LET English Specialization Reviewer Flashcards

Vocabulary-style practice flashcards covering key terms, theories, and concepts from the LET English Specialization Reviewer.

Catharsis

According to Aristotle, the process in tragic plays where base emotions (such as lust, hatred, fear, or self-pity) experienced by the audience are cleansed or purged.

Personal Growth Model

A literature teaching model that seeks opportunities for students to relate and respond to literary themes by making connections to their personal lives.

Cultural Model

A teaching model that views literature as a source of facts or information, with the teacher acting as the transmitter of knowledge.

Storyboarding

An instructional strategy where students illustrate important scenes in a narrative to keep track of main ideas and supporting details.

Integrative Motivation

A learner's genuine interest in a second-language community and the drive to learn the target language to gain closer contact with that speech community.

Instrumental Motivation

Motivation to learn and use a second language primarily as a practical tool to achieve personal or professional goals.

Gatekeeping

The process by which media personnel control and filter the public's access to news.

Action Research

A type of research typically carried out by classroom teachers for the purpose of improving classroom instruction.

Think Aloud

A data collection technique that allows a learner to verbalize their thought processes while completing a task.

Dictogloss

A classroom task where learners listen to a text read aloud, take notes, and work in groups to reconstruct the original text using their collective language skills.

Tier 1 Words

Basic everyday words that most children know upon entering school, requiring little to no direct classroom instruction.

Tier 2 Words

High-frequency words used across multiple content areas that strongly influence mature speaking and reading comprehension.

Tier 3 Words

Low-frequency, content-specific vocabulary words that are typically defined in glossaries or textbooks for specific subjects.

Tombstoning

A newspaper layout flaw where two or more headlines are placed on approximately the same level in adjacent columns.

Invention (Rhetoric)

One of Cicero's canons of rhetoric, defined as the process of discovering the best arguments for a speech.

Elocution (Rhetoric)

One of Cicero's canons of rhetoric, focusing on speech delivery, language choice, and speaking style.

Hermeneutics

The study of general principles of biblical interpretation, primarily focused on discovering the truths and values of the Bible.

Suggestopedia

A teaching method that capitalizes on a relaxed state of mind (with learners in a reclining position) to enable maximum retention of materials.

Amanuensis

A term that originally referred to a slave with secretarial duties.

Strategic Competence

A component of communicative competence that relates to a learner's ability to use coping strategies to repair or convey messages during communication breakdowns.

Formalism

A literary theory that concentrates on the characteristics or qualities of literary works themselves, apart from extra-textual materials.

Juncture

A phonological feature or pause in speech that distinguishes phonetic boundaries between words, such as between 'ice cream' and 'I scream'.

Cliffhanger

A plot device that ends abruptly, leaving the main characters in a difficult situation without an immediate resolution.

Epiphora

A stylistic device in which a word or phrase is repeated at the end of successive clauses.

Denouement

The final resolution of the conflict in a story or plot.

Epitaph

An inscription on a gravestone or a short poem written in memory of a deceased person.

Scaffolding

The utilization of temporary instructional support techniques that assist students in reaching higher levels of comprehension and skill acquisition.

Allophone

A phonetic variant of a single phoneme in a language, such as the aspirated versus unreleased pronunciation of the sound /t/.

Interlanguage

The temporary linguistic system constructed by a language learner at a given time, which deviates from the target language of a native speaker.

Anthropomorphism

The attribution of human traits, characteristics, or behaviors to non-human entities, such as deities or animals.

Palindrome

A word, phrase, or sequence that reads the same backward as forward, such as 'civic' or 'rotor'.

Kigo

A term used in Japanese haiku poetry that indicates a specific season.

Epistolary Novel

A type of novel told entirely through the medium of written documents, most commonly letters.

Acrolect

The most prestigious dialect or speech variety of a language, closely approximating formal general standard usage.

Prolepsis

A narrative device (also known as a flashforward) that temporarily takes the storyline forward in time from the current narrative point.

BICS

Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills; the language capacity needed for everyday, informal face-to-face social interactions.

CALP

Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency; the formal language skills required to succeed in academic classroom contexts across content areas.