Glossary
223
speech community, the nation, etc., concerned with language planning,
language policy, for example. Cf.
micro-sociolinguistics.
marked form Marked forms are those linguistic items which manifest a
contrast distinguishing them from an ‘unmarked’, ‘neutral’ or normal
form. For example,
mare and
stallion are both marked forms—marked
with regard to sex—as opposed to
horse, which is unmarked. Similarly,
old is the unmarked form in the age system in English—the
question
‘How old is he?’ is neutral as opposed to ‘How young is he?’ which
presupposes youth and so is marked.
MCQ Multiple Choice Question (q.v.).
mentalism A view of learning and thinking which sees the mind as a non-
physical reality underlying observable human behaviour. Usually
contrasted with behaviourism, which holds that such unobservable
phenomena are by definition unscientific. Cf.
behaviourism.
MET Modem English Teacher. A magazine of practical suggestions for
teaching English as a foreign language, published four times a year by
Modern English Publications Ltd, 33 Shaftesbury Avenue, London Wl.
micro-sociolinguistics The study of the use
of language at the level of
interaction between individuals, typically concerned with such matters
as the level of formality used, and the linguistic matters of relative
status, personal attitude, etc.
micro-teaching A procedure used in teacher training wherein a small part
of a lesson is taught to a small number of ‘pupils’ for a short length of
time. ‘Pupils’ are often peers of the students who may or may not be
assigned roles. Micro-teaching is often video-recorded allowing the
teachers to watch themselves, and in the classic
form of micro-teaching
there is a revise and reteach phase as well.
mim-mem Mimicry and memorisation. Usually refers to a largely
American method of teaching whose main procedures were extensive
mimicry and mechanical repetition which was supposed to foster
effective memorisation through imprinting the appropriate response.
See
audio-lingual; S-R.
minimal pair A pair of linguistic items differing by only one feature, most
often phonological. For example, a pair like
pit and
pet are a minimal
pair since the only difference between them is the vowel.
modal verb One of the auxiliary verbs.
Will/would, shall/should, may/
might, can/could, must, ought, need, dare, and
used. They are a subset
of the anomalous finites.
model (1) The pattern of pronunciation or other form of (linguistic)
behaviour offered as the example which a learner should follow in order
to arrive at an acceptable performance. Thus RP (q.v.) is frequently
suggested as a suitable model of pronunciation. (2)
An abstract
description of the nature of, for example, language, matter, society. A
classic linguistic model is that of Chomsky. See
transformational/
generative grammar.
Glossary
224
monitor A term coined by S.Krashen to describe a learner’s self-conscious
checking of his spoken or written language.
mood The realisation of a speaker’s attitude to the content of what he is
saying by means of verb forms: in English by use of modal verbs (q.v.).
morpheme The smallest unit of language which is grammatically
significant. Morphemes may be ‘bound’ or ‘free’. Bound morphemes
are only found attached to some other morpheme. Thus
boys consists
of two morphemes, /boy/, which can occur alone and so is ‘free’, and /-
z/ plural, which is bound.
MT (1) Mother tongue—the language learned at one’s mother’s knee;
hence the language in which one feels most at home, though not
necessarily one’s mother’s language. See
first language; L
1
. (2) Micro-
teaching (q.v.).
multiple choice questions Test items framed in such a way that the learner
has to choose from a number of options in order to respond
satisfactorily. Sometimes there is an actual question to which four
different answers are suggested; sometimes there is a stem to which four
different completions are attached. The answers or completions which
are not correct are referred to as distractors.
national language The language of a nation, especially one which is
indigenous, and towards which members
of the nation feel great
loyalty. It may be contrasted with ‘official language’, which is a
language authorised for use in parliament, government, education, etc.,
but towards which there may be little loyalty.
natural language Any of the several thousand known languages of the
world, contrasted with ‘artificial language’, i.e. a language specially
constructed or invented, for example, for use in symbolic logic,
philosophy
or international communication, e.g. Esperanto.
negotiation The process by which in interpersonal communication the
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