Articles
Read articles written by expert teachers and English language professionals about a wide range of current English language teaching topics and issues. All of our articles feature ideas and suggestions about how you can develop your teaching and bring new ideas into your English language classroom.
Critical period hypothesis
The critical period hypothesis says that there is a period of growth in which full native competence is possible when acquiring a language. This period is from early childhood to adolescence.
Cued Articulation
Cued Articulation [CA] was devised by Speech and Language Therapist Jane Passy in the late 1970s. It is an original system which uses simple hand cues to show where and how speech sounds are made.
Curriculum
A curriculum is a set of subjects for an educational institution, or a set of subjects within a course.
De-contextualised
De-contextualised language is a term that describes language that is presented as an isolated item rather than with a meaningful and real context.
De-lexicalised verbs
De-lexicalised verbs are verbs that have little meaning alone but that can be joined together with many other words, so generating a wide variety of new meanings.
Deductive approach
A deductive approach to teaching language starts by giving learners rules, then examples, then practice. It is a teacher-centred approach to presenting new content.
Delayed correction
Delayed correction techniques are corrections a teacher uses some time after a learner has made an error.
Descriptive grammar
A descriptive grammar is a set of rules about language based on how it is actually used. In a descriptive grammar there is no right or wrong language.
Determiner
A determiner is a word that goes before a noun and describes how we are referring to it in the sentence.
Diagnostic
A diagnostic is an activity that a teacher carries out with learners in order to identify problem areas they may have.