glossary -- Communicative Approach2

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Date Posted: 12:37:46 08/11/03 Mon
Author: Carlos Gagliardi
Subject: glossary

Glossary

A
Academic subjects = the subjects specific do an area. Something taught in school.
Activity = mental or physical development.
Accuracy = how well a language is written, spoken and understood by someone, with as little mistakes as possible.
Acquisition = is the product of a subconscious process very similar to the process children undergo when they acquire their first language. It requires meaningful interaction in the target language - natural communication - in which speakers are concentrated not in the form of their utterances, but in the communicative act.
Adjunct model = a model that links a specific language-learning course with a content course in which both second language learners and native English speakers are enrolled. The courses share a content base, but the focus of instruction differs. The language teacher emphasizes language skills, such as academic reading or writing, while the content teacher focuses on traditional academic concepts. This model requires substantial coordination between the language and content teacher; usually the ESL teacher makes the extra effort of becoming familiar with the content.
Affective filter = Affective factors influencing L2 acquisition are motivation, social attitude, the role of personality etc.
Alternative assessment = is an ongoing process involving the student and teacher in making judgments about the student's progress in language using non-conventional strategies.
Approach = introduction, proposal.
Artifacts = a term commonly used for an item placed into a student portfolio.
Assessment = an interactive process that engages both teacher and student in monitoring the student's performance.
Audience = refers to the person(s) the portfolio is intended for. In the same way that the main purpose of the student portfolio will help determine what goes into the portfolio, the teachers' decision as to the portfolio's primary audience will help guide decisions concerning the portfolio's contents, the frequency of placing items into it, etc.
Audiolingual Method = The audio-lingual method is also known as the aural-oral method. it is said to result in rapid acquisition of speaking and listening skills.It is based on the following main principles. speaking and listening competence precedes competence in reading and writing. use of the mother tongue is discouraged in the classroom. language skills are a matter of habit formulation, so students should practice particular patterns of language through structured dialogues and drills until the language is sufficiently rehearsed for responses to be automatic.

B
Behavioral theories of teaching = assume that humans are conditioned to behave as they do. In other words, people respond to stimuli the environment. Thorndike (1913) stipulated that responses that have rewarding consequences are strengthened or learned and responses that have negative or aversive consequences are weakened or extinguished. Therefore, a person's behaviour can be controlled through reward and punishment. In the classroom, this translates to: instruction can be designed so that learning can be controlled and measured.
Bilingual immersion programs = in which a portion of the curriculum is taught through the foreign language, some type of integrated language and content instruction appears to be essential.

C
Chaotic attractors = that is routes that a dynamic system runs.
Many dynamic systems have three types of attractors: an immovable point, periodic attractors and chaotic attractors (Lewin,1994: 65).
Choice = In real communication, a speaker has a choice of what she is going to say and how she'll say it. If the exercises in class are tightly controlled so that students can only answer something in one way, that is, they have no choice, then a real communication doesn't occur. As a result, a chain drill is not a communication at all.
Class = group of students.
Classroom = place of learning/teaching.
Code = is roughly the same as dialect or language variety.
Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA) = a type of approach that combines language, content, and learning strategy instruction into a transitional ESL approach for upper elementary and secondary students of intermediate or advanced English proficiency.
Cognitive code learning = it looks upon language learning as an active problem-solving process. Learners should be guided towards their own understanding of the rules.
Cognitive elaboration theories = The basic principle states that if information is to be retained in memory and related to information already in memory, the learner must engage in some sort of cognitive restructuring, or eleboration, of the material. For example, writing a summary or outline of a lecture is a better study aid than simply taking notes. Another effective means of elaboration is explaining the material to someone else.
Cognitive methods = meaningful acquisition of grammar structures followed by meaningful practice.
Commissives = Language is used to contract an obligation on the part of the speaker to act in a certain way in the future - e.g. a promise or an offer.
Communication = act of passing or receiving information of a highly structured method of teaching. Rather a broad assembly of ideas from a range of sources, which have come to be accepted as �good practice� by many contemporary teachers. Focus on language as means of an end.
Communicative Approach = A set of principles about teaching including recommendations about method and syllabus where the focus is on meaningful communication not structure, In this approach, students are given tasks to accomplish using language, instead of studying the language. The syllabus is based primarily on functional development (asking permission, asking directions, etc.), not structural development (past tense, conditionals, etc.). In essence, a functional syllabus replaces a structural syllabus. There is also less emphasis on error correction as fluency and communication become more important than accuracy As well, authentic and meaningful language input becomes more important. The class becomes more student-centered as students accomplish their tasks with other students, while the teacher plays more of an observer role.
Communicative competence = the ability to pass the message through in a understandable way. Ability to form correct sentences but to use them at appropriate times
Competence = is the capacity to perform a range of occupationally or professionally relevant communicative tasks with members of another cultural and linguistic community using the language of that community, whether that community is domestic or abroad.
Content-based language instruction = also called integrated language and content instruction, ESL, bilingual or foreign language teachers use instructional materials, learning tasks, and classroom techniques from academic content areas as the vehicle for developing language, content, cognitive, and study skills
Content-centered Instruction = the focus of the second language classroom should be on something meaningful, such as academic content.
Constructivist approach = the constructivist principle is compared to a more traditional didactic view on education, you could say that: The didactic view holds that teachers should be masters of particular domains of knowledge and that their job is to transmit their expertise about these domains of knowledge and that their job is to transmit their expertise about these domains to students through lectures and recitations. Students should memorize the facts and concepts of the domain and practice its skills until they have mastered them, and they should be able to demonstrate that mastery on appropriate tests.
Cooperative learning = a kind of method where students of different linguistic and educational backgrounds and different skill levels work together on a common task for a common goal in either the language or the content classroom. Cooperative groups encourage students to communicate, to share insights, test hypotheses, and jointly construct knowledge. Depending on their language proficiency, students can be assigned various roles as facilitator, recorder, reporter, or illustrator.
Correctness = use the correct grammar structure when creating a sentence.
Cultural awareness = understanding the way certain people behave, a behavior specific to a country or region. The knowledge of this behavior.

D
Declaratives = Language is used to render effective the content of the act �
e.g. baptism, a sentence pronounced by a judge.
Developmental cognitive theories = These theories stress the fact that interaction among children around appropriate tasks increases their development, their mastery of critical concepts. One of the most important theories was written by Vygotsky (Mind is society, 1978) emphasizes his belief that learning is a socially mediated activity.
Diagnostic or formative assessment = is typically curriculum-driven. This type of assessment shadows the curriculum and provides feedback to student and teachers.
Directives = Language is used to put the listener under an obligation to act in a certain way in the future.
Direct Method = the direct method is developed as a reaction against the grammar-translation method. Its main features are: only use the target language in class; the learner should be actively involved in using the language in realistic everyday situations; students are encouraged to think in the target language; first speaking is taught and then only reading and writing.
Direct method drill = method created against grammar translating.

E
Expressives = Language is used to express a psychological state - e.g. a declaration of love, an apology or congratulations.

F
Feedback =True communication is purposeful. A speaker can evaluate whether or not her purpose has been achieved based upon the feedback she receives from her listener. So, if the listener doesn't have the opportunity to provide the speaker such kind of feedback, it's not really communicative. Therefore, forming a question from a transformation drill is not a communication since the speaker won't receive a response from the listener.
Fluency = a manner of how well the person speaks a language, the closest it can be compared with the mother language.
Fractal model = a complex dynamic system, composed of sub-systems equally complex and dynamic. The illustration is only one of the possibilities for combination of the fractals. Since the system is dynamic, other unpredictable combinations will certainly occur. In this graphic example, interaction, for example, is directly connected to the input and automatism. Other configurations would be possible. Interaction could, for example, be connected to context (e.g. interaction is face-to-face or mediated by a computer), or even to several other factors at the same time.
Framework = a system of guidance made before doing the actual job. A project with guidelines intended to help get through to the final work.
Foreign language = another language that is not the one learned in first place.
Functional/usable language = Learners should be able to go to foreign country, prepared for reality they encounter there. Need to be able to cope / survive in a variety of everyday situations.

G
Good practice = broad assembly of ideas from a range of source.
Graded objectives = motivation through short-term objectives and through teaching language technique.
Grammar Translation Method =The grammar - translation method is derived from traditional approaches to the teaching of Latin and Greek in the nineteenth century.The students are to develop the ability to read prestigious literary texts. They should also learn to read and write the target language accurately.
Graphic organizers = a "means for organizing and presenting information so that it can be understood, remembered, and applied". Graphs, realia, tables, maps, flow charts, timelines, and Venn diagrams are used to help students place information in a comprehensible context. They enable students to organize information obtained from written or oral texts, develop reading strategies, increase retention, activate schema as a pre-reading or pre-listening activity, and organize ideas during the prewriting stage
Grammar translation = familiarizing with the ability to read and write in target language.
Grammatical rules = pattern set about the basics of writing and reading the language in a correct formal way.
Group work = students in groups defined to do a certain task together.

I
Information gap = exists when one person in an exchange knows something that the other person doesn't. For example, if we both know Miss Chuang is a teacher and I ask you, " What is Miss Chuang? " and then you answered, " She is a teacher," our exchange is not really communicative. According to Professor Carl J Dodson, this is just a "medium" level of communication--practicing how to say it in the language but with no added purpose.
Input hypothesis = how second language acquisition takes place.

L
Language = a specific method to communicate.
Language across the curriculum = the name given to content-centered instruction that involves a conscious effort to integrate language instruction into all other curricular offerings. This may include the development of integrated curricula and some kind of paired or team teaching.
Language taught in a vacuum - language for the sake of language / passing exams - rather than language for true communication.
Learning = a way of getting to know something new.
Learned system or learning = is the product of formal instruction and it comprises a conscious process which results in conscious knowledge 'about' the language, for example knowledge of grammar rules. According to Krashen 'learning' is less important than 'acquisition'.
Lexical approach = evaluation of the theory and practice of ELT with a clear statement of a new direction.

M
Mother language = the first language learned by someone, usually the more natural language learned.
Multiethnic = a group where there are many different kinds of countries or regions mixed.
Multilingual = a group where there are many different kinds of language spoken, for example, Chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, etc.
Multiracial = a group where there are many different kinds of human races mixed, for example, black, white, European, African, oriental, etc�

N
Native speaker = a person who speaks a language from the country he was born and/or grew up in.
Natural approach = Natural ApproachThe natural approach is based on a number of hypotheses about learning procedures and conditions for learning. Most of the hypotheses are based on one of the most influential models of Second Language Acquistition., called the Monitor Model, developed by the American Linguist: Stephen Krasher.
Natural order hypothesis = the acquisition of structures of a language (both first and second) takes place in a predictable order. There are certain 'universal procedures of language development': everyone has a kind of 'internal natural syllabus of acquistion' which results in similar errors at similar moments regardless of the language you learn or of the language background.
Non-native speaker = a person who speaks a language which is not the one from the country he was born or grew up in.

P
Pairwork = work performed in class with two or more students.
Pattern drills = drills ready-made for general purpose.
Performance = representation or projection of competence.
Performatives = do things with words, pointed to class of enunciations.
Portfolio assessment = is an ongoing process involving the student and teacher in selecting samples of student work for inclusion in a collection, the main purpose of which is to show the student's progress.
Primacy of oral work = Emphasis on oral and listening skills in the classroom. Contact time with language is all-important - paves way for more fluid command of the language / facility and ease of expression. Not just hearing teacher, but having personal contact themselves with language, practising sounds themselves, permutating sentence patterns and getting chance to make mistakes and learn from doing so.
Proficiency = a high level of a certain knowledge.
Pupils = group of people interested in learning something.

R
Representatives = language is used to describe a state of affairs - e.g., a news item on the radio, a comment on the weather
Response = feedback from students to the teacher.

S
Second language = another language that was learned after the mother language, which can be as close as to the mother language or not.
Self-assessment = a assessment where students are provided opportunities before and after units of instruction to assess their own performance
Sheltered instruction = a content curriculum which is adapted to accommodate students� limited proficiency in the language of instruction. This model was originally developed for elementary foreign language immersion programs to enable some portion of the curriculum to be taught through the foreign language. It is commonly used in immersion and two-way bilingual programs and has been adapted for use in second language programs with large numbers of limited English proficient students of intermediate or advanced English proficiency.
Sheltered subject matter teaching = this approach involves adapting the language of texts or tasks and use of certain methods familiar to language teachers (demonstrations, visuals, graphic organizers, or cooperative work) to make instruction more accessible to students of different English proficiency levels. This type of instruction is also called sheltered English or language-sensitive content instruction and is given by the regular classroom or content teacher, or by a language teacher with special expertise in another academic area.
Silent way = The Silent Way is the name given to a method of language teaching developed by Caleb Gattegno. It makes use of mime, gesture, all kinds of visual aids, including color-coded pronunciation wall charts and, in particular, Cuisenaire rods. These are a set of rods of different lengths and colors that are used by teachers to encourage students to talk. Particularly in the early stages, the learners talk intensively about the rods, using a simple, controlled vocabulary and some basic verbs.
Social language = the language learned in a natural way, daily activities language.
Speech act = idea that when someone says something, she is not simply sitting back
and describing the world, but intends to produce some kind of effect, some kind of change in the world.
Student-Teacher Relationship = the relationship between the teacher and student, that can be restricted or friendly.
Suggestopaedia = it suggests that the brain can be stimulated by the power of suggestion.

T
Target language = language that it is being taught.
Task-based approach = the task-based approach presents learners with carefully graded activities or 'tasks' in order to develop their communicative competence. As the tasks become more complex, so they require a more developed set of communicative skills. A communicative syllabus should, according to this approach, be constructed according to the difficulty of the tasks required of the learner at different stages in a course. A task-based syllabus is also sometimes referred to as a procedural syllabus.
Task-based learning = it is the instrument which the students use to complete it. The task is an activity in which students use language to achieve a specific outcome. The activity reflects real life and learners focus on meaning, they are free to use any language they want. Playing a game, solving a problem or sharing information or experiences, can all be considered as relevant and authentic tasks. In TBL an activity in which students are given a list of words to use cannot be considered as a genuine task.
Task-based or experiential learning = a type of approach where appropriate contexts are provided for developing thinking and study skills as well as language and academic concepts for students of different levels of language proficiency. Students learn by carrying out specific tasks or projects: for example, "doing science" and not just reading about it.
Teacher = that who teaches, pass the knowledge onto who wants to learn.
Teaching techniques = a specific way to teach something, usually towards a language or academic subjects.
Theme-based = a program where a language curriculum is developed around selected topics drawn from one content area (e.g., marketing) or from across the curriculum (e.g., pollution and the environment). The goal is to assist learners in developing general academic language skills through interesting and relevant content.

U
Usage = ability to produce correct sentences, or manifestations of the linguistic system.
Use = ability to use the knowledge of the rules for effective communication.
Lexical approach = based on the idea that an important part of language acquisition is the ability to comprehend and produce lexical phrases as unanalyzed wholes.

W
Whole language approach = it is based on the concept that students need to experience language as an integrated whole. It focuses on the need for an integrated approach to language instruction within a context that is meaningful to students. The approach is consistent with integrated language and content instruction as both emphasize meaningful engagement and authentic language use, and both link oral and written language development.

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