Def: A phonetic variation of a single phoneme.

1- Allophone Further info:

it does not create a change in the meaning.
Example:
The pronunciation of 'l' in 'light' and 'hill' (light 'l' and
dark 'l')

2- Assimilation Def: a feature of connected speech when a sound

changes to another sound because of a neighboring
sound
Example:
in ten boys /n/ followed by /b/ changes to /m/ as in
/tembɔiz/

3- Intrusion Def.: intrusion is when a sound is added in order to

allow the speaker to link two words more easily
Example:
He doesn't have an original idea in his head.
Speakers of BrE often add an intrusive r between idea
and in /aidiərin/

4- Vocative Def.: a way of addressing someone, it's seen

infrequently in writing
E.g.:
Mum, mate

5- Response Def.: a way of eliciting response in a conversation

Elicitator Example:
Okay? See?

6- Reciprocal Def.: a type of listening which involves interaction

listening between two or more people
Example:
business meeting

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 7- Nonreciprocal Def.: a type of listening which describes a situation in
listening which the listener has no opportunity to contribute to a
dialogue
Example:
watching TV, listening to the radio

8- Antonym Def.:
a word which is the opposite in meaning to another
one
Example:
adjectives such as big-small or verbs such as arrive-
leave

(a normative test/ NRT) Def.:

9- A norm- a test which compares test takers to each other rather
referenced test than against external criteria

10- Process writing (a Def.: a procedure in which students create a text by

process approach) planning, drafting, revising, editing and then
publishing or sharing with others

11- Auxiliary Def.: verbs which are used to support another verb in a
verbs sentence and have a grammatical function such as
showing tense, aspect, person, voice or mood
Example:
be, do, have, will, may, can

12- Fillers (pause Def.: language used by speakers to avoid frequent,

fillers/ hesitation long or silent pauses, to hold the floor, and to gain
devices/ hesitators/ thinking time. Fillers and hesitation devices
hesitation strategies/ expressions are used to buy time in a conversation.
filler expressions/ Example:
discourse fillers/ er, um, well, you know
conversation fillers)

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13- Syntax Def.: the study of the ways in which words combine
into larger units, such as phrases, clauses and
sentences. It describes the basic order of clause
elements
Example:
In English the basic order of sentence elements is
Subject-Verb-Object

14- Bound morpheme Def.: It's a type of morpheme, and as such, it is the
smallest unit of grammar. It can only occur as an affix.
Example: prefixes such as dis-, un- or suffixes such as
-ly, -ness

15- Compound words Def.: words which are created through the
combination of two or more words
Example: there are compound adjectives (e.g. cold-
blooded) or compound nouns (e.g. jellyfish)

16- TPR (Total Def.: a method in which language teaching is based on

Physical response) giving commands to elicit physical activity from
students
Example:
Teacher says "run" and students run

17- Tonic syllable Def.: The most important part of a tone unit; it carries
the main stress and that's where the change of pitch
begins
Example:
I live in LONdon

18- Genre Def.: any type of spoken or written discourse which is

distinguished by specific features (a conventionalised
structure and/or a characteristic vocab/grammar)
Example:
business reports, conference presentations, etc.
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19- Stative verb Def.: A verb which can be used to describe a
condition/state/belief/emotion/possession/sense
Example:
I KNOW it's true/ I HAVE a house

20- Proficiency test Def.: A test that assesses candidates' language ability
regardless of any course of study taken
Example: IELTS, TOEFL

21- Cohesion Def.: The use of grammatical and lexical means to

achieve connected text, either spoken or written.
These include reference words, e.g. this, the, it, linkers
and topic-related lexis.
E.g.: “It is perfectly organized. HOWEVER, …”

22- Tense Def.: a grammatical category which is used to indicate

the time at which an action happens by changing the
form of the finite verb.
Further point:
English has three main tenses: past, present and future.
E.g.: ‘he walked’ (past); ‘he walks’ (present); ‘he will
walk’ (future)

23- A direct test Def.: a test employing tasks which replicate real-life
activities
Example: role-playing a job interview, writing a letter
of complaint, or reading and completing an application
form

24- Minimal pairs Def.: two words which differ fro each other in
pronunciation by only one phoneme
Example: met-mat; pin-bin

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25- Hypernym Def.: a term for an 'umbrella' item of lexis which
(superordinate) subsumes a range of more specific items
Example: fruit in relation to apple, orange and pear

26- Product writing Def.: an approach of developing learners' writing

skills that is informed by the belief that creating a
written text is purely a matter of imitating elements
that are provided in a model

27- Idiom Def.: an expression whose meaning is not to be

interpreted literally. It's normally colloquial, but it can
appear in both spoken and written language
E.g.: ‘let the cat out of the bag’

28- Coordinating Def.: a word which joins phrases or clauses of equal

conjunction importance
Further point: Each clause joined by a coordinating
conjunction can stand alone. It's different from a
subordinate conjunction (e.g. unless) which joins a
subordinate clause to a main clause, and a subordinate
clause cannot stand alone
Example: but, and, or, etc.
‘I will go to the library or to the supermarket after
work.’

29- Modal auxiliary Def.: an auxiliary verb which modifies the meaning of
verb the main verb
Modal auxiliary verbs express functions such as
obligation, ability, possibility, offer or prediction
Example: might, must, can, should

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30- Direct method Def.: a method in which only the target language is
used in class and therefore translation is avoided.
Grammar rules are not taught to the learners.
It emerged in the 19th century as a reaction against the
grammar translation method.
Example: Berlitz Method (the most natural way to
learn a language)

31- Scanning Glancing rapidly through a text to search for a specific

piece of information, or to get an initial impression of
whether the text is suitable for a given purpose

32- Skimming Glancing rapidly through a text to determine its gist,

e.g. to keep ourselves superficially informed about
matters not of great import to us (newspaper story)

33- Extensive reading Reading longer texts, usually for pleasure

34- Intensive reading Reading shorter texts to extract specific information

35- Top-down meaning is reconstructed rather than form decoded

processing -the reader brings to the text their knowledge of the
topic, the text type, how language works, as well as
their individual motivation
-the reader forms mental hypotheses concerning
elements of the text, and then read to confirm or refute
these hypotheses
-the reader does not decode symbols individually

36- Bottom-up reading involves decoding written symbols

processing -each letter is processed
-deriving meaning is the end of this process

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37- Interactive reader uses both bottom-up and top-down processes
processing

38- Topic schema The knowledge of the topic

39- Genre/formal The reader's knowledge of features of the genre

schema (layout, textual organisation, typical linguistic
features)

40- Def.: The reader's knowledge of how language works

Procedural/linguistic in discourse.
schema E.g.: relationships between words on a syntactic level

41- Intralingual error Def.: errors in L2 that are not due to interference from
L1. These are also sometimes termed developmental
errors, meaning that they represent incomplete
learning of L2 rules or overgeneralization of them.
E.g.: Do you can sing?

42- Interlingual error Errors that result from negative transfer of L1 to L2.

43- Mistake The L2 learner masters the language but he makes a

slip

44- Error The L2 learner does not master the language area
concerned. There are performance errors and
competence errors

45- Post-systematic A slip; the learner's interlanguage system is pretty

error much mastered. An error can be self-corrected without
prompting.

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46- Pre-systematic An error made because the learner is unaware of the
error rule

47- Systematic error An error which occurs due to a consistent problem.

48- Fossilization SLA When an error becomes a permanent feature of a

learner's interlanguage. In theory such errors are
resistant to correction. It has been hypothesized that
the lack of instruction (and therefore the lack of a
focus on form) is the main cause. May also be due to a
lack of negative feedback on errors or the lack of a
push to make learners' output more accurate. Some
learners also have no social motivation to improve
their interlanguage.

49- Contrastive Robert Lado and BF Skinner (1957) say the main idea
analysis hypothesis of this theory is that L1 rules can either help or hinder
the learning and acqusition of L2

50- Global error An error which impedes communication and requires

intervention to 'repair' it

51- Local error An error that does not prevent a message from being
understood

52- Intrinsic A desire to perform a behavior effectively for its own

motivation sake

53- Extrinsic The external drive to do something because you are

motivation receiving something or given a reason to do so

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54- Integrative Need to learn to fully integrate into a community that
motivation uses the language.

55- Instrumental The desire to learn an L2, not to join the community of
motivation L2-users, but to achieve some other goal (travel to a
country or pass a test)

56- Tolerant of A type of learner who can stay in uncertainty, despite

ambiguity the discomfort of not knowing the answer

57- Intolerant of a type of learner who cannot stay in uncertainty (e.g.

ambiguity he/she wants to understand every word)

58- Risk taker a type of learner who approaches unfamiliar situations

and uncertainty with courage and forethought

59- Risk averse a type of learner who is unable to approach unfamiliar

situations and uncertainty with courage and
forethought

60- Field-independent Learners with a cognitive style that allows them to

learners solve problems without much outside assistance and to
focus on the specific steps of a task without being
distracted by the full external environment, or "the
field"

61- Field-dependent a field-dependent learning style is defined by a relative

learning inability to distinguish detail from other information
around it.

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62- Syllabus-free A learner who can learn from general elements in a
learning context and outside the classroom

63- Syllabus-bound A learner who needs the 'packaging' and presentation

of data which the teacher, syllabus or course provides

64- Reflective learner Reflective learners like to think about language and
how to convey their message accurately. They tend not
to make so many mistakes because they take time in
formulating what they want to say.

65- Impulsive learner Impulsive learners take risks with the language. They
are more concerned with speaking fluently than
speaking accurately, and so make more mistakes.

66- Bilabial Sound Formed by using both lips (p, b, m)

67- Labiodental formed with the upper teeth and lower lip (f, v)
Sounds

68- Interdental Sounds are produced by placing the tip of the tongue between
the teeth (th, eth)

69- Alveolar Sounds formed with the front part of the tongue on the
alveolar ridge (t, s, d, z, n)

70- Alveopalatal sound formed with the tongue on the hard palate [ʃ], [ʒ], [tʃ],
[dʒ]

71- Velar sound formed with the tongue on soft palate [k], [g], [ŋ]

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72- Stops air fully blocked
p, b, t, d, k, g, glottal stop

73- Fricatives air partially blocked

/f/,/v/, /ð/,/θ/,
/ʃ/ /ʒ/ /s/ /z/

74- Affricates air blocked totally then partially

/ʧ,ʤ/

75- Nasals air flows through nasal passage

/m/,/n/,[ŋ]

76- Retroflex backward movement of tongue blocks air /r/

77- Lateral air blocked in the middle, not at sides /l/

78- Semi-vowels almost no air blockage /j/ /w/

79- Super-ordinate is the super-ordinate of car, bus, etc.

vehicle

80- Hyponym/(co)- bus, car, taxi, motorbike, plane, ferry

hyponym

81- Lexical set a group of words which belong to the same category
e.g. apple, banana, pineapple

82- Lexical /semantic The topic that most of the words are based on
field E.g. things you find in a kitchen, clothes

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83- Polysemy A word that has 2 or more related messages or
meanings.
It is the opposite of ‘monosemy’ (a one-to-one match
between a word and a meaning).
E.g.:
(1) the word ‘branch’ may mean a branch of a tree, or
a branch of a company
Play (something done for pleasure, a drama, a
game, etc.)

84- Homonymy refers to the situation where two or more words have
the same form but differ in their meanings.
E.g. a table; to table a motion

85- Homophony two words with different meanings have the same
pronunciation
E.g. blue vs. blew

86- Partial synonymy words have the same denotation, but tend to differ in
connotations
e.g. ashamed-embarrassed; motorway-highway

87- Gradable words that represent two ends of a spectrum

antonyms e.g. hot-cold

88- Non-gradable Words which are direct opposites (e.g. alive-dead)

antonyms

89- Borders of when meanings overlap, e.g. table –desk

meaning

90- Connotation when some words have similar meanings but they are
used in different contexts

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 e.g. skinny-thin-slim-emaciated

91- Register A form of language appropriate to a particular

situation.
e.g. bad tummy ache vs. acute gastroenteritis

92- Style A basic and distinctive mode of expression.

e.g. Get lost! vs. Could you go away please?

93- Collocation Words that frequently occur together. Can be

grammatical (collocate with specific prepositions:
"account for") or lexical: "narrow escape."

94- Phrasal verb A multi-word verb which consists of a verb and a

preposition or adverb that modifies or changes the
meaning can be separable or non-separable
e.g. turn the light on, walk away, stand up

95- Prepositional verb A multi-word verb which consists of a verb and a

preposition and the two parts cannot be separated
e.g. apply for a job

96- Dependent a preposition whose meaning can not be worked out in

preposition isolation; it must be learned with the preceding
adjective or verb
e.g. interested in, fond of

97- Predicative or Adjectives in the first position - before the noun - are
attributive position called ATTRIBUTIVE adjectives. Those in the
second position - after the noun - are called
PREDICATIVE adjectives. Notice that predicative
adjectives do not occur immediately after the noun.
Instead, they follow a verb.

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 He's calm. He's a calm person.
He's asleep. The asleep man??

98- Affixation prefixes and suffixes added to existing words

e.g. DIShonestY

99- Root the main part of a word which cannot be divided into
further elements, e.g. rain

100- Derivative A word that comes from another word, e.g. rainy

101- Stress shift Changing the stress from one syllable to another
changes the meaning and the pronunciation, as in
"reCORD" (verb) and "REcord" (noun)

102- Consonant group of consonants which have no intervening vowel,

clusters ie. /spl/ + /ts/ for "splits"

103- Weak forms When a sound is unstressed.

e.g. ph_o_togr_a_ph_e_r

104- Repetition repetition of encounters (e.g. reading the same word at

least 7 times over spaced intervals) helps

105- Retrieval a kind of repetition where the word is retrieved from

memory, e.g. using the word in a sentence. the act of
retrieving a word from memory

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106- Spacing distributing memory work over a period of time

107- Pacing allowing learners time during vocab slots to do their

preferred kind of memory work, to silently and
individually review the vocabulary

108- Use getting learners to use the words in some sort of

engaging, meaningful way

109- Cognitive depth learners make decisions about words. the more
demanding the decision, the better for memory

110- Affective depth the decision making is based on an affective judgment,

e.g. does the word have any pleasant or unpleasant
associations for me?

111- Personal judgments made are best if personalised, e.g. putting a

organising word in a sentence made by the learner

112- Imaging visualising a mental pic that goes with the word, the
image doesn't need to be creative, but rather generated
by the learner. Easily visualised words are more
memorable and therefore applying this to more
abstract words may help.

113- Mnemonics tricks to help retrieve items, often visual in nature. L2

word is visually associated with an L1-word

114- Motivation motivated learners are more likely to work on

rehearsal and practice

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115- Attention/arousal very high degree of conscious attention: the more
conscious attention is paid, the better the recall

116- Pure modal a modal verb which

-takes the inf without to
-has no special third person form
-the neg is formed by adding not
-the question is formed by inverting the subject and
the modal verb
-cannot be preceded by other aux
-there's no past form

117- Process writing an approach to writing, some characteristics:

-ideas as starting point
-more than one draft
-collaborative
-emphasis on creative process
-writing is about linguistic skills
-cyclical process
stages: pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing

118- Product writing an approach to writing (e.g. NEF), some

characteristics:
-Ss imitate a text
-one draft
- thr organisation of ideas is more imp than the ideas
themselves
-individual
-emphasis on end product
-writing is about linguistic knowledge
-linear

119- Coherence The relationship which link the meanings of utterances

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 in a discourse or of the sentences in a text; the quality
of being meaningful and whole

120- Cohesion The use of grammatical and lexical means to achieve

connected text, either spoken or written
These include reference words, e.g. this, the, it, linkers
and topic-related lexis
-the grammatical and lexical relationship between the
elements of a text

121- Ellipsis the omission from a clause of one or more words that
are nevertheless understood in the context of the
remaining elements
nominal ellipsis: the teacher went to the board and
wrote on it
(been there, done that)
verbal ellipsis: I could tell you but I won't

122- Substitution Definition: use of (usually) determiners and adverbs

of place and time to substitute a previous element to
avoid repetition. A type of grammatical cohesion.
E.g.:
I think not
I thought so
I have some

123- Exophoric Exophoric language points to something outside the

referencing language of the text, which is understood in the
context:
“Take a look at this.”
Here, this refers to something that the speaker and
listener can see and understand, but which has no
meaning outside the context- we don't know what this
is- exophora.
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124- Cataphoric Cataphoric reference means that a word in a text
referencing refers to another later in the text and you need to
look forward to understand. It can be compared
with anaphoric reference, which means a word
refers back to another word for its meaning.
Example:
(1) 'When he arrived, John noticed that the door
was open'.
(2) When I first laid yes on her, I thought how
beautiful Katy looked.

125- Anaphoric Anaphoric reference means that a word in a text

referencing refers back to other ideas in the text for its
meaning. It can be compared with cataphoric
reference, which means a word refers to ideas later
in the text.

Example
(1) ‘I went out with Jo on Sunday. She looked
awful.' ´She` clearly refers to Jo, there is no need to
repeat her name.
(2) ‘John? Yes, I just saw him.’

126- Additive are coordinating conjunctions used to denote addition.

(copulative) E.g.: ‘I like coffee and chocolate’
conjunction

127- Adversative the conjunctive relation of units that expresses the

conjunction opposition of their meanings
E.g.: I like chocolate, but it makes me gain weight.

128- Causal It is a conjunction that involves reason, result and

conjunction purpose.

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 as a result of, because are causal conjunctions

129- Temporal A temporal conjunction tells us about the time. When

conjunction will something happen? Which of the two happened
first? Below is a list of commonly used temporal
connectives.
Examples: during, after, as, as soon as, etc.

130- Lexical cohesion refers to the ties created between lexical elements,
such as words, groups and phrases
E.g.: using
- repetition
-lexical substituition: the general was a man
-lexical chains: i'm a total petrol-head...cars are my
passion
-signalling: the problem...the answer..
-register

131- Rhetorical question / answer

cohesion -parallelism:
a) grammatical we shall fight...we shall fight...
b) sound - rhythm
c) semantic - 2 sentences are linked

132- Sociocultural The knowledge of the topic and the other culture,
knowledge including familiarity with the speakers

133- Genre knowledge knowing whether a conversation is interactional or

transactional

134- Discourse The ability of making connections between utterances

knowledge effectively, including using discourse markers

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135- Pragmatic Knowledge of a speaker's purposes so that speech acts
Knowledge (also called functions) can be interpreted correctly.

136- Parataxis Def.:It is when phrases and clauses are placed one
after another independently, without coordinating or
subordinating them through the use of conjunctions.
Further point:
It is the opposite of ‘hypotaxis’
E.g.:“
I came, I saw, I conquered.”

137- Hypotaxis Def.:It is when the clauses are coordinated or

subordinated to one another within sentences to
convey logical, causal or temporal relationships within
the clauses in a sentence.
Further point:
It is the opposite of ‘parataxis’.
E.g.:
“When I was around nine or ten I wrote a play”

138- Formulaic Def.: Phrases acquired as unanalyzed wholes by

Expressions second language learners.
For example: an ELL may not know for some time
that "How do you do?" is not a single word but four
separate words.

139- Clarifying what Def.: It is a communicative skill where the speaker

you said rephrase what he said in simpler or more
understandable words. Further point:
It is used to ensure that the listeners understand the
message of the speaker.
E.g.: "I mean..."
“In other words, …”

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140- Topic nomination Def.: It is a communicative skill; it is a way to enter
into topic talk.
Further point:
It is accomplished when a person makes a
statement or a question which leads to a particular
topic.
E.g.:
"We should move on to the next topic"

141- Interrupting / Def.: It is a communicative skill; it ist he violation of

getting a turn turn-taking rules of conversation. The next speaker
begins to speak while the current speaker is still
speaking.
Further point:
An interruption breaks the symmetry of any
conversational models.
E.g.:
"Yeah, but..."

142- Giving up a turn / Def.: The manner in which the speaker invites the
inviting other people to listener(s) to speak while the former listens for
speak different purposes (obtaining information, asking for
opinion, etc.)
Further point:
To know when it is acceptable to take or give up a turn
in conversation is essential as it leads to the
cooperative development of discourse
E.g.:
Speaker: “So how are you, people?”
Listeners: “We are fine, but …”
Or
Speaker: “Do you agree?”

21
143- Checking / Def.: It is a communicative skill; seeking clarification
seeking clarification means to offer back the essential meaning to the
speaker as understood by the listener. Thereby
checking that the listener's understanding is
correct and resolving any areas of confusion or
misunderstanding.
Further point:
Clarification is important being communicated is
difficult in some way. Communication can be
'difficult' for many reasons, perhaps sensitive
emotions are being discussed - or you are listening
to some complex information or following
instructions.
E.g.:
Checking what you understood is correct: "Right?"
Clarifying what you said: "I mean..."
Asking for clarification:
“When you said ........ what did you mean?”

144- Circumlocution Def.: It's a communication strategy that uses many

words where fewer ones would do, especially in a
deliberate attempt to be vague or evasive.
Circumlocution means “talking around” or “talking in
circles.” It’s when you want to discuss something, but
don’t want to make any direct reference to it, so you
create a way to get around the subject.
The key to the definition of circumlocution is that the
statement has to be unnecessarily long and
complicated
E.g.:
“the vehicle that I use to drive to work in the
mornings” is a circumlocution for “my car.”

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145- Back-channelling Def.: a feature of speaker support: non-verbal
/active listening comm. utterances to show attention or agreement; it reassures
skill the listener that the listeners are following the story
sympathetically.
E.g.: ‘aha’, 'yeah' or 'OK'

146- Foreignizing a Def.: Using a native word by adjusting it to the

word second-language phonology (i.e. pronunciation) and/or
morphology (e.g. suffixes)
E.g.: “Shiros” used by some Japanese – Americans to
refer to “Whites” because the Japanese word for the
color white is “shiro”.

147- Achievement Def.: A test which evaluates a learner's

test understanding of specific material
E.g.: end-of-the-year tests

148- Diagnostic test Def.: A test which identifies areas to work on

E.g.: English diagnostic tests, medical diagnostic tests,
etc.

149- Prognostic test Def.: A test which tries to predict a learner's ability
to complete a course or take an exam.
E.g.: placement tests

150- Interlanguage Def.: The 'separateness' of a second language learner's

system - it falls between the system of the native
language and the target language. It is also called an
approximative system and idiosyncratic dialect.

23