Glossary of ELT Methodology and Background Terminology

Vocabulary flashcards covering core concepts, theories, and testing terms in English Language Teaching (ELT) methodology.

Acceptability

A judgement concerning the appropriateness or accuracy of a language item.

Acculturation

The process by which people’s attitudes and values may change by exposure to alternative cultural norms.

Achievement test

A test designed to measure how well something has been learned.

Acquisition

A term contrasted with learning referring to the unconscious acquiring of a language.

Active vocabulary

The vocabulary a learner can use as well as understand.

Adjacency pair

Two utterances related by function and often co-occurring. For example, accusing and apologising.

Affective filter

A hindrance to learning caused by stress or uncertainty.

Agglutination

The tendency of some languages to combine words and add morphemes together to make new meanings.

Analytic language

A language in which there are few or no inflections and which does not agglutinate.

Approach

A term often used instead of methodology to describe a theory of language and a theory of learning. E.g., a communicative approach.

Appropriacy

A socio-linguistic term used as a measure of the social acceptability of an utterance with reference to communicative intention, style and register.

Appropriateness

A non-technical measure of the social acceptability of a language item often used instead of appropriacy. Also used to describe the relevance and applicability of something to its target audience.

Associative learning

Learning aided by associations between sounds, meanings or contrasts.

Audiolingualism

A methodology associated with behaviourist language learning theory and structural linguistics.

Automaticity

The ability to use language without thinking.

Backchaining

Drilling a sequence orally beginning at the end and working in sections to the beginning.

Backwash (aka washback)

The effect on teaching that testing has.

Behaviourism

A theory of learning based around the acquisition of habit and reinforcement of learning.

Bottom-up processing

An analytic approach to understanding a written or heard text which uses the reader / hearer’s knowledge of the structure and lexicon of the language to piece together the import of the text.

Cloze test

Technically, removing, e.g., every fifth or seventh word from a passage and asking test takers to guess the missing words. Informally, a gap-fill test.

Cocktail party effect

Descriptive of the ability to filter out background noise and only focus on the information one wishes to hear.

Code switching

Changing languages or varieties of the same language in a text.

Cognate

A word which has the same derivation and is similar in form in more than one language (meaning may or may not vary).

Communicative competence

The ability to: a) form accurate language b) understand the rules of speaking c) know how to make and understand speech acts and perform identifiable functions in language d) know where and when to use the language.

Community Language Learning

A methodology developed from group counselling techniques.

Competence

A person’s internalised grammar.

Comprehensible input

Input of language which can be understood and form the basis of learning.

Concept-checking question

A display question intended to ascertain whether an idea has been understood (cf. instruction-checking question).

Concordance

A computer-generated analysis of texts intended to identify collocational and colligational patterns.

Concurrent validity

The degree to which the results of a test will agree with the results of another test aimed at measuring the same ability.

Connectivism

A theory of language acquisition based on the cognitive process of making connections and drawing parallels.

Connotation

The additional meaning connected to a word or phrase beyond its base or denotational meaning.

Construct validity

In testing, the ability of the test constructor to describe what exactly is being tested.

Content validity

The degree to which a test measures what it is intended to measure.

Conversation maxim

One of four maxims devised by Grice to describe the conventions of communication.

Creative construction theory

The hypothesis that learners are active in constructing theories to explain the data they are exposed to.

Critical period hypothesis

The theory that there is a critical period for learning language which ceases around the age of 12.

Deductive learning

Learning based on being given the rule and from that to produce acceptable language.

Descriptive grammar

Grammar which describes what native speakers do rather than attempting to say what is right or wrong.

Discourse analysis

Analysing language above the level of the sentence.

Discrete-point testing

Testing which involves assessing ability to produce / understand individual language items.

Expectancy theory

A theory of motivation concerned with a learner’s view of the efficacy and value of the methodology and targets of learning respectively.

Face validity

A measure of how much a learner recognises that a test is fair and reliable.

Framing (aka transition)

Any technique which explicitly signals the end of an activity and the beginning of the next stage of a lesson.

Generative grammar

An approach to grammar analysis which focuses on the underlying rules allowing acceptable language to be produced.

Genre approach

An approach to teaching, especially writing, which focuses on analysing the structure and content of a model text.

Grammar translation

An approach to teaching which focuses on accessing the culture and literature of the target language using translation and grammatical study.

Illocutionary force

An utterance’s intended or perceived meaning. E.g., It’s cold in here = Please shut the window.

Inductive learning

A learning theory which assumes that people can arrive at a language rule by being given access to sufficient examples of it in action.

Input hypothesis

The hypothesis that for input to be effective for learning it should be understandable and just above the learner’s current mastery level.

Instruction-checking question

A question used by the teacher to check that an instruction has been understood and will be acted on in accordance with the demands of the procedure.

Interlanguage

A learner’s current ability on a scale of knowing none of the language to full mastery.

Isolating language

A language in which words are not inflected or combined and in which meaning arises from word order and function words.

Langue

Saussure’s term for the shared knowledge of a language within a speech community.

Locutionary act

Saying something that is meaningful rather than performing any express function.

Mechanical drill (aka meaningless drill)

A type of drill in which it is possible for the learners to produce a correct response even if they do not understand the meaning of the cue.

Monitor hypothesis

A posited process by which learners actively apply the rules they have learned to their own output (after the event).

Natural order hypothesis

The theory that children and older learners acquire items in a fixed order.

Noticing

A classroom procedure or cognitive process whereby learners note either the language used to realise a communicative function or the gap between their interlanguage and a native-speaker model.

Parole

What is said in a language. Contrast with langue.

Perlocutionary force

The effect of an utterance.

Phatic communication

Communication which does not and is not intended to convey information. E.g., How do you do?

Prefabricated language

Language learned and used as a single concept or chunk, e.g., What’s the matter?

Prescriptive grammar

Grammar which sets out what is considered right and wrong rather than describing what people say.

Process approach

An approach to teaching (especially of writing) which focuses on subskills such as drafting, proofing, expanding and so on rather than the end product.

Product approach

An approach to teaching (especially of writing) which focuses on producing a text based on a model provided.

Redundancy

Describing the fact that a message will contain more information than is required for comprehension.

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

The theory that the language we speak determines what we can speak about.

Schema (pl. schemata)

A mental framework in which information is ordered and classified.

Synthetic language

A language which uses inflections rather than separate words or particles to express meaning.

Top-down processing

Using knowledge of the world, the topic or the generic structure to make sense of a written or heard text.

Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)

Following Vygotsky, the area in which the learner can perform a task only with some support.