Quick Reference A-C

Back to ELT Terms

Source: English Club www.macmillan.com.mx



 G
Gap-fill exercises See Fill-in exercises.

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Graded language This is language that has been adapted according to the level of the students.

The standard structural-situational grammar presentation is an example of a presentation using graded language.

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Graded sequence See Grading Language.

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Grading language This is adapting the language according to the level of the students.

The standard structural-situational grammar presentation is an example of grading language.

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Grammar / Translation method An old-fashioned teaching technique that involves rote learning of verbs and vocabulary, together with translation of sentences from L1 to L2 and vice versa.

Just because it’s old fashioned doesn’t mean that it’s wrong! In fact, translation (as a way of comparing L1 and L2, and developing learner awareness) is back in favor as an ELT tool.

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Gross motor skills See Fine motor skills / Gross motor skills.

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Guessing meaning An important reading skill. Students read a passage which contains new words and phrases. They try to guess the meaning of the new words and phrases by their context.

Guessing meaning is an example of a situation where students should be allowed to use their L1 in class as it may be very difficult for them to give the meaning in the target language.

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 H
Hand-eye coordination Most of the hand movements we make require visual input to be carried out effectively. For example, when a child is learning to write, he follows the position of his hands visually as he makes lines on the paper.

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Heuristics Simple rules which students use when speaking or writing L2.

Examples:
Spelling and pronunciation rules, such as
i before e except after c
(When i and e come together, i is always first, e.g. pier unless there’s a letter c before them, in which case e comes before i e.g. receive.)

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High challenge See Challenge.

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 I
Identifying key words An important reading skill. Students underline the key words in a text, or complete a table with key words from the text.

Example:
Students read a description of a house and complete a table with key words. The completed table might look like this:

Location: near the town, on a hill
Size: big
Rooms: kitchen, sitting room, dining room, study, 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms
Special features: large garden, swimming pool
General impression: very comfortable, expensive.

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Identifying the source of written material An important reading skill. It involves using the features of the text – sentence length, choice of vocabulary, layout etc. – to determine where a text is from (an encyclopaedia, an advertisement, a business letter, etc.).

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Identifying the topic sentence A reading skill. The idea is to find the sentence in a paragraph which gives the idea of what the paragraph is about.

However, many authentic reading materials do not contain a single clearly identifiable topic sentence. So topic sentence activities often have to use specially-written paragraphs.

With authentic and semi-authentic materials it’s often more appropriate to use skills such as skimming and reading for gist.

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Immersion This approach tries to reproduce the experience of being in the L2 country in class using these techniques:

  • No textbooks or notebook, only authentic materials.
  • No grading of the language.
  • Using several teachers who may have conversations between themselves, or ungraded conversations with the students.
  • Only using L2.
  • No grammar or vocabulary explanations.


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Inductive / Deductive The deductive approach goes from the rule to the example.

Example:
You could present the negative past simple to your students by giving them the rule Pronoun + didn’t + infinitive
and then elicit examples of the negative past simple from the students.

The inductive approach goes from the example to the rule.

Example:
You could present the negative past simple to your students by giving them six model sentences.
After choral and individual drills, you could then elicit the grammatical rule from the students.

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Inferential listening In an inferential listening exercise, the answers to the question you ask the students are not in the language of the tape. Students must infer the answers from a range of clues.

Example:
Students listen to a tape of an argument in an office. They identify the people who are angry and the people who are trying to stop the argument.

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Information gap A simple type of communicative activity, usually in pairs.

Student A has half of the information.
Student B has the other half of the information.
They must ask each other questions to complete their information.

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Information transfer One of the reading skills. Information transfer involves using information presented in one way and transforming it to, or comparing it with, information presented in another.

Examples:
  • Reading an itinerary and drawing the route on a map.
  • Getting information from a graph and completing sentences to present the information.

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Input / Output Input is the language which students are exposed to in class.
This can be via presentations, reading passages, listenings and so on.

Input can be graded, as in a Structural-Situational presentation, or it can be ungraded, as in a deep end strategy or a listening task using authentic material.

Output is the language which students produce during the class, through speaking or writing.

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Instructivism A theory of teaching. The basic idea of instructivism is that teaching is just a matter of giving facts to students.

Instructivist classes work in transmission mode. This means that the flow of information is one way, from the teacher to students. The students are simply passive receivers of knowledge.

The opposite approach to instructivism is Constructivism.

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Integrating skills This is when we do a sequence of exercises with our students using different skills, transferring information from one skill to another.

Example:
  1. Identifying the key words in a reading text about the climate of North America.
  2. Using the key words to write a summary of the text.
  3. In pairs, asking and answering questions about the climate of North America.
  4. Listening to a tape of a person talking about the climate of North America and identifying the new information in the tape, compared with the reading text.
This sequence of activities integrates all four skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening.

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Intensive reading See Extensive / Intensive reading.

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Intransitive verbs See Transitive / Intransitive verbs.

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