Educational Acronyms and Abbreviations

There are so many acronyms and abbreviations related to ELT (which stands for English Language Teaching or English Language Teachers, by the way). Thanks to social media, acronyms are used now more than ever. Twitter, for example, is full of acronyms in individual tweets and in hashtags. Last week I blogged about Education Resources and Networking Opportunities in Social Media, where I listed a lot of acronymic hashtags. But what do they all stand for? Some may be obvious, and some, not so much. I know I had to look up a few. I hope this handy list will save you from having to search for the correct meaning of any educational acronyms or abbreviations you encounter, especially those that have more than one meaning. (For example, when you google ELT, the first thing that comes up is Emergency Locator Transmitter. And PLN has at least 28 possible interpretations!)

AmE – American English

BE – Business English or British English

BrE – British English

BESIG – Business English Special Interest Group

EAP – English for Academic Purposes

ECE – Early Childhood Education

Ed – Education

Edtech – Educational Technology

EFL – English as a Foreign Language (for students learning English in their native countries)

Elearning – Electronically Supported Learning and Teaching

Elem – Elementary

ELL – English Language Learner

ELLs – English Language Learners

ELT – English Language Teaching or English Language Teachers

Eng – English

Engteacher – English Teacher

ESOL – English for Speakers of Other Languages

ESL – English as a Second Language (for students learning English in English-speaking countries)

ESP – English for Specific Purposes

EVO – Electronic Village Online

Flipclass – Flipped Classroom

IATEFL – International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language

IELTS – International English Language Testing System (for admission to universities)

K12 – Kindergarten through Grade 12

LTSIG – Learning Technologies Special Interest Group

MOOC – Massive Open Online Course

PLN – Personal Learning Network

SIG – Special Interest Group

TEFL – Teaching English as a Foreign Language

TESL – Teaching English as a Second Language

TESOL – Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

TOEFL – Test of English as a Foreign Language (for admission to universities)

TOEIC – Test of English for International Communication (for occupational testing)

Twinglish – Twitter English (for people who practice English on Twitter)

YL – Young Learners

YLE – Young Learners of English

Younglearners – Young Learners

 *Note: The use of capitals in the acronyms is based on what I commonly see, as well as standard practice. You might see other people choosing to capitalize in a different way. Luckily, Twitter isn’t case-sensitive, so regardless of the capitalization, you’ll end up in the right place if you’re hashtagging these acronyms.

*Note: Two acronyms that don’t seem to be common are BE for Business English and YL for Young Learners. I believe this is because they can refer to many other things (e.g., YL can mean Youth Leader). Personally, I use #younglearners on Twitter to avoid confusion. What do Business English teachers usually use as a hashtag? Please leave a comment below if you know.

*Bonus acronym: WYSIWYG – What You See Is What You Get (I.e., a user interface that allows the user to view something very similar to the end result while the document is being created. I had to learn this one when I became an editor.)

If I’ve missed any other acronyms or abbreviations, please leave a comment below! I’d love to make this list as comprehensive as possible.

Ttys (talk to you soon),

Tanya