| J |
| Jigsaw
listening |
A
technique for developing listening skills. Students listen to
sections of a listening passage in the wrong order. They have
to decide on the correct order.
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| Jigsaw
reading |
A
technique for developing reading skills. Students are given
sections of a reading text which they have to arrange in the
correct order.
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|
| K |
| Key |
In
textbooks, the set of answers to an exercise is sometimes
called the Key or Answer Key.
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| Key
questions |
Questions
you can ask your students to check they understand the meaning
of a new structure.
Example:
You’ve taught your students the simple past with sentences
like “He went to the museum on Saturday.”
You check they understand the idea of the past with questions
like:
Is he at the museum now?
Is he going to the museum tomorrow?
Does he go to the museum every day?
Where was he on Saturday?
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| Key
words |
The
key words in a text are the words which contain the
most important information.
Example: A text about a house might begin:
It’s a big house near the town and it has a swimming
pool.
The key words would be big, near the town, swimming pool.
Identifying
key words in a text is an important reading
skill.
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| Kinesthetic
learners |
Kinesthetic
(or Kinaesthetic) learners learn best when there is a
strong element of physical response in the learning process
– gesturing, mime or TPR.
Kinesthetic learning is particularly important at the
preschool and primary level.
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|
| L |
| L1
/ L2 |
L1
is the students’ native language.
L2 is the language which the students are learning.
Example:
A class of Mexican students learning English:
Their L1 is Spanish.
Their L2 is English.
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| L1
interference |
Students’
errors are sometimes the result of trying to express
themselves using the structures of their native language.
Example:
A Spanish-speaking student who says:
The people in Mexico is very friendly.
instead of
The people in Mexico are very friendly.
(Because gente is singular, but people plural.)
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| L2
competence |
A
students’ ability to communicate effectively in the target
language. This involves use of both receptive
and productive language skills.
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| Language
acquisition / Language learning |
Language
acquisition is the process by which children learn their
native language. They can achieve full competence in speaking
without any formal instruction.
Language learning is the process by which we learn a
language through formal instruction. Adults taking English
classes are learning the language, not acquiring it.
The distinction sometimes becomes blurred, as in the case of
children learning a second language at school, or an adult
“picking up” a language by living in the country but not
taking language classes.
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| Language
Learning |
See
Language
acquisition / Language learning.
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| Laterality |
The
tendency for the left side and the right side of the brain and
the body to develop special functions.
Examples:
Most people use either their right hand or their left hand for
writing. Very few people can use both. Most right-handed
people have their language abilities concentrated in the left
hemisphere of the brain.
Laterality develops throughout childhood. Babies and very
young children often use their hands indiscriminately, but by
adolescence laterality is usually fully established.
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| Lead-in |
A
lead-in introduces the theme of the class to the
students, or prepares the students for a new activity during
the lesson. Lead-ins can be in English or the students’
native language.
Remember that students can understand much more than they can
produce, so you can explain and involve the students using
language more complex than they are capable of producing.
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| Learner
autonomy |
A
key concept in modern teaching theory. The main idea behind learner
autonomy is that students should take responsibility for
their own learning, rather than be dependent on the teacher.
Learner autonomy involves ideas such as:
- the teacher becoming less of an instructor and more of a
facilitator
- discouraging students from relying on the teacher as the
main source of knowledge
- encouraging students’ capacity to learn for themselves
- encouraging students to make decisions about what they
learn
- encouraging students’ awareness of their own learning
styles
- encouraging students to develop their own learning
strategies
Several recent technological developments have helped
encourage greater learner autonomy. CD-ROMs are available for
complete language courses, or as supplementary material for
textbooks. Through the Internet, students can take self-access
or distance learning language courses. Many schools and
universities have their own intranets to complement
traditional courses. These developments will probably never
completely replace the classroom and the teacher, but are
already dramatically changing our role as teachers.
Related ideas: cogntivism,
learner
training, learning
strategies, learning
styles.
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| Learner
training |
The
key phrase in learner training is learning to learn.
Key ideas in learner-training are:
- taking responsibility for your own learning
- awareness of how you learn
- awareness of what is being learned
- awareness of what has been learned
- awareness of what you still need to learn
- organization of notebooks
- development of study skills
- developing learning
strategies
Learner-training is closely related to the idea of Learner
autonomy.
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| Learning
strategies |
The
different techniques which students develop as they learn the
target language.
Examples:
- writing grammatical rules
- working out their own rules (see Heuristics)
- organizing vocabulary into lexical sets.
- practising the language on chat-lines or face to face
with speakers of the language
Learning strategies are a key part of Learner
training, which itself is a concept closely related to
Learner
autonomy.
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| Learning
styles |
Different
students learn in different ways.
Examples:
- Some students prefer to see new structures in writing
before they try to say it – they are visual learners.
- Some students are confused by new written language. They
prefer to speak the new language first – they are oral
learners.
- Some students need to copy the new language in their
notebooks before they try to produce it.
- Students can also differ in the time they need between
new language input
and output. Some students like to have a silent
period when they can listen to the language without
producing it.
- Other students need to speak new language immediately.
Learning styles affect all the processes of learning a
language: how much is remembered; how much recycling is
needed; how quickly material is learned and so on.
The idea of learning styles is a feature of key areas of ELT
such as Multiple
Intelligences, Learner
Training and Constructivism.
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| Lexical
approach |
The
lexical approach rejects the traditional split of
language into grammar and vocabulary. Instead, it proposes
four types of language:
1. Words, e.g. ball, chair, car.
2. Chunks – words that often occur together, e.g. a
crime has been committed, get in touch with the police.
3. Fixed phrases, e.g. Can I help you?
4. Semi-fixed phrases, e.g. It’s great to see you,
It’s lovely to see you, Great to see you again, etc.
A key concept in this approach is collocation,
which is closely related to the idea of word chunks.
The lexical approach emphasizes the need for very large
amounts of input,
and encourages students to recognize and use grammatical
structures without explicitly teaching them.
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| Lexical
set |
Words
that belong to a particularly group. This group could be a:
1. Semantic group
Example: cat, dog, elephant, snake
belong to the semantic group Animals.
2. Syntactical group
Example: pretty, long, unusual, frightening
belong to the syntactical group Adjectives.
3. Functional group
Example: Hello, Hi, Good morning, Hello there
belong to the functional group Greetings.
Lexical sets are often referred to as Word Families.
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| Lexis |
The
lexis of a language is the complete set of words used
in that language.
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| Listening
for detail |
An
important listening
skill. Students listen to a tape and get the most
important information from it. To focus the students’
attention, they can be given questions about the tape before
they listen to it.
Example:
Students listen to a tape about the problems of the world.
Before listening, they read questions such as:
1. What does the speaker think are the five main
problems of the world?
2. Which country does he give as an example of each
problem?
3. What solution does he suggest for each problem?
Students can then try to answer one or more of the questions
before listening (a pre-listening
activity), or listen to the tape and then answer the
questions.
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| Listening
for gist |
An
important listening
skill. Students listen to a tape and answer general
questions about it to show that they understand the main idea.
Example:
Students listen to a tape about the problems of the world and
answer questions such as:
1. Is the speaker optimistic or pessimistic?
2. Does the speaker think there are a lot of problems
in the world?
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| Listening
for specific information |
An
important listening
skill. Students listen for a short list of specific
information on a tape which contains other information as
well.
Example: Students listen to a tape of a person asking
for information about a flight times. They answer questions
such as:
1. What are the numbers of the flights to France?
2. What times are the flights to France?
3. How long does it take to fly to France?
Listening for specific information is similar to Listening
for detail. The difference is that in Listening for
specific information, students are required to distinguish
relevant information from irrelevant information. In Listening
for detail, the students are required to extract all the
information.
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| Listening
skills |
Some
of the most important listening skills are:
Click on the text to go to the relevant entry.
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| Lockstep |
A
lockstep activity is when all the language produced in
the class is directly controlled by the teacher.
A choral drill
is an example of a lockstep activity.
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| Look
and Say approach |
See
Whole
word approach.
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| Low
challenge |
See
Challenge.
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