Language Acquisition Terms
Other glossaries available here
All
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| AAE |
African American English |
| acculturation |
process during which a minority group is adapting to the culture (beliefs, values, and behavior patterns) of the dominant (majority) group. |
| ASL |
American sign language |
| BICS |
Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills |
| CALP |
Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency |
| EAP |
English for Academic Purposes - a highly specialized function of the English language Comment: see also ESP |
| ESL |
Normally stands for English as a second language. However, the term is now used to mean more than just English. It can be any language as a second language. |
| Second Language Acquisition |
SLA - process of acquiring a language subsequent to learning the first language. The term actually refers to any additional language - second, third, fourth and so on. |
| sequential bilingualism |
learning of an additional language (L2) after the native language (L1) has already been acquired Compare to simultaneous bilingualism and sequential multilingualism |
| simulteneous bilingualism |
simultaneous acquisition of two languages, usually in early childhood; in this case a person ends up having two native languages Compare to sequential bilingualism and simultaneous multilingualism |
| SLA |
Second Language Acquisition - process of acquiring a language subsequent to learning the first language. The term actually refers to any additional language - second, third, fourth and so on. |
