Glossary

This is an ongoing list of terms used in the many resources consulted for this website. The goal of listing these terms is for teachers to speak the same language and avoid misunderstanding.

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Title	Definition	Source
Realia	Real objects	from A Practical Guide to Teaching ESL Literacy
Rime	The remaining sounds in the word after the onset (e.g. at in the word cat).	from A Practical Guide to Teaching ESL Literacy
Sans-serif	A style of printing in which letters have no serifs or decorative designs.	from Longman Dictionary
Segmentation	Split or slice the sounds in a word (e.g. c-a-t).	from A Practical Guide to Teaching ESL Literacy
Sentence	A group of words that usually contains a subject and a verb, and expresses a complete idea.	from Longman Dictionary
Sight word	A word that you can decode with automaticity.	from A Practical Guide to Teaching ESL Literacy
Silent letter	A letter that, in a particular word, does not correspond to any sound in the word's pronunciation (e.g. k in the word knight).	from Wikipedia
Suffix	A syllable that is found at the end of the word and forms a new word (e.g. kindness).	by Rose Elliot
Syllable	A word or part of a word which contains a single vowel sound. It is also known as a beat.	from Longman Dictionary
Tall letters	Letters that have a portion going up. There are seven tall letters: b, d, f, h, k, l and t.	from Wikipedia
Think aloud	A process of demonstrating a strategy to learners by talking about what is going on inside your head while you are reading.	from A Practical Guide to Teaching ESL Literacy
Tracking	Following a line of text with your eyes.	from A Practical Guide to Teaching ESL Literacy