Comprehensive Glossary of ELT Concepts and Methods

A

• Accuracy: Using language correctly without mistakes in grammar, vocabulary, or pronunciation.
• Accurately: Doing something with correct language use, without errors.
• Achievement: What a student has learned or accomplished after a period of study.
• Achievement tests: Tests used to measure what students have learned at the end of a course or unit.
• Acquisition: Learning a language naturally through exposure, without consciously studying rules.
• Action research: A process where teachers study their own teaching to improve it.
• Additional possibilities: Extra activities prepared in case there is extra time in class.
• Affect: Emotions and feelings that influence learning (e.g., motivation, anxiety).
• Agency: The learner’s ability to take control and make decisions about their own learning.
• Aims: Objectives of a lesson; what students should learn.
• Aptitude: Natural ability to learn languages.
• Assessment criteria: Standards used to evaluate student performance.
• Attitude: Learner’s feelings or opinions about learning, which affect motivation.
• Audio-lingual methodology: Method based on repetition and drills, focusing on speaking and habit formation.

B

• Back chaining: Technique where sentences are built from the end to help pronunciation and memory.
• Behaviourism: Learning theory based on repetition, stimulus, and reinforcement.
• Blending: Combining individual sounds to form a word.
• Bottom-up processing: Understanding language by focusing on small units like sounds, words, and grammar.
• Buzz groups: Small groups of students discussing a topic briefly.

C

• Can-do statements: Descriptions of what learners are able to do in a language.
• CEFR: Framework that describes language levels (A1–C2) and learner abilities.
• Chants: Rhythmic repetitions of words or sentences to practise pronunciation.
• Check meaning: Ensuring students understand the meaning of new language.
• Child development: The process of physical, cognitive, and emotional growth in children.
• Chorus: Group repetition of language by all students at the same time.
• CLIL: Teaching content subjects through a foreign language.
• CLIL assessment: Evaluating both content knowledge and language skills in CLIL.