Praxis World Languages Pedagogy flashcards

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

Comprehensible input

Krashen's claim that acquisition occurs when learners understand input slightly beyond their current level (i+1), supported by context and prior knowledge rather than translation.

Affective filter

Krashen's construct describing how anxiety, low motivation, and low self-confidence can block learners from using available comprehensible input for acquisition.

Zone of proximal development

Vygotsky's term for the gap between what a learner can do alone and what they can do with expert or peer assistance; scaffolding operates within this zone.

BICS and CALP

Cummins's distinction between basic interpersonal communicative skills (context-embedded, 1-3 years) and cognitive academic language proficiency (context-reduced, 5-7 years).

Interaction hypothesis

Long's proposal that negotiation of meaning during interaction, through clarification and confirmation checks, makes input comprehensible and promotes second language acquisition.

Communicative competence

Canale and Swain's model comprising grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic competence, describing what it means to use language appropriately and effectively.

Output hypothesis

Swain's claim that producing language pushes learners to notice gaps, test hypotheses, and process language more deeply than comprehension alone requires.

Backward design

Wiggins and McTighe's planning sequence: identify desired results, determine acceptable evidence, then design learning experiences and instruction aligned to both.

The 5 Cs

ACTFL World-Readiness Standards: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities; Communication includes interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational modes.

Vertical alignment

Curriculum articulation that sequences courses and outcomes across proficiency levels so that each level builds on the previous one without gaps or repetition.

Thematic unit design

Organizing instruction around a real-world theme and essential question, integrating the three communication modes and cultural content instead of isolated grammar points.

Core Practices

ACTFL's recommended instructional practices, including facilitating target-language comprehensibility, designing real-world tasks, using authentic resources, and providing effective feedback.

Interpretive communication

One-way receptive communication in which learners understand and analyze authentic print, audio, or visual texts without negotiating meaning with the author.

Authentic text

A resource created by and for native speakers for a real communicative purpose, not simplified for learners, such as menus, news clips, or social media posts.

Gist task

An interpretive task asking learners to identify the main idea or purpose of a text before working with specific details, supporting global comprehension first.

Inferencing in reading

Deriving unstated meaning from context, text structure, and background knowledge; a higher-order interpretive skill than locating explicit detail.

Text-dependent items

Assessment questions answerable only by interpreting the provided text, not by prior knowledge, so they measure comprehension rather than guessing.

Interpersonal communication

Two-way, spontaneous negotiation of meaning between participants, spoken or written, where each participant responds to the other and meaning is jointly constructed.

Information-gap task

A pair or group activity in which each participant holds different information and must exchange it in the target language to complete a shared outcome.

Circumlocution

A communication strategy of describing, defining, or giving examples to convey a word the speaker does not know, keeping interaction going without switching languages.

Negotiation of meaning

The interactive process of clarifying and repairing understanding through clarification requests, confirmation checks, and comprehension checks during conversation.

Jigsaw activity

A cooperative structure in which each student learns one part of the content and then teaches it to peers, creating interdependence and required target-language exchange.

Presentational communication

One-way production for an audience with no immediate feedback, including speeches, essays, podcasts, and brochures, requiring attention to audience and purpose.

Register

The variety of language chosen according to audience, purpose, and setting, such as formal versus informal address forms and vocabulary.

Writing process approach

Teaching writing as recursive stages (brainstorm, draft, revise, edit, publish) with feedback between stages, rather than a single graded draft.

Analytic rubric

A scoring guide that rates separate criteria, such as task completion, organization, vocabulary, and language control, allowing detailed criterion-referenced feedback.

Cultural triangle

The framework relating products (artifacts), practices (behaviors and customs), and perspectives (values and beliefs); perspectives explain why products and practices exist.

Intercultural competence

Byram's model of attitudes, knowledge, interpreting and relating skills, discovery and interaction skills, and critical cultural awareness needed to engage across cultures.

Cultural essentialism

Treating a culture as fixed and homogeneous; world language teaching instead presents internal variation and change to avoid stereotyping.

Integrated Performance Assessment

An assessment model linking an interpretive task, an interpersonal task, and a presentational task around one theme and essential question, scored with rubrics.

Formative assessment

Ongoing evidence gathering during instruction used to adjust teaching and give feedback, as distinct from summative assessment at the end of learning.

Can-Do Statements

ACTFL learner-facing descriptors that translate proficiency levels into concrete tasks learners can perform in interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational modes.