English Glossary (from heinle.com)

Experiential Learning: learning derived from activities that are somewhat natural; activities where both the left (analytical) and the right (holistic) sides of the brain are engaged; where content is contextualized, skills integrated, and purposes real. It also refers to how one applies generalizations from a concrete experience to new situations, and to a route to social and moral development. Thus it is a “messy” model of second language acquisition involving reciprocal development of cognition, socialization, and language.

Expository Writing: writing that tries to explain something in the form of one or more of the rhetorical patterns of fact, process, classification, comparison/contrast, analysis, illustration, cause and effect, definition, and analogy.

Extensive Reading: reading on one’s own; reading for diverse or general meaning; the bulk of the reading that native speakers do in everyday reading. Activities include skimming, scanning, pre-reading, and evaluation.

False Beginners: a low-level language learner who has previously studied the language but failed to achieve full mastery for that level. When applied to materials, it implies the use of a faster pace in earlier texts, and the inclusion of a quick review of concepts and language previously learned.

Form: the structural components of linguistic items, i.e., the syntax (i.e., word order) and morphology (i.e. verb endings).

Functional/Notional Syllabus: the functional approach emphasizes categories from discourse analysis, such defining, explaining, apologizing, inviting, etc. The notional approach organizes the syllabus around conceptual categories and notions, such as dimensions and measurement.

Generation 1.5: students, often children of immigrants, who have strong, often native like English speaking skills but whose writing and academic skills are weaker and reflect those of an ESL student.

Grammaring: the ability to use grammatical structures accurately, meaningfully, and appropriately. This term, coined by Diane Larsen-Freeman, refers to the need to teach a “fifth” skill so that students can master not only the form of grammatical structures, but their meaning and their use as well.

Guided Writing: writing that serves to reinforce language principles and is controlled in order to reduce the possibility of error.

Holistic: concerned with interacting wholes, or complete systems, rather than with the treatment of parts.

Inductive: a teaching approach where examples are given and the students derive the rule from practice.

Inferential/Interpretive Questions: questions that go beyond the literal meaning and decoding process.

Integrated: involving a combination of the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing as well as grammar.

Integrated Model of Language Teaching: an instructional model that includes many kinds of instructional integration as well as integration of recent educational research, theory, and practice from first and second oral language acquisition literature, and first and second language literacy development literature.

Integrated Series: a series that includes all four skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and often a grammar scope and sequence.

Intensive Reading: reading for detailed meaning; reading word for word followed by comprehension and discussion questions. It often involves intensive evaluation of the structure and vocabulary of the text.

Interactive Activities: activities in which students are involved in pair or small-group work in a collaborative atmosphere with the teacher.

Interactive Reading/Listening: when readers interact with what they are reading or listening to and bring their own knowledge to the reading (see Schema Theory).

Learner-Centered: using information from learners and about learners as the basis for developing teaching materials, strategies, and techniques.

Learning Strategies: specific actions, behaviors, steps, or techniques — such as seeking out conversation partners or giving oneself encouragement to tackle a difficult language task — used by students to enhance their own learning.

Learning Styles: general approaches that students use to learn a new language and many other subjects. The spectrum of styles are analytic-global aspect, sensory preferences, intuition vs. sensory/sequential learning, orientation toward closure or openness.

LEP: (Limited English Proficiency) the term (usually used in elementary and secondary education) for students identified as needing ESL training (see also PEP).

Lexical Approach: an approach to language learning set forth by Michael Lewis. The principles of The Lexical Approach include (i) the grammar/vocabulary dichotomy is invalid, (ii) collocation is used as an organizing principle, (iii) successful language is a wider concept than accurate language, (iv) the Observe-Hypothesize-Experiment cycle replaces the Present-Practice-produce paradigm, and (v) language consists of grammaticalized lexis - not lexicalized grammar.

Literacy: the ability to read, write, and compute well enough to function in a community or on a job.

Literal Comprehension Questions: information questions, or “display” questions, which answer what, when, where, who, how many, etc.

Meaning: the signification or semantics, both lexical (i.e., the dictionary definition of a word) and grammatical (e.g., a conditional signals a cause and effect).

Metacognition: learning to learn; thinking about the learning process.

Minimal Pair: a pair of sound clusters (hit/heat or nice/rice) used to practice sound discrimination.

Open Enrollment (Open-Entry): a situation usually in Adult Education ESL programs where students are allowed to enroll in the class at any point in the semester.

Pair Work: work done by students in groups of two without the direct supervision of the teacher.

Peer Editing/Peer Evaluation: feedback given to the language learner by fellow students.

PEP (Potential English Proficiency) : the alternative term for LEP.

Problem-Posing Approach: developed by Paolo Freire; instruction that aims for self­understanding at a personal and community level deeper than in Values Clarification Approaches.

Process Approach: a way of teaching writing as a process of searching for and developing ideas, getting feedback from peers, drafting, revising, editing, and completing

Two Way Immersion: a program which serves both language minority and majority students in the same classroom. These programs use each group of students’ first language for academic instruction at certain points during the program. They aim for bilingualism and biculturalism for both groups of students.

Unabridged: a complete piece of work; not based on a larger piece.

Unadapted: not modified or simplified, usually referring to reading or listening materials.

Unscripted: refers to lectures delivered without notes.

Use: the pragmatic constraints governing the use of a particular form in context (e.g., its politeness level).

Values Clarification Approach: instruction in which the topic is the self in relation to other persons, states, and events; one that promotes self-understanding and self-realization.

VESL (Vocational ESL): ESL for the workplace.

Whole Language: refers to literacy training. It is based on the following eight principles:

1. Learning in the classroom and out of the classroom are not different

2. Language learning is a social event — classrooms have a workshop atmosphere where learners interact and share

3. The emphasis is on process; classrooms are organized to support individual growth

4. Language is the means of creating and communicating new knowledge

5. The four language processes (listening, speaking, reading, writing) are interrelated and interdependent

6. Authentic reading materials provide the best models for language

7. The purpose of language is to create meaning

8. Learners must be involved in real language activities.