STANDARD COURSE OF STUDY
STANDARD COURSE OF STUDYGLOSSARY
ACTFL: the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
Acquisition/Learning: "acquisition of a second language" refers to the natural way one acquires a first language through meaningful communication, whereas learning a second language implies the formal study of a language including grammatical rules
Advance organizer: a visual, title, graph or question which presents a structure for the new material by relating it to the learner's existing knowledge.
Advanced placement (AP): high school program which provides access to high quality education, accelerates learning, rewards achievement, and enhances both high school and college programs; usually refers to course which follows curriculum of College Board and may lead to credit at a college or university.
Alternative assessment: assessment which allows students to demonstrate what they can do with the language in a meaningful context. Some examples are performance assessments, portfolio, demonstrations, checklists, self-assessment, peer assessment, learning logs and journals.
Argumentative communication: written, spoken, or visual creation that involves defining issues and proposing reasonable solutions.
Argumentative writing: one of the four chief composition modes. Its purpose is to convince a reader or listener by establishing the truth or falsity of a proposition.
Articulation: seamless transition from one level to the next.
Assessment: collection and organization of data on student progress in achieving set objectives. Data collected can consist of observations, grades, or anecdotal records.
Audience: collection of intended readers, listeners, or viewers for a particular work or performance. An audience may be physically present (a group of community leaders) or separated by time and distance (in the case of written texts).
Aural: related to the sense of hearing.
Authentic assessment: form of performance assessment structured around a real-life problem or situation (Florida Curriculum). Sometimes used interchangeably with alternative assessment.
Authentic materials: books, tapes, videos, games, magazines, and other materials produced for use by native speakers of the language.
Chicano: a person of Mexican parents living in the U.S.
Circumlocution: indirect way of expressing something. Circumlocution is used when one does not know a specific word and may speak "around it" to get the message across.
Code switching: use of both English and Spanish in an utterance (also referred to as using Spanglish).
Communicative competence: ability to function in a communicative setting - that is to produce and understand what is appropriate to say, how it should be said, and when it should be said.
Community: a) all the people living in a particular district or city b) the district or city where they live (Webster's NewWorld Dictionary).
Content-based program: a foreign language teaching approach in which content from one or several subject areas from the regular school curriculum is taught in the foreign language.
Context: the overall situation (social or cultural) in which the language learning occurs. Also the linguistic environment.
Context clues: information available to a reader for understanding an unfamiliar word from the meaning of a sentence as a whole, familiar language patterns, the meaning of surrounding words and sentences, and the position and function of the word.
Contextualization: presentation of information to a reader or listener as part of a context and not in isolation. This term can be used when vocabulary and grammar are taught for a communicative purpose rather than for their own sake.
Continuation program: foreign language program which builds on the language skills previously acquired by the student.
Controlled paragraphs: paragraphs written according to stated guidelines, e.g., a certain readability level, a certain purpose for writing such as self-description.
Cooperative learning: instructional approach in which students work together as a team with each member contributing to the completion of the task or project.
Courtesy formulae: polite or helpful conventional expressions or remarks such as "thank you," "you are welcome," and please."
Critical communication: written, spoken, or visual combinations of ideas to fulfill a need or to obtain the original and otherwise appropriate results.
Cross-cultural: spanning more than one culture.
Cues: sources of information used by readers or listeners to construct meaning.
Culturally acceptable vocabulary: vocabulary, which is socially appropriate within a given culture.
Dialect: the form or variety of a spoken language peculiar to a region, community, social, or occupational group.
Dialogue journal: a notebook in which student and teacher communicate regularly in writing. The topic is usually chosen by the student who elects to write as much as he/she chooses. The teacher responds by asking questions, making comments but never correcting nor giving a grade.
Discrete item: test item which is assessed in isolation to see if a student has mastered a specific structure.
Dual Language (two-way bilingual programs): These programs group native speakers of English with native speakers of the target language. Instruction is provided both in English and in the target language on alternate days, according to academic subjects, or according to the day (morning in one language and afternoon in the other).
Educated native speaker: native speaker of the language who uses standard speech free of dialect and slang.
Environments: types of communication by purpose, audience, and context. In this document, environment refers to the following modes of communication (1) expressive, (2) informational, (3) argumentative, (4) critical, (5) literary, and (6) grammar/language usage.
Everyday words: words a student would use in commonplace situations at home or in school.
Explicit: clearly stated and leaving nothing implied (Webster's New World Dictionary).
Explicate: to give a detailed explanation. Latin students may be asked, for instance, to explicate a reference to mythology, to Roman history, or to Roman religious celebrations in the context of the passage.
Expressive communication: written, spoken, or visual creation that reveals or explores thought, feelings, and observations.
FLES: Foreign Language in the Elementary Schools. It is a well-articulated, sequenced second language program for children. Classes are taught in the language. Listening, speaking, and culture are stressed during the primary grades, with reading and writing introduced when appropriate.
FLEX: Foreign Language Exploration. It is a short-term exploratory program often found at the middle grades level. It is not articulated with the elementary nor with the high school program. Its main goals are to introduce the target culture and to motivate students to pursue further language study. The term may also be used to describe a non-sequential elementary program with limited contact time (once a week or less).
Figurative: not in its original, usual, literal, or exact sense of reference (Webster's NewWorld Dictionary).
Framework: broad organizing structure for the essential knowledge and skills in a program area.
Function: use of the language for an intended purpose, e.g., to give directions, to make a request.
Functional objectives: objectives centered around the uses to which the language can be put, e.g., asking questions, expressing disagreement.
Functional use: ability to communicate in the second language on topics appropriate to age level.
Genre: form or type of literary content, such as a novel, tragedy, comedy, or poem.
Graphic organizer: visual and verbal map of vocabulary and concepts and their relationships designed to assist learners in comprehending selections. Examples are Venn diagrams, webs, bar graphs, timelines, diagrams, flow charts, outlines, and semantic maps.
Heritage language: refers to immigrant languages, indigenous languages, and colonial languages. Both Navajo people and Spanish-speaking Latinos in the United States are heritage language speakers.
Heritage language speaker: someone who has had exposure to a non-English language outside the formal education system. It most often refers to someone with a home background in the language, but may refer to anyone who has had in-depth exposure to another language.
High order thinking skills: relatively complex and time-consuming cognitive mental operations, such as concept formation, problem solving, and composing. They commonly employ one or more core thinking skills (focusing, information gathering, remembering, organizing, analyzing, generating, integrating, and evaluating).
Hispanic: person of Latin American or Spanish descent.
Idiomatic expression: expression which has a different meaning from the literal (e.g., by the skin of his teeth). Idiomatic expressions make no sense when translated literally from one language to another.
Immersion: approach to foreign language instruction in which the regular curriculum is taught in the foreign language.
Implicit: suggested or to be understood though not plainly expressed (Webster's NewWorld Dictionary).
Inference: judgment or conclusion based on reasoning, e.g., reasoning by inference from given premises.
Inflection: any change in tone or pitch of the voice (Webster's World Wide Dictionary). Informational communication: written, spoken, or visual creation that involves giving information to explain realities or ideas.
Definition: In a definition composition, the writer identifies a key work or concept, explains it to the reader, and answers the question "What is it?" A definition composition goes beyond the concise, formal dictionary definition to distinguish details and characteristics clearly.
Cause and Effect: Examines the relationship between an event or circumstance and its causes and/or its effects. The writer explains a situation, condition, or event (effects) and explains why it occurred or reasons it exists (causes).
Problem-Solution: identifies a problem, a conflict, or issue of concern and presents one or more possible solutions.
Internalize: to make a part of one's own thinking.
Interpersonal intelligence: students who can read the moods and intentions of others and who have developed the ability to work cooperatively in a group possess interpersonal intelligence. Those students are also very adept at communicating verbally and non-verbally with other people.
Interpret: to have or show one's own understanding of the meaning; to bring out the meaning (Webster's WorldWide Dictionary).
Intrapersonal intelligence: students who have a keen understanding of their own feelings and who use that insight to guide their behavior possess intrapersonal intelligence.
Kinesthetic intelligence: students who possess kinesthetic intelligence have control over their bodily motions and have the talent to manipulate objects with deftness.
Language experience: approach to learning to read in which a group of students' own words or short oral compositions are written down and used as materials of instruction. The writing usually follows a shared experience.
Latino: person of Latino American descent.
Learning styles: preferred style of learning of student
Learning strategies: "steps or behaviors used by language learners to enhance the acquisition, storage, retention, recall, and use of new information" (Oxford, 1989).
Literal: following or representing the exact words of the original; word-for-word; based on the actual words and their ordinary meaning (WorldWide Dictionary).
Literal translation: A literal translation is "accurate and precise...The tense, voice, number and mood of verbs need to be translated literally; subject-verb agreement must be correct; participles should be rendered precisely with regard to tense and voice; ablative absolutes may be rendered literally or as subordinate clauses; however, the tense and number of the participle must be rendered accurately." (AP Latin course description, p.20)
Meters, scansion & scan: Latin poetry requires regular patterns of long and short syllables, and these patterns are called meters. "Scansion includes recognizing elision and the metrical quantity of syllables." To scan poetry is to recognize and indicate its metrical patterns. (Latin AP course description, pp. 22, 31, 42-45)
Multicultural: addressing several cultures.
Multilingual: having more than one language.
Multiple intelligences: theory that individuals can learn in multiple ways. Howard Gardner has identified eight intelligences: mathematical/logical, verbal/linguistic, musical/rhythmic, visual/spatial, bodily/kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalist/physical world.
Narrative: text in any form that recounts events or series of events or tells a story. Forms of narrative include personal and imaginative.
Non-verbal cue: source of information used by readers or listeners to construct meaning not involving language. Can involve facial expressions, gestures, and eye contact.
Non-print text: any medium/text that creates meaning through sound or images or both, such as symbols, words, songs, speeches, pictures, and illustrations not in traditional print form including those seen on computers, films, and in the environment.
Nonprint: symbols, words, pictures, and illustrations not in traditional print form such as those seen in computer programs and in the environment.
Novice: beginning language learner. Beginning language category of the ACTFL guidelines.
Objective: what is aimed at or striven for. Objectives are more specific in their focus than the global goals.
Oral/aural: dealing with speaking and listening.
Pair activity: activity involving oral or written communication between two students.
Partial immersion: approach to second language instruction in which part (at least half) of the school day is conducted in the second language.
Pattern story: story characterized by predictable story lines and the repetition of phrases and rhythm and/or rhyme which enable children to make predictions about content.
Performance-based assessment: assessment which requires the student to construct a response or create a product. Performance-based assessments are open-ended and do not have a set response.
Perspective: in this document, the term perspective is used in reference to the meanings, attitudes, values, and ideas represented by a cultural group.
Pictionary: dictionary made up of pictures and symbols drawn to represent people, things, and events. It is used for pre-reading and pre-writing activities for students who are beginning to develop reading and writing skills.
Point of view: the way in which an author reveals his or her perspective/viewpoint, as in characters, events, and ideas in telling a story.
Portfolio: collection of student's work exhibiting the student's effort, progress or achievement. In a foreign language a portfolio could include: work samples, projects, performances, audio and/or video tapes.
Practice: in this document, the term practice refers to the patterns of social interactions with and within the different people in the culture.
Primary sources: Primary sources are results of experiments or original research, literary works, autobiographies, original theories, and other materials.
Print: symbols, words, pictures, and illustrations as seen in books, magazines, leaflets.
Product: in this document, a product is a tangible representation of the culture. It can include big "C" items such as plays, music, architecture, or little "c" items such as food, artifacts, dresses, games, and songs.
Productive skills: language skills (speaking and writing) which require language output.
Proficiency: ability to communicate effectively in both oral and written forms in the cultures where the language is spoken. Proficiency is made up of three components: function, content, and accuracy.
Proficiency-based curriculum: curriculum centered around proficiency where vocabulary and grammar are not taught in isolation, but rather as tools to accomplish communicative goals in particular settings on particular subjects.
Receptive skills: language skills (listening and reading) who require the reader/listener to make sense of what he/she reads or hears.
Register: the level of language and formality used when interacting with different audiences: elders vs. siblings, teachers vs. friends, supervisor vs. job applicant.
Rubric: scoring guide composed of set criteria used to evaluate a student's performance, product, or project. The criteria describe the characteristics of the performance, product and/or project.
Scenario: classroom activity or a unit which describes what students are doing with the language.
Secondary sources: Sources compiling or critiquing original works. Examples of secondary source include literary criticism, biographies, encyclopedia articles, and journal articles critiquing the work of others.
Skimming and scanning: glancing quickly through a selection to get a sense of the topics and important ideas and then scan for particular details.
Standard: description of what a student should know and be able to do.
Strand: any of the parts that are bound together to form a whole. In this document, the needed skills to accomplish each goal.
Strategy: systematic plan for achieving a specific goal or result.
Story skeleton: organization of a story. It involves the identification of the characters, the place, the problem, the goal, as well as the delineation of the sequence of events leading to the resolution of the previously stated problem.
Structural analysis: breakdown of a whole into its parts to determine the syntactical relationships.
Summative assessment: periodic analyses of student performance designed to measure student progress in specific areas.
Syntax: way language is structured and ordered within sentences.
Target language: language being learned.
Total immersion: approach to second language instruction in which the entire school day is conducted in the second language.
Total Physical Response (TPR): approach in which students respond with physical activity to increasingly complex teacher commands.
Venn diagram: diagram consisting of two or more intersecting circles representing relationships among concepts.
Visual clues: visible information such as tangible objects, and gestures which may assist a reader in gaining meaning from unfamiliar words.
Visual organizer: visual and verbal map of vocabulary and concepts and their relationships designed to assist learners in comprehending selections. Examples are Venn diagrams, webs, bar graphs, timelines, diagrams, flow charts, outlines, and semantic maps.
Webbing: strategy for developing and organizing ideas.
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