a if one language variety gains status, then the speakers of another variety
may change their pronunciation to be more like it, and use words and
grammatical structures from it
b if speakers of two language varieties mix together, by moving to the same
area for example, both varieties may change to become more like each
other.
see also divergence^1convergence^2 n
see accommodation
convergent questionn
a question that encourages student responses to converge or focus on a
central theme. Convergent questions typically require a single correct answer
and elicit short responses from students. Convergent questions may be
useful when the teacher wants to focus on specific skills or information
or requires short responses, such as when attempting to find out whether
students can locate a specific piece of information in a reading passage.
see also classroom discourse, divergent question, evaluative
question, questioning techniques
convergent thinkingn
discussion, analysis, etc., of ideas, topics, etc., that result in a common
conclusion, as compared with that which produces a variety of different
interpretations or conclusions. The latter is known as divergent think-
ing. The differences between these two kinds of thinking is a factor in the
design of instructional tasks.
convergent validityn
(in testing) a type of validitythat is based on the extent to which two
or more tests that are claimed to measure the same underlying construct
are in fact doing so. For example, to establish convergent validity of two
tests that are claimed to measure the same construct (e.g. L2 listening
comprehension), they are administered to the same group of test takers
and the test scores are correlated. If a high correlation is obtained, this
is an indication that they are measuring the same construct. If not, one
of the tests is considered to be measuring something else (e.g. L2 reading
comprehension).
see construct validity, discriminant validity
conversational analysisn
see conversation analysis
convergence