QCAA English as an Additional Language flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Gist listening

Listening for the overall meaning, purpose and main idea of a spoken text rather than for every detail. It is the first stage before detailed comprehension.

Hedging language

Words such as 'perhaps', 'tends to' and 'it could be argued' that soften a claim and signal uncertainty, caution or academic politeness.

Rising intonation function

A rising pitch contour at the end of an utterance typically marks a yes/no question, uncertainty or an invitation for the listener to respond.

Turn-taking cues

Prosodic and verbal signals such as falling pitch, pauses, or phrases like 'anyway' that indicate a speaker is finishing and another may begin.

Skimming versus scanning

Skimming is fast reading for general meaning across a whole text; scanning is searching a text for specific information such as a date or name.

Topic sentence

The sentence that states the main idea of a paragraph, usually placed first, with subsequent sentences supplying explanation, evidence or illustration.

Visual salience

The prominence given to an element in an image through size, colour contrast, foregrounding, focus or placement, guiding the viewer's attention.

Lexical cohesion

The linking of sentences through repeated, synonymous or related vocabulary, forming chains that hold a text together across paragraphs.

Multimodal text

A text combining two or more semiotic modes, such as written language, image, layout, sound or gesture, each contributing to overall meaning.

Implied reader

The audience a text assumes and addresses, sharing particular background knowledge, values and expectations that shape how meaning is constructed.

Thesis statement

A single sentence in an introduction that states the central argument of an essay and previews the line of reasoning to follow.

TEEL paragraph

A body paragraph structure: Topic sentence, Explanation, Evidence, Link. The evidence is integrated into the writer's own sentence and explained.

Nominalisation

Converting verbs or adjectives into nouns, for example 'expand' to 'expansion', which increases formality and information density in academic writing.

Cohesive devices

Reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction and lexical chains that connect sentences and paragraphs so a text reads as a unified whole.

Rhetorical appeals

The persuasive strategies of ethos (credibility of the speaker), pathos (emotional engagement of the audience) and logos (logical reasoning and evidence).

Passive voice formation

Formed with the appropriate tense of 'be' plus a past participle, used when the agent is unknown, unimportant or deliberately backgrounded.

Third conditional

A hypothetical past structure using 'if' plus past perfect in the condition and 'would have' plus past participle in the result.

Defining relative clause

A clause without commas that identifies which noun is meant and is essential to the sentence's meaning, for example 'the book that I lost'.

Modal certainty scale

The graded strength of modal verbs from low (might, could) through medium (should, would) to high (must, will), signalling degrees of certainty or obligation.

Countable versus uncountable

Countable nouns take plural forms and 'many' or 'few'; uncountable nouns take singular verbs and 'much' or 'little', with no plural form.

Reported speech backshift

When reporting speech, tense usually moves one step back, and pronouns plus time and place markers adjust to the reporting context.

Narrative perspective

The vantage point from which a story is told, ranging from first person through third-person limited to third-person omniscient.

Tone versus mood

Tone is the writer's attitude towards the subject, conveyed through diction and syntax; mood is the emotional atmosphere experienced by the reader.

Indirect characterisation

Revealing a character's traits through speech, actions, thoughts and others' reactions rather than through explicit descriptive statements by the narrator.

Symbolism in texts

A concrete object or image that recurs and accumulates associations to represent an abstract idea connected to the text's themes.

Metaphor versus simile

A metaphor asserts that one thing is another, mapping attributes across domains; a simile makes the comparison explicit using 'like' or 'as'.

Analytical evidence chain

A quotation, the technique it demonstrates, and an explanation of its effect, linked explicitly back to the essay's central argument.

Cultural context

The values, beliefs, history and social structures of the society in which a text is produced, shaping what it assumes and leaves unsaid.

Stereotype versus generalisation

A stereotype is a fixed, totalising claim applied to all members of a group; a generalisation is probabilistic and open to counter-evidence.

Code-switching

Alternating between languages or dialects within a conversation or text, often indexing identity, group membership, solidarity or shifts in social situation.

Postcolonial reading

An interpretive approach examining who speaks, whose language carries authority, and how colonial experience is represented, resisted or silenced in a text.

Intercultural comparison

Identifying a shared human concern across texts from different cultures, then analysing the culturally specific ways each text expresses that concern.