An ELT Glossary : Direct Speech / Reported Speech / Backshift
Look at the following two extracts from an article on the BBC website discussing sexist commentary during the Rio Olympics :A) When US gymnast Simone Biles gave a storming performance on the uneven...
View ArticleAn ELT Glossary : Catenative verbs
Catenative verbs are verbs which are followed directly by another verb, in the bare infinitive, to + infinitive or V+ing form. Catenative literally means "chaining". Some examples :a) Catenative verb...
View ArticleAn ELT Notebook : Diacritics
Diacritics are symbols used in phonology and phonetics to indicate a specific quality of a sound or syllable. They may be placed higher (in superscript) than the sound/syllable, lower (in subscript)...
View ArticleAn ELT Glossary : Stress
Stress refers to the pronunciation of a syllable with greater muscular force and using more lung air than that of other syllables in the word or utterance. A listener will perceive the syllable as...
View ArticleAn ELT Glossary : Teacher Roles
What are the roles of the teacher in the EFL classroom? There are many, and we're not claiming that the following is an exhaustive list. Which roles the teacher assumes most often, or indeed at all,...
View ArticleAn ELT Glossary : Figure of Speech / Metaphor / Simile
A figure of speech is a word or phrase that is used not literally, but whose literal sense is understandable and creates an image in the listener or reader's mind which will convey the meaning that the...
View ArticleAn ELT Glossary : The Historic Present
The historic present is the name given to the use of present tense verbs to narrate a sequence of past events. It gives a dramatic "here and now" feel to the narrative and its use is common in the...
View ArticleAn ELT Notebook : Hedging
Hedging means making a statement without committing yourself 100% to a belief in its validity. It is often seen in academic genres, where writers will cite the work of other researchers - eg ;Danesbury...
View ArticleAn ELT Glossary : Text Types (2)
This entry deals with text type in terms of division into descriptive, narrative, expository, directive and argumentative text types. For an entry dealing with text types used in ELT - simplified,...
View ArticleAn ELT Glosary : Idioms
Idioms are fixed lexical chunks with a specific meaning that cannot be worked out from analysis of the literal meaning of the words used. Some examples : to bark up the wrong treeto beat around the...
View ArticleAn ELT Glossary : Dangling participles
Participles may be used to introduce a subordinate clause :Walking down the road, John saw a house for saleLocated on the cliffs, the hotel has an excellent view of the sea.Used in this way they are...
View ArticleTerms Connected with Grammar
Abstract nounActive Voice Adjectival noun Adjective Adjunct Adverb Adverbial Adverbial clause Adverb...
View ArticleTerms Connected with Phonology
Affricate AllophoneAlveolar consonantsAlveolar flap/tapApproximant Articulators Aspiration Assimilation Backchaining Back vowels Bilabial...
View ArticleTerms Connected with Lexis
Affix / AffixationAmplifiersAntonym Binomial expressionsBlendsBound morphemeClipping Collocation Complementary antonymsCompound...
View ArticleTerms Connected with Learning and Acquisition
Acculturation ModelAcquisition Acquisition/Learning hypothesisAffective filter hypothesis Affective variables Affordances Avoidance Strategies...
View ArticleAn ELT Glossary : Lingua Franca
A lingua franca is the language used by a group of people who do not all share a common language but have to communicate in speech and/or writing. For example, a Swedish tourist in France who didn't...
View ArticleAn ELT Glossary : Particle / Infinitive particle / Negative particle
The usual definition of particle is that it is a word that does not clearly belong to any other word class - though the expression is also used for the type of adverb particle found in phrasal and...
View ArticleAn ELT Glossary : The Plateau Stage
The plateau stage (or phase) often occurs at intermediate level and refers to a period during which the learner "stops learning". Yi (2007) has described it as follows : ... as the learning process...
View ArticleAn ELT Glossary : Warm-ups and Lead-ins
Warm-ups and lead-ins. Are these the same thing or is there a difference between them? The term is often used interchangeably, but I would suggest that they each have different purposes, but that the...
View ArticleAn ELT Glossary : Tone
Tone refers to a change of pitch on the tonic syllable of a tone group in an utterance. In English there are five tones, usually indicated by an arrow over the tonic syllable, or a diacritic in front...
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