sound, perceiving speech, recognizing words, and parsing grammar.

Comprehension (Listening Subprocess)

A subprocess of listening involving activating prior knowledge (schema), representing ideas (propositions), and logical inferencing.

Interpretation (Listening Subprocess)

A subprocess of listening involving matching meaning to expectations, evaluating discourse meanings, and understanding a speaker's intent, tone, and context.

Hearing

A passive, physiological process of detecting sound automatically without effort.

Informational Listening

Listening used for learning new things and practicing techniques, such as when attending lectures or training to actively refine understanding.

Critical Listening

A rational process of evaluating and analyzing what is being said by treating information as evidence and examining it carefully to decide whether a message is valid.

Academic Listening

Careful listening associated with speeches, lectures, and interviews involving active comprehension, analysis, and critical evaluation of spoken academic content.

Locational Directions

Types of directions that tell you where to go.

Procedural Directions

Types of directions that tell you how to do something.

Sequential Directions

Types of directions that tell you what order to follow.

Conditional Directions

Types of directions that use 'if–then' scenarios.

Report

Neutral written or oral communication that presents a collection of facts or alternative propositions, states a conclusion, and offers recommendations when called for.

Opinion Text

An anti-neutral text based on facts and emotions, created for the purpose of expressing a personal or group position about a topic or issue.

Opinion Campaign

Communication that puts forward a specific cause to promote awareness, drive public engagement, and support action.

Pre-judice

Described as a 'silent killer' of the listening process that occurs when an objective viewpoint is lost by making assumptions.

Empathic Listening

Listening focused on understanding the feelings, perspectives, and intentions behind what someone is saying to build trust, strengthen relationships, and resolve conflicts.

Mechanics (Pillar of Speaking)

The tools of language that deal with 'how' and 'what' words and ideas are delivered.

Functions (Pillar of Speaking)

The purpose behind a message, answering the 'why' of language.

Pragmatics

The social role and rules of language in communication, including turn-taking, pace, pause management, role awareness, and context sensitivity.

Pronunciation

Making the correct sound when speaking (e.g., ship vs sheep).

Articulation

Moving speech organs to produce sound clearly.

Enunciation

Speaking clearly without mumbling.

Stress

Emphasizing specific syllables or words in speech.

Collocation

Words that naturally go together in language (e.g., 'make a decision').

Morphology

The component of language structure concerned with how words are formed or changed.

Syntax

The arrangement of words and sentence function within language structure.

Instrumental Function

Halliday's language function used to get things done ('I want').

Regulatory Function

Halliday's language function used to control others ('Do as I say').

Interactional Function

Halliday's language function used to connect with others ('Me and you').

Personal Function

Halliday's language function used to express oneself ('Here I am').

Heuristic Function

Halliday's language function used to learn ('Why is that?').

Imaginative Function

Halliday's language function used to create ('Let's pretend').

Representational Function

Halliday's language function used to inform ('This is how things are').