CELTA TERMINOLOGY GLOSSARY

accuracy Correct Answers the degree of correctness which a student achieves when using grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. acquisition Correct Answers a subconscious process; the effortless mastery of language through being exposed to it, rather than consciously learning it. adjectives Correct Answers words like big, old, exciting, expensive which are used to describe things, places, people, events, etc. adverbs Correct Answers words used to say when or how something happens. For example there are adverbs of place, time, manner, etc. allophone Correct Answers the smallest non-meaningful unit of sound. The same phoneme which may be pronounced slightly differently depending on its position in a word. For example the /p/ sound is aspirated in the word pick but unaspirated in the word topic. articles Correct Answers these can be definite (the), indefinite (a) or 'zero' articles (ie not used). aspect Correct Answers It describes whether the action of a verb is ongoing or complete. We talk about continuous, perfect or simple aspect. assimilation Correct Answers a feature of connected speech in which the final consonant sound of a word changes to assimilate into the next consonant sound. For example the words ten pin bowling sound like/tem pim/. Audio-lingualism Correct Answers It was a methodology, popular in the 1940's-1970's, which relied on avoidance of error and used repeated and extensive drilling. authentic Correct Answers the term used to describe texts or language written for native or competent speakers of a language (ie with no concessions for a foreign-language speaker)