OAE ESOL 121 flashcards

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

BICS

Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills: conversational proficiency used in face-to-face, context-embedded situations. Typically develops in about two years and is insufficient for academic text demands.

CALP

Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency: decontextualized, cognitively demanding language used in academic reading and writing. Typically requires five to seven years to develop to grade level.

Comprehensible input (i+1)

Krashen's claim that acquisition occurs when learners receive input slightly beyond current competence. Meaning is made clear through context, visuals, and paraphrasing rather than explicit grammar explanation.

Affective filter

Krashen's construct describing anxiety, low motivation, and low self-confidence as barriers that block learners from processing available input. A low filter permits intake; a high filter impedes acquisition.

Monitor hypothesis

Krashen's proposal that conscious grammar knowledge only edits output when the learner has time, focuses on form, and knows the rule. It cannot generate fluent spontaneous speech.

Zone of Proximal Development

Vygotsky's concept of the gap between what a learner can do alone and what they can do with expert or peer assistance. Instruction targets this zone through scaffolding and mediation.

Interlanguage

Selinker's term for a learner's internally consistent, rule-governed language system that draws on L1 and L2 and changes over time. It is not random error but a developing grammar.

Fossilization

Persistent stabilization of non-target forms in a learner's interlanguage despite exposure and instruction. Causes include insufficient input, communicative success with errors, and identity factors.

Negative transfer

L1 interference in which a learner applies first-language rules to the second language, producing errors in phonology, syntax, or lexical choice. Contrasts with facilitating positive transfer.

Contrastive analysis

A framework predicting L2 difficulty by comparing L1 and L2 structures. Differences are expected to cause errors, but the approach overpredicts and misses developmental errors.

Error versus mistake

An error reflects a systematic gap in the learner's developing rule system and recurs. A mistake is a performance slip the learner can self-correct when attention is drawn to it.

Critical Period Hypothesis

Lenneberg's claim that language acquisition capacity declines after puberty. Evidence is strongest for native-like pronunciation and weaker for grammar and literacy outcomes.

Universal Grammar

Chomsky's theory of innate syntactic principles shared by all languages. In L2 acquisition, debate centers on whether adults can still access these principles.

Behaviorist language theory

Skinner's account of language as learned through imitation, reinforcement, and habit formation. It explains some vocabulary and routines but poorly accounts for creative novel utterances.

Additive bilingualism

An educational model that adds a second language while maintaining and valuing the first. Associated with stronger academic outcomes and positive identity compared with subtractive models.

Funds of knowledge

The skills, experiences, and cultural resources families and communities hold. Instruction that connects to these resources increases relevance and engagement for multilingual learners.

Stress-timed rhythm

English timing pattern in which stressed syllables occur at roughly regular intervals and unstressed vowels reduce to schwa. Contrasts with syllable-timed languages such as Spanish or Mandarin.

Inflectional morpheme

A bound morpheme that changes grammatical features without changing word class, such as plural -s, past -ed, or comparative -er. English has a small closed set of these.

Derivational morpheme

A bound morpheme that creates a new word, often changing part of speech, as in un- + happy or modern + -ize. Productive and central to academic vocabulary growth.

English consonant inventory

English has 24 consonant phonemes, including dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/ and affricates /tʃ/ and /dʒ/. These are frequent substitution targets for learners whose L1 lacks them.

Schwa

The reduced central vowel /ə/ in unstressed syllables, as in the second syllable of sofa. Mastery is essential for English listening comprehension and intelligible rhythm.

Pragmatic failure

Breakdown in communication caused by mismatched conventions for politeness, directness, or speech acts, despite grammatical accuracy. Addressed through explicit pragmatics instruction.

Speech act

An utterance that performs an action, such as requesting, apologizing, or refusing. Realization strategies differ across cultures and are a target of pragmatic instruction.

SVO word order

English basic clause order of subject, verb, object. Learners whose L1 uses SOV or VSO may transfer that order, producing errors in English statements and questions.

Article system

English distinguishes definite the, indefinite a/an, and zero article, with countability and specificity governing choice. Learners from article-less L1s show persistent omission and overuse errors.

Relative clause

A subordinate clause modifying a noun, as in the book that I read. English allows subject and object relatives with specific pronoun retention rules that vary across languages.

Sheltered instruction

A model teaching grade-level content with language supports so multilingual learners access curriculum while developing academic English. SIOP is a widely used framework for this approach.

Language objective

A stated language demand of a content lesson, naming the function, form, or vocabulary students will use. Pairs with the content objective in sheltered instruction planning.

WIDA proficiency levels

Six-level framework describing what multilingual learners can do with language: Entering, Emerging, Developing, Expanding, Bridging, and Reaching. Used to differentiate tasks and assessments.

Formative assessment

Ongoing checks during instruction that inform immediate teaching adjustments. For ELs, it should separate language from content and allow multiple response modes.

Construct-irrelevant variance

Score variation caused by factors unrelated to the intended construct, such as overly complex item language or cultural references. A major fairness threat in assessing ELs.

Culturally responsive pedagogy

Instruction that uses students' cultural knowledge and experiences as resources for learning. It values home language, sets high expectations, and examines bias in curriculum and assessment.

Scaffolding

Temporary, contingent support such as modeling, sentence frames, or visuals that enables a learner to complete a task. Support is gradually removed as competence develops.