Glossary


additional language: a language learned in addition to your home language


assessment: the continuous and structured process of collecting and interpreting information about the progress that learners are making


audience: the people who watch a show or performance; the people who will read or look at a written text


bias: unfairly preferring one thing or person caption: the text underneath a diagram or picture cohesion: using words such as connectors and pronouns to link ideas in a sentence or paragraph


communicative approach: a method of teaching a language in which learners are exposed to the language and are given many opportunities to practise the language


context: the words that come before or after other words in a sentence; the social and cultural situation


creative writing: imaginative writing (e.g. stories and poems)


critical language awareness: understanding how words are used to create meaning


editing: the process of drafting, checking and rewriting a text


formal assessment: tasks that are designed to evaluate the progress of learners; tasks are marked and formally recorded for promotion purposes


Formal Programme of Assessment: a number of specific tasks which make up 75% of the promotion mark for each grade


Formal Assessment Task: an activity that is part of the Formal Programme of Assessment; the task is marked and the marks recorded


genre: a type of text (e.g. a novel or poetry) which has special characteristics


higher-order questions: questions that require learners to put together information from a text they have read (to synthesisethe meaning), to work out what the writer means (to infer meaning), to give an opinion (to evaluate meaning) and to express a like or dislike (to appreciate) the text


home language: the language that a child learns at home


imagery: words or phrases (e.g. similes or metaphors) that create pictures in our minds or imagination


informal (daily) assessment: the daily monitoring of the learners’ progress through observation and discussions; this assessment is not recorded for promotion purposes


literal meaning: the clear or direct meaning of a word or phrase


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media texts: texts such as magazine articles, notices, reports, posters


mindmap: a graphic way of organising ideas; a diagram of ideas


open and closed questions: closed questions have specific answers; open questions can be answered in different ways and need to be justified or supported


pace, tone and intonation: the way in which a person uses his or her voice when speaking; paceis how fast or how slowly the person speaks; tonerefers to the way the words sound (e.g. serious, happy); intonationrefers to the way the voice goes up and down


recount: to retell a story or describe an event point of view: opinion process approach: using a series of steps to complete a task like reading and writing


reading strategies: using techniques like predicting, scanning and word attack skills to work out the meaning of words and phrases when you read


scanning: when you scana text you read the text quickly to find specific information


skimming: when you skima text you look at the whole text (including pictures) for the main ideas and for clues about the meaning of the text


social texts: texts like invitations, personal letters and email


stereotype: a fixed set of ideas about what a particular type of person or thing is, often biased


summative assessment: assessment that takes place at the end of a period of learning (e.g. a test at the end of a term)


text: anything that is used to communicate an idea; a text can be spoken or written or visual (e.g. a photograph)


text features: the characteristics of a text like the layout, format and the use of language


text structure: the different parts of a text (e.g. the introduction and conclusion)


text-based approach: a method of teaching a language in which learners find out how texts work and how they are constructed so that they can understand texts, read them critically and create their own texts


transactional writing: functional writing (e.g. letters, faxes, minutes of meetings, reports)


visual literacy: having the skills to interpret visual texts (e.g. diagrams, graphs, maps and posters)


visual texts: texts such as photographs, graphs, and cartoons


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