English Flashcards
Acquisition of language skills
Acquisition of language skills: is a series of stages in learning a second or native language. Although how children learn to speak is not completely understood by psycholinguists, developmental psychologists and linguists such as Noam Chomsky and Stephen Krashen have developed theories through observation that children copy what they hear and that humans have a natural ability for understanding grammar.
Activating prior knowledge
Activating prior knowledge: Proficient readers try to make sense out of what they read by finding how it connects with what they already know. When educators help students make connections to their prior knowledge before, during and after they read, they are teaching them a comprehension strategy.
Adjective
Adjective: is a word that describes, or modifies, a noun or a pronoun.
How Adjectives Modify Nouns
What kind? We studied Modern Middle East.
How many? I read five practice tests.
Which one? That linguist changed history.
Adverb
Adverb: is a word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
Where? The bride said the Conga line started here.
When? Tom promptly rounded up the skiers.
How? The violinist played methodically.
To What Extent? Ms. Hawkins was quite proud of her tennis team.
Adverb clause
Adverb clause: is a subordinate clause that modifies an adjective, an adverb, or a verb. It tells how, where, when, why, to what extent, or under what condition.
Example: If it snows tonight, we will go to Snow Summit tomorrow.
Affective factors
Affective factors: are emotional factors that can have a positive or negative impact on learning. Some theorists believe Affective Factors may be as important for learning as the ability to learn. For example, a student’s attitude towards his/her teacher is an Affective Factor and has an impact on how well he/she learns.
Anthropomorphic qualities
Anthropomorphic qualities: the attribution of human form to a thing or being not human.
Example: The Tooth Fairy.
Antonyms
Antonyms: is a word opposite in meaning to another. Wet is an antonym to dry.
Appositive
Appositive: is a noun placed next to another noun to identify it, or give additional information about it. Appositives and appositional phrases identify or rename nouns.
Example: a. George Whitney designed the stage at Rockefeller Center.
b. He was an engineering student.
George Whitney, an engineering student, designed the stage at Rockefeller Center.
Appositional Phrase
Appositional Phrase: is a group of words that includes an appositive and other words that modify the appositive.
Example: Washington, our first president, held many other offices.
Base word
Base word: is a word to which other word parts may be added to form new words. The terms base and root word are one in the same.
Example: Base word-verb that means “ride the surf,” + “ing” suffix that indicates ongoing action
Surf + -ing = surfing
Word describes the action of surfing
Borrowing
Borrowing: is a word or phrase from one language that is used in another language.
Example: She is creating a list of German borrowings in English.
British spelling
British spelling: British English and American English differ in the way some words are spelled.
Example: American
Theater color favorite
British
Theatre colour favourite
Chomsky, Noam-Universal Grammar
Chomsky, Noam-Universal Grammar: is a professor of linguistics at MIT and is known for his language development theory of “Universal Grammar.” The Universal Grammar theory proposes that when humans are born they contain universal grammar and the basic structures to learn any language. The human brain is like a “little black box,” ready to be configured and molded by experiences with the outside world through the senses. As a result of the encounters, corresponding language patterns form.
Code-switching
Code-switching: is a linguistics term referring to switching back and forth between two different languages in a conversation. It also refers to the ability to switch from one dialect or language, from one conversation to the next, depending on the situation or person one is talking with. For example: Dr. Green spent her childhood in Louisiana and earned her doctorate in Education. She teaches theory classes at a university in Utah. While talking to her colleagues, Dr. Green has the ability to code-switch from her Coastal Southern Dialect to a Western Dialect in the course of a conversation. When talking to her friends back home in Louisiana, Dr. Green has the ability to code-switch from a Western dialect to a Coastal Southern Dialect.
Cohesion analysis
Cohesion analysis: Some patterns of words have a characteristic known as cohesion. They form coherent units. Cohesive words act not as individual words, but as a single unit. Coherent groups are all phrases, as are clauses, sentences and discourses.
Example: three o’clock
Compound sentence
Compound sentence: combines two simple sentences that have related ideas. A conjunction joins the two sentences usually by using the words (and, but, or or).
Example: The Romans were fine soldiers, and they had the best artillery in the world.
Compound-complex sentence
Compound-complex sentence: contains two or more independent clauses and at least one subordinate clause.
Example: When Craig left, he locked the doors, but he forgot to turn off the stove.
Context-embedded
Context-embedded: context in language offers help to comprehension such as non-verbal communication (expressions, gestures, certain location, visual clues). With context embedded language meaning becomes obvious due to help from the physical or social nature of the conversation.
Coordinating clause
Coordinating clause: is a clause connected to a series of two or more clauses.
Example: Spencer likes hamburgers, but Justin prefers hot dogs.
Coordinating conjunction
Coordinating conjunction: join words or group of words that are used in a similar way.
Example: Wirehaired Dachshunds make good pets, but they require a lot of grooming.
Creole
Creole: a language that originated from a simplified language (pidgin) or a combination of other languages.
Creolization
Creolization: is when two different cultures with different languages spoken join together which result in modifying some aspects of their respective languages and creating new forms. Cultures joined together for various reasons are continually engaged in creolization.
Critical Period Hypothesis:
Critical Period Hypothesis: believes the first few years of life is the crucial time for an individual to learn a first language fluently, if given the proper stimuli and support. If after the first few years the language does not occur, they will never accomplish grammatical systems and ultimately mastery of a language. In the late fifties and sixties, Penfield and Roberts (1959) and Lenneberg (1967) were the first to propose that there was a critical period for language acquisition. Originally the hypothesis only included first language acquisition, but later researchers included second language acquisition. In second language acquisition researchers believe that the window of opportunity is learning a second language before puberty. Both hypotheses are highly debated amongst developmentalists, linguists, and language educators.
Critical reading
Critical reading: is reading with the intention of finding deep meaning and understanding of a reading piece regardless if the piece is fiction or non-fiction. A critical reader analyzes, reflects and evaluates what they read as they continue reading. Some techniques critical readers use are becoming part of the writers audience by learning about the author, reading with an open mind, analyzing the title, reading slowly, using a reference for words or terms not understood, making notes as they read and keep a reading journal.
Decoding
Decoding: is the ability for a reader to interpret letter-sound relationships to help them correctly pronounce written words. Understanding these relationships allows early readers to recognize familiar words and to interpret words they have not seen before.
Deep structure
Deep structure: Noam Chomsky’s, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax (1965) set the precedent for all that has occurred in generative linguistics since. A key point of Aspects reflected the idea of Deep Structure that stated in addition to the surface form of sentences, there is another level of syntactical structure, referred to as Deep Structure which reveals syntactic consistencies of sentences.
Dependent clause
Dependent clause: or subordinate clause does not express a complete thought and cannot by itself be a complete sentence. Words that indicate the beginning of a dependent clause are since, that, or what.
Example: what he saw
A subordinate clause is only complete when it is connected to an independent clause.
Example: The innocent bystander told the sheriff what he saw.
Dependent marker word
Dependent marker word: are usually the first words in the clause and signal that a given clause is dependent. There are two kinds of Dependent Marker Words: relative pronouns and subordinate conjunctions.
Example: After we swam out to the buoy, we jumped on the boat.
Dialect
Dialect: A form of speech belonging to a particular region.
Example: Cockney is a dialect of English.
Dialectical Knowledge
Dialectical Knowledge: the art of examining the truth of opinions. “Knowledge,” is referred to as the highest stage of our mind and is referred to as dialectic in the central book of the Republic.
Direct object
Direct object: A direct object is a pronoun, noun, or word group that tells who or what receives the action of the verb. A direct object answers the question of “what?” or “whom?” after a transitive verb.
Example: Ms. Parsons greets whoever comes into the salon.
Elision
Elision: is to leave out a vowel or syllable in pronouncing as in (It’s, let’s I’m).
English orthography
English orthography: Orthography broken down helps one to understand the meaning of English Orthography: ortho- (fr. Gk.) straight, right and graphy (fr. Gk.) writing. The representation of the sounds of English by hand-written or printed symbols. Also:
British spelling or orthography: The British spell some words differently from the way people in the United States do.
Example: United States
Theater color favorite
British
Theatre colour favourite
Enumeration
Enumeration: is to count one by one, to specify, or to specifically catalog each item.
Etymology
Etymology: is the history of how a word and its meaning were formed.
Euphemism
Euphemism: a benign expression substituted for a harsher one.
Example: “The teacher was laid off from his job.” Euphemism: “The teacher is between jobs.”
Fluency
Fluency: is a smooth, easy flow and mastery of a language in reading, writing or speech. Fluent readers recognize words automatically making reading faster, more efficient and ultimately more expressive.
Gender neutral
Gender neutral: is a linguistics term to alleviate references to gender specifics.
Example: Stewardess, Mailman and Policeman are gender specific words.
Corresponding Gender-neutral words are: Flight Attendant, Mail Carrier and Police Officer.
Genre
Genre: A style of literature such as: Autobiography, Poetry, Fantasy, Science Fiction etc…
Gerund
Gerund: A gerund is a verb ending in –ing and is used as a noun.
Example: SUBJECT Running down that hill was fun.
Grammatical change
Grammatical change: Any language can develop a grammatical nuance, not always noticeable to listeners, over time. Lexical (word changes) change more rapidly over time then grammatical changes and as a result, conservative forms of speech may continue without change in regional dialects.
Great Vowel Shift (The Great Vowel Shift)
Great Vowel Shift (The Great Vowel Shift): A phenomenon that occurred mostly in the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in early Modern English time. Exactly when and how it happened depended on the particular sound and the dialect. Unbeknownst to linguists, the GVS involved all the long vowels in English, which changed over a two to three century span, with the lower vowels being pronounced higher and the higher vowels changing into diphthongs. The GVS did not affect all words, but had such a large impact on the English language that it is often blamed for why the spelling of vowels is so irregular in English.
Example: In Chaucer’s day the word “wife,” would have been pronounce “weefe.” Over time the “e,” sound slowly changed to a diphthong.
Greek root
Greek root: The English language is made up of words from various languages, including Greek. New words are created when simple elements, such as roots, are combined in different ways. A root word is the core meaning of a word but cannot stand alone. Understanding the meaning of common Greek roots can help us understand the meaning of new words.
Root Meaning Example
acu sharp acupuncture
Homonym
Homonym: A word of the same spelling or sound as another, but has a different meaning.
Example: affect to change
effect result
Hypercorrection
Hypercorrection: happens when someone thoughtfully tries to avoid making a mistake in language usage, but overcompensates and in so doing makes another mistake. It has been noted that President Barrack Obama is guilty of hypercorrection when it comes to the usage of: I and me. President Obama said, “President Bush graciously invited Michelle and I to meet with him and first lady Laura Bush.” According to the correct language usage President Obama should have said, “Michelle and me.”
Indirect object
Indirect object: is a word or word group that usually comes between a transitive verb and its direct object. It tells to whom, or for whom, or to what the action of the verb is done.
Example: Richard told Sarah and Steve a magical tale of Merlin. (The direct object is tale.)
Inflection
Inflection: The change in the shape of a word, usually by affixation, by means of which a change of meaning or relationship to some other word or gorup of words is indicated. Variation in word forms by word ending.
Interjection
Interjection: A word that shows emotion or feeling is an interjection. It had no grammatical relationship to the rest of the sentence.
Example: Hooray, I passed the CSET!
Jargon
Jargon: Words or expressions used specifically by a select group, trade or profession. Jargon can also mean nonsense or gibberish talk. Jargon is like shorthand between members of a select group of people.
Medical jargon examples: ACE- angiotension converting enzyme
AMA-against medical advise
Krashen, Stephen:
Krashen, Stephen:
1941-Present - Born in Chicago in 1941.
Spent two years in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia where he taught eighth grade English and science.
Krashen pursued a Ph.D. in Linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles, culminating with his 1972 dissertation “Language and the Left Hemisphere.”
Took up a Ph.D. in Linguistics at the University of California, Los Angeles in 1972.
Joined the USC School of Education in 1994.
Published over 350 papers and books, and has presented keynote and plenary addresses at the National Association for Bilingual Education
(Links to an external site.)
, and many other conferences.
A professor of Linguistics at the CUNY Graduate Center and the Linguistics Department of the University of Southern California.
Krashen’s, Stephen Affective Filter Hypothesis: Concerned with factors that impact language acquisition. Factors include: self-confidence, nervousness, anxiety and boredom. Students placed in a positive environment for learning are more likely to learn a second language.
Krashen’s, Stephen Comprehensible Input Hypothesis: We acquire language in only one way: When we understand what is said, not how it is said.
Latin Root
Latin Root: The English language is made up of words from various languages, including Latin. New words are created when simple elements, such as roots, are combined in different ways. A root word is the core meaning of a word but cannot stand alone. Understanding the meaning of common Latin roots can help us understand the meaning of new words we come across.
Root Meaning Example
-gress- to walk progress
Linguistics
Linguistics: The study of language and its structure, including the study of morphology, syntax, phonetics and semantics.
Modals
Modals: (Also known as modal, modal auxiliary verb, model auxiliary.) denotes the mood of the verb. Used to moderate the main verb by either enhancing or restricting the verb to a certain situation. Indicates modality-likelihood, ability, permission and obligation.
Morpheme
Morpheme: The smallest semantically meaningful unit of a language that cannot be further divided. It is not a word and cannot stand alone. Every word is made up of one or more morphemes.
Morphology
Morphology: The patterns of word formation in a particular language, including inflections, derivation and composition.
Narrowing
Narrowing: a type of semanitc change thtat takes place when word meaning diminishes to refer to only part of the original meaning.
Example: In Middle English times, “girl,” use to mean “child,” or “young person,” of either sex. Over time the meaning, or what the word symbolizes, has narrowed in Modern English to a female child.
Negative transfer
Negative transfer: The interference with new learning due to a previous learned skill, such as a racquetball player attempting to play tennis but uses their wrist too much on their ground strokes.
Noncount noun
Noncount noun: Although many nouns have both singular and plural forms, some nouns have only a singular form. One is unable to add a number to the front or an “s” to the end of noncount nouns.
Example: When Mr. Burnett postponed the date of the research paper, smiles lit up the faces of his students, filling the room with happiness.
smiles=count noun; happiness=noncount noun
Noun:
Noun: A noun is a word or word group used to name a person, place, thing or an idea.
Example: Viking leaders have been known for their courage. Nouns-leaders and courage.
Noun determiners
Noun determiners: Are words used with nouns to help clarify the meaning of the noun. There are approximately 50 different determiners in the English language.
Noun phrase
Noun phrase: includes a noun and modifiers which identify it.
Object of a preposition
Object of a preposition: The object of a preposition is the noun or pronoun that follows a preposition.
Example: The timid squirrel ran from us. (From us is a prepositional phrase.)
Participial phrase
Participial phrase: A participial phrase has a participle and any modifiers or complements the participle has. The phrase is used as an adjective.
Example: Seeing itself in the mirror, the parakeet seemed quite intrigued.
(The participial phrase modifies the noun parakeet. The pronoun itself is the direct object of the present participle seeing. The adverb phrase in the mirror modifies the present participle Seeing.)
Phoneme
Phoneme: The units of sound and the meaning of a letter in a specified language that distinguishes one word from another. The spelling of a word and its letter sequence is a map of pronunciation for a reader.
Phonics
Phonics: A method of teaching beginners to read and pronounce words based on sound.
Positive Transfer
Positive Transfer: A previous learning accelerates and supports the learning of a new task. For example: There is a positive transfer when an individual who has proficiently learned to play the violin, can learn to play the guitar more rapidly and efficiently, then if he had not first learned to play the violin.
Pragmatics
Pragmatics: is social language in use. The cotillion branch of linguistics involving three major communication skills: Using language for different purposes, changing language according to the needs of a listener or situation, and following rules in conversation such as taking turns in speaking. Since children have not mastered the pragmatics of how to use language in social situations they can make embarrassing mistakes-For example: a child and his mother are waiting for the light to turn green at a busy street corner so they may cross the street. Nearby in earshot is an obese individual. The child not knowing the rules for pragmatics exclaims, “Why is that man so fat?”
Prepositional Phrase
Prepositional Phrase: The preposition, the object of the preposition, and any modifiers of the object situated together are called a prepositional phrase.
Example: The tired field hockey players climbed onto the empty bus. (The preposition phrase includes the preposition onto, its object bus, and two adjectives modifying the object-the and empty.)
Reading Rate
Reading Rate: calculated by dividing the number of words read correctly by the total amount of reading time.
Romance languages
Romance languages: also referred to as Romantic languages, Latin Languages or Neo-Latin Languages were descended from Vulgar Latin (or Romance) language, which was an ancient Italic language of the Indo-European family. The major languages of the family included Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian.
Scanning
Scanning: is a reading technique often used when looking for specific information in a large volume text such as a thesaurus. Scanning involves rapidly moving your eyes down the page to find what you are searching for.
Skimming
Skimming: is a reading technique not to be confused with scanning. Skimming is done three to four times faster than normal reading and allows the reader to quickly identify the main idea of a text. Skimming is used by individuals short on time with a lot of material to read.
Semantics
Semantics: The study of the meaning of words by linguists. The meaning or interpretation of a word, sentence, or other language form.
Example: When people say “I love,” this can have many different meanings.
Semantic Feature Analysis
Semantic Feature Analysis: A technique to sort and classify similarities and differences among ideas, objects, people, groups and events.
Semantic mapping
Semantic mapping: builds on student’s prior knowledge for vocabulary building. The key concept word is displayed and related words are added by students that are eventually organized into categories.
Simple sentence
Simple sentence: contains one independent clause and no subordinate clauses. It may also contain a compound verb, a compound subject and any number of phrases.
Examples: The personal shopper gave Sue a new look.
Both of the archeologists froze while waiting for the sarcophagus to stop moving.
Skimming
Skimming: is a reading technique not to be confused with scanning. Skimming is done three to four times faster than normal reading and allows the reader to quickly identify the main idea of a text. Skimming is used be individuals short on time with a lot of material to read.
Slang
Slang: Informal words, phrases and uses that are often restricted to certain contexts, professions or class.
Standard English Dialect
Standard English Dialect: is accepted throughout the English language using countries and is spoken with any accent. There are few variations in grammar, but there are a number of variations in vocabulary.
Syllabication
Syllabication: is a word analysis skill taught to emergent readers to help them break down unknown words into syllables so they can be blended and pronounced to identify the word.
Syncope
Syncope: The shortening of a word by excluding a letter, sound or syllable from the middle or interior of the word. Example: AS’N: ASSOCIATION
Synonym
Synonym: A word or phrase that means the same, or nearly the same, as another word or phrase in the same language.
Syntax
Syntax: Is the order in which you place words, to make a sentence either sound good or convey a certain meaning.
Example: “To your farm we are going.” is an example of awkward syntax. You understand it, but it sounds odd.-
If you change the word order/syntax, you can change the meaning. Example: The young boy carries the dog. The dog carries the young boy.
Synthesize
Synthesize: involves critical and abstract thinking. Students will often pause and reflect to synthesize new information by combining the ideas they gained by reading with their own knowledge; thus creating new perspectives and a more complete understanding of the text.
Venn Diagram
Venn Diagram: A procedure using two overlapping circles to compare and contrast the similarities and differences of two different things or concepts. (e.g. two books by the same author, two characters in a novel, etc) Students working independently, or collectively with a class, label each side of the diagram with an appropriate heading. In the two non-shaded spaces, students list things about the topics that are unique and in the shared, middle space they write what the two topics have in common.
Visual imaging skills
Visual imaging skills: A skill and technique used by proficient readers using prior knowledge and background experiences to help form mental pictures as they read. The technique helps the reader connect with the author’s writing and makes the text more meaningful.
**Pragmatics
**Pragmatics: the ability to engage in conversational speech( allowing time for a response). Pragmatics studies ways in which the context of verbal and nonverbal communication can change the meaning of communication and comprehension. When communicating, the meaning of language can change depending upon the context, the relationships between people, and other social/cultural factors (i.e. second language learners) . Pragmatics and language development work hand in hand to produce meaningful based comprehension.
Prosody
Prosody: A component of fluency that refers to reading with expression, which includes the use of appropriate emphasis , stress, intonation, pitch, pauses, and phrasing that demonstrates understanding of syntax and mechanics. Prosody may also reflect the emotional state of the speaker: the from of the utterance( statement, question, or comment) or other elements of language that may not be encoded by grammar or choice of vocabulary
Segmenting
Segmenting: when children break words into their individual phonemes, they are segmenting the words they are also segmenting when they break words into syllables and syllables into onsets and rimes.
Semantics
Semantics: the analysis and study of meaning of words, phrases, an sentences, this is useful as a strategy in decoding to analyze the world that sounds correct in a sentence
Syntax
Syntax: the examination of various ways that words and organized to create meaning , the study of how sentences are formed and the pattern or structure of a word order in sentences
Alphabetic Principle
Alphabetic Principle: The alphabetic principle defines the three rules for writing and speaking english
1- letters are name switch uppercase and lowercase letters
2-each letter or group of letters( words) represent sounds and
3-using the systematic relationship between letters and phonemes ( letter sound correspondence) and you can decode the english language to identify, pronounce and spell words
Affix
Affix: A bound (non-word) morpheme that is combined with a word, sten , or phrase to produce a word.
For example, combining the prefix “ad” suffix ‘ing’ to the world ”join” produces the word “adjoining”
Automaticity
Automaticity: the ability to read and recognize a word or series of words in text accurately and effortlessly skilled readers use automaticity unconsciously or involuntary when reading text
Blending
Blending: Blending is the ability to fluidly combine individual sounds to form words, it is also used to combine onsets and rime in order to form syllables and it is used to combine syllables to form words
Concepts of print
Concepts of print: An important predictor of learning to read. It is the familiarity with print conventions, such as reading left to right , top to bottom. The direction of print on a page, the use of the spaces to denote words and the ides that print represents word and pronunciation
**Denotative meaning
**Denotative meaning: the exact literal meaning of a word according to the dictionary, as opposed to “ connotative meaning” which implies a suggested meaning of a word
Derivational meaning
Derivational meaning: A morpheme is the smallest linguistic unit of a word that has meaning. It cannot be divided into smaller elements. For example, the word sing is a morphine, it can be a syllable, affix, or root word.Derivational morphemes can be added to a word to greet another word, when adding an affix, the grammatical part of speech can sometimes change. For example, the word sing a sia vert , but if we add ‘er’ the word becomes a noun ” singer’
**Idiolect
**Idiolect: the specific speech habits of an individual speaker or writer, which are often marked by peculiarities of language, grammar, or pronunciation
**morphology
**morphology: the study of word formations. The analysis of the structure of words, word stems and affixes. A morpheme is a unit of meaning that cannot be divided into smaller elements such as the word book.
Onset-rime
Onset-rime: onset refers to the first phonological unit or the part of the word before the vowel ( eg the letter ‘b’ in book) rime refers to the part of the word- vowels and consonants- that follow onset ( eg the letters “ ook” in book). Note all words have onset and rime . teaching children onset-rime helps them decode new words.
**phoneme
**phoneme: a phoneme is the smallest part of spoken language that makes a difference in the meaning of words. English has about 41 phonemes. A few words, such as ‘a’ or ‘oh’, have one phoneme, most words however have more than one phoneme: the word if has two phonemes (/i/ /f/); check has three phonemes (/ch/ /e/ /k/) and stop have four phonemes (/s/ /t/ /o/ /p/). Sometimes one phoneme is represented by more than one letter.
**Phonemic (phoneme) awareness
**Phonemic (phoneme) awareness: phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds- phonemes - in spoken words. It is the understanding that sounds work together to make words and it is the most important determinant toward becoming a successful reader.
**phonics
**phonics: phonics is a method of teaching reading and spelling that dresses symbol sound relationships ;it is used most often in beginning instruction. There is a predictable relationship between phonemes( the sounds of spoken language) and graphemes( the letters and spelling that represent those sounds in written language). The goal of phonics instruction is to help children learn and us the alphabetic principle ( predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds)
Phonological awareness
Phonological awareness: phonological awareness is a “ listening skill” that typically develops in pre-kindergarten. It is the ability to hear, think about , and manipulate songs. When children are competent in phonological awareness, they know that
1) sounds make up words
2) sounds can be manipulated into new words
3) words can be separated into individual sounds, syllables and rhymes, and
4) words have meaning
Phonological awareness is important because if children can relate sounds to printed words, they can begin to decode and make sense of how sounds and letters are organized in pring
Note: phonological awareness and phonemic awareness are not interchangeable. Phonemic awareness is ‘one’; a component of phonological awareness.
