An ELT Glossary Lateral consonants

Definition : A consonant sound made by partially blocking the airflow but allowing air to pass down the sides of the tongue. Example :  in English the only example is /l/ Further reading from An ELT Notebook : English Consonant Sounds

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An ELT Glossary Notions

Notions are described by Wilkins (1976) as "semantico-grammatical" categories - ie the categories of meanings and concepts that are needed in order to communicate. They include  such categories as time, quantity and location, each of which can be broken down into subcategories. Time, for instance, includes the subcategory of Time Duration, expressed linguistically by prepositional phrases : for five years, until Tuesday, since Monday etc

Notions were one of the three types of meaning that were used in the work of the Council of Europes work on syllabus design, published in the early seventies - the others being functions and modal meaning -  and which form the basis of syllabus design in the early Communicative Approach - though it was undoubtedly the concept of function which was most emphasised,

See also : Notional-Functional Syllabuses

Reference

Wilkins, D.A, 1976, Notional Syllabuses, OUP

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An ELT Glossary An allophone

Definition

An allophone is a variant of a phoneme. A phoneme (a speech sound which can create meaning) may have several variants,  which 1) may be used in different linguistic contexts (see the first example below), and/or 2) which may be used in the same linguistic context but in varieties of the language (see the second example).


Examples

1) The phoneme /p/ may or may not be aspirated : eg  in  "pin" it is aspirated - [pʰɪn] - while in "spin" it is not [spɪn].  But substituting one for the other never changes the meaning. If you say [spʰɪn] it may sound a bit odd, but it doesnt create a different word.

2) Some allophones may be used in specific varieties of English. Eg two allophones the phoneme /t/ are the glottal stop [ʔ] which is common in eg London English, and the alveolar flap [ɾ], used in many N. American varieties of English. A speaker using these allophones will be clearly recognisable as from a specific region - but the meaning of the word will not change because of the use of the allophone.


Further information

• Native speakers are generally completely unaware of allophonic variation, or if they perceive it (more likely in the case of regional variations) may mis-perceive the sounds - eg believing that N. American speakers are producing /d/ rather than [ɾ]

• A difference in sound quality which is a matter of allophonic variation in one language, may result in a change of meaning in another - ie in that language the two sounds will be different phonemes. For example, the difference between aspirated and non-aspirated /p/, which is mentioned above,  is allophonic in English, but causes a meaning change in eg Korean, Thai and Icelandic. The two sounds are therefore different phonemes in those languages.

• Language learners often have problems with sounds which are phonemes in the target language but "only" allophones (and possibly therefore not perceived) in their own language. For example, Japanese or Korean learners of English will have difficulty pronouncing /l/ and /r/ which are phonemes in English, but allophones in Japanese.

Further reading

For a fuller explanation of allophonic variation, see here: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allophone

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An ELT Glossary Adverbial Adverbial clause

An adverbial is a clause element on the same level as subject, verb, object and complement. Some examples : 

He (S) had grabbed (V) the book (O) quickly (A)

She (S) was (V) a student (C) at Oxford (A) in the eighties (A)

After we finished, (A) I (S) went (V) straight (A) to the garden centre (A) to buy some plants.(A)

We (S) go there (A) every year (A). We (S) nearly always (A) stay (V)  all day (A)


As these examples show, an adverbial is an adverb (single word), or any phrase or clause which functions in the same way as an adverb - in Richards. Platt and Webers (1985:6) terms : "... which answers such questions as how? where? or when?" .  They may be :

- single adverbs (quickly, straight, there, always)
- adverb phrase (nearly always)
- prepositional phrases  (in the eighties, at Oxford, to the garden centre)
- noun phrases (all day, every year)
- adverbial clauses (After we finished, to buy some plants)

Adverbials can generally occur in more than one position in the clause :
Eg: She grabbed the book quickly / She quickly grabbed the book 
and are generally optional - if they are omitted, the sentence remains acceptable.


Reference

Richards, J., Platt, J., Weber, H. (1985), Longman Dictionary of Applied Linguistics, Longman


Other related terms

Adjunct, disjunct, conjunct

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An ELT Glossary Vowel sounds

Definition : Vowels are phonemes made without obstruction of the airflow as it passes out from the lungs through the mouth. This contrasts with consonants, which involve some obstruction, complete or partial, in the vocal tract.

Examples : The vowels used in English may be monopthongs :

• /i:/  as in deep /di:p/
• /ɪ/   as in dip /dɪp/
• /ʊ/   as in book /bʊk/
• /u:/  as in moon /mu:n/
• /e/   as in bed /bed/
• /ə/   as in deeper /di:pə/
• /ɜ:/  as in bird /bɜ:d/
• /ɔ:/  as in saw /sɔ:/
• /æ/  as in cat /kæt/
• /ʌ/   as in luck /lʌk/
• /ɑ:/  as in car /ɑ:/
• /ɒ/   as in dog /dɒg/

or dipthongs

• /ɪə/  as in near /nɪə/
• /eɪ/ as in wait /weɪt/
• /ʊə/ as in pure /pjʊə/
• /ɔɪ/ as in boy /bɔɪ/
• /əʊ/ as in go /gəʊ/
• /eə/ as in pair /peə/
• /aɪ/ as in buy /baɪ/ 
• /aʊ/ as in how /haʊ/

Vowels are described by the shape of the lips (rounded/spread) position of the tongue : how far it is raised (open/mid/close) and which part is raised (front/centre/back) :

Rounded / Spread vowels

Say /u:/  and then /i:/ and notice the difference in the shape of the lips. /u:/ is made with the lips in a rounded position, whereas /i:/ is made with the lips spread.

Open/Mid/Close vowels

A close (NB./kləʊs/ not /kləʊz/) vowel is made by raising part of the tongue close to the hard or soft palate. Both /i/ and /u/ are close vowels. 

This contrasts with open vowels such as /æ/ and /ʌ/ where the tongue is low, whereas for mid-vowels such as  /ə/ tongue position is half-way between open and close. Try saying /ɪ/ /ə/ /æ/ and feel the tongue move gradually downwards.

Front/Central/Back vowels

A front vowel is made by raising the front of the tongue, eg /i/

A central vowel is made raising the centre of the tongue - eg/ə/

A back vowel, made by raising the back of the tongue - eg /u/

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An ELT Glossary Concordancers

Definition : A concordancer is computer program which can analyse a corpus of material to search for specific words and expressions. Example :  If you ask the concordancer to search for a specific word or collocation - eg heavy rain - it will search the corpus or corpora that it has at its disposal for all instances of that word/phrase. Try it out : Go to Lextutor. enter heavy rain (or another word or collocation of your choice) into the Keyword box. Select a corpus from the Choose a Corpus box (try All of the above), then click on Get concordance. The concordancer will produce a list of examples of the use of that word from the corpus. Data from a concordancer can be used by the teacher to research how specific language items are actually used. For example : Whats most common - to talk about attuteds to something, towards something, or toward sometghing? Does it differ between American and British English? Or between written and spoken English? By choosing different corpora and comparing the results, you can work out what are the most common patterns in each case. Learners can also be encouraged to use a concordancer or to complete guided discovery activities using concordances (the list of examples) provided by the teacher, in order  to encourage them to work out rules of use for themselves. Further reading : Huang, L-S. Corpus-aided language learning

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