GTLE English Subject Specialism flashcards

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

Finite verb

A verb form marked for tense and agreement with its subject; each finite verb signals a separate clause, which is the basis for distinguishing simple, compound, and complex sentences.

Non-restrictive relative clause

A clause adding extra, non-essential information about a noun, enclosed in commas. It cannot be introduced by 'that', and removing it leaves the sentence's core meaning intact.

Present perfect aspect

Have plus past participle, linking a past situation to present relevance. It resists definite past-time adverbials such as 'yesterday', which require the simple past instead.

Adjacency pair

Two consecutive turns in conversation, such as question-answer or greeting-greeting, where the first part makes the second conditionally relevant and its absence noticeable.

Dispreferred response

A second pair part that goes against the structural expectation, such as a refusal or disagreement. It is typically delayed, hedged, or accompanied by an account.

Backchannel

A short vocalisation such as 'mm' or 'yeah' signalling that a listener is following, without claiming a full turn at talk.

Transition-relevance place

The end of a turn-constructional unit, where speaker change becomes structurally possible. Turn-taking norms operate at these points rather than at arbitrary moments.

Minimal pair

Two words differing in exactly one phoneme in the same position, such as 'ship' and 'sheep'. Such pairs demonstrate that the contrasting sounds are separate phonemes.

Complementary distribution

The occurrence of two sounds in mutually exclusive environments, so they never contrast. This pattern indicates allophones of a single phoneme rather than distinct phonemes.

Aspiration

A puff of breath following a voiceless plosive, transcribed with a superscript h. It occurs syllable-initially before a stressed vowel in English, as in 'pin'.

Word family

A headword together with its inflections and regular derivations, such as 'help, helps, helped, helping, helpful'. Vocabulary size is often measured in word families.

Collocation

The habitual co-occurrence of particular words, as in 'make a decision' rather than 'do a decision'. Collocational knowledge distinguishes natural from merely grammatical production.

Lexical chunk

A multi-word sequence stored and retrieved as a single unit, such as 'in spite of' or 'take into account', reducing processing load during production.

Polysemy

The phenomenon of one lexeme carrying several related senses, as 'head' does for a body part and a department leader. It contrasts with homonymy, where forms merely coincide.

Hyponymy

A sense relation in which one word's meaning is included within another's, as 'rose' is a hyponym of 'flower'. The broader term is the superordinate or hypernym.

Presupposition

Meaning assumed rather than asserted by an utterance. Asking 'Have you stopped smoking?' presupposes that the addressee previously smoked, whatever the answer.

Connotation

The evaluative or emotive shading a word carries beyond its core referential meaning, distinguishing near-synonyms such as 'thrifty' and 'stingy'.

Skimming

Rapid reading for gist or overall organisation, passing quickly over detail. It contrasts with scanning, which hunts for a specific piece of information.

Lexical cohesion

Textual linking achieved through word choice rather than grammar, including repetition, synonymy, and related vocabulary across sentences. It complements grammatical reference and conjunction.

Inference in reading

A conclusion drawn from textual evidence rather than stated directly. A valid inference must be licensed by the passage, not by the reader's outside knowledge.

Free indirect discourse

A narrative technique blending third-person narration with a character's idiom and viewpoint, without quotation marks or reporting clauses. It moves fluidly between narrator and character.

Iambic pentameter

A line of five metrical feet, each an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one. Unrhymed iambic pentameter is blank verse, the staple of English dramatic verse.

Dramatic irony

A situation where the audience knows something a character does not, so the character's words carry a meaning they cannot perceive.

Anagnorisis

The moment of recognition in tragedy when a protagonist moves from ignorance to knowledge, often paired with peripeteia, the reversal of fortune.

Thesis statement

A single, arguable claim that governs an essay. It must be contestable; a bare topic or self-evident fact cannot function as a thesis.

Rhetorical appeals

The three classical means of persuasion: ethos, based on the speaker's credibility; pathos, on audience emotion; and logos, on reasoned argument and evidence.

Cohesion versus coherence

Cohesion is surface linkage through connectives and reference; coherence is the underlying logical unity a reader perceives. A text can be cohesive yet incoherent.

Task-Based Learning

An approach in which learners complete a meaningful task first, with language focus and correction handled afterwards. It inverts the presentation-practice-production sequence.

Zone of Proximal Development

Vygotsky's term for the gap between what a learner can do alone and what they can do with support. Scaffolding is gradually withdrawn across this zone.

Washback

The influence of a test on teaching and learning. High-stakes examinations tend to produce strong washback, which may be positive or negative.

Interlanguage

The learner's evolving rule system, distinct from both the first language and the target language, and liable to fossilise when errors persist despite instruction.

Register

A variety shaped by situation, analysed through field (topic), tenor (relationships), and mode (spoken or written). It governs formality and lexical choice.