Terms for Cambridge Delta Module 1

General terms for Cambridge Delta Module 1 A list of 100 terms and definitions that may appear in Delta Module 1 Paper 1 Task 1, covering a wide range of concepts from grammar to methodology, discourse analysis, and phonology: Term

Definition

Example/Usage

Adjacency Pair

A conversational structure where two related "How are you?" → "I'm utterances occur, typically a question and answer. good, thanks!"

Affix

A morpheme that is added to a root word to change its meaning or grammatical function.

"un-" in "unkown" or "-ing" in "running".

Anaphoric Reference

A type of reference where a word (usually a pronoun) refers back to something previously mentioned.

John left his keys. He was in a rush. ("He" refers to John).

Aspect

The grammatical feature that expresses the way Present continuous expresses in which an action or state is viewed in relation to an action happening now: time.

"She is running."

Collocation

Words that frequently appear together due to habitual use in a language.

"Heavy rain", "make a decision", "take a break".

Connotation

The implied or associative meaning of a word beyond its dictionary definition.

"Home" has a warm, personal connotation, while "house" is more neutral.

Context

The situation or environment in which language occurs, affecting its meaning.

In a formal context, "Can you help me?" might be more polite than in an informal one.

Cohesion

Using pronouns to refer back The grammatical or lexical links between parts of to subjects: "She loves ice a text that help it hang together. cream. It’s her favorite."

Cohesive Devices

Words or phrases that help to connect ideas and However, therefore, in sentences, contributing to text cohesion. addition, because of.

Comprehensible Input

Learners understand "She is Language that is just beyond the current level of reading a book" after being the learner but still understandable, often used in exposed to simpler second language acquisition theories. sentences.

Competence (Linguistic)

The inherent knowledge a speaker has of their language's rules.

Knowing the difference between "I eat" and "I am eating".

Alastair Grant Teacher Training – adapted from various sources

Term

Definition

Example/Usage

Performance (Linguistic)

A speaker might say "I eats" The actual use of language in concrete situations, instead of "I eat" due to influenced by many factors. stress or distractions, though they know the correct form.

Consonant Cluster

A group of consonants appearing together without intervening vowels.

Discourse

A unit of language longer than a sentence, An entire conversation, news encompassing spoken or written communication. report, or academic essay.

Discourse Marker

Words or phrases used to manage the flow of discourse.

"Well," "so," "anyway," "actually," "you know."

Error

A mistake in language that arises from a lack of knowledge of the language.

Saying "She go" instead of "She goes".

False Cognate

Words that look similar in two languages but have different meanings.

"Sympathy" in English vs "simpatía" in Spanish.

Fluency

The smoothness and flow of speech, often involving the ability to express oneself naturally without excessive hesitation.

Being able to speak for an extended period without interruption.

GrammarTranslation Method

A traditional method of language teaching that Learning Latin by translating focuses on explicit grammar rules and translation sentences and focusing on exercises. grammar rules.

Hedge

A word or phrase used to soften or weaken a statement, making it less direct.

"I think," "Maybe," "It's possible that."

Hyperbole

Exaggerated language used for emphasis or effect.

"I've told you a million times!"

Idiom

A phrase or expression whose meaning cannot be "Kick the bucket" meaning understood from the literal meanings of the "to die." individual words.

Interlanguage

A transitional state of language proficiency between the learner's native language and the target language.

A learner may say "She have been", mixing correct grammar and errors.

Intonation

The rise and fall in pitch while speaking, often used to convey meaning or emotion.

A rising pitch at the end of a sentence: "Are you coming?"

"st-" in "street", "spl-" in "splash".

Alastair Grant Teacher Training – adapted from various sources

Term

Definition

Learner Corpus

Using a learner corpus to A collection of learner-produced texts or speech, identify common mistakes used for analysis of errors and language patterns. among beginner students.

Lexis

The vocabulary of a language, including words, phrases, and expressions.

"Book", "run", "idiom"

Metaphor

A figure of speech that describes something by stating that it is something else.

"Time is money."

Metaphor (Extended)

"The journey of life is long, A metaphor that is extended over several lines or winding, and full of sentences, often used in literary works. obstacles."

Minimal Pairs

Pairs of words that differ by only one sound, helping learners practice pronunciation.

"bat vs "pat", "sheet" vs "shit".

Modal Verb

Verbs that express necessity, possibility, permission, or ability.

Can, could, should, might, must.

Monologue

A long speech by a single speaker, often without interruption.

A speaker explaining a topic for an extended period, such as a lecture.

Morpheme

The smallest meaningful unit in a language.

"Un-" in "unhappy" or "-s" to indicate plural in "cats".

The study of the structure and form of words.

Studying how prefixes and suffixes change word meaning.

Morphology

Example/Usage

A French learner of English The influence of a learner's first language on their might say "I have 25 years", Negative Transfer second language, leading to errors. influenced by French "J'ai 25 ans".

Nominalization

The process of turning verbs or adjectives into nouns.

"Run" becomes "running", "happy" becomes "happiness".

Noun Phrase

A phrase with a noun as its main word, often including modifiers.

"The large red book" or "a fast car".

Onomatopoeia

Words that imitate the sounds they describe.

"Buzz", "clang", "splash".

Alastair Grant Teacher Training – adapted from various sources

Term

Definition

Example/Usage

Phoneme

The smallest unit of sound that can distinguish meaning.

The difference between "bit" and "beat" is in the vowel phoneme.

Phonological Awareness

Identifying that "bat" and The ability to recognize and manipulate sounds at "mat" differ only in the initial the level of phonemes, syllables, and words. consonant sound.

Pitch

The degree of highness or lowness of a sound, important for conveying meaning and emotion.

The pitch rise in "Are you sure?" indicating doubt or surprise.

Pragmatics

The study of how context affects the interpretation of language.

Understanding that "Could you pass the salt?" is a polite request, not just a question about ability.

Prepositional Phrase

A phrase consisting of a preposition and its object, often used to show relationships.

"In the park", "on the table".

Prosody

The rhythm, stress, and intonation of speech, which help convey meaning and emotion.

The difference in meaning between "You’re going?" (question) and *"

Register

The level of formality or informality in language, determined by context and audience.

Repair

The process of correcting errors A speaker might say "I have 20 years old" and in communication, either by the self-correct to "I am 20 years old." speaker or the listener.

Realia

Real-world objects or materials used in teaching to provide authentic context.

Using a menu in class to practice ordering food in English.

Recursion

The process of embedding clauses or phrases within one another to create complex sentences.

"I know that she said that she would come."

Relative Clause

A clause that gives more information about a noun, usually introduced by a relative pronoun.

"The book that I borrowed was interesting."

"Hey" vs "Hello", "Can you help me?" vs "Would you mind assisting me?"

Alastair Grant Teacher Training – adapted from various sources

Term

Definition

Example/Usage

Repetition

The act of repeating a word or phrase, often used for emphasis "I can do it. I can!" or clarity.

Role Play

An activity where learners act out a scenario to practice reallife language use.

A student might role-play ordering food at a restaurant, practicing vocabulary and expressions.

Root Word

The base form of a word, from which other words can be formed by adding prefixes or suffixes.

"Read" is the root word of "reader" and "reading".

Schema

A mental framework that helps people organize and interpret information.

Understanding the structure of a restaurant menu, which helps learners predict types of items.

Segmentation

The ability to break speech into smaller units, such as syllables or "Im-pact", "be-tween" words.

Semantic Field

A group of words related in Words related to weather: rain, clouds, sunny, meaning, often used to convey a storm. particular topic or theme.

Sentence Stress

The emphasis placed on certain In "I love tea," the stress is often on "love", words in a sentence to convey whereas in "I LOVE tea," the stress is on "tea". meaning.

Syllable

A unit of pronunciation that forms the basic building block of "Ta-ble", "Beau-ti-ful". words.

Subordinate Clause

A clause that cannot stand alone as a sentence, usually "Although it was raining" in "Although it was introduced by a subordinating raining, we went for a walk." conjunction.

Speech Act

A communicative act that conveys meaning and intention, "Can you help me?" (request), "I promise I'll such as requests, apologies, or call you later." promises.

Stress

The emphasis placed on particular syllables or words in speech.

In "reCORD" vs "REcord", the stress is on different syllables depending on whether it’s a noun or verb.

Alastair Grant Teacher Training – adapted from various sources

Term

Definition

Substitution

Replacing one element in a sentence with another to avoid repetition or for emphasis.

Using "one" to replace "book" in "I want that book. I'll take the one."

Syllabic Consonant

A consonant that forms its own syllable, often in unstressed syllables.

The "n" sound in "button" can function as a syllabic consonant.

Task-Based Learning

A learning approach that focuses on using language to complete Planning a holiday using travel-related meaningful tasks rather than vocabulary and structures. focusing solely on grammar or vocabulary.

Tense

The grammatical feature that expresses when an action or event occurs in time.

Present tense: "She sings."; Past tense: "She sang."

Theme

The topic or subject of a sentence or discourse, often emphasized by sentence structure.

In "The teacher helped me," "The teacher" is the theme.

Topic Sentence

A sentence that introduces the main idea of a paragraph or section of text.

In a paragraph about vacation, "Summer vacations are a time for relaxation" might be the topic sentence.

Transitive Verb

A verb that requires a direct "She ate the cake." ("ate" is transitive because object to complete its meaning. it needs "the cake" to make sense).

Understatement

A figure of speech where the importance or magnitude of something is deliberately reduced.

"It’s just a scratch", when referring to a large hole in the wall.

Verb Phrase

A phrase that includes a main verb along with its auxiliary verbs.

"has been working" in "She has been working all day."

The process by which vowels in Vowel Reduction unstressed syllables become shorter or less distinct.

The "a" in "banana" is reduced in unstressed syllables.

Vowel Shift

A systematic change in the pronunciation of vowels over time.

Example/Usage

The Great Vowel Shift in English led to changes in vowel pronunciation, such as "bite" becoming pronounced with a long "i" sound.

Alastair Grant Teacher Training – adapted from various sources

Term

Definition

Example/Usage

Word Family

A group of words derived from the same root, often including different parts of speech.

"Decide" (verb), "decision" (noun), "decisive" (adjective).

Word Stress

The emphasis placed on a particular syllable of a word.

In "DEsert" (noun) vs "deSERT" (verb), stress is placed on different syllables.

Zero Conditional

A grammatical structure used for expressing general truths or "If you heat water to 100°C, it boils." facts.

Nominalization

The process of turning verbs or adjectives into nouns.

"Run" → "running" or "happy" → "happiness".

Quantifiers

Words used to indicate the quantity of something.

"Some", "much", "few", "many", "a lot of."

Causative Form

A grammatical structure used to "She had her hair cut." (caused someone else indicate that someone causes to cut her hair). someone else to do something.

Cleft Sentence

A structure used to emphasize a particular part of a sentence, "It was John who broke the window." often beginning with "It is" or "What."

Complex Sentence

A sentence containing at least one subordinate clause and one "Although I was tired, I stayed up late." main clause.

Conditional Clause

A subordinate clause in a conditional sentence, often beginning with "if".

"If it rains, I will stay home."

Alastair Grant Teacher Training – adapted from various sources