BK2 21:10:88

bk02

JARGON

All professions have their specific vocabulary and language teaching is no exception. Some of the following terms are of more or less general application in teaching and grammar, others are more specific and designed to simplify the explanation of certain phenomena of interest only in the limited context of direct method language teaching.

You will probably hear the following terms used when talking about teaching and you should know what they mean.

INTRODUCTION	The means by which you get a student to understand a word or structure - see "Introduction techniques".
DRILL	Getting a student to repeat a given word or structure to make him remember it.
REPLACEMENT DRILL	Getting a student to repeat a sentence with a single change in it (word or structure).
SUBSTITUTION DRILL	Another term for Replacement drill.
MASKING	If a student is to repeat a phrase after his teacher, that phrase should be the last thing he hears from the teacher. Intervening phrases "mask" the phrase he is to repeat.
KEY QUESTIONS	Questions beginning with WHO, WHAT, WHY, WHEN, HOW, WHICH, etc.
AQ TECHNIQUE	Giving the student an answer to which he has to formulate an appropriate question.
QAQ TECHNIQUE	Asking a student a question, letting him answer it and then getting him to ask the same question.
"I DON'T KNOW" TECHNIQUE	Asking a student a question he can't answer so that you can get him to ask it himself.
REPORTED SPEECH	Prefacing any sentence with "He said ...", "She asked me ..." etc.
AND QUESTIONS	A way of getting a student to give two answers, often an affirmative and a negative, in response to a single question.
DOUBLE QUESTIONS	As above plus some variants. A similar effect can be obtained with "we" and "they" questions, for example.
SHORT ANSWERS	Answers beginning "Yes" or "No" followed by the appropriate modal. (Yes, I did - No, he hadn't, etc.)
SKIT	A sort of mini- Role Play often used to introduce situational expressions like "excuse me" or "just a moment please" which are incomprehensible outside their contexts.
ROLE PLAYS	Acted-out situations.
INVERSION QUESTIONS	The kind of question answered by Yes or No.
PROMPTS	The first word or few words of the phrase you want your student to say, said, or sometimes whispered, to get him going.
CUES	Same as prompts. Can include words which a student is to integrate into a sentence.
TO CUE (OR KEY) IN A STUDENT	Using prompts and cues.
CUE RESPONSE	What you should hear when a cue works properly.
TRANSFER TECHNIQUE	Getting a student to repeat what you said, either as such or with some adaptation.
LEAD IN	Getting a student on the right "wavelength" before introducing a new structure.
PROPS, ENVIRONMENTAL SITUATION	Anything useful for your lesson that you can see in or from the classroom.
SUBSTITUTION	(Replacement) drill Student repeats a phrase with ONE change in the sentence.
PASSIVE VOCABULARY	Words a student can recognise or understand even though he can't use them himself.
ACTIVE VOCABULARY	Words the student can use and integrate into his conversation.
MODES	Question mode, repeat mode, adapt mode. The drill pattern the student is following at any given moment.