Glossary

The researcher Jim Cummins introduced this term (originally ‘cognitive academic language proficiency’) in the 1970s (Baker and Hornberger, 2001). Academic language is used in formal educational contexts. It differs from language used in other contexts, such as in conversation, and is generally more difficult to understand and learn. Consequently, proficiency in academic language takes much longer to develop, especially for second-language learners. (See also second-language learning delay .) The vocabulary in academic language is less common, and the words are usually longer and often refer to more abstract concepts. Academic language is generally less contextualised – there are fewer supports (such as gesture or one-on-one eye contact) to help the listener understand or interpret the message. There are also differences in sentence and text structure.

Academic vocabulary refers to the terms that are common across a range of academic areas, but not often used in everyday contexts. It includes the vocabulary required to cope with classroom discussion and curriculum content.

Accuracy relates to the number of mistakes a speaker (or writer) makes, and whether they use the forms that are expected for the type of text they are producing. For example, it would be ‘inaccurate’ to use very formal language in a personal note to a friend, just as it is inaccurate to make mistakes such as *’he was falled down’. (In linguistics, an asterisk * marks an incorrect form.)

If bilingualism is seen as a positive phenomenon in the wider society, and if both languages are valued and encouraged, then a context of additive bilingualism will result. Bilingual peoples will be able to use both languages extensively and are likely to have high proficiency in both languages.

The view that bilingualism is additive is based on the key principle of language interdependence and is, consequently, the most successful view, educationally, for bilingual students. The time and effort spent using the first language is regarded as increasing the possibility of achieving good levels of proficiency in the second language and in school learning.

The purpose of an argument text is to persuade the reader to agree with a point of view. For a description of some features typical of this genre, see page 157 of Exploring Language: A Handbook for Teachers (Ministry of Education, 1996).

The attitudes held by learners and the wider community include their beliefs and values in relation to languages and language learning. These attitudes affect people’s language use, development, and learning.

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People who are able to use their two languages equally or with equal levels of proficiency are sometimes referred to as balanced bilinguals.

See split information activities , which were originally called barrier activities because two people sat on either side of a screen or barrier to prevent them seeing each other’s material.

Bilingual education is where two languages are used, each of them as a medium for learning. Generally, about half of the curriculum is taught in each language.

Bilingualism means using two languages, not necessarily with equal proficiency. (See also the entries for additive bilingual context , subtractive bilingual context , additive view of bilingualism and subtractive view of bilingualism .)

Biliteracy is the ability to read and write (as well as speak) in two languages, such as English and a Pasifika language. The long-term educational success of Pasifika bilingual students is most likely to be ensured by the promotion of biliteracy in English and a Pasifika language.

A person who is biliterate is able to read and write (as well as speak) in two languages. Sometimes bilingual people speak two languages, but only read and write in one of them. (See also biliteracy .)

This refers to the integrated processing of languages in the brain of a bilingual person. The languages are stored and processed together, not kept entirely separate. (See also common underlying proficiency .)

A request to clarify what has been said – for example, when you indicate that you haven’t understood what someone said by asking them to explain or repeat it.

A language-learning task has a closed outcome when only certain outcomes or solutions are correct. Problem-solving tasks often have closed outcomes, while role-play and interviews generally have an open outcome.

See code switching .

It is common for bilinguals to switch between languages in a single sentence or conversation. This is called code switching or code mixing . There is nearly always a reason for code switching, as bilinguals (including children) make sophisticated and subtle distinctions in their messages by using their two (or more) languages in this way. See the inquiry Why do bilinguals ‘switch’ languages? . Code switching may also be used to compensate for a lack of knowledge in a new language. Learners use a word or phrase from their first language when they don’t know the word or phrase in the second language. This is a natural part of language learning, particularly in the early stages, and plays a crucial role in language development.

A collocation consists of two or more words that are commonly associated in a particular language, such as ‘read about’ or ‘white lies’. A word may take on a specific meaning when collocated with certain other words.

Research supports this model of how bilingual knowledge and ability is stored in the brain. Rather than having two separate areas for different languages, the two languages are stored together and the knowledge is linked and can interact. The two languages are kept separate only at the surface level, where they are used to speak, read, write, and so on. They are like an iceberg, with a single big mass under the surface and two small peaks showing above it. This way of understanding bilingualism is also sometimes referred to as the iceberg analogy.

Complex sentences contain many groups of words and ideas in smaller phrases and clauses. They are usually long sentences because of their many parts. Complex sentences are necessary because more complex ideas cannot always be easily expressed in simple or compound sentences. Students need to learn to speak and write using increasingly complex sentences themselves as they progress with their education. Note that the term ‘complex sentence’ has a specific grammatical meaning.

In language learning, complexity relates to the number of different words a person uses, the variety and complexity of the grammatical structures they use, and the complexity of their sentences. (See the inquiry What makes sentences hard for learners? .) It also relates to the complexity of texts. (See the inquiry Finding information in complex texts .)

Input to the language-learning processes comes from the language we hear or read. If we are able to understand what we hear or read, the input is comprehensible. (See also comprehension hypothesis .)

Stephen Krashen put forward the comprehension hypothesis to suggest that learners of a language do not need direct teaching. His hypothesis is that they can learn all they need to from receiving input that is at just the right level for them and includes a small number of new items understandable from the surrounding context of language and non-language features. Subsequent research has shown that input alone is not enough for learners to reach the highest levels of academic language proficiency needed for success in education. (See also interaction hypothesis and the inquiries Learning from talking and writing and Learning from listening and reading .)

Consecutive bilinguals are those people who learned their second language (or further additional languages) after their first, usually through schooling and/or as the result of shifting to another country or language context. They are also sometimes referred to as sequential bilinguals .

Convergent thinking is the ability to synthesise a number of pieces of information to arrive at the correct answer. Research has found that bilingual learners consistently perform better than monolingual learners in both divergent and convergent thinking tests. (See also divergent thinking .)

In cooperative learning, students work together, sharing material, supporting each other, and taking joint responsibility for the outcome of the learning tasks. The cooperative learning approach emphasises the development of positive interdependence between group members, interpersonal skills, effective face-to-face oral communication, individual accountability, and group and individual processing and reflection. (See the inquiry A caring and inclusive classroom environment and the website links and http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/intech/cooperativelearning.htm .) www.co-operation.org

The curriculum statements for the various learning areas are the official statements of government policy for teaching, learning, and assessment in New Zealand schools.

The New Zealand Curriculum’s (2007) principal function is to set the direction for student learning and to provide guidance for schools as they design and review their curriculum. A parallel document, Te Marautanga o Aotearoa, will serve the same function for Māori-medium schools.

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Sometimes differences in achievement by Pasifika students have been ‘explained’ by attributing the problem to the students’ bilingualism, their families, or their community background. The student is considered to have a lack or deficit (in themselves or their background) that prevents them from reaching high levels of academic performance. This view is incorrect. (See also subtractive view of bilingualism .)

Discourse is the level of language beyond the sentence. Spoken discourse can refer to oral texts such as dialogues or monologues, while written discourse can refer to parts of written texts or entire written texts.

Divergent thinking is the ability to generate a whole series of permissible solutions from a given starting point – for example, if a person was asked to: “Think of a paper clip and tell me all the things you could do with it.” Research has found that bilingual learners consistently perform better than monolingual students in both divergent and convergent thinking. (See also convergent thinking .)

Language domains are different contexts of use for languages – for example, education, church/religion, family, friends, and employment. Bilingual people often use their first and second languages in different domains.

EAL refers to students who are adding English to the languages they already know, usually at the same time as they are learning with English as the medium of instruction. Other acronyms such as ESOL and ESL are also used to describe students in this group.

Sometimes texts are simplified to try to make them easier for learners, but elaboration can help learners, too. When texts are elaborated, extra phrases and information are added to explain things more thoroughly and make the meaning clearer. When teachers or parents read books to children, they often elaborate the text with spoken commentaries and explanations. Students also have to learn to elaborate their language contributions beyond a few words, to ensure that the ideas are explored more fully and made clear enough for someone who knows nothing about the topic to understand what is being said.

This is the type of input students receive when we take a text they are working with and highlight examples of a particular feature we want them to pay attention to.

The term ESB usually refers to students whose first language is English.

The term ESL is not used as much as in the past because many students who are learning English learn it as a third or fourth language. In addition, if they are bilingual Pasifika children growing up in New Zealand, they may learn English from early infancy, even if the main language spoken in the home is a Pasifika language. (See also simultaneous bilinguals .)

EAL (English as an additional language) is another commonly used term in acquiring English as another language.

This is an important feature of language-learning tasks (according to the definition in Ellis, 2000). Exchanging information affects how students interact and therefore also affects the opportunities they have to use and learn new language. If students can complete a language-learning task only by telling each other certain things, then there is an exchange of information. (See also one-way exchange , two-way exchange , shared information activities , and split information activities .)

Explicit feedback is clearly and fully expressed. For example, explicit feedback from a teacher to a student clearly signals to the student what the feedback is commenting on, what the teacher’s comment is, and what the student should do about it. (See the inquiry Feedback can help students notice grammar .)

Explicit knowledge of the target language means consciously held knowledge. It includes all the features of the target language that the teacher gives explicit instruction about and the learner consciously learns, such as grammatical rules. It also includes the metalanguage or metatalk for discussing language.

When teachers plan opportunities for students to discuss curriculum topics with their peers, this is sometimes referred to as exploratory talk. When students engage in activities such as problem-solving or brainstorming, they are exploring concepts through listening and talking. An important feature of exploratory talk is that students are able to try out and practise ways of using new language without any pressure to use correct language. The processes facilitated by interaction ( noticing , hypothesis testing , metatalk , and feedback ) are able to operate. (See the inquiry What do students learn from interaction? .)

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When a teacher or peers give feedback on language usage to a student, they respond to what the student has said or written. For example, the feedback that comes from a peer may be in the form of checks for comprehension or requests for repetition or clarification. The teacher may make a correction or explain the mistake. Feedback on language usage can be explicit or implicit .

Fishbone mapping is a way of setting out a diagram to show the structure and relationships of ideas and language in a text. (See the inquiry Scaffolding students’ writing .)

‘Fluency’ in productive language can be simply a measure of how many connected words a person can say or write in a given time. Fluency measures for speaking may also take into account the number of hesitations, self-corrections, repetitions, and space fillers like ‘um’. A person may speak quite slowly but be very fluent because none of these ‘interruptions’ occur.

Focus on form refers to drawing the students’ attention to a language form incidentally, while focusing primarily on meaning. (See the inquiry Helping students notice words and grammar for some examples of this approach.) Both this term and the one below refer to the way in which the forms of a language are drawn to the students’ attention in teaching.

Focus on forms refers to a teaching approach where the language forms are the main focus and attention to meaning is incidental. Examples include learning spelling lists, practising word recognition in word squares, and lessons focusing on the different parts of an essay structure and the words and phrases used to introduce each part. Both this term and the one above refer to the way in which the forms of a language are drawn to the students’ attention in teaching.

When people are talking about language, they generally contrast ‘form’ with ‘meaning’. A person may communicate their meaning quite well, but their language forms may be incorrect. Examples of language form are: spelling, using correct plurals, using the correct past tense forms of words, and using correct question forms. Form can also apply to the longer structures in sentences and texts.

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Generic patterning refers to the patterns associated with using language to achieve particular purposes and is realised in different text types. (See also genres below.)

The term ‘genres’ describes different patterns found in spoken and written discourse. Written language, like oral language, fulfils different purposes. Those purposes arise over and over again. Some language features and some text structures are particularly associated with expressing specific purposes, and occur again and again. These repetitions are referred to as generic patterning and the distinctive patterns that can be recognised in written texts are referred to as genres or text types .

A graphic outline or graphic organiser is a table or diagram (either provided by the teacher or generated by students) used to represent the information in a text. In the process, the text becomes reduced and its content is presented in a partly graphic or visual form. The language features are linked with the information structure and the ideas of the text. (See also information transfer .)

High-frequency words are those that occur most commonly in speech and writing. For everyday interaction, about 2000 different high-frequency words are enough to get by with. Examples of the highest frequency words are ‘a’, ‘the’, ‘of’, ‘and’, ‘in’, ‘if’, and ‘this’.

This is a gap between the literacy achievements of students whose home or first language corresponds to that of the school (English for the New Zealand mainstream), and those of students for whom it does not (for example, Pasifika L1 speakers). This gap is particularly apparent in New Zealand compared with that in some other countries, which suggests that it can be reduced by appropriate language-teaching practices and policies.

Learners use their language output as a way of trying out new language forms to see if they are understood and accepted by other people. In other words, they engage in hypothesis testing, trying out something they think might express what they want to say. They find out whether it works or not from the responses and feedback provided by others.

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See common underlying proficiency .

Immersion education occurs where learners are immersed in the target language and use it as the sole medium for learning.

Implicit feedback is feedback that is implied but not plainly or directly expressed. For example, implicit feedback on language usage from a teacher to a student might be of the following types: The teacher repeats what the student said in a better or more complete way (a recast); the teacher says they couldn’t understand what the student meant; the teacher asks the student to check the work; or the teacher gives no response to what the student has said. (See also explicit feedback and the inquiry Feedback can help students notice grammar .)

Implicit knowledge is the knowledge of the target language that learners hold unconsciously. This is the kind of knowledge we have of our first language. Proficiency in any language involves having considerable implicit knowledge. Explicit knowledge can be used to facilitate the development of implicit knowledge.

The important feature of information gap activities is that each student has only part of the information they need to complete a given task. Because of this, they must cooperate and share their information by speaking or writing to each other. This means that all students participate. Information gap activities are also known as split information activities . (See also barrier activities and the inquiry What do students learn from interaction? .)

In information transfer, the information in a text is transferred to a table or diagram (either provided by the teacher or generated by students). In the process, the text becomes reduced and its content is presented in a partly graphic or visual form. This may mean that the language features are linked with the information structure as well as the ideas of the text. (See also exchange of information , one-way exchange , two-way exchange , shared information , and split information activities .)

In language learning, the input is what the learner hears and reads in the target language. Learners need to be exposed to very large amounts of language input. Stephen Krashen has argued that learners need only suitable input to learn languages. However, research now shows that they also need to speak and write (that is, produce language output ), and to receive some formal instruction in order to achieve the highest levels of language proficiency. (See also enhanced input .)

See comprehension hypothesis .

An inquiry chart is a grid or table designed to guide students to locate particular information in different texts, to compare that information with their prior knowledge, and then to summarise the information.

Instructed second language acquisition means learning a new language in a classroom setting with formal instruction from a teacher.

In language learning, interaction refers to learners communicating with other people using the language they are learning. Usually it refers to spoken interaction, either in informal conversation or discussion, or in language-learning tasks and activities. Spoken interaction is an important source of learning. (See also interaction hypothesis .)

Michael Long proposed the interaction hypothesis in the 1980s. He suggested that learners learn new forms in a language through the negotiation around meaning that occurs when they engage in communication and communicative learning activities. (See the inquiries Learning from listening and reading and What do students learn from interaction? .)

See language interdependence .

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In vocabulary analysis, jargon does not have negative connotations but refers to the technical or subject-specific words of a subject area.

L1 refers to the first language a person learns and uses in their family.

L2 refers to the second language a person learns. Many bilingual children who grow up in bilingual families learn two languages from the time they are babies. There may not be a strong distinction made between their first and second languages. Other bilingual children may not begin to learn much of their second language until they go to school or migrate to another country.

Language acquisition refers mainly to acquiring language ‘naturally’. When we acquire new language, we learn it through natural processes rather than through being taught and studying it. You acquire your first language as a child largely through natural processes such as noticing, imitating, hypothesis testing, and uptake of feedback. A lot of what students learn in a second language is acquired through the same natural processes. However, ‘language acquisition’ is also used to refer to second language learning in the classroom context because some of the language learning in this context still takes place through the natural processes of acquisition as well as through formal teaching and learning processes.

To be able to communicate competently, learners have to learn what type of language use is appropriate for different contexts. Different language is appropriate according to factors such as the formality of the context, the age and status of other people, and the activities being undertaken.

See domains .

The two languages a bilingual child learns are interconnected. (See common underlying proficiency .) This means that the level of competence a child attains at a certain point in a second language is largely dependent on the level of competence already achieved in their first language.

Because the two languages a bilingual person learns are interconnected, learners often transfer what they know about one language to the other. (See language interdependence .) Often this works well because languages do have many similarities in how they function. But when the languages are different in a particular feature, this strategy of transferring causes errors and sometimes significant misunderstanding on the part of the learner. This is known as language interference, because the knowledge about the first language ‘interferes’ with the learning of the second.

See language shift .

Speaking, listening, reading, writing, viewing, and presenting are sometimes referred to as the modes of language use. There are two oral language modes, two written language modes, and two visual language modes. There are three modes for the production of language (speaking, writing, and presenting) and three modes for its comprehension (listening, reading, and viewing).

A student’s proficiency in a language is a measure of how well they can use the language. Usually, an overall indication of proficiency is not very meaningful. We want to know students’ proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, and listening, and we also want to know their proficiency in different contexts and types of language (for example, academic, conversational, or work related).

The register is the variety of language used in different social contexts. It depends on the topic (for example, scientific, personal, purchases, or work tasks) and on the social relationships between the people involved. Register will affect the type of vocabulary and grammatical structures a speaker or writer uses.

Language shift refers to a process of changing language use among bilingual groups as they begin to use their L2 more than their L1. Among Pasifika communities, those born overseas are almost twice as likely as those born in New Zealand to continue speaking their Pasifika language. Language shift among migrant groups can be influenced by educational and other language policies.

Language use refers to how, where, when, and with whom a person uses language.

A person’s linguistic repertoire is the resources of a language that they have available to use (for example, the size and range of their vocabulary, all the different structures they can use, and the different kinds of text they can understand or construct).

A language log is a record of language experiences or activities, such as a reading log or a writing log.

Low-frequency words are those that are not often used. While these words may appear a number of times within one text (and be important for an understanding of that text), readers are not likely to meet them again for a long time.

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A Matthew effect occurs when students who are good learners get more chances to become even better learners through their dominant role in classroom interaction and their quick progression to more demanding material (for example, reading materials). By contrast, those who are slower to learn may be limited to less demanding material, offering them inferior opportunities for more advanced learning. (See the inquiry Being a good learner .)

Metalinguistic awareness is the ability to analyse language, particularly language forms, to understand how they work and how they are integrated into the wider language system. It is knowledge about language, and it can be demonstrated at various different levels: phonological awareness (the understanding of sound units), word awareness, and syntactic (or grammatical) awareness. Bilinguals may have greater metalinguistic awareness because, in working with more than one language simultaneously, they need to be more aware of how those languages are similar and, very importantly, how they differ.

Metatalk is learners’ talk about language while they are using it for a purpose. They might clarify when and where to use certain words or forms, and how to use them. They are talking about the language they should use.

See language modes .

Using or knowing only one language.

Morphology is the study of the different forms of a word. In English, the verb ‘fall’ can have the following forms: ‘fall’, ‘falls’, ‘fell’, ‘falling’, ‘fallen’. Both first- and second-language learners may use ‘*falled’ instead of ‘fell’, or ‘she *jealoused me’ instead of ‘she was jealous of me’. (In linguistics, an asterisk* marks an incorrect form.)

Multiply linked texts are those that have many links with many other texts. They are often web-based. (See the inquiry Finding information in complex texts .)

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In language learning, negotiation of meaning takes place when two people (especially two learners) ask each other questions and answer them in an effort to reach a common understanding about something. (See also interaction hypothesis .)

Non-targetlike forms are those that are not like the correct and desired forms of a language. (See also targetlike .)

Noticing is one of the natural processes that help learners to learn new language forms or features. Learners notice something in the language they are learning because they need it to express what they want to say or write (their output ). Teachers can assist by drawing language forms and features to their students’ attention.

When a learning activity requires only a one-way exchange of information, student A must tell student B something but student B only needs to receive the information.

OPV is a way of structuring brainstorming from many different points of view – for example, from the point of view of different individuals, of groups of people (for example, children, adults, farmers, Pasifika, Aucklanders), or from the point of view of plant or animal communities.

The outcomes of a language-learning task can be closed or open. Closed outcomes are when there are only certain correct outcomes or solutions, as in many problem-solving tasks. Role-play and interviews, on the other hand, generally have open outcomes. The degree of openness varies according to the outcome’s inherent structure – for example, explaining to someone how to get to the ATM has an inherent structure in the form of a (mental) map of the route.

Note that this meaning of the word ‘outcome’ is not the same as the meaning that teachers are familiar with – learning outcomes for students, based on the students’ learning needs and the achievement objectives of the curriculum, which the students work to achieve. In language learning, the term outcome has rather different connotations and may mean simply what the student ends up producing, such as, for example, a report in the form of a chart.

Language output is the language learners say or write. Current research indicates that learners need to engage in speaking and writing to learn language most effectively. (See also input .)

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The term used to refer to the people, cultures, and language of Pacific groups who are now living in New Zealand. It replaces the term ‘Polynesian’ because the latter did not distinguish sufficiently between Māori and Pacific groups in New Zealand, or between Pacific peoples living in New Zealand and those who still live in the Pacific Islands.

The Pasifika Education Plan provides strategic direction for coordinating all policies that aim to improve education outcomes for Pasifika peoples. The plan’s success requires Pasifika families and communities, education services, and government to work together. The first plan was launched in 2001 and outlined different goals for the early childhood education, compulsory (school), and tertiary sectors, as well as sector-wide goals. The current Pasifika Education Plan runs from 2006 to 2010.

Passive bilingualism refers to the situation when a bilingual understands more than one language but speaks only one of them. Often in migrant communities such as Pasifika, where there is some language shift, younger generations understand their Pasifika language well but are reluctant to speak it, sometimes because they do not feel confident in their command of the language.

This is a brainstorming technique developed by Edward de Bono, where ideas are categorised as being: plus – in support of an idea; minus – against an idea; and interesting – other interesting points that come up.

When learners process meaning, they work with content so that they are manipulating and exploring the meaning in various ways. From a cognitive point of view, they engage in such processes as analysing and giving examples, applying a model to other situations, or evaluating. (See Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives at www.coun.uvic.ca/learn/program/hndouts/bloom.htm .) From a linguistic point of view, when learners process meaning, they do such things as: express the same idea in other words; give definitions and examples; express the information in other forms, such as tables or diagrams or other text types; or make comments on relationships with other material.

A learner who is proficient in a particular aspect of language can use that aspect of language correctly and appropriately in a specified context.

A recast is reformulation, or repetition in different words, of either the whole or part of the learner’s statement that contains an error.

Reciprocal teaching of reading is often used when students are working with written texts that they need to process. Reciprocal teaching was developed by Palincsar and Brown (see the inquiry Effective language-learning activities ) and involves students jointly taking responsibility for their understanding, learning, and learning processes. (See Reciprocal Teaching at .) www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/students/atrisk/at6lk38.htm

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Scaffolding can be thought of as the purposeful use of guidance and support (through using instructional strategies), while progressively handing over responsibility to the student. The ultimate goal is for students to self-regulate their learning and develop independence (Ministry of Education, 2003, page 79). (See the inquiry How we scaffold language .)

It generally takes approximately 2 years for a child’s conversational ability or surface fluency in a second language to develop, but it can take 5 to 8 years or more before all the academic skills required to cope with classroom language and curriculum content are developed. Consequently, bilingual students may have highly developed conversational skills in, for example, English, yet still perform poorly in school if their academic language skills remain underdeveloped. This is known as the second-language learning delay.

A self-questioning scale acts as a checklist for content. Self-questioning scales also make use of generic patterning . When they are reading a text, students can use a self-questioning scale to check that they have located the information they need. They can also use the scale when they do their own writing, to check they’ve included all the necessary information.

Semilingualism is a term used in past research literature to describe bilingual students who appear not to have mastered either of their languages. The term has fallen into disrepute, principally because of its deficit connotations and because it is often inappropriate to compare monolingual and bilingual language skills. The limits of the term ‘semilingualism’ are discussed fully in the inquiry What if students aren’t strong in either language?

In this view (now discredited), there are two separate language compartments in the brain of bilingual people, each of which has a limited storage capacity – half of the capacity of a monolingual mind, in effect. This ‘container’ view of the mind led people to think that learning more of one language would create an imbalance, ‘pushing out’ the other language. (See Diagram 1 in the inquiry Is bilingualism a problem? ) Compare common underlying proficiency .

See consecutive bilinguals .

If the information for a learning activity is shared, all the students have access to the same information, looking at it and using it together. Well-designed shared information activities promote complexity in the students’ language. (See also split information activities .)

Simultaneous bilinguals learn both of their languages from childhood, rather than learning one language before starting to learn the other.

The people who speak a shared language and the contexts they speak it in are referred to as a speech community – for example, “the Tongan speech community in New Zealand”.

The important feature of split information activities is that each student has only part of the information they need to complete a given task. Because of this, they must cooperate and share their information by speaking or writing to each other. This means that all students participate. Split information activities are also known as information gap activities . (See also barrier activities , shared information activities , and strip story .)

The term ‘strategy’ is applied to a number of purposeful acts or sets of actions in teaching, learning, and language use. See the inquiry Extending students’ existing learning strategies .

This is a type of split information activity where each student is given part of a story or other text, which they have to memorise. They then talk together until they have reconstructed the complete text, in the correct order, from memory. To do this, they have to repeat each sentence many times.

If bilingualism is seen as a negative phenomenon in the wider society, and if the learner’s first language is not valued and encouraged, then a context of subtractive bilingualism will result. Bilinguals will not learn to use both languages extensively and are unlikely to have high proficiency in both languages.

For people who take the view that bilingualism is subtractive, a student’s first language is regarded as ‘interfering’ with the learning of a second language such as English and is actively discouraged. The time (and effort) spent using the first language is regarded as subtracting from the possibility of achieving good levels of proficiency in the second language and in school learning. If one language, such as English, is regarded in the wider society as the only one worth knowing, then the ability to use, or even maintain, another language is inevitably diminished, as is the potential for bilingualism. When this happens, a ‘subtractive bilingual context’ develops. This approach, however, ignores the key principle of language interdependence and consequently is the least successful educationally for bilingual students.

Syntax means the grammatical arrangement of words or the rules for forming sentences in a language.

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The target language is the language a learner is aiming to learn.

This term refers to the goals of correctness in the language a learner is learning. Young children learning their L1 and second-language learners both sometimes say ‘*thinked’ when their target is the form ‘thought’. When learners use ‘targetlike forms’, they are using the correct forms of the language. ‘Non-targetlike forms’ are incorrect forms, from the point of view of the learner’s ultimate goal of speaking the language accurately. However, producing non-targetlike forms is a normal part of the developmental process of language acquisition , so these forms need not be corrected if the learners are not yet ready to use the correct forms or if the focus is on other forms or on meaning. (In linguistics an asterisk* marks an incorrect form.)

A [language-learning] task ] (as defined by Ellis) is an activity that creates a meaningful context for learning. Such tasks require students to work with some language input , and to process meaning specifically in order to produce a specified type of language-related outcome .

Technical words are the subject-specific words from a student’s curriculum learning and are associated with particular academic subjects. ‘Photosynthesis’ is an example of a technical word

A text is a spoken or written segment of meaningful language. It can be as short as a title or heading, or as long as a book.

The form of a text means its structure, and accepted text forms include recognisable structures such as those of letters, plays, and formal debates. A letter, for example, can be written for a whole range of reasons (purposes): to thank someone, to explain why an assignment is late, to argue the case for not enforcing a parking fine. The purpose determines the text type or genre .

The distinctive patterns that can be recognised in written texts relate to particular purposes for writing and are referred to as text types or genres .

This is the idea that maximum exposure to the second language is required for successful language acquisition to occur. This is linked with subtractive views of bilingualism, which consider that time spent on the first language will result in there not being enough time to master the second language. In fact, because language knowledge is interdependent, you do not need to spend twice as much time to learn a second language.

Transactional writing is intended to present factual information or argue a point.

Split information activities require a two-way exchange of information. If the learners are working in pairs, each of them has to give information to the other, and both have to receive and understand information. The task cannot be completed unless they both participate in this way.

Learners do not all pick up on all of the feedback that they receive about their language performance; in fact, they generally pick up on, or take up, only about one-third of the changes suggested by other people. This process of taking up feedback and acting on it is called uptake.

“A writing frame consists of a skeleton outline given to students to scaffold their nonfiction writing. The skeleton framework consists of different key words or phrases, according to the particular generic form. The template of starters, connectives, and sentence modifiers that constitute a writing frame gives students a structure within which they can concentrate on communicating what they want to say while it scaffolds them in the use of a particular generic form. By using the form students become increasingly familiar with it.” (From Wray and Lewis, “An approach to factual writing – An invited article” retrieved from Reading Online on 11 January 2006.)

A learner’s zone of proximal development is where the learner cannot yet complete the work independently, but can complete it when they have appropriate support. The expression comes from Vygotsky, who saw learning as an intrinsically social process, happening through the relationships between people. It is based on the premise that what we can do and learn with the support of others exceeds what we can do on our own. (See the inquiry How we scaffold language .)

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