This document provides definitions and explanations of key terms related to language acquisition and teaching approaches. It discusses the differences between acquisition and learning, defining acquisition as a natural process focused on communication and learning as more artificial and focused on language forms. It also defines other important concepts like the critical period hypothesis, digital literacy, English as a foreign/second language, the language acquisition device, mother tongue and target language, multiple intelligences, phonics, the silent period, total physical response teaching, and the zone of proximal development.

1. Beatriz - David

2.  Acquisition vs Learning
 Approach
 Critical Period
 Digital Literacy vs Literacy
 E.F.L.
 E.S.L.
 L.A.D.
 MotherTongue andTarget Language
 Multiple Intelligences
 Phonics
 Silent Period
 T.P.R.
 Z.P.D.

3. LEARNING
Artificial
Technical
Priority on the written language
Theory (language analysis)
Deductive teaching
Preset syllabus
Activities about the language
Focus on form
Produces knowledge
ACQUISITION
Natural
Personal
Priority on the spoken language
Practice (language in use)
Inductive coaching
Improvised activities
Activities in the language
Focus on communication
Produces an ability
"Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language - natural
communication - in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances
but with the messages they are conveying and understanding." Stephen Krashen

4. APPROACH
Approach is a set of principles about teaching including views on method,
syllabus, and a philosophy of language and learning. Approaches have
theoretical backing with practical applications.

5. Critical Period is the hypothesis that if somebody does not acquire a first
language before a certain time (around puberty), they will lose the ability to
acquire language. There are two versions of this hypothesis: The strong version
states that language acquisition will be impossible after this point has been
reached. The weak version states that acquisition will be difficult after this
period has been reached.

6. Digital Literacy is the person’s ability to perform tasks effectively in a digital environment. Literacy
includes the ability to read and interpret media, to reproduce data and images through digital
manipulation, and to evaluate and apply new knowledge gained from digital environments.
Literacy is a fundamental human right and the foundation for lifelong learning. It is fully essential to
social and human development in its ability to transform lives. For individuals, families, and societies
alike, it is an instrument of empowerment to improve one’s health, one’s income, and one’s
relationship with the world.

7. English as a Foreign Language is usually learned in environments where the language of the
community and the school is not English.
English as a Second Language also refers to specialized approaches to language teaching,
designed for those whose primary language is not English.

8. The Language Acquisition Device, or LAD, is part of Chomsky's acquisition hypothesis. The
LAD is a system of principles that children are born with that helps them learn language, and
accounts for the order in which children learn structures, and the mistakes they make as they
learn.
Second language learning theory proposes that acquisition is possible in second and
subsequent languages, and that learning programes have to create the conditions for it.

9. Mother Tongue is the first language that a person speaks the best and she acquires in life , or
identifies with a member of an ethnic group, so is often the basis for sociolinguistic identity.
Target Language is the language that learners are studying, and also the individual items of
the language that they want to learn, or the teacher wants them to learn.

10. The theory of Multiple Intelligences is a theory of intelligence that differentiates it
into specific (primarily sensory) "modalities", rather than seeing intelligence as
dominated by a single general ability.

11. Phonics is a method for teaching, reading and writing of the English
language by developing learners' phonemic awareness (the ability to hear,
identify, and manipulate phonemes).

12. Silent Period is a period of time during which students feel unable to
communicate orally in the foreign language.

13. Total Physical Response is an approach to teaching a second / foreign
language, based on listening linked to physical activities which are designed to
reinforce comprehension.

14. The Zone of Proximal Development, often abbreviated as ZPD, is the difference
between what a learner can do without help and what he or she can do with help.
The distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent
problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through
problem solving under adult guidance, or in collaboration with more capable peers.