Actional competence
Notion that the same speech act can be accomplished using a variety of forms.
Bilateral exchange
A formal partnership agreement between your students and students at an institution abroad. Your students stay with their partners abroad and host the same international partners in Quebec.
Cognitive load theory
Your working memory (short-term memory) has a limited capacity. Overloading of this type of memory reduces your effectiveness in acquiring new information and storing it in your long-term memory.
Core zone
The classroom as a place to prepare, support, and assess students for out-of-class learning. Students are expected to contribute topics and ask questions about events that occurred out of class so that classroom time can be used to reflect on and assimilate new topics.
Discourse competence
Ability to use and interpret cohesive and coherent language.
Domains of communicative competence
An individual’s understanding of and ability to use language appropriate for the setting and context. Communicative competence comprises five skills: linguistic competence (sufficient vocabulary, grammar, and syntax to understand and use a language); actional competence (acknowledging that the same speech act can take a variety of forms); discourse competence (ability to use and interpret cohesive and coherent language); sociocultural competence (ability to communicate appropriately based on familiarity with cultural and social norms); strategic competence (ability to compensate for imperfect knowledge of the rules).
Drill-and-kill exercises
A classroom activity in which students repeat a particular skill over and over in order to gain fluency, with no connection to authentic or real-life situations.
Eclectic approach
Language teaching that uses a combination of methods depending on the teacher’s objectives and the students’ needs. In this approach, the teacher has the flexibility to choose the best method(s) and learning activities based on context.
Ethnographic research
A type of study in which information is collected through observation and interviews. The data are used to draw conclusions about how different individuals and societies function.
Extraneous cognitive load
Distractions from the task at hand that take up valuable working memory (short-term memory) resources and prevent the transfer of new information to long-term memory.
Facilitated study abroad (FSA)
Study abroad that is designed and led by at least one teacher. The teacher prepares the students prior to departure, accompanies them and facilitates their learning and reflection during the sojourn, and helps them with post-sojourn activities.
Germane cognitive load
The ability of working memory (short-term memory) to link new information with knowledge that is already stored in long-term memory. If working memory is overloaded, this process becomes more difficult.
Grade point average (GPA)
An individual indicator of a student’s academic achievement that is most often used at the university level, just as the R score is used at the CEGEP level.
Immersive contexts
Study abroad situations in which students practise the target language by interacting with native speakers and become deeply engaged in the culture of the host country.
Interactional competence
The ability to co-construct interactions in a purposeful and meaningful way, considering sociocultural and pragmatic dimensions of the speech situation and event.
Intercultural communicative competence
Possession of the knowledge, motivation, and skills necessary to interact effectively and appropriately with people of different cultures.
International office
An office in a college that cultivates institutional partnerships abroad, promotes study abroad opportunities, and assists students and staff members in organizing international development activities.
Language café
Regular exchanges between learners of an additional language and highly competent speakers of that language. The exchanges take place outside the classroom.
Language learning ecology
The various activities that language learners engage in outside the classroom setting that help them to acquire an additional language.
Language variety
A general term for all the distinctive forms of a language. It includes subcategories of language such as dialect, register, and jargon.
Language register
A subcategory of language variety referring to the language that is used in a particular situation – for example, students learn that there are formal and informal language registers in English.
Language village
An immersive language learning program, similar to a summer camp, in which students must speak the target language all day while engaging in various activities.
Linguistic competence
Familiarity with the vocabulary, grammar, and syntax of a language sufficient to use and understand it.
Long-term memory
When information is transferred from working memory (short-term memory) to long-term memory, memories are created that can be stored for extended periods, sometimes even for life.
Naturalistic learning
The theory that language learning takes place by communicating in authentic situations rather than by being explicitly taught the language in a sequenced and scaffolded classroom context.
Odyssey – Language Assistant Program
A program funded by the federal government to promote English and French language skills. It provides paid work experience for college and university graduates from other provinces to work in Francophone CEGEP classroom settings in Quebec.
Paid services
Companies that are hired (either at home or in the host country) to perform specific tasks related to study abroad. For example, a travel agency may be hired to book flights and hotel rooms or a private language school in the host country may be hired to offer daily classes to students.
Programme d’échanges et séjours linguistiques à l’extérieur du Québec (PESLEQ)
Quebec government-funded travel grant for students who travel outside the province to improve fluency in a second or third language.
Project-based or task-based learning
A student-centred pedagogical approach in which students are required to investigate and respond to a real-world task or problem.
Schema
In cognitive load theory, a schema is like a folder in your long-term memory to which you transfer all the new information you acquire about a particular subject. The more you use your schema, the easier it is to retrieve the information.
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)
Four fields of study in a fast-growing industry that require innovation, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
Sociocultural competence
Ability to communicate appropriately based on knowledge of culture and social interactions.
Strategic competence
Ability to compensate for imperfect knowledge of the rules.
Tandem learning
In order to learn a new language, two people who are highly proficient speakers in different languages work together to learn each other’s language. The two partners decide what they want to learn in the new language and what kind of help they want from their partner.
Transversal competencies
Skills, knowledge, values, and attitudes that are transferable between school and work. Many researchers and educators believe that these competencies are necessary to successfully adapt to changes in modern society.
Vox pop
The gathering and recording of informal opinions from people in public places. Vox pop can be used to encourage students to use the additional language with native speakers in short interactions that are rehearsed yet authentic.
Worked example
The term cognitive scientists use for a model or exemplar. Providing worked examples can help to prevent working memory (short-term memory) from becoming overloaded.
Working memory (also called short-term memory)
The small amount of information you are able to retain while carrying out a task. For example, you use short-term memory to retain a series of numbers in order to dial a new phone number.