Glossary of Terms

Education has its own language. Sometimes it is difficult to interpret—even for educators—because of the overabundance of acronyms. Adding to the difficulty is that these acronyms often change over time, and they can vary from district to district. This page is an attempt to collect some of the most commonly-used terms in one place for clarity. If you know of other terminology that would be helpful to add to the list, I would be happy to hear from you.

ACCESS—“ACCESS for ELLs (Assessing Comprehension and Communication in English State-to-State for English Language Learners) is a secure large-scale English language proficiency assessment given to Kindergarten through 12th graders who have been identified as English language learners (ELLs). It is given annually in WIDA Consortium member states to monitor students' progress in acquiring academic English.” Source

Domains—(See Language Domains)

EL- English Learner (This is currently the preferred term in current research and literature. See ELL.)

ELL—English Language Learner (See EL.)

ESL—English as a Second Language. The preferred term in current research and literature is ESOL (See ESOL)

ESOL-English for Speakers of Other Languages

Language Domains—The four domains of language use are speaking, listening, reading, and writing.

RtI--Response to Intervention

TESOL--Teaching of English to speakers of other languages.

WIDA Consortium—World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment. “The WIDA Consortium is a non-profit cooperative group whose purpose is to develop standards and assessments that meet and exceed the goals of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and promote educational equity for English language learners (ELLs).” Source: WIDA Website.