Key Concepts

There are many key concepts in ELT, but some of the most important include:

• Communicative language teaching (CLT): This is a teaching approach that focuses on helping students communicate effectively in English. It emphasizes the use of real-world language and activities that allow students to practice speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

• The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): This is a concept developed by Lev Vygotsky that refers to the distance between what a learner can do independently and what they can do with help. CLT teachers can use the ZPD to help students learn by providing them with just enough support to be successful.

• Error correction: This is the process of helping students correct their mistakes in English. There are many different ways to correct errors, and the best approach will vary depending on the student and the situation.

• Approaches to grammar teaching: There are many different approaches to grammar teaching, and the best approach will vary depending on the student and the teacher. Some common approaches include grammar translation, structuralism, and communicative grammar teaching.

• Learner autonomy: This is the ability of learners to take control of their own learning. CLT teachers can promote learner autonomy by providing students with opportunities to set their own goals, choose their own learning materials, and evaluate their own progress.

• Assessment: Assessment is the process of gathering information about student learning. It can be used to inform teaching, to improve learning, and to make decisions about students' progress. There are many different types of assessment, and the best approach will vary depending on the purpose of the assessment.

• Differentiation: This is the process of adapting instruction to meet the needs of individual students. It is important to differentiate instruction in ELT because students come to the classroom with different levels of knowledge, skills, and interests.

• Scaffolding: This is a teaching strategy that provides learners with support as they learn new material. Scaffolding can be provided in many different ways, such as providing hints, modeling, and giving feedback.

• Acquisition and learning: This is a distinction made by Stephen Krashen between two ways that learners acquire a language. Acquisition is the subconscious process of learning a language through exposure to it, while learning is the conscious process of learning a language through formal instruction.

• The natural order hypothesis: This is a hypothesis proposed by Krashen that suggests that learners acquire grammatical structures in a predictable order, regardless of the order in which they are taught.

• The input hypothesis: This is a hypothesis proposed by Krashen that suggests that learners acquire a language by receiving comprehensible input that is slightly beyond their current level of proficiency.

• The affective filter hypothesis: This is a hypothesis proposed by Krashen that suggests that learners' emotional state can affect their ability to acquire a language.

These are just some of the key concepts in ELT. There are many other concepts that could be included, but these are some of the most important. By understanding these concepts, teachers can be more effective in helping students learn English.