CTEL flashcards

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

BICS

Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills: conversational fluency in everyday, context-embedded situations. Cummins estimated that English learners typically need one to two years to develop BICS, which is not enough for academic tasks.

CALP

Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency: the context-reduced, cognitively demanding language of textbooks and tests. Cummins estimated five to seven years are needed to reach grade-level CALP in a second language.

Comprehensible input (i+1)

Krashen's hypothesis that language is acquired when learners understand messages slightly beyond their current level, symbolized as i+1; input that is far too difficult or too easy does not promote acquisition.

Affective filter

Krashen's concept that anxiety, low self-confidence, or low motivation raise an internal filter that blocks comprehensible input from being processed; a low filter supports acquisition.

Silent period

The pre-production stage of second language acquisition in which a newcomer understands some language but rarely speaks; it is a normal phase, and forced early output may raise anxiety.

Contrastive analysis

A procedure that compares the learner's first language with the target language to predict likely errors; errors explained by structural differences are attributed to negative transfer or interference.

Overgeneralization

A developmental error in which a learner applies a regular rule too broadly, producing forms such as "goed" or "foots"; it reflects internal rule building rather than first-language interference.

Cognate

A word in two languages sharing a common origin and similar form and meaning, such as familia and family; cognates can be used to build academic vocabulary for English learners.

False cognate

A word pair that looks similar across languages but differs in meaning, such as Spanish embarazada (pregnant), not embarrassed, or exito (success), not exit.

Phonology

The language subsystem dealing with the sound system: which phonemes a language uses and the rules governing how they combine and are pronounced in words and sentences.

Pragmatics

The language subsystem governing how language is used in social context, including register, politeness conventions, turn-taking, and implied meaning beyond the literal words.

Formative assessment

Ongoing, low-stakes checks conducted during instruction, such as questioning, exit tickets, and observation, used to adjust teaching while learning is still in progress.

Summative assessment

Assessment administered at the end of a unit or year to measure achievement against standards, such as a final examination or the annual English proficiency test; results are reported and used for accountability.

Norm-referenced test

A test that reports a student's score relative to a comparison group, using percentile ranks or stanines; it ranks test takers rather than reporting mastery of specific standards.

Criterion-referenced test

A test that reports performance against a defined standard or set of objectives rather than against other test takers; the score indicates what the student can actually do.

Reliability

The consistency of an assessment, meaning whether it yields similar results across repeated administrations, parallel forms, or different raters. Reliability is necessary but not sufficient for validity.

Validity

The degree to which an assessment measures what it claims to measure and supports the inferences drawn from its scores; a test can be reliable yet invalid for a particular purpose.

ELPAC

The English Language Proficiency Assessments for California, administered since 2018 in place of the CELDT, covering listening, speaking, reading, and writing and yielding an overall level of one through four.

SDAIE

Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English: sheltered content teaching using visuals, realia, modeling, and cooperative grouping so English learners can access grade-level subject matter while developing English.

SIOP model

The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol, a research-based planning and observation framework with eight components, from lesson preparation and building background through comprehensible input, interaction, practice, and review.

Scaffolding

Temporary instructional support such as sentence frames, word banks, modeling, or graphic organizers that lets a learner complete a task within the zone of proximal development and is withdrawn as competence grows.

Reclassification

The process of redesignating an English learner as fluent English proficient, typically requiring ELPAC overall level four, teacher judgment, parent consultation, and performance comparable to English-proficient peers on basic skills.

Culture

The learned, shared, and continually changing set of beliefs, values, norms, and practices transmitted within a group; it is not the same as ethnicity, nationality, or language ability.

Ethnocentrism

The tendency to judge other cultural groups by the standards of one's own culture and to interpret the resulting differences as inferior, abnormal, or deficient.

Cultural relativism

The stance that a behavior, belief, or practice should be understood within its own cultural context rather than evaluated according to another culture's norms and expectations.

Acculturation

The process of cultural change that occurs when groups are in sustained contact. Berry described four strategies, integration, assimilation, separation, and marginalization, based on heritage maintenance and host-culture contact.

Funds of knowledge

The skills, bodies of knowledge, and social networks households build through work and daily life; Moll argued teachers should elicit and use these as instructional resources.

Cultural capital

Bourdieu's term for the knowledge, language styles, and dispositions that schools value; students whose home practices align with school expectations receive an unearned advantage.

Culturally responsive teaching

Instruction that uses students' cultural referents, prior knowledge, and community practices as vehicles for learning while maintaining high expectations and rigorous academic standards for all.

Lau v. Nichols (1974)

The Supreme Court decision holding that giving limited-English-proficient students the same facilities and curriculum as English speakers does not create equal educational opportunity; meaningful access to instruction is required.

Castaneda v. Pickard (1981)

The decision establishing a three-part test for programs serving English learners: the program rests on sound educational theory, is implemented with adequate resources, and is evaluated and shown to work.

Plyler v. Doe (1982)

The Supreme Court ruling that states may not deny children a free public K-12 education because of their immigration status or that of their parents.