Teaching English as a Second Language Glossary

Blog:

Short for weblog; a kind of diary on an internet website

Bottom-up processing:

When we try to understand a whole text, starting from finding the meaning of individual words and phrases (intentamos entender el texto completo buscando el significado de una palabra o frase)

Chants:

Rhythmic speaking (like a song without music) (cántico)

Chart:

A diagram with a lot of different information (gráfica, historial)

Cloze:

A text where text have blanks which have been chosen at random (aleatorio) (texto donde los espacios en blanco se han elegido aleatoriamente)

Collaborative writing:

When students work together to complete a writing

Communicative speaking activities:

An activity which makes students use speaking to communicate, rather than just practicing different language items

Controlled practice:

When students are involved in repetition and cue-response drills using specific language (drill: entrenamiento/simulacro)

Copybook:

A book where children copy new words that they learn in class

Dictogloss:

a dictation like activity where students try to reproduce a text that the teacher has read to them

Disappearing dialogue:

When teachers gradually erase parts of a dialogue and the students have to try to remember what is missing.

Drama:

Another word for play; when students act out a play extract or a situation

Drills:

When students have to repeat restricted items of language.

Extensive listening:

When students listen for pleasure and for meaning, rather than for study; different intensive listening

Extensive Reading:

When students read for pleasure and for meaning, rather than for study; different intensive reading

Fill in:

When students have to write words and phrases in blanks (sentences, texts, etc)

Film clip:

A short extract from a film

Formal debate:

Students have to argue different points of view after they have prepared their arguments.

Gap fills:

Exercise where students have to fill blanks with words or phrases

Gist:

The general meaning of something

Grammar-translation:

A teaching method where students study grammar and translate from English to their home language and vice-versa.

Information-gap activities:

An activity where two or more students have different information about the same topic: they have to share the information to close the gap

Intensive listening:

When students listen to a recorded listening or live listening mostly for language and meaning study.

Intensive Reading:

When students read to a recorded reading or live reading mostly for language and meaning study.

Interview:

When one or more people ask someone questions, often to see if they can have a job or because they want to know more about their life

Jigsaw listening:

When students hear different bits of a listening text and have to tell each other about their extracts in order to understand the whole story

Jigsaw Reading:

The same but done with different bits of a reading text.

Journal:

A place, sometimes a notebook, where students can write about things that they care about.

Jumbled sentences:

When sentences are all mixed up and students have to put them in coherent sequence.

Live listening:

When we listen to someone who is there in front of us.

Matching:

Activities where students work out which bits of something are connected to other bits of the same thing.

News broadcast:

When people give the news on radio or television.

Noughts and crosses:

A game where students select different squares for question-answering; tic-tac-toe

Playacting:

When we act things out for fun

Poster presentation:

When we make a poster with our ideas and then stand in front of it and explain it to people.

Prediction:

Students try to guess what they will see or hear before they see or hear it

Pre-teach vocabulary:

We explain the meaning of vocabulary that students will find in a text before they read it or listen to it

Proofreading:

A text item where students have to find the mistake in a sentence or paragraph