Comprehensive Notes on ELT Terminology, Methods, and Research

English Language Teaching (ELT) terminology refers to the key concepts, methods, and technical terms used in the field of teaching and learning English as a second or foreign language. These terms help teachers, students, and researchers understand how language is acquired, how learning takes place, and how classroom practices can be made more effective. One important set of terms relates to approaches to second language acquisition, such as the Behaviourist Approach, the Cognitive Approach, and Communicative Language Teaching. These approaches explain how learners internalise new language through imitation, mental processing, meaning-making, and real communication.

Another important area of ELT terminology involves methods and materials of teaching, including terms like the Grammar-Translation Method, Direct Method, Audio-Lingual Method, and Task-Based Language Teaching. These terms describe different ways of planning lessons and engaging learners. In addition, ELT uses terms related to curriculum and syllabus design, such as structural syllabus, notional-functional syllabus, and communicative syllabus. These terms explain how teaching content is selected and organised.

ELT terminology also includes ideas from language testing and assessment, such as validity, reliability, proficiency tests, achievement tests, and formative and summative evaluation. These terms guide teachers in measuring learners' performance in a fair and meaningful way. Finally, terms related to learning strategies, such as cognitive, metacognitive, and socio-affective strategies, help explain how learners actively participate in their own learning process.

Thus, ELT terminology forms the basic vocabulary of language teaching and learning. It provides a framework for understanding theory, designing lessons, evaluating performance, and improving overall language education.

🛑Approaches to Second Language Acquisition and Learning – 10 Marks

Approaches to Second Language Acquisition and Learning explain how learners develop the ability to understand and use a new language. These approaches provide the theoretical foundation for language teaching and help teachers decide how to design lessons, select materials, and support learners. One of the earliest approaches is the Behaviourist Approach, which states that language learning happens through imitation, repetition, and reinforcement, just like forming habits. According to behaviourists like B. F. Skinner, learners repeat correct structures and gradually form accurate language habits. This approach influenced methods like the Audio-Lingual Method.

In contrast, the Cognitive Approach, influenced by scholars such as Noam Chomsky, argues that language learning is a mental and internal process. Learners do not just imitate; they actively construct rules. Chomsky introduced the concept of an innate Language Acquisition Device (LAD), suggesting that humans have an inborn capacity for language. Cognitive theories led teachers to focus more on meaning, problem-solving, and understanding structures rather than memorisation.

Another major development is the Krashen’s Monitor Model, which is widely used in ELT. Krashen distinguishes between acquisition (a natural, subconscious process like how children learn their mother tongue) and learning (a conscious, rule-based process). He also introduced ideas such as the Affective Filter Hypothesis, which says learners acquire language better when they are relaxed and motivated, and the Input Hypothesis, which states that learners need comprehensible input slightly above their current level (i+1).

The Communicative Approach marks a shift from form to meaning. This approach argues that language is best learned by using it in real-life communication. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) focuses on fluency, interaction, pair work, group work, and authentic tasks. Errors are seen as natural and part of learning. It encourages learners to express ideas and negotiate meaning.

A more recent perspective is the Sociocultural Approach, based on Vygotsky’s theory. It emphasises that learning occurs through social interaction and collaboration. Concepts like the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and scaffolding highlight the role of teachers and peers in guiding learners to higher levels of ability.

Finally, newer approaches such as Constructivism and Task-Based Learning emphasise that learners build knowledge through experience, problem-solving, and meaningful tasks. These approaches encourage learner autonomy and make language learning more interactive and purposeful.

Overall, the study of these approaches shows that second language acquisition is a complex process influenced by psychological, social, and cognitive factors. Understanding these theories helps teachers create supportive, meaningful, and effective learning environments.

🛑Language Testing and Evaluation / Assessment – 10 Marks

Language testing and evaluation are essential components of English Language Teaching because they help teachers measure how well learners have acquired language skills. Language testing refers to the process of designing and administering tests that check learners’ knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, reading, writing, listening, or overall communicative ability. A good language test must follow key principles such as validity, which means the test measures what it is supposed to measure, and reliability, which means the test gives consistent results when repeated. Another important principle is practicality, which ensures that the test is easy to administer, score, and interpret. Teachers also consider fairness so that no student is disadvantaged due to cultural or linguistic bias.

Assessment in language learning is broader than testing. It includes all activities that help teachers understand students’ progress. One type is formative assessment, which happens during the learning process, such as quizzes, class participation, feedback, and assignments. Its purpose is to support learning by identifying strengths and weaknesses. On the other hand, summative assessment is done at the end of a course or term, such as final exams, achievement tests, and standardized tests. These assessments help teachers and institutions evaluate overall performance.

Language testing also includes different types of tests depending on purpose. Proficiency tests assess a learner’s general ability in the language, like IELTS or TOEFL. Achievement tests check what students have learned in a specific course. Diagnostic tests identify problem areas before teaching begins, while placement tests help decide the level at which a student should start learning. Increasingly, language assessment is moving towards communicative testing, which focuses on real-world tasks like writing emails, participating in conversations, or summarising texts instead of only testing grammar rules.

Evaluation is not limited to students; it also includes evaluating teaching materials, methods, curricula, and classroom practices. This ensures that the teaching process itself remains effective and learner-centered. Teachers may use rubrics, portfolios, observations, and self-assessment tasks to make evaluation more holistic. In modern classrooms, continuous assessment and feedback help learners become aware of their progress and take responsibility for their own learning.

In summary, language testing and evaluation form a crucial part of ELT by ensuring that learning outcomes are clear, measurable, and meaningful. They guide teachers in improving instruction and help learners develop their language abilities with confidence and accuracy.

🛑 Methods and Materials of Teaching Language – 10 Marks

Methods and materials of teaching language play a central role in English Language Teaching because they guide how learners are taught and how learning takes place in the classroom. Language teaching methods refer to systematic ways of organising lessons, presenting content, and helping learners acquire skills in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. One of the oldest methods is the Grammar-Translation Method, which focuses on grammar rules, vocabulary lists, and translation exercises. It develops reading and writing but gives little importance to speaking or real communication. In contrast, the Direct Method emphasizes teaching only through English, without translation. It encourages oral practice, everyday vocabulary, and natural language use.

The Audio-Lingual Method, influenced by behaviourism, trains learners through drills, pattern practice, and repetition to form correct language habits. However, later methods shifted attention to meaning rather than memorisation. The Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) method transformed classrooms by focusing on real-life use of language. It encourages interaction, pair work, group tasks, fluency, and negotiation of meaning. Errors are seen as part of learning. Another modern method is Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT), where learners complete meaningful tasks like writing a letter, planning a trip, or solving a problem. The main goal is to use language as a tool to accomplish tasks. Similarly, the Eclectic Approach allows teachers to combine techniques from different methods depending on learner needs.

Along with methods, materials used in teaching are equally important. Materials include textbooks, workbooks, teacher guides, audio and video resources, digital platforms, flashcards, real objects (realia), and authentic texts such as newspaper articles or emails. Good materials must be age-appropriate, culturally relevant, visually clear, and aligned with learning objectives. In communicative classrooms, materials often include role-play cards, dialogues, stories, and activities that encourage interaction. With the growth of technology, multimedia materials—such as language apps, online worksheets, educational videos, and interactive quizzes—are increasingly used to make learning engaging and personalised.

Materials also support different skills: reading passages develop comprehension, listening texts improve auditory skills, grammar charts provide structure, and writing prompts enhance creativity. Teachers may adapt, simplify, or supplement materials to meet the needs of diverse learners. The process is called materials adaptation, which includes modifying, adding, removing, or reorganising content.

In conclusion, methods provide the overall philosophy and structure for teaching, while materials supply the tools and resources needed to implement these methods effectively. Together, they create meaningful, interactive, and effective language learning environments that support students in developing accurate and confident communication skills.

🛑 Curriculum and Syllabus Design – 10 Marks

Curriculum and syllabus design are essential components of language education because they determine what should be taught, why it should be taught, and how learning should be organised. A curriculum is a broad plan that outlines the overall educational goals, learning outcomes, teaching methods, assessment procedures, materials, and philosophy behind a language programme. It includes long-term aims such as developing communicative competence, cultural awareness, critical thinking, and language skills. A curriculum looks at learners’ needs, the social context, institutional requirements, and national policies. It decides the direction of the entire programme and ensures that teaching and learning remain systematic and meaningful.

A syllabus, on the other hand, is a more specific document that lists the actual content to be taught in a course. It acts as a detailed roadmap that includes topics, units, grammar points, vocabulary sets, skills, tasks, and time allocation. Several types of syllabi are used in English Language Teaching. A structural syllabus organises content around grammar structures, such as tenses or sentence patterns. A lexical syllabus focuses mainly on vocabulary. The notional-functional syllabus emphasises ideas and functions like expressing opinion, asking for permission, or making requests. The communicative syllabus, influenced by Communicative Language Teaching, organises content around real-life communication tasks and situations. Modern approaches also include task-based syllabi, where learning is centred on meaningful tasks, and skill-based syllabi, which prioritise listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

Curriculum and syllabus design also involve several important steps. These include needs analysis, which identifies what learners require for academic, professional, or social purposes; goal and objective setting, which clarifies what students should achieve; content selection, which decides what topics and language elements to include; and sequencing, which organises content from simple to complex. Teachers also consider methodology, materials, and assessment strategies to ensure that teaching is coherent and effective. After implementation, evaluation is conducted to check whether the syllabus or curriculum meets its goals and whether any changes are needed.

In conclusion, curriculum and syllabus design work together to create a structured, purposeful, and learner-centered language programme. While the curriculum provides the overall philosophy and broader goals, the syllabus gives teachers a practical plan for daily teaching. Effective design ensures that learners receive meaningful, organised, and relevant language learning experiences.

🛑 Language Learning and Teaching Strategies – 10 Marks

Language learning and teaching strategies are the techniques, behaviours, and conscious actions used by learners and teachers to make the process of acquiring a new language more effective. These strategies play an important role in developing the four skills—listening, speaking, reading, and writing—and help learners become more independent and confident. For learners, strategies act as tools that guide how they understand, remember, and use new information. For teachers, strategies help in planning lessons, creating a supportive environment, and encouraging meaningful communication.

Learning strategies are usually divided into three main types: cognitive, metacognitive, and socio-affective strategies. Cognitive strategies involve mental processes such as repetition, summarising, note-taking, analysing patterns, guessing meaning from context, and practising new structures. These strategies help learners actively process language input. Metacognitive strategies refer to higher-level thinking skills like planning, monitoring one’s progress, setting goals, choosing appropriate resources, and evaluating one’s performance. These strategies help learners become aware of their own learning process and take control of it. Socio-affective strategies include interacting with peers, asking for clarification, working in groups, using language in real situations, and managing anxiety or motivation. These strategies highlight the emotional and social aspects of language learning.

On the other hand, teaching strategies are deliberate techniques used by teachers to guide the learning process. One major strategy is using scaffolding, where the teacher provides support through examples, cues, explanations, and guided practice until learners become independent. Teachers also use communicative strategies, such as pair work, role-play, group discussions, and problem-solving tasks, to encourage real-life use of language. Another important strategy is differentiation, where teachers modify tasks or materials to suit learners with different levels and learning styles. Teachers also use strategies like error correction, feedback, questioning techniques, and visual aids to make learning more interactive and understandable.

In modern classrooms, digital strategies have also become important. These include using online exercises, multimedia resources, mobile apps, and interactive tools to make learning engaging and personalised. Teachers also train learners to use strategies like dictionary skills, reading techniques (skimming and scanning), and listening strategies (predicting and inferencing), which help them perform better in academic and real-world situations.

In conclusion, language learning and teaching strategies work together to create an effective, learner-centered environment. While learning strategies help students take responsibility for their own progress, teaching strategies guide and support them through structured, meaningful activities. A good language classroom balances both types of strategies to help learners develop strong communication skills and lifelong learning habits. 

🛑 Research Methods and Materials in English Studies : 20 marks

Research in English language and literature involves both qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Qualitative methods focus on interpretation, meaning, and textual analysis—important in literary criticism, discourse studies, and cultural studies. Methods like close reading, thematic analysis, narrative analysis, discourse analysis, and ethnography allow researchers to understand how texts create meaning and how language shapes social realities.

Quantitative methods, on the other hand, involve measurable language data. These include surveys, corpus linguistics, frequency analysis, and experimental methods, which help in studying grammar use, vocabulary patterns, and learner errors on a larger scale. 

In English studies, researchers use diverse materials such as literary texts, corpora, learner language samples, interviews, historical documents, dictionaries, digital archives, classroom recordings, and online texts. Modern research also relies heavily on digital humanities tools, including concordancers, text-mining software, and linguistic corpora like the BNC and COCA.

English Language: Concepts and Theories

The English language has evolved through multiple conceptual frameworks, including structuralism, which studies language as a system; functionalism, which focuses on communicative purposes; and generative grammar, proposed by Chomsky, which explores the innate structures of the mind that shape language. 

Theories like behaviorism explain learning through imitation and reinforcement, whereas cognitive theories describe language acquisition as an active mental process. Sociolinguistic theories address how factors such as class, gender, and region shape speech patterns. Pragmatics examines meaning in context, including implicatures, politeness principles, and speech acts.

Concepts like multilingualism, code-switching, diglossia, register, varieties of English, and World Englishes help us understand how English functions across cultures and societies. These theories collectively highlight that English is not a fixed system but a dynamic, global language shaped by history, culture, and identity.

Applications of English Language

English, as a global language, is used in education, media, diplomacy, technology, and creative industries. In academic contexts, English provides tools for critical thinking, argumentation, and scholarly communication.

In applied fields, English supports translation, editing, communication skills, ELT (English Language Teaching), and professional writing. Language theories also guide curriculum design, teaching methodologies, testing procedures, and material development in classrooms.

In everyday life, English is used in social media, advertisements, digital communication, and workplace interactions, where language choices reflect identity, power, and purpose.

English in Use

"English in Use" refers to how the language functions in real-life situations. It includes spoken and written communication across formal and informal settings.

In spoken language, features such as intonation, stress, pauses, fillers, turn-taking, and non-verbal cues shape meaning. Written English uses coherence, cohesion, paragraph structure, tone, and genre conventions to communicate ideas effectively.

English in use also varies across contexts: academic writing requires precision and argumentation; workplace communication demands clarity; media English uses catchy language; and creative writing uses imagery and emotion. Understanding these variations helps learners develop communicative competence, enabling them to choose appropriate forms according to purpose, audience, and situation.

Key Points (For Quick Revision)

Research methods include qualitative and quantitative approaches.

Qualitative methods: close reading, discourse analysis, thematic analysis.

Quantitative methods: surveys, corpus linguistics, experiments.

Research materials: texts, corpora, archives, interviews, classroom data.

Digital tools: concordancers, data mining, COCA/BNC.

Structuralism: language as a system.

Functionalism: language as communication.

Chomsky’s generative grammar: innate linguistic ability.

Behaviorism: learning through imitation and reinforcement.

Cognitive theories: mental processing of language.

Sociolinguistics: class, gender, region influence language use.

Pragmatics: meaning in context, speech acts, politeness.

Important concepts: code-switching, diglossia, register, World Englishes.

Applications: education, media, translation, ELT, communication skills.

English in global contexts: diplomacy, technology, business.

English in academic use: argument, analysis, research writing.

Features of spoken English: intonation, fillers, turn-taking.

Features of written English: cohesion, coherence, genre conventions.

Contextual variation: formal vs informal, academic vs creative.

Goal: development of communicative competence.