I-L
| Ice-breaker An introductory activity that a teacher uses at the start of a new course so that students can get to know each other. |
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| Idiom A group of words that are used together, in which the meaning of the whole word group is different from the meaning of each individual word, e.g. She felt under the weather means that she felt ill. |
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| Ignore (errors) To choose not to pay attention to something such as an error made by a student. A teacher may do this if they want to help the student with fluency, not accuracy. |
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| Illustrate meaning To show what something means, e.g. I was nervous when I got on the plane because I hate flying. |
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| Imperative The form of a verb that gives an order or instruction, e.g. Turn to page 10. |
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| Inappropriate: see appropriacy. |
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| Independent study Studying without a teacher present. This can be done at home, in a library etc. |
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| Indirect question The words someone uses when they are telling someone what somebody else asked, e.g. Peter asked Sue what she meant. An indirect question can also be used when someone wants to ask something in a more polite way, e.g. ‘I was wondering if you could help me’ (indirect question) instead of ‘Could you help me?’ (direct question). See direct question. |
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Indirect speech: see reported statement. |
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Individual drill: see drill. |
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| Inductive learning An approach to learning in which students are not first taught the rules of grammar. They work out the rules for themselves by using the language. See deductive learning. |
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| Infer attitude, feeling, mood To decide how a writer or speaker feels about something from the way that they speak or write, rather than from what they actually and openly say or the words they use. |
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| Infinitive of purpose This is used to express why something is done, e.g. I went to the lesson to learn English. |
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| Infinitive: see verb. |
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Informal (language): see register. |
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Informal assessment:see assessment. |
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Informality (level of): see register. |
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| Information-gap activity A classroom activity in which students work in pairs or groups. Students are given a task, but they are given different information and to complete the task, they have to find out the missing information from each other. |
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-ing/-ed adjective: see adjective. |
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| Instructing To order or tell someone to do something, e.g. Please turn to page 12 and do exercise 1. |
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| Intensifier A word used to make the meaning of another word stronger, e.g. He ’s much taller than his brother; I’m very tired. |
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| Intensive listening/reading Reading or listening to focus on how language is used in a text. See extensive listening/reading. |
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| Interaction noun, interact verb, interactive strategies Interaction is ‘two-way communication’. Interactive strategies are the means used, especially in speaking, to keep people involved and interested in what is said, e.g. eye contact, use of gestures, functions such as repeating, asking for clarification. |
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| Interaction patterns The ways in which students work together in class, such as open class, pairwork, group work and individual work. |
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| Interference When the learner’s mother tongue influences their performance in the target language. A learner may make a mistake because they use the same grammatical pattern in the target language as they use in their mother tongue. The L1 grammatical pattern is not appropriate in L2. |
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| Interlanguage Learners’ own version of the second language which they speak as they learn. Interlanguage is constantly changing and developing as learners learn more of the second language. |
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| Interrogative A question form. |
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| Intonation The way the level of a speaker’s voice changes, often to show how they feel about something, e.g. if they are angry or pleased. Intonation can be rising or falling or both. |
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| Introductory activity An activity which takes place at the beginning of a lesson. Introductory activities often include warmers and lead-ins . |
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| Involvement Taking part in an activity, being involved in it. |
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| Irregular verb: see verb. |
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| Jigsaw listening/reading A text which is divided into two or more parts. Students have to listen to or read their part, then share their information with other students in order to complete the task. In this way, the text is made into an information-gap activity. |
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| Jumbled paragraphs, pictures, sentences A text in which the paragraphs or sentences are not in the correct order, or a series of pictures that are in the wrong order. The students have to put the text or pictures into the correct order. |
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| Kinaesthetic learner: see learning style. |
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| L1/L2 L1 is the learner’s mother tongue or first language; L2 is the learner’s second or other language. |
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| Label To match the name of an object to the object. Students are often asked to label pictures of objects with the correct name. |
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| Language awareness Understanding the rules of how language works. |
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| Language laboratory A room in a school where students can practise language by listening to tapes and by recording themselves speaking. |
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| Layout The way in which parts of a text are organised and presented on a page. Certain texts have special layouts, e.g. letters and newspaper articles. |
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| Lead-in noun, lead in verb The activity or activities used to prepare students to work on a text or main task. A lead-in often includes an introduction to the topic of the text or main task and possibly study of some new key language required for the text or main task. |
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| Leaflet, brochure A piece of printed paper that gives information or advertises something. This is one example of realia. |
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| Learner autonomy noun, autonomous adj, learner independence When a student does not need a teacher to learn, but can set their own aims and organise their own study they are autonomous and independent. Many activities in coursebooks help students to be more independent by developing learning strategies and learner training. |
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| Learner characteristics The typical things about a learner or learners that influence their learning, e.g. age, L1, past learning experience, learning style. |
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Learner independence: see learner autonomy. |
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| Learner profile A description of a student, including their ability and their needs. |
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| Learner training The use of activities to help students understand how they learn and help them to become independent learners. |
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| Learning centre: see self-access centre. |
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| Learning contract An agreement between the teacher and the students about their roles and responsibilities (i.e. what the teacher will do and what the students will do to help the students to learn). |
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| Learning resources The materials or tools which help students learn, e.g. books, computers, cassettes etc. |
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| Learning strategies The techniques which a student consciously uses when learning or using language, e.g. deducing the meaning of words from context; predicting content before reading. |
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| Learning style The way in which an individual learner naturally prefers to learn something. Auditory learner |
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Less controlled practice: see practice. |
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| Lexical Approach A way of analysing language that is based on lexical items such as words, multi-word units, collocations and fixed expressions rather than grammatical structures. Some ELT books and materials organise their syllabuses around the Lexical Approach. |
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| Lexical set A group of words or phrases that are about the same topic, e.g. weather – storm, to rain, wind, cloudy etc. |
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| Lexis Individual words or sets of words, e.g. homework, study, whiteboard, get dressed, be on time. |
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| Linguistics Connected with language or the study of language. |
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| Linking The way different sounds can link into each other in connected speech, e.g. it’ s a good day – /  / |
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| Listen/read for detail To read or listen to a text in order to get meaning out of every word. |
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| Listen/read for gist To read or listen to a text to understand its general meaning or purpose. See skim. |
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| Listen/read for mood To read or listen to a text in order to identify the feelings of the writer or speaker. See infer attitude/feeling/mood. |