Longman Dictionary of

PE2379 ch06.qxd 24/1/02 16:07 Page 486
silent way
silent way n
a METHOD of foreign-language teaching developed by Gattegno which
makes use of gesture, mime, visual aids, wall charts, and in particular
Cuisinière rods (wooden sticks of different lengths and colours)
that the teacher uses to help the students to talk. The method takes
its name from the relative silence of the teacher using these techniques.
simile n
see FIGURE OF SPEECH
simple form n
see INFINITIVE
simple past n
see PAST TENSE
simple sentence n
see COMPLEX SENTENCE
simplification 1 n
(in the study of SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION and ERROR ANALYSIS)
a term sometimes used to describe what happens when learners
make use of rules which are grammatically (or
morphologically/phonologically, etc.) less complex than TARGET-
LANGUAGE 1 rules, often as a result of an OVERGENERALIZATION. For
example, a learner may have a single rule for forming the past tense
(by adding -ed to the verb base) ignoring exceptions and producing
incorrect forms such as breaked, standed. In studies of the
INTERLANGUAGE of second- and foreign-language learners, simplifications
may be contrasted with errors which result from other processes,
such as LANGUAGE TRANSFER.
simplification 2 n
(in language teaching) the rewriting or adaptation of original texts or
materials, generally using a WORD LIST and sometimes also a structure list
or grammatical SYLLABUS, to produce simplified reading or other materials
suitable for second or foreign-language learners.
see also GRADED READER
simplified reader n
another term for GRADED READER
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