International Phonetic Alphabetn
also IPA
a system of symbols designed by the International Phonetic Association to
be used to represent the sounds of all human languages in accordance with
a set of common principles. The symbols consist of letters and diacritics.
Some letters are taken from the Roman alphabet, while others are special
symbols, e.g. /à/, /v/, and /ä/ as in the English word /àvä/ show.
International Second Language Proficiency Ratingsn
also ISLPR
formerly known as the Australian Second Language Proficiency Ratings
(ASLPR), the ISLPR is a proficiency scale that assesses the four language
skills, ranging from “0” (no proficiency) to “5” (native-like proficiency)
with 12 levels, each of which describes how a test taker at each level can
perform using which language forms.
see also Foreign Service Oral Interview
international teaching assistantn
also ITA
in the US, many university courses are taught by teaching assistants from
other countries who often speak English as a second or foreign language or
have accents that students are unfamiliar with. Some universities have
established special training programmes to help these instructors to deal
with linguistic, communicative, and sociocultural issues.
Internet Relay Chatn
see IRC
interpersonal functionn
see functions of language^2
interpersonal semantics n
see systemic-functional linguistics
interpretationn
also interpreting
the act of rendering oral language that is spoken in one language (source
language^2 ) into another language (target language^2 ) for the benefit of
listeners who do not understand (or who understand imperfectly) the
source language. Oral translation after a speaker has finished speaking or
pauses for interpretation is known as consecutive interpretation. If the
interpretation takes place as the speaker is talking, providing a continuous
translation that parallels the speaker’s speech, it is called simultaneous
International Phonetic Alphabet