trait n
a person’s enduring psychological attribute or characteristic (e.g. her
L2 ability) underlying and explaining her behaviour (e.g. her performance
on a test) from which an inference is drawn.
transaction n
an event or series of actions which involves interactions between two or
more people and has a particular goal. In describing language use (particu-
larly for the purpose of developing language programmes), the term “trans-
action” is sometimes used to refer to the activities people carry out in
specific situations, for example, the activities of a server in a restaurant. The
language demands of particular transactions such as “serving a customer
and taking the customer’s order” may be a focus of needs analysis. The
term taskis sometimes used with a similar meaning. A transaction between
a worker and a client is sometimes known as a service encounter.
transactional functions of language n
see interactional functions
transcription n
also notation
the use of symbols to represent sounds or sound sequences in written
form. There are different systems of phonetic symbols. One of the most
commonly used is the international phonetic alphabet.
A distinction is commonly made between two general types of transcription:
1a narrow transcription(also called a phonetic transcription) is one that
shows phonetic details (for example, aspiration, length, etc.), by using a
wide variety of symbols and, in many cases, diacritics. A systematic
phonetic transcriptionshows all the phonetic details that can be recorded.
2a broad transcription(also called an impressionistic transcription) is
one that uses a simple set of symbols and does not show a great deal of
phonetic detail. A phonemic transcriptionis a broad transcription that
shows all and only those sounds that are distinctive phonemes in the
language being transcribed.
transfer n
(in learning theory) the carrying over of learned behaviour from one situ-
ation to another. Positive transfer is learning in one situation which helps or
facilitates learning in another later situation. Negative transfer is learning
in one situation which interferes with learning in another later situation.
see also language transfer, proactive inhibition
transfer