The alternative EFL jargon dictionary Part 12

SLA- Second Language Acquisition- The theory that you are guaranteed to learn a language if you just spend enough money on it

STT- Stupid Talking Time- How long you should let a student talk after you realize they’ve got completely the wrong idea of what you are trying to elicit or the topic of conversation.

TLA- In his book “Teacher Language Awareness”, Stephen Andrews controversially claims that “in order to do their jobs well, teacher must be aware that there are languages”(pg.1729), to which the famous repost on the Humanizing Language Teaching website was “Hey Stevie man, chill out! Fascist!”

TBLT- Task Based Lettuce and Tomato The “strong form of TBLT” includes English mustard, while the “weak form of TBLT” only has mayonnaise

TEI- Teacher Effectiveness Index- Not to be confused with TIE-Teacher Index Effectiveness- a number to represent a teacher’s ability to put book in the teachers’ room back in order.

TOEFL- Test of English with Fluency Lacking- A test of English in which you can get full marks without speaking one word. Originally developed only for people who have physical problems with their voice box, eventually having been through an East Asian education system was accepted as a disability and it soon became one of the leading tests in Japan, China and Korea

TTT- Teacher Talking Time. According to modern SLA* theories, the amount of TTT should be reduced, preferably at the same rate as TEFL wages are going down. This is so that the amount of effort you put in per pound remains stable.

Universal Grammar-formerly “Miss Universal Grammar”

vocatives- the functions on a karaoke machine

Vygotskyan sociocultural theory of learning- The idea that if you tell students your classes are “Vygotskyan” and manage to pronounce and spell it right, they will trust everything you do from then, even if you and they have no idea what it means

Warmer- An activity that fulfills the role of classroom heating, such as star jumps, group hugs or burning vocabulary lists they have learnt

Weak interface position- A Japanese handshake, or the idea that pointing out how much contempt it gets could result in them learning a decent grip

ZPD- Zone of Proximal Development- The short period of time during which it is acceptable to ask a student out on a date

The whole dictionary (my life’s work!) is available here, now with links to more conventional definitions, if you are unlucky enough to be doing the DELTA or MA TESOL

Tags: ELT jargon, Humour

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 10th, 2008 at 11:28 pmand is filed under Linguistics, applied linguistics and SLA, TEFL, TOEFL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.