TEFL Glossary

Prepositions are words which express relationships between two items. Primarily they express location (position) and come before a noun (pre-). E.g.,The bottle is on the table, in the cupboard, etc. They are also used to express time relationship: on Wednesday, at 4.O clock, in August. These words are also used in more abstract ways: interested in, look forward to, the study of.

There is a high number of prepositions in English, and they are difficult for learners to master.

See PPP.

See main stress.

The term is used to describe writing lessons which focus on the process of producing a piece of written work – the various stages a writer goes through to create the final product, e.g., gathering ideas, planning, drafting, editing, proofreading, etc.

See four skills.

A distinction can be drawn betweenproductive and receptive vocabulary (sometimes referred to as active and passive vocabulary). Productive vocabulary is the vocabulary a person uses in their spoken and written language. Receptive vocabulary is the vocabulary which is recognised and understood in context, but not actually used in productive language.

A proficiency test is designed to measure the level of a learner's  language. Public examinations, such as TOEFL and FCE, are proficiency tests.

A progress test is designed to assess a learner's progress in a particular course.

A pronoun is a short word that stands in place of a noun, e.g., she/herare subject and object pronouns that can be used in place of 'Janet'.

Proper nouns are basically the names of specific people, organisations, and places.  In English proper nouns start with a capital letter, e.g., Ilhan Omar, Morocco,United Nations.

Other nouns are common nouns, e.g., woman, country, etc.

Rather inconsistently, days of the week and months are capitalised in English, but not seasons.