Subarea 1/Objective 2: Foundations of Second Language Instruction Flashcards
Apply knowledge of process and stages of language acquisition.
When working with small groups of English language learners whose first language is Latinate,an ESL teacher has the students work together to develop and maintain a chart of words that are similar in structure and meaning to English words. This activity promotes the students’ transfer of vocabulary knowledge from the first language to English primarily by focusing on:
A. synonyms.
B. cognates.
C. homonyms.
D. allomorphs
B. Cognates are words in a language that share a common ancestry or origin and thus a common root or base form with words in another language. In the scenario provided, the learners’ native language is Latinate and thus shares words of Latin origin with English. The fact that the students create a chart of words that are “similar in structure and meaning to English words” implies that the words on their chart are not English words.
Thus, A, C, and D are incorrect because these
terms all relate to words/morphemes within the same language. Synonyms (A) are words with a similar
meaning, homonyms (C) are words with the same form but different meaning, and allomorphs (D) are
variants of a morpheme (e.g., the irregular plural forms mice and sheep are allomorphs of the English
plural morpheme -s)
Which of the following examples provides the strongest support for the theory that all children are born with an innate sense of universal language principles that can be applied to the acquisition
of any language?
A.
A child can produce structurally complex novel utterances at a very young age.
B.
A child creates a new language to speak with an imaginary friend.
C.
A child can repeat verbatim the words of songs from favorite television programs.
D.
A child mimics adult speech when playing with other children.
A. Researchers have found evidence that children are able to apply adult-like grammar structures creatively at a young age (approximately 2–2.5 years of age/telegraphic stage) and produce unique sentences using a range of sentence types.
C and D emphasize memorization of language or situation-specific vocabulary rather than “novel” or creative production on the part of the child, making those answers incorrect. B is incorrect because it highlights a creative activity but not one that necessarily applies universal language principles.
An ESL teacher is designing a listening lesson for sixth-grade developing-level English language learners. Which of the following guidelines should the teacher follow to align the lesson with the
comprehensible input hypothesis?
A.
Use a familiar aural selection appropriate for emerging-level students.
B.
Choose an aural selection that is slightly above the students’ comprehension level.
C.
Provide a difficult aural selection along with a written script to which students can refer.
D.
Locate an aural selection that comes with a written translation in the students’ first language.
B. The comprehensible input hypothesis asserts that language learners learn best when language input is just beyond the level of language they have achieved. This ensures that students do not feel overwhelmed but instead are challenged just enough to advance.
A is incorrect because using a familiar aural selection appropriate for emerging-level students would be too easy for students at the developing level. C is incorrect because providing a difficult aural selection for the students in this scenario may frustrate them, even if they are given a written script to which they can refer. D does not detail the difficulty level of the aural selection at all in relation to comprehensible input but instead focuses on the written translation of the selection, making it an incorrect answer as well.
Which of the following situations best illustrates James Cummins’s theory of common underlying
proficiency (CUP)?
A. An English language learner who has knowledge of an academic concept in the first
language quickly grasps the concept when it is introduced in English.
B. English language learners who speak different first languages often make similar errors
when learning English.
C. An English language learner who has advanced proficiency in the first language develops
English language proficiency in a relatively short period of time.
D. English language learners sometimes switch between the first language and English when
speaking.
A. James Cummins’s theory of common underlying proficiency (CUP) states that students who have learned academic concepts in their native language are able to apply this learning toward similar concepts in the target language.
B is incorrect because it relates to errors in learning English rather than knowledge gained in a first language that can be applied in the target language. C is incorrect because it relates purely to language development rather than development of content knowledge. Similarly, D is incorrect because it relates to code-switching, a phenomenon related to
language development and unrelated to concept development.
Which of the following types of instructional activities would be most appropriate for an English language learner at an advanced stage of English language development?
A. frequent exercises and drills that focus on the student’s development of accurate English
pronunciation, spelling, and grammar
B. ongoing opportunities for the student to engage in rigorous, authentic academic
conversations and writing in English
C. extensive modeling and scaffolding of the student’s oral and written English language skills
and strategies
D. immediate correction of the student’s spoken and written language errors in English
B. Research suggests that at advanced stages of English language development, English language learners benefit most from exposure to and opportunities to use academic language in meaningful contexts. Engaging in ongoing authentic (real-life) academic conversations and writing in English would provide the students with purposeful opportunities for practicing and reinforcing new vocabulary and language structures.
A, C, and D are incorrect because they all describe instructional
activities that would be more beneficial to students at less advanced levels of English language
proficiency.
Which of the following vocabulary-learning activities most clearly involves metacognition?
A. rewriting vocabulary words from a classroom word wall in alphabetical order
B. identifying words that are unfamiliar in a reading passage
C. looking up bolded vocabulary words from a textbook chapter in the book’s glossary
D. locating synonyms for a given vocabulary word in the thesaurus
B. Metacognition refers to actively thinking about one’s learning. Reflection is one type of metacognitive strategy. Reading a passage and determining which words in the passage are unknown would require a student to reflect on his/her vocabulary knowledge.
A, C, and D are incorrect because they rely on other vocabulary-learning strategies, such as using a kinesthetic approach (A) or using resources (C) and (D).
Use the exchange below between an ESL teacher and an English language learner to answer the question that follows.
Student: (pointing to word in a book) What does it mean invisible?
Teacher: Look at the parts of the word.
Student: I know in- means “not” and vis is like “visual,” something you see with the eyes. I
remember -ible is like -able, right?
Teacher: Right. Now look at the sentence.
Student: (reading) “The creature was practically invisible, hidden in the dense foliage.” “Hidden”
is like to hide. I guess if it is invisible, it means you’re not able to see it because it is hiding.
This student’s performance most clearly demonstrates which of the following cognitive processes involved in language acquisition?
A. categorization and memorization
B. translation and transfer
C. imagery and representation
D. elaboration and inference
D. In the dialogue with the teacher, the student uses knowledge of roots/affixes toextrapolate the meaning of the word from its parts and then uses the word’s context to help make an educated guess (inference) about the full meaning of the word. This process most clearly demonstrates the use of elaboration and inference.
A is incorrect because the student did not memorize the meaning of the word or try to determine the word by thinking of it as part of a particular group. B is incorrect because the student operates completely in English and does not translate words from one language to another or transfer knowledge of a different language to English. C is incorrect because the student analyzes the word using its structure and context rather than through the use of imagery or a concrete representation of the word, such as an illustration.
An English language learner overgeneralizes the regular past tense marker -ed to irregular verbs, such as saying holded for held. This student is most clearly demonstrating:
A. the memorization of an incorrect verb form.
B. the acquisition of a new vocabulary word.
C. the extension of a known word to a new meaning.
D. the process of internalizing a grammatical rule.
D. Overgeneralization of a grammatical rule is typically considered evidence that a person has internalized the rule. In the scenario, the student overgeneralizes the past tense rule (adding –ed) to irregular verbs, thus demonstrating that the student is able to understand and apply the rule.
A is incorrect because the verb form the student uses is correct (-ed). The student simply has not learned the exceptions to the rule. B and C are incorrect because they relate to learning new vocabulary rather than acquiring grammatical rules.
An ESL teacher asks an English language learner, “Where is your pencil?” The student replies, “He is on my desk.” Which of the following rationales best explains the student’s incorrect use of the personal pronoun he to refer to an object?
A. The student is confusing animate and inanimate objects.
B. The student speaks a first language in which inanimate objects are marked for gender.
C. The student is unfamiliar with the word pencil.
D. The student is overgeneralizing rules for the appropriate use of a pronoun in place of a noun
phrase.
B. Many languages mark the gender of inanimate objects. This is called grammatical gender and has nothing to do with natural gender, as evidenced by the fact that an object may be considered masculine in one language and feminine in another. In languages that feature grammatical gender, gender markers play an important role in signaling grammatical relationships between words in a sentence. Thus, pronouns must match the grammatical gender of their antecedent. In the scenario, the student’s first language most likely identifies a pencil as a masculine object, explaining why the student responds with “he” instead of “it.”
A is incorrect because the scenario does not suggest that the student is unsure if the object is animate (alive) or inanimate (not alive). C is incorrect because the student’s response clearly demonstrates that the student does understand the
word pencil, since the student replies that it is on the student’s desk. D is incorrect because the dialogue does not provide evidence that the student is overgeneralizing rules related to using a pronoun in place of a noun phrase.
A tenth-grade English language learner is at an advanced stage of English language acquisition. However, the student continues to make certain consistent syntactic errors despite repeated explicit instruction. This phenomenon can best be explained as:
A. delay in internalizing prescriptive grammar rules.
B. positive transfer from the first language.
C. fossilization of interlanguage structures.
D. code-switching between two languages.
C. Fossilization of interlanguage structures is a phenomenon whereby a language learner makes progress in certain areas of language learning but fossilizes, or “gets stuck,” in other areas, thus continuing to make certain errors in the target language. The scenario given represents a
typical example of fossilization.
A is incorrect because the student is described as being “at an advanced stage of English language acquisition,” and therefore does not display a delay in internalizing grammar rules. B is incorrect because positive transfer from the first language to the target language means that the first language has similar linguistic elements to that of the target language. This would promote rather than inhibit language learning. D is incorrect because code-switching means that the student alternates between the first language and target language, which is not evident in the scenario
provided.
