Foundations of Language Learning Flashcards
- What are the differences between basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) and cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP)?
BICS describes the development of conversational fluency (Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills) in the second language, whereas CALP describes the use of language in decontextualized academic situations (Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency
- What is an activity that could help ELLs become aware of appropriate register use in common social interactions?
Role play. Have students practice asking for the same thing - money, for example—in different situations. How would the register vary if you were asking your mother? Your best friend? Your boss? A government agency? Understanding how to use register appropriately can help students in their adjustment to a new culture.
- How could a teacher explain to a colleague why a student from Jamaica was not placed in the ESOL program at their school?
English is the students first language
- How is a classroom practice designed to foster communicative competence different from one used in another approach to language learning?
Oral activities are popular among CLT teachers, as opposed to grammar drills or reading and writing activities, because they include active conversation and creative, unpredicted responses from students
- What is one example of an utterance that shows evidence of language transfer?
Positive transfer (facilitation) occurs when the two language systems’ structures align well with each other and provide an ease of transition. An example of positive language transfer is cognates. Cognates are words from different that are related in spelling and/or meaning.
- What psycholinguistic concept is associated with the following student utterance? I writed a letter yesterday.
-ed is the common inflectional affix to make a verb past tense, this student is following the standard verb form but write does not follow the standard form, they don’t understand irregular verbs
- What is a likely explanation for a student’s pronunciation of the word “people” as “beople”?
their native language doesn’t have the sound p so they substitute it with the sound b
- What is code-switching?
when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation
- What are the principal features of the constructivist model of second-language acquisition?
One of the most important principles of a constructivist approach in language teaching is action-oriented. Creative and active participation in classroom activities, learning by preparing various projects as well as learning by teaching is highly treated in this approach.
