(English Language Teaching)
The aspirants of TET-cum-TRT are supposed to be equipped with the knowledge of the following ELT (English Language Teaching) terms which are very useful in answering questions pertaining to English Methodology. So an attempt has been made here to give a comprehensive picture of some important terminology pertaining to English Methodology.
1. Achievement Test: It is a test which measures how much of a language someone has learned with reference to a particular course of study or programme of an institution.
For example an achievement test might be a listening comprehension test based on a particular set of dialogues in a text book. This test helps the teacher to judge the success of his or her teaching and to identify the weaknesses of his or her students.
2. Alphabetic Method: It is a method of teaching children to read. Children are taught the names of the letters of the alphabet. a- 'ay', b - 'bee', c- 'see' etc.
When the children see a new or unfamiliar word, eg. 'bag', they repeat the letter names - 'bee ay gee'. It is thought that the 'spelling' of the word helps the child to recognise it.
3. Alveolar: This describes a speech sound (a consonant) which is produced by the front of the tongue touching or nearly touching the gum ridge behind the upper teeth. In English the / t / in / tin / - tin and the /d / in / din / - din are alveolar stops.
4. Approach: Language teaching is sometimes discussed in terms of three closely related aspects: approach - method - technique.
Different theories about the nature of language and how languages are learned (the approach) imply different ways of teaching language (the method) and different methods make use of different kinds of classroom activities (the technique).
5. Audio-lingual Method: It is a method of foreign or second language teaching which emphasises the teaching of speaking and listening before reading and writing. This method emphasises the use of dialogues and drills and discourages the use of mother tongue in the class room. This is otherwise called as aural- oral method.
6. Authentic Materials: Texts / excerpts from Newspapers, magazines, books etc., which have not been primarily written for English Language Teaching purpose. But these could be used in ELT for effective learning.
7. Bilingual: Bilingual is a person who knows and uses two languages equally well. A true bilingual is described as a person who can jump from one language to another easily and talk fluently about any situation in the mother tongue or the target language with equal ease.
8. Bilabial: Bilabial is a speech sound (a consonant) which is produced by the two lips. For example in English the /p/ in /pin/- pin and the /b/ in /bin/ - bin are bilabial.
9. Bound morpheme: It is linguistic form (morpheme) which is never used alone but must be used with another morpheme (the smallest meaningful unit in a language). For example the English suffix 'ing' must be used with a verb eg. writing, loving, playing, driving.
A form which can be used on its own is called a free morpheme eg. horse, red, write, drive.
10. Cloze procedure: A technique for measuring reading comprehension. In a cloze test words are removed from a reading passage at regular intervals leaving blanks. For example every fifth word may be removed. The reader must then read the passage and try to guess the missing words.
Example: A passage used in .... cloze test is a ... of written material in .... words have been regularly ... . The pupils must then ... to reconstruct the passage ... filling in the missing ... (a, passage, which, removed, try, by, words)
11. Coherence: Coherence is the unifying element in good writing. It refers to the unity created between the ideas, sentences, paragraphs and sections of a piece of writing.
12. Cohesion: Cohesion refers to the grammatical or lexical relationships between the different elements of a text. The relationship may be between different sentences or between different parts of a sentence. e.g:
A: Is Padma coming to the party?
B: Yes, she is.
13. Collocation: It is the way in which particular words tend to occur or being together. Collocation refers to the restrictions on how words can be used together, for example, which prepositions are used with particular verbs, or which verbs and nouns are used together.
e.g. Powerful tea - incorrect expression Strong tea - correct expression
In the above example the words 'powerful' and 'tea' do not collocate but 'strong tea' is said to be the right collocation of the words.
14. Consonant: Consonant is a speech sound where the air stream from the lungs is either completely blocked (stop), partially blocked (lateral) or where the opening is to narrow that the air escapes with audible friction (fricative). With some consonants (Nasals) the air stream is blocked in the mouth but allowed to escape through the nose.
With the other group of speech sounds, the vowels, the air from the lungs is not worked.
15. Content Word
Words can be divided into two classes: content words and function words.
Content words are words which refer to a thing, quality, state or action and which have meaning when the words are used alone. Content words are mainly nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Eg. fruit, run, happy, fast. Function words are those which have little meaning on their own. Eg. Conjunction, Prepositions, Articles. Content Words are also called lexical words or full words.
16. Curriculum: It is an educational programme which states:
a) the educational purpose of the programme
b) the content, teaching procedures and learning experiences which will be necessary to achieve this purpose.
c) some means for assessing whether or not the educational ends have been achieved.
17. Deductive learning: This is a type of learning where the learners are taught rules and gives specific information about a language. Then they apply these rules when they use the language.
This may be contrasted with inductive learning or learning by induction in which learners are not given grammatical rules or other rules directly but are left to discover or induce rules from other experience of using the language.
18. Diagnostic test
* It is a test administered to find out the strengths and weaknesses either at individual or class level. Generally it is taken at the end of a particular unit.
19. Dicto-Comp: It is a technique used for practising composition in language classes. A passage is read to a class and then the students must write out what they understand and and remember from the passage.
20. Diphthong: A speech sound which is usually considered as one distinctive vowel of a particular language but really involves two vowels with one vowel gliding to the other.
* For example, the diphthong /ai/ in the English word 'my' / mai / which consists of the vowel /a/ gliding into the vowel /i/.
21. Discourse: Discourse refers larger units of language such as paragraphs, conversations, interviews etc.
22. Drill: It is a technique commonly used in language teaching for practising sounds or sentence patterns in a language based on guided repetition or practice. A drill which practises some aspect of grammar or sentence formation is often known as 'pattern practice'.
23. English as a Foreign Language (EFL): English is taught as a subject and not used as a medium of instruction or as a means of communication within the country.
24. English as a Second Language (ESC): English is used for communication within the country as well as a medium of instruction in schools / universities. Sometimes the language is used by the government also.
25. English as a Link Language (ELL) in India: As India is multilingual, English plays a significant role in bringing together the various regions of the country by enabling them to share their thoughts in it. The Union Government and the State Govts. carry out their correspondence mostly in English. English is also the language of the Supreme Court of India.
26. English as Library Language (ELL) in India: English has been assigned the role of a library language in India. It is the key to the store house of knowledge. The Kothari Education Commission gave English the status of Library language.
27. Extensive Reading: Reading widely and in quantity to get a gist or general understanding is called extensive reading. It is taken up to develop good reading habits and build up the knowledge of Vocabulary, structure, style etc. Reading for pleasure and profit is the hall mark of extensive reading.
28. Formative Assesment
* Formative Assessment refers to a wide variety of methods or techniques that teachers use to evaluate their students’ performance or progress during a lesson, unit or course.
* Summative assessment is used to evaluate students' learning progress or achievement at the end of a unit, semester etc.
* In other words Formative Assessments are 'for learning', while summative assessments are 'of learning'.
29. Homophones: A homophone is a word that is pronounced in the way as another word but differs in meaning. e.g. Cell - Sell
30. Homonyms: Homonyms are words that share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings. e.g. ★ can (be able to) - can (a container)
bank (a financial organisation) - bank (the river side)
31. Minimal Pairs: Minimal Pairs are the pairs of words or phrases in a particular language which differ in only one phonological element. e.g. pin - bin
32. Passive Vocabulary: There are certain words which we understand but do not use actively. Whenever we come across with these, we at once recognise them. So these are also called Recognition Vocabulary.
33. Scanning: Glancing rapidly through the text to find out some specific information.
e.g. Searching for the number in the telephone directory
Looking for the topic in the index
34. Skimming: It is a reading process where the reader reads quickly in order to find out the central idea/ gist/ substance of the text. Here the reader does not go for minute details but frames an overall impression.
