PEI ELA French Immersion flashcards

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

Comprehensible input (i+1)

Krashen's claim that acquisition occurs when learners understand input slightly beyond their current level. Meaning is supported by context, visuals, and paraphrase rather than by simplifying to the point of no challenge.

Output hypothesis

Swain's proposal that producing language pushes learners to notice gaps in their knowledge, test hypotheses, and move from semantic to syntactic processing. Speaking and writing tasks therefore serve acquisition, not only display.

BICS and CALP

Cummins' distinction between basic interpersonal communicative skills, which develop in about one to two years, and cognitive academic language proficiency, which takes roughly five to seven years and underpins content-area success.

Recast versus prompt

A recast reformulates an erroneous utterance without flagging it; a prompt (clarification request, elicitation, metalinguistic clue) signals the problem and requires self-repair. Prompts more reliably produce uptake.

Additive bilingualism

A program orientation in which the first language is maintained and valued while the second is added. It contrasts with subtractive models that replace the home language and can harm identity and academic growth.

Early total immersion

A French immersion variant beginning in kindergarten or Grade 1 with instruction almost entirely in French, gradually increasing English time in later grades. Middle and late entry programs start in Grade 4 or later.

Liaison and elision

French phonological processes that blur word boundaries: liaison pronounces a normally silent final consonant before a vowel-initial word, and elision drops a vowel before another vowel. Both complicate listening segmentation.

Three-tier comprehension model

Literal comprehension retrieves explicitly stated information; inferential comprehension combines text with background knowledge; evaluative comprehension judges craft, credibility, and effect. Instruction should target all three deliberately.

Text complexity dimensions

Quantitative measures are readability formulas; qualitative measures cover meaning layers, structure, and knowledge demands; reader and task considerations address purpose and motivation. Only the quantitative dimension is formulaic.

Close reading sequence

A first reading establishes what the text says; a second examines how craft and structure produce meaning; a third connects to other texts and critical perspectives. Each reading has a distinct purpose and question set.

Focalization

The perspective through which a narrative is filtered. Internal focalization restricts information to one character's knowledge; external focalization reports only observable action, creating distance and interpretive ambiguity.

Miscue analysis

Classifying oral reading errors as semantic, syntactic, or graphophonic. A substitution that preserves meaning shows a meaning-oriented strategy; a nonsense substitution suggests overreliance on visual decoding.

Theme versus topic

A topic is a subject such as love or justice; a theme is a claim about that subject inferred from the whole text, such as love surviving loss. Topics cannot be argued; themes can.

Metonymy versus synecdoche

Metonymy substitutes an associated object for a concept (the crown for monarchy); synecdoche substitutes a part for a whole or a whole for a part (all hands on deck).

Clause boundary errors

A fragment lacks an independent clause; a run-on joins independent clauses without punctuation; a comma splice joins them with only a comma. All three are errors of clause boundary, not of length.

Morphology instruction

Teaching prefixes, suffixes, and Greek and Latin roots so students can decode and generate academic vocabulary. English vocabulary layers Anglo-Saxon, Latinate, and Greek sources with different formality and productivity.

Argumentative essay components

A defensible claim, relevant and sufficient evidence, reasoning linking evidence to claim, acknowledgment and rebuttal of counterclaims, and a conclusion that follows from the argument rather than restating it.

Revision versus editing

Revision reshapes content, organization, and evidence; editing corrects conventions such as spelling, agreement, and punctuation. Treating them as one step causes students to polish sentences they should have deleted.

French past participle agreement

With être, the participle agrees with the subject; with avoir, only with a preceding direct object; pronominal verbs agree unless a direct object follows. These rules differ from English and require explicit contrast.

Guillemets and French spacing

French marks quotations with « », inserts a nonbreaking space before ; : ! ? and inside guillemets, and uses a comma before a coordinating conjunction in longer clauses. English conventions differ.

Six traits of writing

Ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions, sometimes with presentation added. The traits give shared vocabulary for feedback and align with analytic rubric categories.

Analytic versus holistic scoring

Analytic scoring rates separate criteria such as content, organization, and language; holistic scoring gives one global impression. Analytic scores diagnose better; holistic scores are faster but less informative.

Validity and reliability

Validity is whether a test measures the intended construct; reliability is consistency across raters and occasions. A test may be reliable but invalid, yet cannot be valid without adequate reliability.

Backward design

Planning that begins with desired results, then identifies acceptable evidence, then designs learning experiences. It prevents activity-driven units in which assessment is an afterthought unrelated to objectives.

Accommodation versus modification

Accommodations change access, such as extra time or a glossary, without altering the construct. Modifications change expectations or content, so scores no longer represent the same construct and must be interpreted differently.

RTI tiers

Tier 1 is universal instruction for all students; Tier 2 provides targeted small-group support; Tier 3 is intensive individualized intervention. Movement among tiers is determined by progress-monitoring data.

Differentiation variables

Teachers differentiate content, process, product, or environment in response to readiness, interest, and learning profile. Flexible grouping and tiered tasks are means; fixed ability tracks contradict the model.

Language objective

A statement of the language function and forms students will use to demonstrate content learning, such as comparing two systems using comparative structures. It accompanies, and does not replace, the content objective.

CLIL four elements

Content, communication, cognition, and culture. Effective integrated lessons specify both a content objective and a language objective and make the cognitive demand explicit rather than incidental.

Tier 2 academic vocabulary

High-utility words that appear across content areas, such as analyze, contrast, and evidence. They are often the highest-leverage vocabulary target in immersion classes because they unlock many texts.

Scaffolding types

Modeling, bridging to prior knowledge, contextualization, schema building, and text representation. Scaffolds are temporary supports withdrawn as competence grows; permanent simplification is not scaffolding.

Register in spoken French

Informal speech uses tu, on for nous, and drops ne in negation; formal and written French retains ne and uses vous. Learners need explicit contrast to recognize both registers in listening and production.

Oral proficiency criteria

Fluency, accuracy, range, coherence, and interaction. Analytic scoring on separate criteria is more reliable and more diagnostic than a single global impression of a spoken performance.