English as a Second Language (Grades K–12)
Subtest 2 Sample Items
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Question 1
1. Which of the following English learners is likely to have the greatest
chance of eventually developing accent-free, native-like fluency in English?
- a high school migrant student whose family spends several months of the year in
the home country
- a young child whose family recently moved back to the home country after spending
several years in the United States
- a student in a general education kindergarten class whose family primarily speaks
the home language in the home
- an adult who studied English for several years at a foreign language center in the
home country prior to moving to the United States
Answer to question 1
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0007) Although English learners of all ages are able to attain high levels of English proficiency, young children seem to have an advantage over adults in their ability to develop English proficiency that is free of an accent and indistinguishable from that of a native speaker of English. A child who attends a mainstream kindergarten class will have numerous and ongoing opportunities to hear and use English from a young age and is likely to become proficient in English relatively quickly and easily, even if the student primarily hears and uses the home language at home.
Question 2
2. Which of the following classroom situations most clearly illustrates the effect of affective factors on an English learner's English acquisition?
- A student who can communicate fluently in English has difficulty comprehending an
academic text.
- A student speaks very little in English for fear of making a mistake and sounding
foolish.
- A student who comes from a cultural group with a large representation in the school
rarely interacts with native-English-speaking peers.
- A student is often late to class and fails to turn in assignments because of the
family's work schedule.
Answer to question 2
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0007) Some affective factors that can influence second-language learning include a learner's level and source of motivation, attitude toward the target language and toward language learning, level of anxiety in language learning, degree of inhibition in language learning, and willingness to take risks in language learning. A student who is afraid of making mistakes and sounding foolish when speaking in English has difficulty taking risks and is therefore inhibited in language learning. This student's development of oral proficiency in English is hindered by these affective factors.
Question 3
3. Which of the following ESL teacher practices is likely to contribute most significantly to creating a favorable climate for second-language learning?
- interacting with English learners in ways that show genuine interest in their welfare and high expectations for their achievement
- allowing English learners to complete class activities and assignments in their home language
- adjusting classroom learning and behavior expectations based on English learners' current abilities and language proficiency levels
- providing individual English learners with immediate corrective feedback on their language errors
Answer to question 3
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0007) The ways in which teachers interact with English learners can play a significant role in students' language development and academic achievement. When students feel that a teacher is genuinely interested in them as individuals, and is setting high expectations for them and making a personal investment in their achievement, they are likely to feel more comfortable and confident in the classroom environment. This positive, accepting classroom environment in turn is likely to promote students' engagement in learning and motivation to meet expectations and succeed.
Question 4
4. A high school English learner has been attending school in the United States for several years. The student has developed sufficient oral language proficiency to participate effectively in informal classroom interactions and negotiate instructional settings but is not performing well academically. The student has particular difficulty comprehending textbooks and producing written responses to content-based questions. This situation best illustrates the influence of which of the following factors on English learners' second-language development and academic achievement?
- level of English proficiency
- family values and expectations
- stages of cognitive development
- learning attitudes and motivation
Answer to question 4
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0007) The student described here has developed a high level of social and instructional language proficiency in English. However, the student has not yet progressed to the level of English proficiency needed to comprehend and produce the complex academic language that forms the basis for success in content-area learning. This situation illustrates the effects of underdeveloped academic-language proficiency on an English learner's academic achievement.
Question 5
5. Children frequently develop native-like pronunciation in a second language with greater ease than adults. The best explanation for this phenomenon is that compared to adults children tend to:
- have a greater ability to internalize language.
- experience less influence from affective factors.
- have a larger capacity for abstract thinking.
- experience less transfer from the home language.
Answer to question 5
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0007) Research suggests that an advantage for children (as compared to adults) when learning a new language is in the area of phonology (the branch of linguistics related to the sounds systems of a language). Consequently, the younger a person is when he/she begins to learn a new language, the easier it is for the learner to internalize language sounds and patterns. As a result, the learner's accent will be closer to that of a native speaker.
Question 6
6. Which of the following student activities conducted as part of a sheltered mathematics unit on statistics and probability is likely to be most effective in making learning meaningful for the English learners in a high school mathematics class?
- analyzing charts that depict the probability that a person has various physical characteristics (e.g., brown eyes, left-handedness)
- determining the probability of a certain outcome in a game (e.g., coin toss; rock, paper, scissors)
- gathering statistical data about their city or a nearby city and comparing the data to that of other cities in the state, nation, and/or world
- conducting research about a particular profession that requires knowledge of statistics and presenting their findings to the class
Answer to question 6
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0007) Meaningful learning is a process during which students gain new knowledge by internalizing information that is connected to their lives. Gathering statistical data about their city (or, if they live in a rural community, a nearby city) is an activity to which all English learners can make connections regardless of their extracurricular or personal interests.
Question 7
7. An English learner has been diagnosed with an expressive language disorder. This factor will most likely affect the student's language development in which of the following ways?
- The English learner will likely rely on the areas of vocabulary and syntax when transferring linguistic skills from the home language to English.
- The English learner will likely benefit from receiving the same types of language supports in both English and the home language.
- The English learner will likely feel more comfortable delivering an oral message than a written message in both English and the home language.
- The English learner will likely prioritize academic language learning in English while preferring to use the home language for social interactions.
Answer to question 7
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0007) Expressive language disorders are developmental or acquired impairments in the ability to speak and/or write. Children with these types of disorders are generally able to process language more easily than they produce it and have particular difficulty in forming complex sentences and using precise vocabulary. While there may be external factors that cause students to use English and the home language differently, the underlying disorder affects development in both languages in the same ways. Therefore, any services and supports that assist the learner in an English-speaking educational environment would also be helpful in promoting home-language development.
Question 8
8. Periodically throughout the school year, an ESL teacher composes in writing detailed answers to questions such as: "What are my areas of strength and my areas of need as an educator and an ESL teacher?" "What areas of need should I target to move forward in my teaching?" "How can I most effectively address these target areas?" The primary purpose of the teacher's questions and answers is most likely to:
- use a specific instructional strategy to achieve a specific learning outcome.
- lay out a plan for action research to improve instruction techniques.
- Tengage in self-directed reflection as a form of professional development.
- prepare lesson plans for future observations by school administrators.
Answer to question 8
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0007) In this scenario, the teacher asks himself/herself a series of questions designed to prompt professional reflection. The teacher can then use the reflective process and written answers to prepare improved lessons that will increase student learning and achievement.
Question 9
9. An ESL teacher could best use the WIDA English Language Development (ELD) standards for which of the following purposes?
- assessing English learners' current levels of English language proficiency
- identifying high-priority subject-matter topics to include in instruction for English learners
- selecting effective instructional resources to use with English learners
- determining what skills and abilities are expected of English learners at different levels
Answer to question 9
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0008) The WIDA English Language Development (ELD) standards describe English language development goals and expectations for English learners as they advance through various levels of English proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The standards are organized into individual grades for PreKindergarten through grade 8 and into grade-level clusters 9– to 10 and 11– to 12. Each standard contains descriptors for six levels of proficiency (i.e., entering, emerging, developing, expanding, bridging, and reaching). The standards are designed to guide teachers in their instruction of English learners and would be best used to help an ESL teacher determine the skills and abilities expected of English learners at a given grade level and language proficiency level.
Question 10
10. An elementary school ESL teacher is engaging entering-level English learners in an alphabet book publishing project using an online story writing platform. The teacher structures the project so that each student generates an original final product. The teacher guides the students in selecting an image to represent each letter of the English alphabet and writing a few words in English that describe the image. This project uses technological resources to effectively motivate learning primarily by:
- inviting students to connect language instruction with personal interests.
- allowing students to express complex ideas in a low-stakes environment.
- inspiring students to conduct further content-area research online.
- challenging students to solve problems within authentic contexts.
Answer to question 10
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0008) Students learn best when instruction is tailored to their individual interests and made personally relevant. An online story writing platform provides students with a variety of resources (e.g., images) from which to choose as well as various formatting tools. Students can then manipulate the available resources and tools to create highly individualized products that reflect their own interests at the same time that they are pursuing a learning objective common to a group of students. This type of project represents one way of integrating technology into the curriculum to make learning meaningful and effective.
Question 11
11. Which of the following steps would be most appropriate for an elementary school ESL teacher to take first when planning a content-based ESL lesson on Minnesota geography for emerging-level and developing-level English learners?
- gathering authentic resources to enhance students' development of relevant language and content-area skills
- identifying relevant grade-level content standards and English language development standards
- creating informal assessments to measure students' comprehension of key concepts and mastery of learning objectives
- determining what skills and abilities are expected of English learners at different levels
Answer to question 11
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0008) When planning a content-based ESL lesson for English learners, it is important to first identify relevant state grade-level content standards. This will help the teacher establish appropriate standards-based content goals for the lesson. At this point, the ESL teacher should also identify relevant English language development standards in order to help the teacher establish appropriate language goals for the lesson that will best support students at different language proficiency levels in learning the target content.
Question 12
12. An ESL teacher keeps a class list in the form of a chart that contains columns for notes about students' individual characteristics (e.g., family structure, academic strengths and challenges, favorite subjects, preferred learning styles, hobbies). The ESL teacher could most effectively use the information collected in this chart for which of the following purposes?
- keeping track of who will be students' family representatives during parent-teacher conferences and school events
- designing instruction geared primarily toward the dominant learning styles of the class as a whole
- encouraging students to focus on improving their academic performance in identified areas of need
- making learning personally relevant by incorporating student interests and backgrounds into the curriculum
Answer to question 12
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0008) There are many ways in which collecting appropriate personal information about English learners can help teachers plan effective instruction. Contextualizing learning using students' prior experiences increases motivation and engagement because learning becomes more immediate and relevant to students' daily lives. Keeping notes about students' lives outside of school helps teachers understand and respond to circumstances that may affect learning. The information contained in a class inventory can also be used to strategically group students based on similar learning styles, strengths, and/or needs. Ensuring that all student backgrounds and interests are reflected in the curriculum helps students feel acknowledged as individuals.
Question 13
13. An elementary school ESL teacher regularly integrates literary texts into class read-alouds that represent the experiences of fictional characters from a wide range of cultures inside and outside of the school community. When selecting a new book to read with English learners, it is most important for the teacher to consider the degree to which the book:
- features settings that are culturally inclusive.
- contains cultural information and illustrations that are authentic.
- explores cultural influences on attitudes towards education.
- uses culturally influenced narrative devices.
Answer to question 13
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0008) Selecting instructional resources that help English learners value their own cultural identities as well as those of others is an important part of culturally responsive teaching. Literature that accurately and realistically depicts the cultures of English learners helps promote language and academic development because the students see themselves represented in valued learning materials. A major goal of culturally responsive teaching in regard to English learners is to leverage cultural resources in order to help them achieve academic success by viewing topics through multiple perspectives and becoming critical thinkers. Fiction used by the ESL teacher as part of this endeavor needs to convey respect for the students who read it as well as for the cultures it portrays. Therefore, the teacher needs to ensure that both the textual and pictorial elements of a text are accurate and grounded in authentic, deep-culture contexts.
Question 14
14. As part of a content unit about biographies, a middle-school ESL teacher assigns pairs of English learners to conduct partner interviews and write short biographical profiles of each other. The ESL teacher purposely pairs learners at different levels of English language development and provides appropriate scaffolding to help each of them complete the assignment. The English learners submit their final written profiles to the school newspaper, where the writing undergoes an editing process before publication. In addition to facilitating language and content-area learning, this assignment promotes an inclusive learning environment by:
- personalizing content-area and English language learning to highlight the relevance of classroom activities.
- normalizing revision and refinement as part of the writing process at every level of English proficiency.
- increasing the chance that English learners who are paired together will find areas of common interest and form friendships.
- providing English learners at various levels of English proficiency with the opportunity to participate equally in the school community.
Answer to question 14
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0008) A teacher-directed activity that deliberately groups English learners heterogeneously with respect to their English language proficiency levels and provides support that enables all to achieve the same goal is inherently inclusive. Such an activity allows diverse learners to meet the same set of high expectations without decreasing the level of challenge for the student with stronger skills or overwhelming the student at a lower proficiency level. Written products by learners at a variety of English proficiency levels may require differing degrees of editing, but they all go through the same process and appear equally polished upon publication. Including English learners' individual histories in a school-wide publication further helps to establish a learning environment in which all students feel valued.
Question 15
15. Which of the following statements accurately explains why Tier Three words pose a significant challenge for English learners?
- Tier Three words typically cannot be analyzed structurally into meaningful units.
- Tier Three words tend to serve a transitional function within and between text paragraphs.
- Tier Three words typically are embedded in long complex sentences that may address more than one idea.
- Tier Three words tend to be repeated many times throughout a text, allowing readers multiple opportunities to misunderstand them.
Answer to question 15
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0009) Tier Three words are discipline-specific words that refer to unique concepts, processes, or actions that may be wholly unfamiliar to students. Their difficulty for English learners is compounded by the fact that they are often embedded in long complex sentences in academic texts that are challenging both for their content and language (e.g., complex syntax; use of sophisticated transition words, such as moreover, notwithstanding, and nonetheless). Sentences in science texts, for example, often make connections among scientific concepts, assertions, processes, or hypothetical statements. This means that the reader not only needs to determine the meaning of the new Tier Three word, including grasping the word's underlying concept, but also discern the distinction between that word and related Tier Three words that appear in the same sentence or paragraph. Similarly, sentences in mathematics and social studies texts may have multiple meaningful parts and require deep conceptual knowledge.
Use the information below to answer the two questions that follow.
An ESL teacher co-teaches a middle school social studies class that includes several English learners at various levels of English language proficiency. The teachers use the following strategies to support students' understanding of a complex informational text about globalization.
- Prior to reading, the social studies teacher posts key Tier Three words from the text that represent new concepts in this unit of study (e.g., manufacture, distribute) and then explains the words and provides a few examples of each word in meaningful sentences.
- The ESL teacher provides visual representations of the new words. The ESL teacher also adds everyday words next to the target vocabulary that represent the same concepts in everyday language (e.g., manufacture—make, distribute—hand out), spending additional time with the phrasal verbs, which are often idiomatic or colloquial.
- The social studies teacher guides students in a close reading of the text, rereading key sections multiple times with students and pausing to point out additional new technical vocabulary and to ask probing text-based questions. During this part of the lesson, the ESL teacher provides students with a graphic organizer about the effects of globalization and helps the English learners complete it using the target vocabulary and their own words.
Question 16
16. The teachers' practices in this lesson are beneficial to English learners at all levels of language proficiency primarily because they:
- recognize the strong interrelationships between vocabulary development and concept learning.
- promote students' understanding of complex grammatical structures at the sentence and discourse levels.
- focus students' attention more on developing grade-level academic vocabulary knowledge than on reading the text.
- make explicit connections between new discipline-specific content and students' personal experiences.
Answer to question 16
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0009) Vocabulary knowledge and concept development are closely interrelated. Discipline-specific vocabulary development involves—indeed requires—concept learning, and concept learning supports academic vocabulary development. Vocabulary development is an incremental process; more exposures to and opportunities to use new vocabulary in context result in greater depth of understanding. The various steps of this lesson provide the students with multiple exposures to the target Tier Three vocabulary and opportunities to use the vocabulary (e.g., during the text-based questioning, when completing the graphic organizer), thus promoting the students' vocabulary development while simultaneously strengthening their understanding of related concepts.
Question 17
17. Which of the following scaffolding strategies would be most effective for the ESL teacher to use as a follow-up to the close reading routine to ensure that the English learners can successfully participate in class discussions about the text and the effects of globalization?
- providing them with differentiated academic language frames that align with the language functions needed to discuss the topic
- encouraging their use of technology-based resources such as the Internet to enhance their knowledge of the topic
- arranging for them to work with native-English-speaking partners who can present their ideas about the topic during the discussions
- guiding them in additional close-reading lessons with the text to ensure multiple meaningful exposures to the topic
Answer to question 17
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0009) Academic language frames are recommended as a key strategy to promote English learners' use of academic language in their responses to their reading and/or during discussions. The frames can be differentiated to support students at different levels of English language proficiency in using academic language functions appropriate to a topic (e.g., justifying). Sentence frames incorporate transition words that connect ideas and thus can play an important role in the intentional teaching of academic language at the discourse level. Frequent use of such frames enable English learners to internalize the language patterns they need to express concepts they are reading about and learning (e.g., "According to _____blank , the advantages of _____blank outweigh the disadvantages because _____ blank ."). Teachers can align the sophistication of the language used in the language frames as well the amount of language included with students' levels of language proficiency.
Question 18
18. Students in a fourth-grade class that includes several English learners are studying bee colonies. The ESL teacher gathers many informational picture books about bees to support the English learners' understanding of the unit's key concepts and vocabulary. Several of the books include the term "attendant bees," so the ESL teacher engages the English learners in the following activities involving this word.
- The ESL teacher has the students analyze the word "attendant" to find the base word "tend." The teacher then guides the students in using various resources to learn about the origins of the base word (e.g., from Latin to stretch and Middle English to attend or listen, to direct oneself) and to generate a map of the base word's connections to other words (e.g., tender, tendon, tendency, attend, attendance), including the target word attendant.
- The students act out the meaning of the various words in the word map.
- The students engage in word play by making up sentences such as "The attendants will attend to how well you tend to your task."
In addition to developing the English learners' understanding of the target word, this series of activities would be most effective in promoting which of the following key components of vocabulary development?
- cognate awareness
- dictionary use
- word consciousness
- contextual analysis
Answer to question 18
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0009) Word consciousness is defined as an interest and awareness of words (Graves, 2006). Research suggests that students who become conscious of how words work and ways they can use words tend to use words more skillfully, be more curious about language, and better appreciate nuances of word meaning (Graves, 2006). It follows that English learners who become word conscious will be more likely to be motivated to learn about and use new academic vocabulary. For these reasons, developing students' word consciousness is considered one of the essential components of effective vocabulary instruction. In the scenario presented, the teacher was alert to the opportunity to explore the word attendant to extend English learners' word knowledge and their curiosity about and interest in words.
Question 19
19. A middle school ESL teacher selects an important passage from an informational text that eighth-grade expanding- and bridging-level English learners will be reading in their social studies class and engages the students in the following activities.
- The ESL teacher guides the whole group in deconstructing a complex paragraph from the passage by rewriting each complex sentence of the paragraph as two or more simple sentences.
- The teacher gives pairs of students the task of combining the simple sentences back into complex sentences without looking at the original paragraph.
- Each student pair shares their completed work with the whole group.
- The whole group works together to create a composite paragraph that reflects the collaborative efforts of each student pair.
This series of activities benefits the English learners primarily by:
- developing their command of various academic language structures in their reading and writing.
- promoting their word consciousness with respect to discipline-specific social studies vocabulary.
- encouraging their meaningful application of contextual analysis skills for independent word learning.
- focusing their attention on key academic language functions such as persuading and justifying.
Answer to question 19
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0009) English learners tend to have difficulty reading and writing paragraphs that follow the conventions of academic writing. This occurs across all disciplinary areas. Each discipline is characterized by discourse structures that contain complex sentences. When faced with a paragraph containing multiple conjunctions and clauses that connect ideas and provide text cohesion, English learners may not know how to pull out the embedded ideas to derive meaning. If ESL teachers understand the types of cohesion that occur in sentences, they can deconstruct the sentences with students. In the scenario given, the teacher leads students through the process of breaking complex sentences into simple sentences. What makes the lesson even more powerful are the collaborative reconstruction activities conducted first as a partner activity and again as a whole-group activity, because English learners need to gain command of the various academic language structures in their listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The process of putting the sentences back together requires students to use cohesive elements (e.g., conjunctions) to create complex sentences. This will improve their own academic writing along with their reading comprehension.
Question 20
20. Students in a kindergarten class that is co-taught by a general education teacher and an ESL teacher will be studying the five senses. As part of the unit, the classroom teacher plans to conduct a shared reading with an informational book about relevant body parts and their functions. Which of the following strategies would be most appropriate for the ESL teacher to use to support entering-level English learners' comprehension of this lesson?
- providing the English learners with a graphic organizer (T-chart) to sort body part labels and a description of their functions (e.g., having students place the word "nose" on one side of the chart and then match the description "smells odors" on the other side)
- rereading the informational text with the English learners; pausing to explain the text using simpler terminology and to allow students the opportunity to retell key sections in their own words (e.g., asking students to describe parts of the body involved in touch)
- having the English learners locate specific language from the read-aloud text to describe the functions of body parts (e.g., asking students to find the sentence that describes how taste buds can sense things that are sweet, sour, or salty)
- associating pictures and movements with modeled language about body parts and their functions (e.g., showing a labeled picture of a nose and saying, "I smell with my nose," and then having students repeat the phrase while sniffing various scents)
Answer to question 20
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0009) English learners benefit from instruction that incorporates a variety of nonverbal, verbal, and print resources and that takes into account students' levels of English language proficiency. By associating pictures and movements with modeled language about the body parts and their functions, the ESL teacher supports entering-level students in interacting with grade-level words and expressions about the five senses at their level of language proficiency by incorporating nonverbal elements into the lesson. Furthermore, by labeling the picture of a given body part, the teacher helps students begin to make the association between the printed word and what it means.
Question 21
21. Sixth-grade teachers in a middle school are focusing on increasing students' breadth of vocabulary knowledge by teaching them independent word-learning strategies—such as morphemic, structural, and contextual analysis—in order to provide them with the tools they will need to determine word meanings independently when reading assigned texts. The ESL teacher advocates for a more balanced approach to vocabulary instruction for English learners. Which of the following approaches would be most effective for the ESL teacher to use to address English learners' need for greater depth of vocabulary knowledge?
- focusing on cooperative activities that promote English learners' understanding of Tier One words using social media
- promoting English learners' wide reading on a daily basis of both literary and informational texts written at their independent-reading level
- engaging English learners in language experience activities that are relevant to their lives and that provide them with autonomy over their own word learning
- providing robust, explicit instruction for words that are carefully selected because they are central to a text that the English learners are reading
Answer to question 21
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0009) Most experts in vocabulary instruction advocate balancing two instructional approaches in order to maximize both depth and breadth of students' vocabulary development. One approach is robust vocabulary instruction, characterized by the explicit teaching of specific word meanings. This can increase the depth of students' knowledge of a limited number of new words per year (approximately 250– to 400 new words). The other approach is teaching independent word-learning strategies—such as morphemic, structural, and contextual analysis—to provide students with important tools to enhance their breadth of vocabulary knowledge. English learners will need both, but since the grade-level focus is on independent learning, it makes sense for the ESL teacher to use a robust vocabulary instruction approach to complement and supplement the instruction the English learners are getting in their general education classes.
Question 22
22. An ESL teacher wants to encourage English learners' oral language production and expression. Which of the following uses of technology-based resources would best address this goal?
- Students "listen" to their own writing using text-to-voice software that converts their written texts into spoken words.
- Students create digital stories using a software program to record personal narratives that incorporate music and pictures.
- Students complete online pronunciation exercises using Internet ESL websites that include video and audio features.
- Students record themselves reading passages from books or articles using a digital voice recorder that offers several playback options.
Answer to question 22
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0010) Digital storytelling uses digital media to create a story and can include narration, images, music, and other sounds. Digital storytelling is especially useful for English learners, as it helps them develop their productive (spoken and written) language while allowing them to use their visual and aural expression to complement and enhance their narrative (e.g., by creating and/or selecting digital imagery and sounds to include in their presentation). As described, this technology-based resource best addresses the teacher's goal to encourage English learners' oral language production and expression.
Question 23
23. An ESL teacher is planning to use a lesson from an ESL textbook with entering-level English learners. The lesson contains a short script of a dialogue between two friends about daily routines, along with related vocabulary, listening comprehension, and grammar exercises. The teacher would like to extend this lesson to develop students' oral communication skills. Which of the following student activities would best address this goal?
- talking about their own daily routines in small groups
- completing a cloze exercise while listening to the dialogue
- practicing reading the dialogue aloud with a partner
- filling in a blank weekly calendar with their own daily routines
Answer to question 23
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0010) An important element of English learners' oral language development is the availability of opportunities to practice speaking English in natural interactional contexts. One limitation of lessons in ESL textbooks is the lack of opportunities for students to engage in this type of natural dialogue. An effective ESL teacher will extend ESL textbook lessons to include communicative interactions such as small-group discussions related to the content of the lesson.
Question 24
24. The primary goal of pronunciation instruction for entering- and emerging-level English learners should be to develop their ability to produce:
- fluent speech at different rates of delivery.
- appropriate intonation patterns in connected speech.
- clear speech that is comprehensible to a listener.
- native-like speech that is free of home-language influences.
Answer to question 24
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0010) At entering- and emerging-levels of English language proficiency, English learners are just starting to master understanding and use of basic English vocabulary and language structures and are not yet expected to be able to comprehend natural speech without instructional supports or to produce fluent speech with native-like intonation that is free from home-language influences. The main priority of instruction at these stages is to promote a student's ability to communicate in English. Since communication can be hindered when a student's speech is unclear, the focus of pronunciation instruction should be to develop a student's ability to produce clear, comprehensible speech.
Question 25
25. An English learner recently took the WIDA ACCESS for ELLs® registered 2.0 assessment and scored at Level 3 in listening and speaking. Descriptors for a Level 3 score include the following.
- Students understand aural expository and descriptive input supported by visuals.
- Students can follow multi-step directions.
- Students communicate using use short phrases and sentences that are occasionally connected and fluid.
- Students make grammatical errors in usage and grammar but meaning is usually generally clear.
An ESL teacher is planning oral language instruction for this student and would like to gather more specific information about the student's oral communication skills. Which of the following assessments would be most effective for this purpose?
- a structured oral interview
- a sentence-level oral substitution drill
- an oral reading fluency assessment
- an oral cloze assessment
Answer to question 25
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0010) A standardized language proficiency test, such as the WIDA ACCESS for ELLs® registered 2.0, provides general information about a student's language skills mainly for the purpose of measuring progress toward meeting specified benchmarks. An ESL teacher who is planning oral language instruction for an English learner needs to gather more specific information about the student's oral communication skills. A structured oral interview is an effective means of gathering this type of information, because it allows the teacher to ask a student targeted questions and observe how the student responds. It also allows the teacher to gather anecdotal information about the student's specific language strengths and needs.
Question 26
26. An ESL teacher engages English learners in the following listening activities.
- listening to a spoken sentence and selecting the picture that best fits with the
sentence
- listening to a radio commercial and identifying the product or service the commercial
is promoting
- listening to a short passage and creating a title for the passage
All of these activities promote students' development of which of the following
listening skills?
- listening to repeat
- listening for details
- listening to respond
- listening for the main idea
Answer to question 26
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0010) Listening for the main idea, or general gist, is a skill characterized by the ability to listen to an aural stimulus as a whole and make generalizations about the overall content and/or nature of the stimulus. Selecting a picture that represents the content of a spoken sentence, identifying a product or service promoted in a radio commercial, and creating a title that represents the content of an aural passage are all tasks that require this skill of listening for the main idea.
Question 27
27. An elementary ESL teacher would like to promote entering- and emerging-level English learners' speaking skills with respect to relating a narrative (e.g., retelling a story that the students read or heard read aloud). Which of the following instructional strategies would be most appropriate for the teacher to use for this purpose?
- engaging the students in language play with stories that have a rhyming pattern
- having the students generate prompted oral stories based on picture-story sequences
- encouraging the students to draw illustrations that portray their favorite parts of a story
- helping the students label pictures and sort them according to common attributes
Answer to question 27
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0010) Using picture-story sequences is a research-based strategy for improving students' oral narrative skills. One technique is to use story grammar prompts. This involves having students look at the pictures and identify or describe the characters, setting, and depicted events. With older (middle– to late childhood) English learners, the teacher can also use prompts to help the students generate inferences about relationships, character's reactions, goals, and feelings. English learners benefit from having pictures to analyze for story grammar elements, while the ESL teacher can mediate students' ideas with modeled language, including the use of sequence transition words (e.g., first, next, then, finally) or cause-and-effect connecting words (e.g., but, so, because). A story grammar approach that focuses students on the components of a story and the language that supports telling a coherent story can be adjusted to meet the needs of students at any language proficiency level.
Question 28
28. An ESL teacher is working with a group of developing-level English learners on paragraph-writing skills. The students can produce coherent paragraphs on familiar topics; however, their writing contains numerous errors, and they tend to be resistant to revising their work. The teacher could best support these students' writing development by taking which of the following steps?
- assigning students to turn in drafts of their work and meeting with each student to discuss strengths and weaknesses in the writing
- asking students to exchange papers with another student to obtain feedback on their writing before turning in their work
- presenting to students a brief overview of the writing process and emphasizing the value and importance of revising one's work
- having students freewrite daily in a writing journal to develop their writing accuracy, fluency, and expression
Answer to question 28
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0011) Meeting with individual students to discuss their writing is an effective strategy to motivate them to improve their writing skills. Identifying students' strengths encourages them to feel proud about their writing, while providing explicit constructive feedback about the weaknesses in a piece and strategies for addressing them empowers and motivates them to correct their work. In addition, through individual meetings, the teacher is able to address the writing needs of each student with targeted instruction designed to help them improve their writing skills and ease their resistance to revising their work.
Question 29
29. Which of the following criteria would be most important for an ESL teacher to consider when selecting reading passages to use in classroom assessments of English learners' reading comprehension skills?
- A passage is taken from an authentic source.
- The content of a passage is culturally universal.
- Students have had prior exposure to a passage.
- All the vocabulary in a passage is familiar to students.
Answer to question 29
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0011) Traditional reading assessments designed for native English speakers often contain bias because they make cultural references and assumptions that are unfamiliar to students from culturally diverse backgrounds. This cultural bias can disadvantage English learners and impact the validity of test results. A teacher designing a classroom reading comprehension assessment can avoid this type of bias by selecting passages that make use of culturally universal concepts.
Question 30
30. An ESL teacher is designing a lesson for English learners on persuasive writing using letters to the editor from the editorial section of various newspapers. The teacher plans to engage students in the following activities during the lesson.
- reading and discussing as a class a newspaper article about a problem relevant to students' lives
- reading and discussing in small groups letters to the editor from different viewpoints written in response to the article
- finding and listing features of persuasive writing in the letters to the editor as a class with teacher guidance
The teacher would like to use this lesson to promote students' critical-thinking skills. Which of the following writing assignments would be most effective in addressing this goal?
- "Rewrite one of the letters to the editor that you discussed in your small group using your own words."
- "Write your own letter to the editor responding to the article and then compare your letter to one of the letters in the newspaper."
- "Write a journal entry about a time you shared your viewpoint about a topic or someone shared a viewpoint with you."
- "Practice persuading someone to understand your viewpoint on a topic by writing sentences that begin with the phrases, 'I think that ...' and 'I believe ...'."
Answer to question 30
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0011) Critical thinking involves using higher-order thinking skills, such as analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. A critical thinker is one who goes beyond surface understanding and looks at the deeper assumptions underlying ideas and information. Asking students to formulate their own viewpoints about a problem described in an article and then to compare their persuasive letters to the editor with someone else's letter prompts them to think deeply and critically about the situation.
Question 31
31. An ESL teacher teaches English learners how to create a story concept map
about a narrative they have read by drawing "bubbles" in which they briefly describe the story's characters,
setting, and plot. This strategy is likely to be most effective in supporting students'
achievement of which of the following instructional objectives?
- Students will be able to recognize the theme of a story.
- Students will be able to interpret a character's motivations in a story.
- Students will be able to summarize the key details of a story.
- Students will be able to analyze an author's point of view in a story.
Answer to question 31
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0011) A story concept map is a type of graphic organizer that contains space or "bubbles" for recording essential elements of a narrative, such as the story's main characters, important aspects of the story's setting, and key events in the story's plot. Once a student has identified these essential story elements and recorded them on a story concept map, he or she should have all the information needed to summarize the story.
Question 32
32. A third-grade English learner has bridging-level speaking and reading skills in English. The student is able to produce extended written texts in English, but the student's writing contains numerous spelling errors. An ESL teacher could best address this student's needs by providing explicit instruction in which of the following areas of literacy development?
- grammatical patterns and conventions
- word choice and writing fluency
- vocabulary knowledge and skills
- phonics and sight word recognition
Answer to question 32
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0011) This English learner is most clearly demonstrating needs in the area of phonics and sight word recognition. The student most likely has a large speaking and reading vocabulary but has not yet had enough practice with spelling words conventionally in writing. Explicit instruction in complex spelling patterns and spellings of both regular and irregular high-frequency sight words is likely to have a significant positive effect on this student's writing development.
Question 33
33. An elementary ESL teacher wants to support classroom teachers in accurately assessing English learners' phonological awareness skills. The English learners at the ESL teacher's school speak eleven different home languages. An example of a typical phonological awareness task on a foundational skills screening, benchmark, or diagnostic assessment is to ask individual students to segment the onset and rime (e.g., f/an, b/at) of words presented orally. Which of the following modifications should the ESL teacher suggest classroom teachers make in order to make this assessment task more appropriate for students who are English learners?
- changing the task to one that requires English learners to segment words into individual phonemes
- providing pictures of the stimulus items so that English learners know what the word to be segmented means
- developing and administering stimulus items in English learners' home languages to replace the English items
- substituting a matching task for the onset-rime task so that English learners must match words that begin with the same sounds
Answer to question 33
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0011) Segmenting onsets and rimes is one task on the developmental continuum of phonological awareness. It requires students to segment single-syllable words into their onset (initial consonant sound[s]) and rime (phonogram or component of the word that contains the vowel). When students have to segment words into parts, they need to hold the word in their memory while they engage in the task. This is especially difficult when the word is not in an English learner's oral vocabulary. Using pictures with the stimulus items will help English learners remember the word they are to segment. This represents good assessment practice for all students but is essential for English learners. As part of the introduction to the task, the ESL teacher could also practice naming the pictures with the students.
Question 34
34. An ESL teacher and a general education teacher collaborate to teach science to a sixth-grade class that includes English learners. The teachers plan to have small groups of students conduct an experiment on gravity using various sizes of balls that are dropped from the same height. Which of the following considerations would be most important for the teachers to keep in mind when determining how to support the English learners during this activity?
- Their limited English proficiency may diminish their cognitive capacity for grasping target content-area concepts.
- They may have limited background experience with the culture-specific materials used in the activity.
- Their culturally influenced approaches to learning may hinder their motivation to participate in hands-on activities.
- They may have limited knowledge of content-specific language structures and functions used in the activity.
Answer to question 34
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0012) Content-specific language functions refer to the purposes for which language is used in pursuit of specific goals. Compare and contrast are examples of language functions that students may need to know in the activity described here. Content-specific language structures include vocabulary, phrasing, and grammar and refer to the language forms necessary to perform certain language functions (e.g., the comparative phrase faster than). By considering the degree of student knowledge about content-specific language structures and functions required for the task, the teachers can determine how best to support the English learners during the activity.
Question 35
35. An ESL teacher often uses student-created products (e.g., journals, creative works, posters, simulations) as an informal assessment of English learners' content learning. A primary benefit of this strategy is that, compared to conventional tests alone, performance-based assessment:
- separates assessment of students' content-area learning from assessment of their
language ability.
- yields empirical assessment data that can be easily reported to stakeholders.
- provides useful information about the effectiveness of the teacher's instructional planning and delivery.
- gives the teacher an authentic view of students' achievement and progress.
Answer to question 35
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0012) Performance-based assessment is a type of authentic classroom assessment that requires students to create some kind of product for the teacher to evaluate. Performance-based assessment is linked closely to classroom instruction and thus can be a more authentic measure of students' achievement and progress with respect to content learning than a conventional test alone.
Question 36
36. Prior to teaching a sheltered-content mathematics unit on reading charts and graphs,
an ESL teacher creates a "language inventory" of technical vocabulary (e.g., title,
key, data, bar chart, line graph, pie chart) and academic-language functions (e.g.,
record, describe, interpret, analyze) found in the unit. The teacher could best
use this information to:
- select appropriate learning materials for the unit.
- develop language goals and objectives for the unit.
- gather ideas for extending learning outside the classroom.
- plan differentiated language instruction for individual students.
Answer to question 36
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: B. (Objective 0012) Effective sheltered-content instruction promotes English learners' language development while teaching grade-appropriate content-area concepts and skills. For this reason, sheltered instruction should support students' achievement of both English language proficiency and academic standards. A good strategy for developing language goals and objectives for sheltered instruction is to assess the language demands of a particular content-area unit by identifying the specific technical vocabulary and academic-language functions that students will need to use in the unit.
Question 37
37. High school English learners are working on a research project and have
located print and Internet resources for their projects. Their ESL teacher is concerned
about the quality of some of the Internet resources they have located. The teacher
could best address this concern by first teaching students how to:
- use a checklist to evaluate the reliability of Internet resources.
- limit online searches to well-known online encyclopedias and other informational
Web sites.
- use common technical terminology to conduct effective online keyword searches.
- limit the number of Internet resources to only a small percentage of the total resources
for a project.
Answer to question 37
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0012) There is a wide range of information on the Internet that may or may not be written by experts in a subject area and therefore exists on many levels of quality, accuracy, and reliability. Because of this open nature of the Internet, it is important to teach English learners how to locate valuable, high-quality information online. A checklist, or list of criteria that characterizes a reliable Internet resource, is a useful tool for helping students evaluate a potential Internet resource for use in a research project.
Question 38
38. A middle school ESL teacher would like to use the Declaration of Independence in a social studies lesson for developing-level English learners. Which of the following factors is likely to present the most significant challenges in the planning and implementation of this lesson?
- students' unfamiliarity with the historical events surrounding the Declaration of Independence
- the limited availability of instructional resources related to the Declaration of
Independence
- students' lack of interest in antiquated documents such as the Declaration of Independence
- the complex language of a historical document such as the Declaration of Independence
Answer to question 38
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: D. (Objective 0012) Authentic texts such as the Declaration of Independence can present particular challenges for English learners. Historical documents tend to contain complex sentence structures and low-frequency vocabulary words that are likely to be difficult for English learners to comprehend. An ESL teacher who would like to use the Declaration of Independence in instruction with developing-level English learners should consider appropriate scaffolding techniques to make the complex academic language of the text more comprehensible to the students.
Question 39
39. To help improve expanding-level English learners' reading comprehension of social studies texts, an ESL teacher provides them with explicit instruction in the organizational text structures common to social studies (e.g., descriptive, sequential, chronological, comparison/contrast, cause/effect). The ESL teacher can best facilitate students' recognition of these organizational text structures by:
- teaching them the transition words and phrases commonly associated with each text structure.
- helping them deconstruct complex syntactic and grammatical structures commonly used in academic texts.
- fostering their understanding of procedural and conceptual knowledge associated with common social and political structures.
- encouraging them to use structural analysis to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words in social studies texts.
Answer to question 39
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: A. (Objective 0012) Informational texts follow various text structures. Helping English learners recognize those text structures promotes their ability to make logical connections between the ideas or events in a complex academic text. Each text structure is associated with particular transition words and phrases. For example, an economics text that follows a comparison/contrast text structure is likely to use words/phrases such as in the same way, likewise, in a similar fashion, nonetheless, however, though, and on the other hand, while a history text that follows a chronological text structure would be more likely to use transition words/phrases such as first, next, before, as soon as, eventually, subsequently, and preceding. Teaching English learners to scan a text for common transition words/phrases before reading will help them recognize the text's organizational structure and anticipate how the ideas in the text will relate to one another, which will facilitate their comprehension and analysis of the text.
Question 40
40. Students in a fifth-grade ESL class are preparing to read a new chapter in a science textbook. The ESL teacher can most effectively foster both language and content learning for the students by using which of the following pre-reading strategies?
- asking students to draw pictures illustrating their prior knowledge of the given topic
- providing students with a list of key vocabulary from the chapter for them to look up
- having students work in pairs to preview and discuss textual features of the chapter
- showing students how to ask questions as they read to monitor their comprehension
Answer to question 40
- Answer Enter to expand or collapse answer. Answer expanded
- Correct Response: C. (Objective 0012) When students focus on the textual features of a content-area textbook (e.g., headings and subheadings; bolded terms; captions of charts, diagrams, and/or illustrations), they engage with the text's language at the word/phrase and discourse levels (e.g., identifying new content-specific vocabulary, developing a sense of the text's organization) as well as with the text's content (e.g., activating prior knowledge, making predictions about what they will learn). Exploring textual features in pairs requires students to practice listening and speaking skills within a content-learning context. ESL teachers can most effectively promote simultaneous language and content learning for English learners by creating opportunities for structured interactions that require students to actively use language in unlocking academic content.