TEFL Glossary

A noun is a word which refers to a thing. This could be a physical object, such as wall or daisy - these are concrete nouns, or a word that refers to an abstract idea, such as peace, love and understanding (abstract nouns).

A noun phrase is a single noun or a group of words including a noun which function in a sentence as the subject, object, or prepositional object.

Examples:

The children, the dog and the cat are playing in the garden. (subject)

I am watching the children, the dog and the cat. (object)

Look at the children, the dog and the cat!  (prepositional object)

The way this word is defined in education varies.
On this course we use it to mean what the students will do to achieve the aims of the lesson. E.g. Students will do a role play to practise functional language for inviting, accepting and refusing.

Specific goals that describe what students should be able to do by the end of a lesson.

It is when two students perform an activity (e.g., a dialogue), and the other learners observe.

An open question is one which could be answered in many different ways, not just 'yes' or 'no'. Open questions begin with wh- question words, or how. See closed questions.

See Situational English.

Organs of speech are also called articulators. They are the parts of the body used to produce spoken language -  lips, teeth, the various parts of the tongue and the roof of the mouth: alveolar ridge, hard palate and velum (soft palate). They also include the uvula and the glottis.

Paralinguistics (or paralinguistic features) are aspects of communication in addition to words. These features are: tone and pitch of voice, gestures, facial expressions and body language. Paralinguistics often serve to convey emphasis or attitude. 

Participle adjectives are special words in English formed from verbs and used to describe nouns.  They come in two types: present participles (ending in ‘-ing’) and past participles (ending in ‘-ed’, ‘-en’, ‘-d’, ‘-t’, or irregular forms).