Lower Saxony Zentralabitur English flashcards

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

Global comprehension

Reading or listening for the overall message, main idea or function of a text or paragraph, ignoring detail. Typical question stems: 'What is the text about?', 'Summarise the author's main point.'

Selective comprehension

Targeted search for specific information such as names, figures, dates or single facts in a text. The reader scans rather than reads linearly and ignores irrelevant passages.

Mediation (Sprachmittlung)

Conveying the content of a text to a new audience in another language. It requires summarising, adapting register and explaining culture-specific items rather than translating word for word.

False friends

Word pairs that look similar in English and German but differ in meaning, e.g. 'actual' (wirklich, not aktuell), 'sensible' (vernünftig), 'eventually' (schließlich), 'gift' (Geschenk, not Gift).

Parataxis

Arrangement of clauses without subordinating conjunctions, producing short, coordinate sentences. It creates speed, tension or simplicity, common in action scenes and journalistic prose.

Hypotaxis

Use of subordinated clauses linked by conjunctions such as 'although', 'because', 'while'. It creates complex, formal or reflective prose and slows the reading pace.

Tricolon

A series of three parallel words, phrases or clauses, e.g. 'government of the people, by the people, for the people'. The third element carries emphasis and creates a memorable rhythm.

Anaphora

Repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses or sentences. It builds rhythm, emphasis and emotional pressure, frequent in political speeches.

Rhetorical question

A question asked for effect that expects no answer because the answer is obvious or implied. It involves the reader and often introduces an argument or a rebuke.

Unreliable narrator

A first-person narrator whose account the reader cannot fully trust because of limited knowledge, bias, self-interest or psychological instability. The gap between narration and truth becomes the point.

Focalisation

The perspective through which a narrative is presented. Internal focalisation limits the reader to one character's perception; external focalisation reports only observable behaviour without inner access.

Dramatic irony

A situation in drama where the audience knows something a character does not, so the character's words carry a meaning they cannot see. It creates tension or comic effect.

Soliloquy

A speech delivered by a character alone on stage, revealing inner thoughts to the audience rather than to other figures. It gives direct access to motivation and conflict.

Volta

The turn of thought or argument in a sonnet, typically after the octave in a Petrarchan sonnet or before the closing couplet in a Shakespearean sonnet.

Tabloid conventions

Features of popular press: large sensational headlines, puns, short paragraphs, heavy image use, personalisation and emotional language. Broadsheets contrast with longer, more restrained reporting.

Framing

Selecting and emphasising certain aspects of an issue so that a particular interpretation becomes salient. Media framing shapes perception through word choice, images and what is omitted.

Cartoon analysis order

Describe the visible elements, identify labels and symbols, explain the intended message, then evaluate how exaggeration, caricature or symbolism produce that message.

Thesis statement

A single sentence in the introduction stating the position the essay will defend. Every following paragraph must support or qualify it; a missing thesis weakens the whole text.

Counter-argument and refutation

Presenting the strongest opposing view fairly and then showing its limits. This demonstrates critical thinking and is expected in German Abitur argumentative essays.

Letter to the editor

A public argumentative text responding to an article or issue. Conventions: salutation 'Dear Editor', reference to the occasion, clear position, arguments, and sign-off without a postal address.

Register consistency

Maintaining one level of formality throughout a text. Mixing formal vocabulary with slang or contractions breaks style and is penalised in written Abitur tasks.

Cohesion vs. coherence

Cohesion is surface linking through connectors, pronouns and repetition. Coherence is the logical connection of ideas that makes the text understandable as a whole.

Mixed conditional

A conditional combining an unreal past condition with a present result: 'If she had taken the job, she would be living in London now.' The if-clause is type 3, the main clause type 2.

Reported speech backshift

When the reporting verb is past, tenses shift one step back, and time and place markers change: 'I will come here tomorrow' becomes 'she would go there the next day'.

Non-defining relative clause

A clause giving extra, non-essential information, set off by commas and never introduced by 'that': 'The novel, which was published in 1954, is set in London.'

Inversion after negative adverbials

After 'never', 'rarely', 'not only', 'hardly' at the start of a clause, subject and auxiliary invert: 'Not only did he refuse, but he also complained.' Formal and emphatic.

Hedging

Using modal verbs and adverbs such as 'may', 'arguably', 'tend to' to weaken a claim. It signals caution and is typical of academic and journalistic prose.

Justification item

A listening or reading task requiring a tick plus textual evidence. The quotation or paraphrase must directly support the choice; a correct tick alone earns no full credit.

Distractor

An option or detail in a task that appears plausible but does not answer the question. Numbers, names and near-synonyms are the most frequent distractor types in listening tasks.

Note-taking during first listening

Recording structure, speaker positions and key nouns in abbreviated form on the first play, then verifying detail, numbers and word limits on the second play.

Cultural dimensions

Analytical categories such as individualism versus collectivism, power distance and uncertainty avoidance, used to describe tendencies of societies rather than fixed traits of individuals.

Stereotype vs. prejudice

A stereotype is a generalised belief about a group; prejudice is a negative attitude based on it; discrimination is the behaviour that follows. Texts often expose all three.