ILTS English as a New Language (250) flashcards

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

Comprehensible input

Krashen's hypothesis that learners acquire language when they understand messages slightly beyond their current level (i+1), supported by context, visuals, and prior knowledge rather than explicit grammar rules.

Affective filter

Krashen's concept that anxiety, low motivation, and low self-confidence raise a mental filter that blocks input from reaching the language acquisition device; a low filter supports acquisition.

BICS

Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills: context-embedded, cognitively undemanding conversational language that typically develops within one to three years of exposure to the new language.

CALP

Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency: context-reduced, cognitively demanding school language that typically requires five to seven years to develop and is needed for grade-level content success.

Silent period

A preproduction stage in which a new learner listens and observes without producing much speech; it is a normal developmental phase and should not be forced into premature oral output.

L1 positive transfer

When a skill or structure already known in the first language supports learning the second, such as reading comprehension strategies or cognates shared between the two languages.

L1 negative transfer

When first-language patterns interfere with second-language production, such as Spanish adjective-after-noun order or phoneme substitutions carried into English pronunciation.

Interlanguage

Selinker's term for the learner's evolving rule system between the first and target language, which shows systematic errors that change as proficiency develops.

Fossilization

The stabilization of incorrect interlanguage features that persist despite continued exposure and instruction, often when communication succeeds without the learner noticing the target form.

Sheltered instruction

Content-area teaching designed for multilingual learners that uses modified speech, visuals, and scaffolds so students learn subject matter while developing English simultaneously.

SIOP model

A sheltered instruction framework with eight components, including building background, comprehensible input, strategies, interaction, practice/application, and review and assessment.

WIDA proficiency levels

Six levels from Entering (1) through Reaching (6), formerly labeled 1-6, used to describe multilingual learners' English development in listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

ACCESS for ELLs

WIDA's annual English language proficiency assessment in listening, speaking, reading, and writing; states use its results, with local criteria, to determine program exit.

Transitional bilingual education

An early-exit program that uses the first language temporarily to teach content while English develops, then moves students to English-only instruction, usually within a few years.

Two-way immersion

A dual-language model that integrates native English speakers and multilingual learners so both groups develop bilingualism and biliteracy by learning content in both languages.

Additive bilingualism

A program orientation that maintains and develops the first language while adding English, in contrast to subtractive models that replace the home language with English.

Cognates

Words in two languages that share a common origin and similar form and meaning, such as English "family" and Spanish "familia"; useful for vocabulary and reading transfer.

Total Physical Response

Asher's method in which learners respond to spoken commands with physical actions, tying comprehension to movement and lowering anxiety during early language development.

Scaffolding

Temporary support such as sentence frames, graphic organizers, or modeling that lets a learner complete a task beyond independent ability, then is gradually removed as competence grows.

Zone of Proximal Development

Vygotsky's concept of the gap between what a learner can do alone and what can be done with guidance; instruction targets that range with scaffolds and peer support.

Academic language

The vocabulary, grammar, and discourse patterns used to learn and demonstrate content knowledge in school, including discipline-specific terms and text structures.

Language objective

A lesson goal stating what language students will use or produce, such as explaining a process with sequence words, distinct from the content objective.

Content objective

A lesson goal describing the subject-matter knowledge or skill students will demonstrate, written in measurable terms and paired with a separate language objective.

Formative assessment

Ongoing checks during instruction, such as exit tickets or observation, that inform immediate teaching adjustments rather than assigning a final grade.

Alternative assessment

Performance-based evidence such as portfolios, projects, or oral presentations that lets multilingual learners show content knowledge without relying solely on language-heavy tests.

Accommodations vs modifications

Accommodations change how a student accesses content or testing without changing expectations; modifications change the content or performance level expected of the student.

Translanguaging

The practice of drawing on a learner's full linguistic repertoire, moving between languages, to make meaning and support learning rather than suppressing the home language.

Code-switching

Alternating between two languages within a conversation or sentence, which can serve communicative, social, or identity purposes rather than indicating confusion.

Funds of knowledge

The skills, experiences, and cultural resources families and communities hold; instruction connects to these to make learning relevant and to build relationships.

Culturally responsive teaching

Instruction that uses students' cultural references, prior knowledge, and experiences in curriculum and pedagogy so that learning is accessible and meaningful to all.

Newcomer program

A specialized program for recently arrived multilingual learners that provides intensive English, content support, and orientation to school and community, often for a limited period.

Error analysis

An approach that examines learner errors to distinguish developmental overgeneralizations from first-language interference and to plan targeted feedback.

Realia

Authentic objects and materials from the real world, such as menus, maps, or artifacts, used to make input concrete and to support vocabulary and comprehension.