Glossary of Terms and Methods
This is not an attempt to turn life into a vocabulary test. It gives recurring words in Life Level-up Guide a stable place to land. Return here when a term is unclear or you do not know which page to open next.
How to Use It
Find the task you are facing, then follow “definition → evidence → next step”. If a term does not help you complete a task, preserve a sample, or make a better decision, you do not need to memorise it for its own sake.
Problems and Goals
| Term | Meaning in this guide | Continue here |
|---|---|---|
| Real problem | A situation with affected people and an action to complete, not “I want to improve” | Learning Principles |
| Context | When, where, and for whom a skill will be used | CEFR Goals and Self-check |
| Acceptance standard | An outcome another person can observe, check, or restate | AI Task Brief |
| Evaluation set | Normal, boundary, missing/conflicting, and realistic redacted samples used to check output instead of showing only model-friendly examples | AI Task Brief |
| Main question | One answerable question tracked for a week | 90-Day Action Plan |
Evidence and Judgment
| Term | Meaning in this guide | Common trap |
|---|---|---|
| Baseline | A raw sample saved before tool support or concentrated training | Replacing the first version with feelings or a polished result |
| Evidence | A record that returns to work, recording, test, source, or real feedback | Treating hours, saves, or chat logs as proof of ability |
| Fact | Something with a source, date, sample, or direct observation | Writing an explanation as a proven cause |
| Interpretation | A reading of the facts that may still need revision | Stopping verification because it sounds plausible |
| Hypothesis | A judgment waiting for the next action to test it | Writing a wish or model answer as a conclusion |
| Inference boundary | Separating what a source says, what evidence supports, and what you add | Treating a headline, emotion, or one anecdote as the whole picture |
| Narrative compression | Turning a complex experience into a shareable sentence or causal chain | Mistaking a shortened story for the whole event after removing chance, others' work, and unknowns |
| Hindsight bias | Explaining a past choice with outcomes that were known only later | Sending later information backwards into the past |
Learning Actions
| Term | Meaning in this guide | Related chapter |
|---|---|---|
| Retrieval practice | Close the source and answer, retell, write, or perform from memory | Learning Principles |
| Complete learning loop | Define the task, preserve a first version, diagnose, target input, produce actively, and record feedback/state | Learning Principles |
| First-version conditions | Material, time, tools, help, and acceptance standard recorded for the first attempt so later comparison is not confused by polish | English Diagnostic |
| Capacity mode | Choose a full, downgraded, minimum, or paused version of an action based on attention, body, time, and responsibility | Daily System |
| Distributed practice | Return at multiple points instead of cramming once | Vocabulary |
| Unknown-item decision queue | Decide whether to skip, infer, look up, learn, or professionally verify each unknown and record why | Vocabulary Evidence Card |
| Eight vocabulary dimensions | Separate form, sound, current sense, collocation, grammar, register, concept boundary, and retrieval condition | Vocabulary |
| Receptive / productive vocabulary | Receptive knowledge understands in listening/reading; productive knowledge retrieves in speaking/writing without the answer displayed | Vocabulary |
| Form–meaning choice | Treat grammar as a choice that changes time, participants, condition, negation scope, logic, or certainty rather than only a rule label | Grammar |
| Grammar contrast card | Preserve an original sentence, likely interpretation, intended meaning, form contrast, revision reason, and delayed retest for one real task | Grammar Evidence Card |
| Reference variety | A relatively stable dictionary-audio, spelling, or pronunciation reference chosen to reduce early decisions; it does not rank other English varieties below it | Speaking |
| Intelligibility / comprehensibility | The first records how much meaning the listener recovered; the second records effort such as guessing, replay, or confirmation. Both differ from accentedness | Speaking |
| Listener retelling | A listener restates gist, detail, numbers, responsibility, and next step without seeing the script, showing what the sound actually carried | Speaking Evidence Card |
| First-pass baseline | Preserve original gist, detail, timestamps, and action judgment after the first play under recorded caption, pause, speed, device, and environment conditions | Listening Evidence Card |
| Scaffold ladder | Adjustable support moving from a no-caption first pass through local replay, English transcript, and minimum background help, then closing text and removing support after a delay | Listening |
| Meaning reconstruction | Recover gist, relationships, critical detail, and next step in a retelling, process, decision, or handover instead of repeating the model word for word | Listening |
| First-reading baseline | Preserve original gist, structure, unknowns, and action judgment after the first read under recorded time, dictionary, translation, search, and AI conditions | Reading Evidence Card |
| Claim map | Label paragraphs as background, problem, claim, reason, evidence, limit, or action while preserving source locations | Reading |
| Technical fact card | Keep documentation goal, version, prerequisites, minimum input, expected/actual output, failure, and next test on one page | Reading Evidence Card |
| Narrow reading | Read multiple sources in one topic or domain so background, terminology, and structure recur | Reading |
| Fact and responsibility ledger | Record source, version, permission, confidence, and owner for facts, numbers, quotations, experience, inference, and information about others | Writing |
| Feedback uptake | Accept, partly accept, reject, or defer each item with a reason, then test independent use in a parallel text | Writing Evidence Card |
| Decision to sign | Decide before delivery whether the text is accountable as written, needs verification, needs narrower scope, or should not be published | Writing Evidence Card |
| Intensive listening/reading | Use short material to check detail, structure, evidence, and language form | Listening · Reading |
| Parallel material | A different source with similar difficulty and task for testing transfer | Reading Evidence Card |
| Transfer | Complete a related action after changing topic, listener, time, or task | 90-Day Cycle Map |
| Delayed retention | Complete a similar task after time has passed and recent prompts are removed | Evidence |
| Evidence chain | One page connecting baseline, immediate performance, delayed retention, transfer, and next step | Evidence Chain Template · Evidence |
| Variation | Keep the core action while changing the topic, listener, time, or constraint to test whether learning is real | Rhythm |
| Learner agency | The learner participates in defining the goal, submits an own first version, states capacity, questions feedback, and carries responsibility appropriate to age and context | Family Learning |
| Role language map | Extract recruiter communication, project explanation, technical follow-up, asynchronous writing, and other language tasks from one real role and connect them to existing evidence | Job-search English |
Tools and Delivery
| Term | Meaning in this guide | Related chapter |
|---|---|---|
| Task brief | A one-page record of context, input, action, boundaries, acceptance, and ownership | AI Task Brief |
| Learning State file | A versioned source of truth outside any conversation, preserving goal, evidence, errors, boundaries, handover, and next task | Learning State · Toolkit Walkthrough |
| Case review | A record that separates a public experience into source, facts, judgment, outcome, and transferable principle | AI Case Review |
| Evidence card | A template for preserving a first take, feedback, and retest for one language skill | Four-skill path |
| Reader Field Note | A private-first two-pass record of reading entry, real action, immediate result, delayed retest, transfer, and editorial feedback | Reader Field Note |
| Family Learning Agreement | A private worksheet where learner and guardian record goals, concerns, support, AI and data boundaries separately, then review fourteen days of evidence together | Family Learning Agreement |
| Job-search English Evidence Card | One record connecting a real role, unscripted baseline, stories, unfamiliar follow-ups, asynchronous writing, delayed retest, and integrity boundaries | Job-search English Evidence Card |
| Grammar Evidence Card | Track one high-impact structure through a real-task baseline, meaning contrast, four-skill retrieval, feedback classification, and day-fourteen transfer | Grammar Evidence Card |
| Listening Evidence Card | Connect material conditions, a no-caption first pass, six-layer error map, caption scaffolds, meaning reconstruction, action output, and parallel-material transfer | Listening Evidence Card |
| Reading Evidence Card | Connect source version, first pass, six-layer barrier map, claims/evidence, technical facts, source comparison, real output, and delayed transfer | Reading Evidence Card |
| Writing Evidence Card | Connect real audience, unaided draft, fact sources, translation changes, five revision passes, feedback uptake, AI use, async delivery, and authorship responsibility | Writing Evidence Card |
| Vocabulary Evidence Card | Connect a real task, first encounter, unknown-item decisions, eight-dimensional verification, unaided retrieval, error repair, and delayed transfer | Vocabulary Evidence Card |
| Speaking Evidence Card | A private record connecting reference variety, three unscripted baselines, listener retelling, comprehension effort, interaction repair, unfamiliar follow-ups, and delayed transfer | Speaking Evidence Card |
| Interaction repair | When hearing, scope, or knowledge is incomplete, request repetition, confirm, ask for thinking time, and summarise agreement | Speaking · Job-search English |
| Artifact | An output others can read, use, question, or improve; not necessarily a product | Artifacts |
| Delivery | Completing work under a real audience, user, or constraint and accepting the result | 90-Day Action Plan |
| Human gate | AI may assist, but named people confirm source, fact, permission, privacy, quality, cost, and final ownership before release or execution | AI Task Brief · AI Project Development |
| Speed debt | Real cost owed when shorter immediate time creates more rework, verification, communication, or incident risk | AI Learning Log |
| AI Learning Log | A private sheet comparing unaided, assisted, delayed-independent, and parallel tasks to record tool contribution and owned ability | AI Learning Log |
| Rollback | Pause, degrade, switch, or return to a known usable state after failure | AI Learning and Project Practice |
Life and Boundaries
| Term | Meaning in this guide | Related chapter |
|---|---|---|
| Boundary | What I will do to protect myself and state a consequence when something happens | Relationships |
| Recovery | Restore safety, body, relationships, and agency before efficiency and growth | Recovery |
| Recovery mode | A safety, reduced-load, or rebuilding load chosen from current safety, basic care, and agency; a life-recording term rather than a clinical rating | Recovery |
| Return-to-work load test | Increase one variable such as duration, complexity, responsibility, or exposure, then inspect same-day completion and next-day cost | Recovery |
| Support agreement | State what a supporter may do, must not replace, when to escalate, and how control returns as risk falls | Recovery · Life Practice Toolkit |
| Minimum order | A safe action and visible result that remain repeatable during disorder | Life Practice Toolkit |
| Minimum viable day | A version of the day that preserves safety, one minimum output, and a cue for the next step at the capacity available | Daily System |
| Capacity budget | A rough estimate that includes time, attention, body, and responsibility rather than time alone | Daily System |
| Return action | The smallest output that can be completed within 24 hours and bring the system back after interruption | Daily System |
| Rhythm | One pattern of action that remains recognisable and executable at different capacities, connecting repetition, feedback, and recovery over time | Rhythm |
| Compounding | Today's choice reduces tomorrow's hesitation, rework, or recovery cost, allowing ability, trust, judgment, and recovery to support one another | Rhythm |
| Minimum contract | An agreement for bad days that states when to downgrade, what action to keep, and when to ask for help or escalate risk | Rhythm |
| Rhythm ledger | One page each week recording the main question, protected action, useful feedback, repeated resistance, and next condition to change | Rhythm Ledger Template · Rhythm |
| Cost | Time, money, health, relationships, privacy, and responsibility that must be named | Decision-Making |
| Reversibility | Whether a choice can be paused, undone, or changed back at manageable cost | Decision-Making |
| Value conflict | Two important aims cannot both be fully preserved, requiring an explicit priority and a statement of what each option gives up | Decision-Making |
| Decision authority | Final power to approve or refuse a choice, with the source of authority, affected people, and responsibility made explicit | Decision-Making |
| Disconfirming evidence | A fact or result named before action that would remove support for the current choice, guarding against collecting only confirmation | Decision-Making |
| Stop gate | An observable evidence, cost, safety, or responsibility signal that triggers pause, stop, rollback, or escalation for help | Decision-Making · Life Practice Toolkit |
One Sentence to Keep
If you keep one sequence: name the problem, save a baseline, use the right tool for one small task, let a real person test it, write the feedback into the next action, and recover before adding pressure.
Related entry points: Prologue: Do Not Rush to Change Your Life | 90-Day Cycle Map