Teaching English as a Foreign Language, Second Edition

The head of department
Much of what has been described in this chapter is only
possible if the head of department is able to be an efficient
and inspiring leader who is willing to act not as a dictator but
as leader of a team. Ideally, he will be able to hold the trust of
his department by his willingness to do the hard and boring
work as well as the prestigious decision-making. Too often
one hears of heads of department who will never teach the
difficult classes (or who even allocate them to student
teachers on teaching practice!) and who seem to regard their
position as an excuse for taking all the interesting decisions
but not doing too much of the routine work. When this

---

The English Department
210
happens, it is unlikely that a department will ever attain the
level of interest that has been described in this chapter. But it
is only fair to say that every teacher of English has a right to
expect the sort of support which has been outlined here, and
to fail to provide it is to make everyone’s task far more
difficult than necessary. A good department can produce
outstanding results from a mediocre teacher, but a bad
department, insensitively run, can drive good teachers out of
the profession.

---

211
Appendix 1

---

212
Appendix 2

---

213

---

214
Glossary of Selected
Terms
In addition to mainstream topics in ELT, we have indicated wide
suggestions for reading. The following is a glossary of terms which
may be encountered in further reading or in discussion.
accent (1) A variety of English pronunciation, usually based on geography,
e.g. Australia, Liverpool, Scotland, Yorkshire and/or social class. See
RP. Cf. dialect. (2) The pattern of prominence of stress, pitch, quality
and length in words and connected speech.
acceptability Usually contrasted with grammatically, e.g. ‘The man
thrown the ball kicked it’ is grammatical and acceptable whereas the
sentence ‘The man kicked the ball kicked it’ is grammatical (has the
same form) but is not acceptable.
accuracy see fluency.
acquisition A term used for language learning which is unconscious, i.e.
without deliberate attention to rules. Some writers contrast acquisition
with learning, i.e. conscious, deliberate learning. See monitor.
active vocabulary Words, phrases, etc., which a learner can use in speech
and writing. Cf. passive vocabulary.
AILA Association International de Linguistique Appliquée.
allophone see phoneme.
analytic syllabus A syllabus which provides the student with authentic
texts from which he makes his own analysis. Structural considerations
are secondary to the use to which he puts the language. See synthetic
syllabus.
anomalous finite A verb which forms the interrogative and negative
without the auxiliary do, e.g. can, might, have, be. Cf. modal verb.
anomie A feeling of disorientation often experienced by immigrants
through being unable to identify either with the users of the home
language or with the host community.

---

Glossary
215
applied linguistics Studies of the relationship between theoretical
disciplines of language and related disciplines, on the one hand, and
their practical problems, on the other. The main application is
considered to be language teaching, but the term is also applied to
machine translation, lexicology, etc.