Glossary

Accuracy Producing language with few errors.

Achievement test A test to measure what students have learned or achieved from a program of study; should be part of every language program and be specific to the goals and objectives of a specific language course. These tests must be flexible to respond to the particular goals and needs of the students in a language program.

Activate The phase in a lesson where students have the opportunity to practice language forms. See “controlled practice”, “guided practice”, and “free practice”.

Active listening A technique whereby the listener repeats (often in other words) what the speaker has said to demonstrate his or her understanding. Active listening is an especially useful alternative to directly correcting a student error. Compare active listening.

Active vocabulary Vocabulary that students actually use in speaking and writing.

Active Related to student engagement and participation. For example, listening is perceived to be a passive skill, but is actually active because it involves students in decoding meaning.

Attitude A complex mental state involving beliefs, feelings, values and dispositions to act in certain ways. Attitude affects a student’s ability to learn, but is unrelated to aptitude.

Audio-visual aids Teaching aids such as audio, video, overhead projection, posters,pictures and graphics.

Aural Related to listening.

Authentic text Natural or real teaching material; often this material is taken from newspapers, magazines, radio, TV or podcasts.

Automaticity A learner’s ability to recover a word automatically, without straining to fetch it from memory.

Behavioural psychology Also called behaviourism, the belief that learning should be based on psychological study of observable and measurable psychology only; psychological theory based on stimulus-response influenced audiolingualism.

Brainstorming A group activity where students freely contribute their ideas to a topic to generate ideas.

Burn-out Fatigue usually based on either the stress of overwork or boredom with the same task.

Chomsky, Noam The ideas of the American linguistic theorist Noam Chomsky can be very abstract, in contrast to the very practical process of communicative language teaching. Chomsky’s theories of knowledge of language and language acquisition relate as much to the study of human nature as to language teaching. As Steven Pinker explains^{[ citation needed ]}, Chomsky’s claim that…all humans speak a single language is based on the hypothesis that the same symbol-manipulating machinery, without exception, underlies the world’s languages. Linguists have long known that the basic design features of language are found everywhere… A common grammatical code, neutral between production and comprehension, allows speakers to produce any linguistic message they can understand, and vice versa. Words have stable meanings, linked to them by arbitrary convention….Languages can convey meanings that are abstract and remote in time or space from the speaker, (and) linguistic forms are infinite in number.

Chorus Speaking together as a group; used in choral speaking and jazz chants.

Classroom climate Environment created in the classroom by factors such as the physical environment and also the interrelationship between the teacher and the students, and among the students.

Classroom management The management of classroom processes such as how the teacher sets up the classroom and organizes teaching and learning to facilitate instruction. Includes classroom procedures, groupings, how instructions for activities are given, and management of student behaviour.

Cloze A technique usually used to assess students’ reading comprehension. Cloze can also be used as a practice activity. Teacher blanks out certain words from a written text and students fill in the missing words based on their understanding from context.

Collocation The way words are often used together. For example, “do the dishes” and “do homework”, but “make the bed” and “make noise”.

s

Action plan Specific proposal developed by a learner, teacher or institution to address problems or difficulties or meet a desired goal.

Active learning methods Learning methods that focus on ensure learners play and active role in the process of learning instead of passively receiving information.

Aesthetic Response An affective or emotional response a person has to material, which is based on the individual's background knowledge, attitudes, and experiences.

Bibliography A listing of works used and/or considered by an author in the preparation of a work.

Blended learning

An educational formation that integrates learning techniques including online delivery of materials through web pages, discussion boards and/or email with traditional teaching methods including lectures, in-person discussions, seminars, or tutorials.

Bloom`s taxonomy

A heirachical framework of learning based on three domains - the cognitive, affective and psychomotor; in the cognitive domain there are six levels of knowledge: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. In the affective domain there are five levels: receiving phenomenon, responding to phenomenon, valuing, organizing values, and internalizing values. In the psychomotor domain there are seven levels:

perception, readiness to act, guided response, mechanism, complex overt action, adaptation, and origination (the psychomotor levels where not originally completed by Bloom).

Collaborative learning An instructional method that emphasizes students working together in small groups to complete a task or reach a common goal; in some cases students may be responsible for each other's learning

Competencies An individual's abilities as they relate to knowledge, understanding, and skills; see also minimal competence.

Constructivism A theory learning that claims people learn by constructing knowledge through social interactions with others.

Cooperative learning Learning format the requires the cooperation of a small number of students who work towards the completion of a given task; each student is responsible for a part of the task, and the entire task cannot be completed without all the learners finishing their portion of the task.

Curriculum

Broadly understood as the subjects and materials to be taught by an educational institution; typically it is listed as a set of subjects, but also may include the learning experiences, skills, and abilities students are expected to learn.

Curriculum mapping

A process for organizing data reflecting the primary knowledge, skills, and assesments related to a subject area and used to facilitate communication and instruction.

Early Childhood Education and Care refers to care for children in day care (Kindertagespflege), nurseries (Kinderkrippe), kindergartens (Kindergarten), day care centres (Kindertagesstätte) and after-school care centres (Hort), aged 0 - about 12 years

Employability skills Skills that are essential and transferable to a variety of situations and are necessary for an individual to function in the 21st century workplace.

Evaluation Process of assessing work completed by an individual, group, or institution with the aim of determining whether the individual, group, or institution has meet predetermined standards.

Evidence Information offered to support a conclusion or judgment.

Exercise Problem, task or other activity aimed at developing or improving a person's skill or knowledge.

Experiential learning Learning based on experience.

Facilitator Individual who assists others in a learning process but does not act as a the primary source of knowledge; the facilitator acts as a guide in during individual or group learning activities.

Feedback Responses provided to an individual while completing a task that are intended to guide the individual to s desired end.

Group formation Process of organizing learners into groups.

Group work Learning activities requiring several students to work together.

Individual differences Unique characteristics of individuals that have an impact on how they learn.

Initiation phase/Introductory phase In a lesson, this is the opening stage where the instructor begins the lesson. Inquiry-based learning

Learning methodology where students are presented a problem to solve using knowledge and skills they have acquired or need to develop.

Interactive methods In education, these are methods that have learners communicate with others or interact with some form of technology to receive feedback upon completing a task.

Internet The name of the global network of computers accessed worldwide by individuals, businesses, education institutions, and government agencies.

Journal Writing Practice of writing daily in a book or other source intended to record one's ideas and experiences, create stories, or keep written records of events.

Key skills

Vital skills necessary for a task or to gain employment including literacy, mathematics, and basic computer skills

Kolb`s learning cycle Learning model, presented by David Kolb, that identifies 4 stages in the learning cycle: concrete experience, observations and reflections, formation of abstract concepts and generalizations, and testing implications of concepts in new situations.

Laboratory based education Educational format in which learners complete experiments in a laboratory in order to learn experimental methods or test hypotheses they are studying.

Learning environment The place and setting where learning occurs; it is not limited to a physical classroom an includes the characteristics of the setting.

Media

1) Mass communication enterprises including print (newspapers, magazines) or broadcast (radio, television)

2) Individuals employed in the communications industry.

Mission statement Statement articulation the primary aims of a group or institution.

Module A separate unit or selection of material that forms a coherent whole, but may be combined with other units.

Motivational context The attempt to provide a setting where students are motivated to learn; can be achieved in various ways such as encouraging students to take responsibility for their own learning, being

involved in selecting the topics for learning, or planning a lesson. Objectives

Goals or aims of learning activity or lesson. Objectives specify what learners will be able to do, or perform, to be considered competent. As such, they provide clear reasons for training. Another way to view objectives is that they are goals redrafted to state performances in terms that are clearly tangible to the reader. When writing objectives be sure to describe the intended result of instruction rather than the process of instruction itself

Qualitative assessment Assessment based on personal views, experience or opinion of the reviewer.

Quality assurance Internal and external processes for ensuring the quality of an object or institution maintains a desired level.

Quality control Procedures used to ensure the desired level of quality and standards are met.

Records of achievement Written records, either qualitative or quantitative, of a learner's achievement during a period of learning.

Reflection Activity of a person to consider a past experience or event and the impact it has had.

Reflective practice Practice of engaging in reflection to identify important elements of past events.

Resource Material, either object, person, or location, that can be used to provide information.

Sachunterricht/General subjects/General knowledge

Subject taught at primary school familiarising pupils with scientific and technical phenomena and with social, economic and historical aspects of their own area.

Scaffolded Instruction Teaching methodology where teachers assist and guide students so that they can complete learning activities they could not do without support.

Strategic learning Learning methodology in which learners adapt their learning style to fit the needs of the assigned task.

Study groups Groups assembled to work together to facilitate learning.

Taxonomy A classification or ordering into groups

Teamwork Process where individuals engage in a cooperative effort to achieve a common objective. Transferable skills

Skills possessed by an individuals that can be used in a variety of settings

Validity The degree to which an investigation accurately assesses the specific idea a researcher is investigating.

Web page Hypertext document that include text, images, and hyperlinks.

Website A collection of web pages organized around one theme or managed by a single organization.