students. Four common types of discussion procedures are used, which
differ according to the degree of teacher control.
1 recitation:a teacher directed and highly structured discussion in which
the teacher checks to see if students have learned certain facts
2 guided discussion:a less structured discussion in which the teacher seeks
to promote understanding of important concepts
3 reflective discussion:the least structured form of discussion in which
students engage in critical and creative thinking, solve problems, explore
issues, etc.
4 small group discussion: the class is divided into small groups, with
students assuming responsibility for the discussion.disjunct n
also sentential adverb
see adjunct
dispersion n
(in statistics and testing) the amount of spread among the scores in a group.
For example, if the scores of students on a test were widely spread from low,
middle to high, the scores would be said to have a large dispersion. Some
common statistical measures of dispersion are variance, standard devi-
ation, and range.
display question n
a question which is not a real question (i.e. which does not seek information
unknown to the teacher) but which serves to elicit language practice. For
example:
It this a book?
Yes, it’s a book.
It has been suggested that one way to make classes more communica-
tive (see communicative approach) is for teachers to use fewer display
questions and more referential questions.
see also rhetorical question
dissertation n
a formal written paper or report describing the writer’s own original
research, usually as a requirement for an M.A. or Ph.D. degree.
A thesisis similar to a dissertation (and the two words are sometimes used
interchangeably) but is not so extensive and may not necessarily report
original research, e.g. it may be an extended piece of expository writing on
a given topic.
disjunct