A-Z of ELT

accent reduction

Reducing the learner's L1 accent in favour of standard English

accent addition

To promote intelligibility between speakers by improving pronunciation

achievement test

a test designed to assess what a person has learned

proficiency test

A test taken to assess candidates' language ability regardless of any course of study. E.g. IELTS, FCE, CAE etc.

attributive adjective

an adjective which is used before a noun, e.g. a GOOD book

Predictive adjective

an adjective, group of adjectives, or adjective clause that follows a linking verb (e.g. The Queen is dead)

Non-gradable adjectives

Adjectives that cannot be expressed in degrees and so cannot be graded. E.g. perfect

What is the adjective order?

Evaluation, size, age, colour, defining

Premodification

the use of adjectives or adverbs in advance of the head word in a phrase, e.g: "that's a LOVELY dress", "I'm REALLY sorry" etc.

adverb phrase

a prepositional phrase that modifies a verb, an adjective, or an adverb

Adverbial

any word, phrase, or clause that functions like an ADVERB. Regardless of whether it contains at adverb - e.g. "to the shops" is an adverbial (but also a prepositional phrase.

What can be conveyed by adverbs?

Manner, place, time, frequency, stance (i.e. the speaker's opinion - it is totally unacceptable), degree (e.g. absolutely fabulous), focusing function (e.g. it was only 5 o'clock), linking function (e.g. eventually the bus arrived)

Adjuncts

Adverbials which function as part of the internal structure of a sentence (e.g. She ran up the stairs)

Disjuncts

Adverbials which stand apart from the main part of a sentence, generally separated by a comma (e.g. Honestly, who really cares?)

conjuncts

Adverbials which link clauses, sentences and paragraphs (e.g. on the other hand, all in all)

What is the order for adverbials?

MPT (manner, place, time)

E.g. She ran quickly up the stairs when she heard the explosion.

affective factors

Emotional factors which influence learning. They can have a negative or positive effect.

cognitive factors

Factors such as knowledge, memory and preferred learning style which can affect learning. Non-psycological.

Affective Filter

The psychological barrier that allows input to be filtered and processed. A low filter has little anxiety increasing comprehension and attention. A high filter the opposite.

Affordances

The possibilities for learning offered by objects and situations. Meaningful classroom activities increase learning affordances.

complementaries

Antonyms where if it is not one, it must be the other. For example, dead and alive, married or unmarried, male or female.

gradable antonyms

antonyms like big and small, where something which is big is not necessary small, but may be somewhere between the two sizes

Converseness

Pairs of words which exhibit the reversal of a relationship between items.

Example: If John sells to Fred, Fred buys from John

Appraisal

The way language users express their personal attitude to what is being expressed

Articulators

Parts of the body that are responsible for speech production, including the front and back of the tongue, the teeth, the lips, the roof of the mouth, the vocal cords, and the lungs.

Aspect of a verb phrase

The way the speaker's view of an event is expressed by the verb phrase. This is regardless of the time of the event itself.

What aspects can a verb phrase have?

Does it have a duration? Is it completed? Is it repetitive? Is it connected to the time of speaking?

Primary auxiliary verb

An auxiliary verb that joins with a main verb to show aspect or voice

secondary auxiliary verbs

can, shall, may, will - modal verbs

Operator

The verb which performs the following functions: negation, inversion, emphasis, ellipsis, question tags.

Dummy operator

Auxiliary added in Qs and Negatives when no auxiliary is present (do does did...)

Additive Bilingualism

the acquisition of a second language that does not replace the native language

subtractive bilingualism

The acquisition of a second language that replaces the native language

Finite verb

a verb that is marked for tense and agrees with its subject

non-finite verb

A verb which uses a participle or infinitive form

co-ordinate clause

When two or more clauses of equal ranks are linked by a conjunctıon. E.g. Jon opened the door and we went in.

Main clause

a clause in a complex sentence that can stand alone as a complete sentence

subordinate clause

A clause in a complex sentence that cannot stand alone as a complete sentence and that functions within the sentence as an adverbial clause, relative clause or reported clause

Reported clause

A type of subordinate clause which refers to the thoughts or actions of the object. e.g.: I don't remember what she said

Comment clause

A group of words (such as "you see" and "I think") that expresses the speakers stance

Coherence

When the language used (usually in writing) makes sense in the given context

Cohesion

When the language used (usually in writing) is all connected in a way that enhances clarity

Name some communication strategies

Paraphrasing, word coinage, foreignizing a word, approximation, paralinguistics (such as gesture or mime).

complement clause

The clause element which follows a linking phrase. Not necessarily a relative clause - eg. She seems tired, the news proved to be false

What is top-down and bottom-up processing?

The use of preexisting knowledge to understand language without comprehending the details. Uses various meta clues such as genre, structure, topic, easy words, etc.

Opposite is bottom-up processing - using understanding of the words to work out the bigger context.

Back-shifting

Moving verbs back a tense to express grammatical ideas. For example in 2nd and 3rd conditionals and reported speech

Co-ordinating conjunction

A word that joins elements of equal rank (and, or, but, so)

subordinating conjunction

a conjunction (like 'since' or 'that' or 'who') that introduces a subordinate clause. Also when, if, as and because

Assimilation

When a sound is modified by a neighbouring sound. Green park becoming Greem park

Elision

the omission of a sound or syllable when speaking. Common when two plosive sounds are together - such as walked to

liason

Where a word is introduced at word boundaries, especially after words ending in a vowel. For example "law and order", where an intrusive r sound follows law

Juncture

A pausing or lack of at the boundary between two words. E.g. I scream and Ice cream

Denotation

The dictionary definition of a word

conciousness raising

the activity of seeking to make people more aware of the linguistical features of the language they are learning

Fricatives

produced by a constant flow of air through the vocal tract (f and v, sh, th)

Affricatives

produced by briefly stopping air and then releasing it with some friction (ch, dz). Combo of fricatives and plosives

nasal sounds

m, n, ng

Approximants

a consonant, such as a glide or liquid, produced with a slight obstruction in the vocal tract, but greater than that associated with the vowels. W, r, j and l (l is sometimes called a lateral)

consonant cluster

A group or sequence of consonants that appear together in a syllable without a vowel between them.

content words

Words that carry majority of meaning. Sometimes called lexical words.

lexical density

The proportion of content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and often
also adverbs) to the total number of words. Does not include grammatical words like auxiliaries and prepositions

Which three variables mainly impact the register?

The field (ie. Topic)
The tenor (the participants and their relationship)
The mode (written or spoken?)

Curriculum and syllabus

Curriculum is concerned with beliefs, value and theory

Syllabus is a step by step approach to realising these

declarative sentence

a sentence that makes a statement

Deictic centre

The point of origin of an utterance, which establishes a reference point for participants

person deixis

Concerns the grammatical persons involved in an utterance - I, you, he/she (1st 2nd and 3rd person)

Spatial and temporal deixis

Here/there, this/that, near/far, now/then

central determiner

a subclass of determiner,
including articles, possessive pronouns, demonstratives (this and that)

predeterminer

a word which occurs before determiners in a noun phrase, e.g. ALL the bread

Post determiners

Words that occur after the central determiner but before the noun phrase.

Includes cardinal numbers(one, two, three) Ordinal numbers (first, second, third) General ordinals (next, last, other) Quantifiers (many, few, little, several, more, less)

discourse analysis

The study of how stretches of language (spoken or written) achieve both cohesion and coherence.

end-weight

The tendency to place new information in the latter part of a clause or sentence.

display question

Type of question used by teacher to find out what learner knows. What's the capital of France?

referential questions

Real questions which encourage Ss to produce based on their own experiences

produce lengthier and more complex responses.

E.g. have you ever been to Paris?

pattern practice drill

A teaching technique in which learners are asked to practise sentences chosen to represent particular linguistic forms

Errors and mistakes

Error - due to lack of knowledge

Mistake - due to demands of performance

prescriptive grammar

a set of rules designed to give instructions regarding the socially embedded notion of the "correct" or "proper" way to speak or write

descriptive grammar

A type of grammar that is more concerned with how language is actually used rather than the rules of grammar that might be taught in school. Makes no comment on whether something is “correct” or “proper”.

pedagogical grammar

A kind of descriptive grammar designed for teaching and learning purposes. Focuses on grammar as a subsystem of overall language proficiency, as distinct from form, phonology or discourse. More selective than a linguist's grammar. Formal rather than functional.

mental grammar

The knowledge that a speaker has about the linguistic units and rules of a language.

Homonyms

Two words that sound alike and are spelled alike but have different meanings.

Homographs

words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently and have different meanings

Homophones

These are words that are pronounced the same, but have different meanings and spellings

Hyponym

A specific item of a larger category. An orange is a hyponym of fruit (orange is the specific item).

Fruit is the superordinate term. Mango is a co-hyponym of Orange.

binomials & trinomials

e.g. neat and tidy; cool, calm and collected

Idiomacity

The extent to which a person's language sounds native-like

Implicit approach

Guided discovery of grammar. The explicit approach is when the teacher simply tells sts the rules

split infinitive

an infinitive with an adverb between 'to' and the verb (e.g., 'to boldly go')

Transactional language

Language focused on achieving an outcome. Purpose-driven interactions

caretaker speech

The distinctive speech adults use when they talk to young children

Foreigner speech

Speech style used when talking to foreigners. Usually graded

input enhancement

Highlighting or otherwise calling attention to certain target grammatical forms in a reading text.

input flood

A technique for providing a large number of examples of a particular language feature in the input to learners.

Name some Suprasegmentals

Loudness, pitch, rate, stress, volume, length, juncture - all features of pronunciation which affect whole stretches of speech

prosody (suprasegmentals)

Aspects such as stress and tone that extend over more than one segment

tone unit

An utterance, or part of an utterance, with one tonic stress. Centered on a nucleas.

creative construction

The subconscious creation of a mental grammar that allows speakers to interpret and produce utterances they have not heard before.

de-lexicalised verb

A verb with little or no (dictionary) meaning on its own / must combine with a noun or adjective to have meaning.

E.g. Take (your time) / get (married) / make (friends) / go (mad) / have (fun) / do (the housework) /give (money) / keep (a pet) / look (sad) / put (on a coat)

Conjuncts

the statements composing a conjunction

Copular Verb
(Linking Verb)

A small set of verbs, including to be, which take an obligatory complement. For example, This is my tailor.

Common ones are: be, appear, seem, look, smell and taste (+adjective only) for current attributes.

Become, get, go grow and turn for resulting attributes.