Test-teach-test

A way of teaching new language. The teacher asks learners to do a task to see how well they know a certain piece of language (this is the first test). The teacher then presents the new language to the learners (teach), then asks the learners to do another task using the new language correctly (this is the second test). This way of approaching teaching target language can be helpful if the teacher thinks the learners may already know some of the target language. It helps the teacher diagnose what the learners need to learn so that s/he can focus only on what learners need to learn in the presentation (teach) stage.

 

Text

Any scripted or recorded production of a language presented to learners of that language. A text can be written or spoken and could be, for example, a poem, a newspaper article, a passage about pollution, a song, a film, an extract from a novel or a play, a passage written to exemplify the use of the past perfect, a recorded telephone conversation, a scripted dialogue or a speech by a politician. ‘Text is used to cover any piece of language, whether a spoken utterance or a piece of writing, which users/learners receive, produce or exchange. There can thus be no act of communication through language without a text’ (CEFR p93).

 

Text types

~ are groups of texts which exhibit similar features resulting from their overall function, from rhetorical conventions associated with them, from style etc. Common spoken/spoken interaction text types are: telephone calls, conversations, jokes, stories. Common written text types are: narrative texts, informative (articles etc), persuasive (speeches etc), letters, poems, advertisements, emails, text messages etc.

 

Textbook

A collection of the knowledge, concepts, and principles of a selected topic or course. See book.

The three R’s (“reading, ’riting, and ’rithmetic”)

The three basic subjects in primary education

 

Thematic unit

A unit of study that has lessons focused on a specific theme, sometimes covering all core subject areas. It is often used as an alternative approach to teaching history or social studies chronologically.

Timing

The likely time different activities or stages in a lesson plan should take. When teachers plan lessons, they think about how long each activity will take and they usually write this on their plan.