NSSCAS Rumanyo First Language 8195 key terms

Listening with deliberate attention: picking out the speaker's main points, holding your questions until the end, and checking understanding by summarising or asking, rather than simply letting words pass by.

The spoken rule that one person speaks at a time: noticing when a speaker has finished, signalling that you wish to contribute, and yielding the floor politely during a discussion, interview or meeting.

The level of formality a speaker or writer chooses for a situation, from relaxed talk among friends to the careful, respectful wording needed at ceremonies, in interviews and in official correspondence.

Messages sent without words, such as eye contact, facial expression, gesture, posture and the distance kept from listeners, which can support or contradict what is actually being said.

The people a text or speech is meant for. Knowing their age, background and expectations helps you decide how much to explain, which vocabulary to use and how formal to be.

Two fast reading methods: skimming passes quickly over headings and opening sentences to catch the general sense, while scanning searches the page for one particular name, date or figure.

The single central point that a paragraph, section or whole passage makes; the other sentences support it with reasons, examples or detail, and a reader should be able to state it in one sentence.

A meaning the reader works out from clues in the text together with general knowledge, used when a writer hints at a character's feelings or at a cause without saying so directly.

Meaning produced by comparison or image rather than by the plain dictionary sense of the words, as when a person is called a lion to suggest courage rather than an animal.

The attitude that shows through a piece of writing or speech towards its subject and its readers, for instance sympathetic, mocking or indignant, carried by word choice and sentence rhythm.

Words and patterns that link sentences into a readable whole: pronouns, conjunctions, repeated key nouns, time markers and matching concords that show how one idea follows from another.

A short restatement of a text's main points in your own words, leaving out examples, repetition and minor detail, and keeping within any word limit the question sets.

Rewriting a short stretch of text in different words and sentence patterns while keeping the original meaning intact, usually to show understanding or to fit a borrowed idea into your own writing.

Using another person's words or ideas as if they were your own, for example by copying a passage without acknowledgement, or by lifting whole sentences into a summary instead of restating them.

Reducing spoken or written material to short headings, numbered points, abbreviations and symbols, so that the important information can be found again quickly and used in an answer.

A Bantu grouping in which every noun carries a prefix that places it in a set with other nouns; that class decides the concords taken by verbs, adjectives, possessives and pronouns in the sentence.

The agreement shown by prefixes between a noun and the words that depend on it, such as the verb, adjective or possessive; the prefix must match the noun's class and its singular or plural form.

Tense places an action in time as past, present or future; aspect shows whether it is finished, still going on or repeated. Rumanyo marks both mainly through verb prefixes and suffixes.

The agreed system for writing a language: which letters and letter combinations stand for which sounds, where words are divided, and how vowel length or tone is shown in print.

A fixed phrase whose meaning cannot be guessed from its separate words, such as an expression saying a person has no ears for advice; idioms belong to the community and must be learned whole.

An expressive word that echoes a sound, movement, colour or manner, common in Rumanyo narration and poetry, where it makes a description vivid and immediate rather than merely informative.

Two ways of reporting someone's words: direct speech repeats them word for word inside quotation marks, while indirect speech reports them in your own words, changing pronouns and often the tense.

The stories, songs, riddles, proverbs and family histories a community passes on by word of mouth, which carry its values, warn about behaviour and preserve events alongside written records.

A traditional story told to entertain and to teach, usually with animal characters acting like people, a repeated pattern of events and a lesson about greed, cleverness, kindness or respect.

A small or weak character in oral stories who survives by cunning, breaks the community's rules and often escapes punishment, so listeners admire the cleverness while seeing the cost of greed.

A formal poem that names a person and recites their ancestry, achievements and qualities in strong rhythm and repetition; it honours the subject publicly and fixes their reputation in memory.

Language that creates pictures for the senses, so the reader seems to see, hear, smell or feel the scene; it works through simile, metaphor, sensory adjectives and ideophones.

A mismatch between what is said or expected and what is really meant or actually happens; the reader or listener must notice the gap, which can produce humour, criticism or a shock of reversal.

The idea about life that a whole text explores, such as jealousy, migration, courage or respect for elders, as distinct from the events of the plot or the topic it describes.

The ways a writer builds a person in a story: what the character says and does, how others react, direct description, and the changes shown as the events unfold.

The order in which events are arranged in a story, including the conflict, the build-up of tension, the turning point and the ending, chosen so that the reader keeps wanting to know what happens.

A letter written for official purposes, with the writer's and recipient's addresses, the date, a salutation, often a subject line, a factual body in paragraphs and a polite formal ending.

A short message inside an organisation, headed by the names of recipient and sender, the date and a subject, followed by a brief factual body stating what is needed or has been decided.

The written record of a meeting: date and place, those present, each agenda item, the decisions reached and who must act on them, written up afterwards in reported speech.

One or two sentences, usually near the beginning of a discursive essay, that state your position on the question and the main reasons you will give in support of it.

The sentence, often first in a paragraph, that announces the one idea the paragraph will develop; the remaining sentences explain, illustrate or limit that idea.

The final check of a piece of writing: first making sure the ideas are clearly ordered and the question fully answered, then correcting spelling, concord, punctuation and sentence boundaries before handing it in.