academic language: language used in the learning of academic subject matter in formal schooling context; aspects of language strongly associated with literacy and academic achievement, including specific academic terms or technical language, and speech registers related to each field of study

additive bilingualism: a process by which individuals develop proficiency in a second language subsequent to or simultaneous with the development of proficiency in the primary language, without loss of the primary language; a bilingual situation where the addition of a second language and culture are unlikely to replace or displace the first language and culture

assessment standards: statements that establish guidelines for evaluating student performance and attainment of content standards; often include philosophical statements of good assessment practice (see performance standards)

authentic language: real or natural language, as used by native speakers of a language in real-life contexts; not artificial or contrived for purposes of learning grammatical forms or vocabulary

biculturalism: near nativelike knowledge of two cultures; includes the ability to respond effectively to the different demands of these two cultures

bilingual instruction: provision of instruction in school settings through the medium of two languages, usually a native and a second language; the proportion of the instructional day delivered in each language varies by the type of the bilingual education program in which instruction is offered and the goals of said program

body language: the gestures and mannerisms by which a person communicates with others

communicative competence: the ability to recognize and to produce authentic and appropriate language correctly and fluently in any situation; use of language in realistic, everyday settings; involves grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, discourse competence, and strategic competence

communicative functions: purposes for which language is used; includes three broad functions: communicative, integrative, and expressive; where language aids the transmission of information, aids affiliation and belonging to a particular social group, and allows the display of individual feelings, ideas, and personality

comprehensible input: a construct developed to describe understandable and meaningful language directed at second language learners under optimal conditions; it is characterized as the language the learner already knows plus a range of new language that is made comprehensible by the use of certain planned strategies (e.g., use of concrete referents)

content-based ESL: a model of language education that integrates language and content instruction in the second language classroom; a second language learning approach where second language teachers use instructional materials, learning tasks, and classroom techniques from academic content areas as the vehicle for developing second language, content, cognitive and study skills

content standards: statements that define what one is expected to know and be able to do in a content area; the knowledge, skills, processes, and other understandings that schools should teach in order for students to attain high levels of competency in challenging subject matter; the subject-specific knowledge, processes, and skills that schools are expected to teach and students are expected to learn

cooperative/collaborative group: a grouping arrangement in which positive interdependence and shared responsibility for task completion are established among group members; the type of organizational structure encouraging heterogeneous grouping, shared leadership, and social skills development

cross-cultural competence: ability to function according to the cultural rules of more than one cultural system; ability to respond in culturally sensitive and appropriate ways according to the cultural demands of a given situation

culture: the sum total of the ways of life of a people; includes norms, learned behavior patterns, attitudes, and artifacts; also involves traditions, habits or customs; how people behave, feel and interact; the means by which they order and interpret the world; ways of perceiving, relating and interpreting events based on established social norms; a system of standards for perceiving, believing, evaluating, and acting

descriptors: broad categories of discrete, representative behaviors that students exhibit when they meet a standard

dialect: a regional or social variety of language distinguished by features of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and discourse that differ from other varieties

ESL: the field of English as a second language; courses, classes and/or programs designed for students learning English as an additional language

ESOL student: English to speakers of other languages; refers to learners who are identified as still in the process of acquiring English as an additional language; students who may not speak English at all or, at least, do not speak, understand, and write English with the same facility as their classmates because they did not grow up speaking English (rather they primarily spoke another language at home)

genre: a category of literary composition characterized by a particular style, form, or content (e.g., an historical novel is one fictional genre)

home language: language(s) spoken in the home by significant others (e.g., family members, caregivers) who reside in the child's home; sometimes used as a synonym for first language, primary language, or native language

idiom: an expression in the usage of a language that has a meaning that cannot be derived from the conjoined meanings of its elements (e.g., raining cats and dogs)

language "chunks": short phrases learned as a unit (e.g., thank you very much); patterned language acquired through redundant use, such as refrains and repetitive phrases in stories

language minority: a student who comes from a home in which a language other than English is primarily spoken; the student may or may not speak English well

language proficiency: the level of competence at which an individual is able to use language for both basic communicative tasks and academic purposes

language variety: variations of a language used by particular groups of people, includes regional dialects characterized by distinct vocabularies, speech patterns, grammatical features, and so forth; may also vary by social group (sociolect) or idiosyncratically for a particular individual (idiolect)

learning strategies: mental activities or actions that assist in enhancing learning outcomes; may include metacognitive strategies (e.g., planning for learning, monitoring one's own comprehension and production, evaluating one's performance); cognitive strategies (e.g., mental or physical manipulation of the material), or social/affective strategies (e.g., interacting with another person to assist learning, using self-talk to persist at a difficult task until resolution)

linguistic competence: a broad term used to describe the totality of a given individual's language ability; the underlying language system believed to exist as inferred from an individual's language performance

multilingualism: ability to speak more than two languages; proficiency in many languages

native language: primary or first language spoken by an individual

nonverbal communication: paralinguistic and nonlinguistic messages that can be transmitted in conjunction with language or without the aid of language; paralinguistic mechanisms include intonation, stress, rate of speech, and pauses or hesitations; nonlinguistic behaviors include gestures, facial expressions, and body language, among others

performance standards: statements that refer to how well students are meeting a content standard; specify the quality and effect of student performance at various levels of competency (benchmarks) in the subject matter; specify how students must demonstrate their knowledge and skills and can show student progress toward meeting a standard

primary language: first or native language spoken by an individual

progress indicators: assessable, observable activities that students may perform to show progress toward meeting the standard; organized by grade-level clusters

proxemics: the study of distances maintained by speakers of different languages as they speak to each other or others

proximity norms: cultural behaviors associated with the distance and body positioning maintained by members of the same culture during conversation

pull-out instruction: in the case of ESL pull-out instruction, when students are withdrawn from their regular classrooms for one or more periods a week for special classes of ESL instruction in small groups

realia: concrete objects used to relate classroom teaching to real life (e.g., use of actual foods and supermarket circulars to develop the language related to foods, food purchasing)

register: usage of different varieties of language, depending on the setting, the relationship among the individuals involved in the communication, and the function of the interaction; a form of a language that is appropriate to the social or functional context

regular class: as used in this document, refers to a class with or without ESOL students that does not systematically accommodate the language learning needs of ESOL students. May be a regular elementary class or a subject area class at a secondary level where all instruction is delivered and materials are provided almost exclusively in English; sometimes referred to as a mainstream class

self-contained ESL class: typically an ESL class with only ESOL students; all subject matter taught to ESOL students by their ESL classroom teacher and no pull-out ESL instruction used

sheltered instruction: an approach in which students develop knowledge in specific subject areas through the medium of English, their second language; teachers adjust the language demands of the lesson in many ways, such as modifying speech rate and tone, using context clues and models extensively, relating instruction to student experience, adapting the language of texts or tasks, and using certain methods familiar to language teachers (e.g., demonstrations, visuals, graphic organizers, or cooperative work) to make academic instruction more accessible to students of different English proficiency levels

social functions: use of language to accomplish various purposes, such as asking for or giving information, describing past actions, expressing feelings, and expressing regret

social language: the aspects of language proficiency strongly associated with basic fluency in face-to-face-interaction; natural speech in social interactions, including those that occur in a classroom

sociocultural competence: ability to function effectively in a particular social or cultural context according to the rules or expectancies for behavior held by members of that social or cultural group

sociolinguistic competence: related to communicative competence; the extent to which language is appropriately understood and used in a given situation (e.g., the ability to make apologies, give compliments, and politely refuse requests)

subtractive bilingualism: the learning of a majority language at the expense of the first; refers to cases where the first language and culture have low status and where because of this, learners are encouraged to divest themselves of their first language and culture and to replace them with the second language and culture; primary language attrition or loss and cultural anomie (uncertainty, alienation) often result from a subtractive bilingual situation

two-way bilingual immersion program: a program in which monolingual English-speaking children study the regular school curriculum alongside children who are native speakers of the target, or second, language; a portion of the instructional day is taught in English and another portion is in the target language; aims for additive bilingualism and biculturalism for all the students involved

vernacular: language or dialect native to a region or country; normal spoken form of a language; includes nonstandard dialects

Sources of Definitions Used in Glossary

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Canale, M., & Swain, M. (1980). Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics, 1, 1-47.

Chamot, A. U., & O'Malley, J. M. (1994). The CALLA handbook: Implementing the cognitive academic language learning approach. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Crandall, J. (1994). Content-centered language learning. ERIC Digest. Washington, DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics, Center for Applied Linguistics.

Lessow-Hurley, J. (1990). The foundations of dual language instruction. White Plains, NY: Longman.

Prince, C. D., & Forgione, P. D. (1993). Raising standards and measuring performance equitably: Challenges for the National Education Goals Panel and state assessment systems. In G. Burkart (Ed.), Goal three: The issues of language and culture (pp. 11-22). Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.

Office of Bilingual Bicultural Education, California State Department of Education. (1981). Schooling and language minority students: A theoretical framework. Los Angeles, CA: Evaluation, Dissemination and Assessment Center, California State University, Los Angeles.

Scarcella, R. (1990). Teaching language minority students in the multicultural classroom. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Schumann, J. (1978). The pidginization process: A model for second language acquisition. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Snow, M. A., Met, M., & Genesee, F. (1989). A conceptual framework for the integration of language and content in second/foreign language instruction. TESOL Quarterly, 23(2), 201-217.

Struggling for standards. (1995, April 12). Education Week, p. 8.

Watson, D. L., Northcutt, L., & Rydell, L. (1989). Teaching bilingual students successfully. Educational Leadership, 46, 59-61.

Webster's ninth new collegiate dictionary. (1988). Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster.

Zehler, A. M. (1994). Working with English language learners: Strategies for elementary and middle school teachers (Program Information Guide No. 19). Washington, DC: National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education.

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