The teaching glossary
Every method word from training courses and staffroom talk, defined in two honest sentences — and linked to the page where this site actually practises it.
Affective filterKrashen's name for the wall that stress, embarrassment or boredom raises between input and learning: an anxious child hears everything and absorbs nothing.Brain breakA 1–3 minute movement burst between focused tasks — stretch, dance, animal walk — that resets attention.Cambridge YLE (Starters, Movers, Flyers)Cambridge's three exams for children — Pre-A1 Starters, A1 Movers, A2 Flyers — designed to be passed with smiles: every child gets a certificate with shields, nobody fails.CEFRThe Common European Framework of Reference — the A1-to-C2 scale most coursebooks and exams hang from.Choral repetitionThe whole class repeating together after the teacher.ChunkingTeaching ready-made word groups ('I don't know', 'Can I have…?') as single units instead of assembling them from grammar.Circle timeThe daily ritual of sitting in a circle for greetings, calendar, weather and one small shared activity.CLILContent and Language Integrated Learning: teaching a school subject (art, maths, science) IN English rather than teaching English as a subject.Code-switchingHopping between languages mid-conversation or mid-sentence — 'Look, a собака!'.CognatesWords that look and mean alike across languages — animal/animal, лимон/lemon.Comprehensible inputLanguage a learner hears or reads that is just slightly above their level — understandable from context, stretching without breaking.Consonant blendTwo consonants said quickly together with BOTH still heard — st, bl, fr.CVC wordA consonant-vowel-consonant word — cat, dog, sun — the first words a child can fully decode.Decodable textA story containing only the letter-sounds a child has already been taught, so it can be read by decoding rather than guessing.DifferentiationDesigning one activity that works at several levels at once, rather than three separate worksheets: the same picture prompt answered with a word by one child and a story by another.DigraphTwo letters spelling one sound: sh, ch, th, ck.DrillingStructured repetition of a word or pattern — chorally, in pairs, in games — until saying it costs no effort.ElicitationPulling language OUT of learners instead of pouring it in: showing a picture and waiting, starting a sentence and stopping, asking 'what's this?' about a word half the class knows.Error correctionDeciding when, how and whether to fix a learner's mistake.False friendsWords that look alike across languages but mean different things: Spanish 'embarazada' is not embarrassed, Russian 'магазин' is not a magazine.FlashcardsPicture-plus-word cards, the oldest tool in the room and still the best value per gram: present, drill, hide, guess, race, sort.Formative assessmentChecking understanding DURING learning to steer the next five minutes — thumbs up, mini-whiteboards, 'show me the cat'.Gap-fillAn exercise with words removed for the learner to restore — the workhorse of grammar practice.Graded readerA book written (or retold) within a controlled vocabulary and grammar level, so a learner reads fluently instead of decoding a dictionary.ImmersionRunning the classroom (or the whole school) in the target language, so English is the water everyone swims in rather than a subject on the timetable.Information gapA pair task where each child holds half the information and must TALK to complete the picture — you have the prices, I have the shopping list.L1 (first language)The learner's mother tongue.L1 interference (transfer)The mother tongue's habits leaking into English: Russian speakers dropping articles ('I have cat'), Spanish speakers adding e- before s-clusters ('espeak').L2 (second language)Any language learned after the first — here, English.Magic e (silent e)The silent e at the end of a word that makes the vowel say its name: cap → cape, kit → kite.Minimal pairTwo words separated by exactly one sound — ship/sheep, berry/very.ModellingShowing the finished thing before asking for it: the teacher plays one full round, gives one full answer, makes one deliberate mistake and fixes it.Pair workSplitting the class into twos so everyone speaks at once instead of one child performing for thirty.PhonicsTeaching reading by mapping letters to sounds and blending them — c-a-t → cat — instead of memorising whole words.PPP (Presentation–Practice–Production)The classic lesson shape: show the new language, drill it in controlled tasks, then free it into real use.Puppet teachingA puppet who 'only speaks English' and needs the children's help.RealiaReal objects used as teaching material: an actual apple for 'apple', real coins for the shop game.RecastCorrecting by echoing the child's sentence back in its right form, without comment: 'He goed home' — 'Yes! He WENT home, didn't he?'.Role playActing out situations — the shop, the vet, the café — so language gets used where it lives.ScaffoldingTemporary support that lets a child do today what they will do alone tomorrow: sentence starters, gestures, word banks, a model answer.Sight wordsHigh-frequency words recognised instantly as wholes — the, said, of — because they appear too often to sound out and often break the phonics rules anyway.Spiral reviewReturning to old material at growing intervals instead of finishing a topic and leaving it — animals in September, again in November inside a new game, again in February inside a story.Task-based learning (TBL)Building the lesson around a real task — plan a picnic, make a poster, solve a mystery — and letting the language be whatever the task demands.Teacher talk (TTT)The share of lesson air the teacher's own voice occupies.TPR (Total Physical Response)Teaching language through whole-body movement: the teacher says 'jump!' and the class jumps, long before anyone reads or writes the word.Vowel teamTwo vowels working as one sound — ee, oa, ai.Wait timeThe silence a teacher holds after asking a question — three full seconds instead of the instinctive one.Warm-upThe first three to five minutes of a lesson, spent switching heads into English mode: a song, a question ritual, a quick game with old words.ZPD (zone of proximal development)Vygotsky's zone between what a child can do alone and what they can do with help — the only place teaching actually happens.