Definitions Flashcards
Phoneme
Smallest possible unit of sound
Phonology
Study of sounds in languages
Intonation
Variance in voice that helps make meaning.
Pitch
High or low tone of voice. Ex: pitch goes up at the end of a sentence when you ask a question.
Modulation
Changing or control of one’s voice. Such as quiet to loud or high pitched to low pitched.
Digraph
A combination of two letters that form one sound. Ex:th,sh,ch
Diphthong
When 2 vowels form one sound such as oy or ay.
Schwa
A vowel sound that appears in an in unaccented or unstressed part of a word.
Morpheme
The smallest part of a word that gives the word meaning.
Lexical morpheme
A base word,prefix,or suffix.
Phonics
The teaching of individual letter sounds and their relationship in combined letter sounds.
Decoding skills
The ability to interpret the symbols of printed words into spoken words and vice versa.
Orthography
All aspects of writing such as spelling, punctuation, spacing, and font format.
Structural Analysis
Breaking down a word into smaller parts in order to determine meaning. Words are broken down by base/root, prefix, syllable,suffix, compounds, hyphenation. Etc…
Prior knowledge
Things the learner already knew from past experiences or learning. By activating prior knowledge, comprehension can be more permanent. Teachers can also identify gaps of knowledge.
Contrastive Analysis
A process of comparing/contrasting the structure of two different languages. This can be used to predict why some elements of L2 are more difficult to learn than others.
Context Clues
Surrounding words, phrases, sentences, and pictures that help a reader determine the meaning of a word or phrase.
Word Structure
The way a word’s morphemes are placed together. For example, the rules to make something plural, which may be different in English than in other languages.
Apposition
The grammatical function of placing words and phrases side by side in order to further describe one of them.
ELD
Stand for English Language Development. Instructional programs for teaching and developing a learner’s English competency.
Syntactic Category
Phrases or words that belong to a certain category.
Syntax
The acceptable order for words in sentences. For example, in English syntax dictates that the adjective comes before the noun.
Semantics
The study of meaning of words, phrases, and sentences. It studies the relationships among words and how they’re used in particular instances.
Language Ambiguity
When words and phrases may be interpreted/translated in more than one way. This can be created either deliberately or accidentally through the use of hyperbole, simile, and metaphor.
Coherence
When two sentences are semantically connected.
Pragmatics
The study of how context clues give meaning to language, as well as the study of social interaction and speech. Examples include waiting for the other person to talk, not straying from the point, using different tones of voice and word choices depending on audience.
Cognitive Process
Conscious mental activities such as solving problems, making decisions, being creative and processing information received via auditory, visual, or tactile means.
Categorization
With language, categorization would involve putting words into categories such as “colors,” “animals,” “verbs”
Metacognition
The ability to know and comprehend that oneself is actually learning/understanding something.
Consonant Cluster
Two or more consonant phonemes grouped together in a syllable without any vowel phonemes appearing between them.
L1 Interference
The process through which language learners apply prior knowledge from the prior language to the language being learned.
Semantic Elements
Includes idioms, false cognates, and words with multiple meanings
Cohesion
When two sentences are syntactically connected.
Pragmatic Features
The specific features (eye contact, physical proximity, language registers, and idiomatic expression) used to initiate pragmatics.
