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Showing posts with label an. Show all posts

Showing posts with label an. Show all posts

An ELT Glossary Content validity

Content validity is a test quality concerned with whether the test under consideration tests only what has been covered in the preceding course (for progress tests), the preceding course syllabus (for achievement tests) or test specification (for proficiency tests).

Examples :

in their course, the learners have been studying the present continuous for ongoing present events, These are included in their progress test, but the reading comprehension also includes several examples of the present continuous used to express future arrangements - and tests learners on their understanding of this. This test lacks content validity.
a professional qualification for language teachers has a methodology syllabus which consists of 100 items. In the written exam which they sit, they are asked about something which is not included in the syllabus. This test lacks content validity.

An ELT Glossary Inflection

Inflection involves the addition of a bound morpheme or a change to the form of the word in order to change the grammatical function or meaning. For example, in English the base form of the verb drink can be changed by adding a suffix (-s for third person singular simple present, -ing for the present participle/gerund) or by changing it to drank (past simple) or drunk (past participle).

In English various grammatical classes may be inflected. Apart from verbs, others include:

Many nouns form the plural by adding the plural suffix -s eg horse/horses . Others use -en eg. ox/oxen - and/or may involve a change of form child/children; mouse/mice.

Adjectives may be inflected in various ways, eg: by adding a prefix such as un- to change the meaning to the negative - happy/unhappy; by adding suffixes to form different word classes - sad/sadly/sadness; by adding the suffixes -er or -est to form the comparative and superlative - fast/faster/fastest.

Demonstratives are inflected to form the plural : this/these and that/those.

An ELT Glossary Intensifiers Intensification

Definition : A word which has either a heightening or lowering effect on another word

Examples : Adjectives may be used to intensify nouns - It was a complete disaster - but the most common intensifiers are adverbs, which may intensify adjectives - It was completely disastrous; verbs - I absolutely hated it; or other adverbs He did it ridiculouslybadly.

Intensifiers may be repeated to give extra emphasis : He was really, reallytired.

An ELT Glossary Backchaining

A method of conducting choral repetition drills by chunking the utterance and asking students to start from the end rather than the beginning, adding on earlier chunks one at a time. For example :

T : OK, I went to the supermarket on Saturday morning. Everybody, listen and repeat -
morning
Ss : Morning.
T : On Saturday morning.
Ss : On Saturday morning
T : To the supermarket on Saturday morning.
Ss : To the supermarket on Saturday morning.
T : I went to the supermarket on Saturday morning.
Ss : I went to the supermarket on Saturday morning

This has two advantages :

a) chunking makes the repetition easier for the students - they can concentrate on small numbers of words before going on to the longer utterance.
b) starting from the end allow T and Sss to keep the intonation of the phrase constant. This is lost if the utterance is frontchained.

An ELT Glossary Cohort Test Cohort

Definition : A cohort is a group of people who share the same characteristics. A test cohort is therefore composed of all the people who take a particular test at a particular time. For example, anyone who takes FCE in the summer of 2015 will be part of the FCE test cohort for that exam session.

Further Information : The term cohort is also used in experimental research to describe the group of people with specific common characteristics (age, first language, second language proficiency level etc) involved in the experiment.

An ELT Glossary Contractions

English contractions are formed by "blending" two words, of which at least one will be a grammatical item (an auxiliary verb, the copula, a pronoun, the negative particle etc) into one. Examples :

I am becomes Im
They would becomes theyd
Paul is becomes Pauls
Let us becomes lets
Does not becomes doesnt
Will not becomes wont

As these examples show, contractions involve elision (the dropping of one or more sounds) but may also involve other features - such as change in vowel quality in will not/wont or the non-standard is not/aint.

An ELT Glossary Aspiration

Put your hand in front of your mouth and say pin. As you say the /p/ you should feel a small puff of air hit your hand. This (the puff of air following the sound) is aspiration.

Now do the same thing, but say spin instead - and youll feel no puff of air. The /p/ in pin is aspirated, while the /p/ in spin is not. However, whether the aspirated version of the phoneme is used in the word or the non-aspirated version, theres never any change in meaning - try saying spin but aspirate the /p/. It sounds a bit odd, but theres no chance of someone understanding a different word. The aspirated and non-aspirated versions of /p/ are therefore allophones of the same phoneme (ie variants that never cause a meaning change) rather than two different phonemes, and in phonemic script will both be written as /p/ - giving /pɪn/ and /spɪn/. This is always true of aspiration in English.

For phonetics, however, the difference in quality is important, and in phonetic script the aspirated variant will be indicated by the symbol [ʰ] - so [ pʰɪn] but [spɪn]

An ELT Glossary Tricolons

A tricolon is a rhetorical device using three parallel words, phrases or clauses. As the following examples show, tricolons are used frequently in political speeches :

Government of the people, by the people, for the people. (Abraham Lincoln)

Never in the history of mankind have so many owed so much to so few. (Winston Churchill)

Friends, comrades, and fellow South Africans, I greet you all in the name of peace, democracy, and freedom for all. (Nelson Mandela)

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors (Barack Obama)

An ELT Glossary Prescriptive grammar and Descriptive grammar

Definition : Prescriptive grammar refers to grammatical rules based on someone’s idea of how the language should be used.

Example : “You should never end a sentence with a preposition”; "You should never split an infinitive"; "You should never use a double negative".

This contrasts with descriptive grammar which looks at real instances of how the language is used, and formulates rules based on those.

Further Reading : Pinker, S. "10 grammar rules its OK to break (sometimes)"

An ELT Glossary Predictive Validity

Definition : A test is said to have predictive validity, if the results accurately indicate whether or not the test taker will be able to perform a specified "real life" task.

Example : The IELTS exam is intended to predict whether or not the test taker will be able to cope, as far as English language competence is concerned, when following a university course in English.

Other types of validity include : content validity, construct validity, and face validity

An ELT Glossary The Acculturation Model

Schumann (1978) posited that successful second language acquisition (SLA) in non-instructional settings is related to the degree to which a learner a) wishes to and has the opportunity to communicate with speakers of the target language and b) wishes to integrate with them socially. This will be influenced by :

Social dominance : to what extent the L1 group is politically, culturally, technically or economically dominant to or subordinate to the L2 group.
Assimilation, preservation, and adaptation : to what extent the learner wishes to assimilate with, adapt to or remain separate from the L2 group.
Enclosure : the extent to which the L1 and l2 groups share social institutions such as clubs, churches,schools and workplaces.
Cohesiveness and size : large, cohesive L1 groups are likely to be more self-sufficient and seek less contact with the L2 group.
Congruence : how similar or dissimilar the cultures of the two groups are.
Attitude : How positively the L2 group views the L1 group.
Intended length of residence : the longer the learner intends to stay in the target culture, the more likely s/he is to want to learn the language.

These social variables determine the level of acculturation into the target community which the learner desires, and this in turn influences SLA.

The link is, however, indirect : "acculturation as a remote cause brings the learner into contact with TL-speakers and verbal interaction with those speakers as a proximate cause brings about the negotiation of appropriate input which then operates as the immediate cause of language acquisition". Schumann (1986:385)

Schuman also posited that two psychological factors would exert an influence - language shock (confusion when using the language) and culture shock - but saw these as less important than the social factors.

References and Further Reading

Schumann, J. H. (1978). The relationship of pidginization, creolization, and decreolization to second language acquisition. Language Learning, Vol 28/2

Schumann, J. (1986). Research on the acculturation model for L2 acquisition. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Vol 7/5

An ELT Glossary Intransitive verbs

Definition : An intransitive verb is a verb which is not followed by an object.

Examples : sneeze/cough - He sneezed and coughed all the way home.

Some verbs, like those in the examples, are always intransitive. Others can be used either transitively (with an object) or intransitively - eg study - He studies linguistics (transitive) or He studies every evening (intransitive).

An ELT Glossary Base form

The base form of the verb is the verb devoid of any inflections. For example : drink as opposed to drinks, drinking, drank and drunk.

The base form is used ..

1. As the infinitive form: I heard him come in; We decided to go.

2. With imperative force : Stop that! Be quiet! Do not disturb.

3. For all persons of the present simple except the third person singular : I/You/We/They live over there.

4. With "subjunctive" meaning : Is it essential that we be there?

An ELT Glossary Converse Antonyms

Definition : Pairs of "opposites" in which one term implies the other.

Examples :

lend-borrow : if I lend you something, then you borrow it.
parent -child : if I am your parent, then you are my child.
above - below : if X is above Y then Y is below X.

Can cause problems for students if their own language does not have the distinction. Eg Italian prestare = both lend and borrow

Adjectives like fast and slow are gradable rather than converse, so not fast does not necessarily mean slow. However, their comparative forms are converse - if you are faster than me, then I am slower than you.

An ELT Glossary Reciprocal pronouns

Reciprocal pronouns are those which indicate a mutual exchange between the two or more subjects of the verb. In English this is indicated by the pronouns each other and one another. For example:

John and Karen looked at each other /John and Karen looked at one another.

indicates that John looked at Karen and Karen looked at John.

Both these pronouns can also be used in the possessive :

The group collaborated by checking each others work. / The group collaborated by checking one anothers work.

- ie each member of the group checked the work of at least one of the others

An ELT Glossary Substitution Drills

Definition : A practice activity where the teacher starts by getting the learners to repeat a basic sentence, and then cues them to adapt it by using different expressions.

Example :

T : Listen and repeat - I had fish for dinner
Ss : I had fish for lunch.
T : Marco, pasta.
M : I had pasta for lunch
T : Paola, dinner
P : I had pasta for dinner.

Substitution drills were one of a number of types of drill used in the audiolingual method. They reflect the methods view of learning as a matter of habit formation, where habits are acquired by repetition and positive reinforcement of correct responses.

An ELT Glossary Free morphemes

Definition : A morpheme (the smallest part of a word which carries meaning) which can exist in isolation, functioning as a single word.

Examples : The words friend or step.

Free morphemes can combine with other free morphemes to form compound words (footstep, step ladder) and can also combine with bound morphemes (morphemes which cannot exist independently of a free morpheme)- eg unfriendly to change meaning and/or word class.

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