I’m going to do an article that is meant to clear up common mix ups in TEFL jargon etc, mainly meant for TEFL course trainees and TEFL noobies. I might also do some individual blog posts on the topic. First, though, I’d like some feedback on whether all of these are really typical confusions, whether there are any more typical ones that I’ve left out, and whether anyone else has some simple and snappy ways of describing the difference – because the first draft is turning into a book full of overlong sentences like this! In case you are worried that mentioning confusions might make others think that you are also less than clear, let me put you at ease by confessing that I have to double check inductive/ deductive, preposition/ adverb, error/ mistake, cohesion/ coherence and a couple of others each and every time they come up…

In alphabetical order (not in the order of their influence on TEFL!):

Advanced/ Proficiency/ Near native

Beginner/ False beginner/ Elementary

British Council recognised schools/ British Council recognised summer schools

British Council recognised schools/ Foreign branches of British Council schools

Business English/ ESP

Cambridge KET/ Cambridge PET

CELTA/ TEFL

Chains/ Franchises (when looking for a job)

Cohesion/ Coherence

Collocations/ Chunks

Concept check questions (CCQs)/ Instruction checking questions

CTEFLA/ CELTA

Diploma/ Diploma

Error/ mistake/ slip

Foreign teacher/ Assistant Language Teacher (ALT)

Free/ Communicative

Functions/ Notions

Gapfill/ Cloze

Gerund/ Present participle

IELTS Academic/ IELTS General

Inductive approach/ Deductive approach

Linguistics/ Applied linguistics/ SLA

Phonemics/ Phonetics

Phonemics/ Phonics

Phrasal verb/ Multi-word verb

Plan/ Arrangement

Post Upper Intermediate/ Pre-Advanced/ Advanced

PPP/ TTT

Preposition and adverb

Skimming/ Scanning

Student/ Trainee

Teacher/ Trainer

Teaching listening/ Testing listening

TEFL/ EFL

TEFL/ TESL/ ELT/ TESOL

Time/ Tense

TOEFL/ TEFL

TOEFL/ TOEIC

TTT/ TTT

PS If anyone is in Japan and can lend me a copy of or tell me where to buy An A to Z of ELT or the Longman Dictionary of Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (or is in Korea and has my copy of the former), I’d love a quick look to help with this article