on something that may or will happen, and which is described in another
clause. For example:
If it rains, we will go home.
If you worked harder, you would succeed.
You won’t be able to drive unless you have a licence.conditional formsn
the different grammatical forms used in conditional clauses. Four kinds of
conditionals are often referred to in language teaching:
First conditional: if +present simple tense +modal verb with future refer-
ence (e.g. will/shall/may): If it rains we will stay home.
Second conditional: if +simple past tense +modal verb with future-in-
the-past reference (e.g. would,could,might): I would buy a car if I could
afford it.
Third conditional: if +past perfect tense +modal verb with future-in-the-
past reference (e.g. would/could/might) +have +edparticiple: If I had
known you were sick I would have sent you flowers.
conditioned responsen
(in behaviourist psychology (see behaviourism)) a response which is not a
normal or automatic response to a stimulusbut which has been learned
through the formation of a chain of associations (see stimulus-response
theory). Behavioural psychologists believe that people are conditioned to
learn many forms of behaviour, including language, through the process of
training or conditioning, and that learning consists of stimulus-response
connections.
conditioningn
see conditioned response
conferencenconferencingv
in teaching, a semi-structured face-to-face conversation between a teacher
and a student or a small group of students in which work being undertaken is
discussed. For example in a writing class a student may present a collection
of his or her writing in a portfolio and discuss the selection in the portfolio,
difficulties encountered, and strengths and weaknesses. The teacher gives
feedback on progress, suggested improvements, etc.
conference interpretationn
see interpreter
confidence intervaln
also CI
confidence interval