Pat’s Polemics

http://earthrenewal.org/secondlang.htm A site of definitions.

Accuracy applied most often to grammar features. The idea apparently is that phonetic accuracy is too hard or not necessary and that items like verb (Continue Reading)

Literacy – a lot of words have two levels of meaning. Literacy and literate are one/two of them. Simple literacy, if you will, is the (Continue Reading)

Communication – a conundrum: do you use ’communication’ by itself or qualify it by modifying it with ’genuine’ or ’authentic’. The predicament lies in the (Continue Reading)

Acquisition – used interchangeably with learning but as hypothesized by S. Krashen, a different mental process. Acquisition is an unconscious process driven by the brain’s (Continue Reading)

Proficiency – The level of proficiency tells us what the learner can do. Proficio in Latin means to make progress. How far the person has (Continue Reading)

input-authentic or teacher language, oral or written, delivered in a way and in a setting so that the learner receives it. It must be distinguished (Continue Reading)

in-put accuracy communicative literacy comprehensible proficiency repetitive (?) grammar overgeneralize generalize pattern explicit instruction without (no kidding) incorrect practice mastery similar structure fossilize translating underachievere (Continue Reading)

Text-mapping, curriculum mapping, mind-mapping……. While I know these terms and have used the processes they refer to, I don’t feel I can give a definition (Continue Reading)