NESB n
Non-English Speaking Background.
a term sometimes used to refer to a non-native speaker of English, particu-
larly overseas students studying in colleges or universities. In the US such
students are sometimes referred to as ESL, ELL, or LESstudents.
network n
a group of people within a larger community who are in a relatively fixed
relationship to one another and who communicate among themselves in
certain more or less predictable ways, e.g. a family group, a tutorial group
at a university, the staff in an office. Recognition of networks and their
structures is of importance for studies of language variation, language use,
and language learning. There are two differences between a network and a
peer group:
aIn a peer group all members have equal status, but in a network mem-
bers may be of unequal status (e.g. parents and children in a family).
bIn a network all members know one another, but in a peer group this
need not be so. For example, a lexicographer may consider all lexicogra-
phers to be his or her peer group without knowing them all personally.
Nevertheless, most peer groups are networks and many networks are peer
groups.
neural networks n
see connectionism
Neuro-linguistic Programming n
also NLP
a training philosophy and set of training techniques first developed by
John Grindler and Richard Bandler in the mid-1970s as an alternative
form of therapy. Grindler (a psychologist) and Bandler (a student of
linguistics) were interested in how people influence each other and in how
the behaviours of very effective people could be duplicated. Grindler and
Bandler developed NLP as a system of techniques therapists could use in
building rapport with clients, gathering information about their internal
and external views of the world, and in helping them achieve goals and
bring about personal change. The principles of NLP have been applied in a
variety of fields, including management training, sports training, commu-
nications, sales and marketing, and language teaching and have had some
appeal within language teaching to those interested in humanistic approaches,
i.e. those which focus on developing one’s sense of self-actualization and
self-awareness, as well as to those drawn to New Age Humanism.
Neuro-linguistic Programming