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Glossary
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ScanningLooking for or listening for specific bits of
information to answer a query. | |
SchemaA theory stating that a student brings in his or
her own knowledge and experiences when trying to read or listen to a
text/selection. | |
SchwaSchwa /ǝ/ is the smallest English vowel sound.
It is the most frequent vowel sound in continuous (connected) speech, yet it
never carries stress. | |
Second Language Acquisition (SLA)When ESL students are capable of internalizing
the new (second) language and communicating effectively. The educator needs to
implement modifications in classroom instruction until the second language
learner has mastered English. Speaking English for simple communication will
happen in the early acquisition stages; however, complete language acquisition
takes at least five to seven years. (see “Acquisition”) | |
SegmentalsIndividual phonemes (i.e., sounds) of vowels and
consonants. | |
Self-AssessmentProcedures by which learners evaluate their own
language skills and/or knowledge, allowing ESL students to assess their own
work and observe their progress. For example, a self-assessment form may be
used to record students’ thoughts and feelings about the presented work.
Students are given the responsibility to assess themselves and actively be a
part of their academic success. | |
SemanticsThe meaning of language,
such as a word’s common synonyms, definition(s), and metaphorical meanings. | |
Silent WayA designer method whereby the teacher remains mostly silent in order to encourage students to solve their own problems. Originated by Caleb Gattegno in the 1970’s, this method was meant to foster learning through discovery. Students were given Cuisenaire rods and used these colored rods to figure out the patterns of language based on a few examples given by the teacher. | |
SkimmingA top-down activity where a learner quickly
reads some material to find the gist. | |
StageOne distinct part of a lesson, commonly a single
activity. | |
StreamingA grouping strategy that involves putting
students together according to their language ability, either mixing strong and
weak students, or grouping them at the same level. | |
StressThe syllables in words that are longer, louder,
and higher-pitched. At the word level, stress
falls on syllables. At the sentence level, stress falls on content words
(e.g., nouns, verbs, adjectives, and sometimes adverbs) while function words
(e.g., pronouns, determiners, prepositions, and auxiliary verbs) are
de-stressed. | |
STTStudent Talking Time. The amount of time that
students get to talk within a lesson. In a student-centered classroom, STT
should be increased, while TTT – Teacher Talking Time – should be decreased. | |
Student-CenteredLanguage activities, techniques, and methods in
which learners are the focus and the teacher plays only a peripheral role.
Students are allowed some control over activities and some input into the
curriculum. These activities encourage student creativity and autonomous learning.
Group work is one kind of student-centered activity. | |
SuffixA bound morpheme attached to the end of a word
that often changes the word’s part of speech, and sometimes its meaning, but (in the case of inflectional
morphemes) can also simply change nouns to plural or indicate a change in verb
tense. | |
SuggestopediaA humanistic teaching method where instructors
strive to create an environment conducive to learning by utilizing tools such
as relaxing wall colors, background music, and artwork. | |
SuprasegmentalsSpeech
features such as stress, rhythm, intonation, pitch, linking, pausing, and
thought groups. Whereas segmentals refer to individual sounds,
suprasegmentals extend past this and refer to things such as a string of
sounds, syllables, words, phrases or sentence level sound features. | |
Surface CulturePeople’s behaviors, actions, and practices, such as language, manners, customs, food, music, clothing, art, and literature. | |
Synchronous Online LearningClasses that take place entirely online and have
a component which requires the student and teacher to both be online at a
specified time. Synchronous courses can include phone conferencing, video
conferencing, or chat. | |
SyntaxThe study of how words function together to
create units like phrases, clauses or sentences. This includes word order, sentence formation,
question formation, and parts of speech (articles, nouns, verbs, etc.). | |