TEFL Glossary

Communicative Approach or Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) . CLT had become mainstream by the 1980s and remains the approach that most syllabuses claim to follow today. CLT sees that the primary goal of language teaching and learning is communicative competence: the ability to successfully communicate and understand messages in the target language. Grammatical accuracy is seen as less important than the successful communication of meaning. This approach believes that grammatical competence will be acquired through use of the language for communicative purposes.

Community Language Learning (CLL) is a teaching method developed byCharles Curran, a professor of psychology and a counsellor. Essentially, the method consists of using psychological counselling techniques in the language classroom. The teacher is referred to as the 'knower'. The knower's role is to assist the learners to articulate what they want to say in L2. When an individual student is ready to say something, s/he says it to the knower in L1 and the knower translates the message into L2.

Comparative are grammatical forms used to express comparisons. Most commonly, this is adjective+er+than. E.g., My brother is taller than my mother. For some adjectives, more and less are used instead of -er. E.g,  This city is more beautiful than my home town. (See Units 4 and 7).

"(Not) as...as " is another common comparative form: My mother isn't as tall as my brother.

See CBLT.

Questions designed to help students understand, or to ascertain whether they understand, the content of, typically, a listening or reading text. You might also use comprehension questions to check their understanding of a conversation, a film etc.

Do not confuse with concept questions!

Comprehension skills refer to the ability to comprehend language through listening or reading.

Questions designed to check that students understand the concept (essential meaning) of a new piece of language - vocabulary or grammar. Concept check questions  are sometimes referred to as CCQs.

Also referred to as concept questions or concept checking.

Using concept questions to check that students understand the concept (essential meaning) of a new piece of language - vocabulary or grammar. Concept check questions  are sometimes referred to as CCQs.

Questions designed to check that students understand the concept (essential meaning) of a new piece of language - vocabulary or grammar. Concept check questions  are sometimes referred to as CCQs.

Also referred to as concept check questions (CCQs) or concept checking.

See noun.