LAD (Language acquisition device)

A term coined by Noam Chomsky to explain an innate psychological capacity for language acquisition; mentalist theories of language acquisition emphasize the importance of the innate capacity of the language learner at the expense of environmental factors. Each learner is credited with a ~, which directs the process of acquisition. This device contains information about the possible form that the grammar of any language can take. See universal grammar.

Language laboratory

A room equipped with headphones and booths to enable students to listen to a language teaching programme, while being monitored from a central console. Labs may be Audio- Active (AA), where students listen and respond to a tape, or Audio-Active-Comparative (AAC), where they may record their own responses and compare these with a model on the master tape. It is a room in a school where learners can practise language by listening to tapes or CDs and by recording themselves speaking.

Language practice

Activities which involve repetition of the same language point or skill in an environment which is controlled by the framework of the activity. The purpose for language production and the language to be produced are usually predetermined by the task of the teacher. The intention is not to use the language for communication but to strengthen, through successful repetition, the ability to manipulate a particular language form or function. Thus getting all the students in a class who already know each other repeatedly to ask each other their names would be a practice activity. See language use.

Language proficiency

~ is what a learner can do and/or how well he/she can perform using language, given an identified and defined purpose. Language proficiency is often measured with reference to a scale of levels. It is the level of competence at which an individual is able to use language for both basic communicative tasks and academic purposes.

Language use

Activities which involve the production of language in order to communicate. The purpose of the activity might be predetermined but the language which is used is determined by the learners. Thus, getting a new class of learners to walk round and introduce themselves to each other would be a language use activity, and so would be getting them to complete a story.