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Study Guide

Field 116: English to Speakers of Other Languages

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Sample Selected-Response Questions

Competency 0001 
Language and Language Learning

1. According to research-based theories of language development, following the preproduction stage of new-language acquisition, English Language Learners typically begin to demonstrate which language skill?

  1. constructing simple but grammatically correct sentences, such as "What does he want?"
  2. recognizing and self-correcting their own errors during conversations
  3. generating single-word utterances or telegraphic speech, such as "Where paper?"
  4. communicating nonverbally while relying on contextual clues
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Correct Response: C. This item requires candidates to demonstrate knowledge of stages and sequences in new-language acquisition. According to research-based theories of language development, English Language Learners typically follow predictable stages of language acquisition, beginning with the preproduction stage. Students in the preproduction stage listen observantly and generate nonverbal responses. Following this stage is the early production stage, during which students are able to produce single-word utterances and short phrases.

Competency 0001 
Language and Language Learning

2. A middle school  E S O L  teacher in an Integrated  E N L  science class preteaches relevant content vocabulary and language structures to small groups of students. During class discussions and for writing tasks, the teacher encourages students to use appropriate discipline-specific language by modeling relevant academic language, rephrasing students' informal language using academic language, and providing individual students with sentence frames, as needed. The teacher's actions best demonstrate an understanding of which concept related to language learning?

  1. Building students' metalinguistic awareness helps them transfer information learned in their home language to English.
  2. Providing students with explicit instruction in social and academic language facilitates their development of important language-learning strategies.
  3. Developing students' awareness of academic language registers supports their acquisition of the language skills they need to be successful in school.
  4. Promoting students' ability to engage in abstract- and critical-thinking processes fosters their literacy development.
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Correct Response: C. This item requires candidates to demonstrate knowledge of sociolinguistic concepts, including register (i.e., language practices or performances particular to specific functions and situations). The teacher uses research-based strategies to foster the students' development of discipline-specific and relevant academic language. The teacher's actions effectively promote the students' learning by supporting their acquisition of the language skills that they need to be successful in school.

Competency 0002 
Knowledge of English Language Learners

3. An  E S O L  teacher in an elementary Stand-alone  E N L  classroom regularly involves students and their families/caregivers in content-area instruction. For example, the teacher has students write about personal experiences when practicing writing dialogues and narrative pieces during English language arts lessons. On other occasions, the teacher invites two parents/guardians, one who is a construction worker and one who is a nurse, to help with an applied mathematics lesson on adding and subtracting fractions, and also invites students and their families/caregivers to share family/caregiver memorabilia (e.g., old family/caregiver letters, newspaper articles, posters of community events, postcards) when the class is studying differences between primary and secondary sources in social studies. The teacher's practice best demonstrates the teacher's understanding of the importance of:

  1. respecting students' and their families'/caregivers' varying levels of English language proficiency.
  2. creating a culturally responsive classroom that makes use of students' and their families'/caregivers' funds of knowledge.
  3. establishing an open-door policy so that students' families/caregivers feel welcome in the classroom.
  4. recognizing how students' family/caregiver relationships and different family/caregiver structures may affect the home-school partnership.
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Correct Response: B. This item requires candidates to demonstrate knowledge of how to create a culturally responsive classroom that makes use of students' funds of knowledge. By routinely involving students and their families/caregivers in content-area instruction (e.g., student-written narrative pieces), the teacher demonstrates the importance of using students' background knowledge and experiences to enrich classroom learning.

Competency 0002 
Knowledge of English Language Learners

4. A fourth-grade student who was born and raised in the United States has been receiving  E N L  instruction since being enrolled in kindergarten. The student has grade-level literacy in the home language and is currently at the transitioning level of English language proficiency. According to the New York State Commissioner's Regulation Part 154, this student's profile is most characteristic of which English Language Learner subpopulation?

  1. Newcomer English Language Learners
  2. Developing English Language Learners
  3. Long-term English Language Learners
  4. Gifted English Language Learners
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Correct Response: B. This item requires candidates to demonstrate knowledge of English Language Learner subpopulations as defined in New York State Commissioner's Regulation Part 154. For the purpose of this regulation, a student identified as an English Language Learner who has received continuous ENL instruction for four to six years in the United States schools, such as the student described in the scenario, is considered a Developing English Language Learner.

Competency 0003 
 E S O L  Instructional Planning, Practices, and Assessment

5. At the beginning of the school year, a middle school  E S O L  teacher would like to learn about the science interests of expanding-level students in the teacher's Integrated  E N L  science class. Which type of assessment tool would be most appropriate for the teacher to select or design for this purpose?

  1. a questionnaire in which students respond to specific questions about themselves and their desire to explore scientific topics
  2. a preassessment in which students answer questions that reveal their specific content knowledge about various science topics
  3. a performance-based task that provides a clear demonstration of students' strengths and weaknesses related to science
  4. a record of anecdotal observations written by the teacher about each student as the students engage in a science-related activity
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Correct Response: A. This item requires candidates to demonstrate knowledge of types of assessments. A questionnaire is typically used to assess student preferences. Because the teacher in this scenario is hoping to gain insight about students' interests in science, a questionnaire would be the best assessment tool for the teacher's purposes.

Competency 0003 
 E S O L  Instructional Planning, Practices, and Assessment

6. Which statement describes a primary advantage of using a content-based approach to  E N L  instruction with English Language Learners?

  1. Treating language as a tool, rather than the goal, of content instruction decreases the academic burden on English Language Learners.
  2. Avoiding explicit language instruction in content lessons motivates English Language Learners to take ownership of their own progress in language learning.
  3. Emphasizing memorization of important content-specific vocabulary increases English Language Learners' ability to analyze complex texts.
  4. Integrating language and content learning promotes English Language Learners' proficiency in academic-language functions and practices.
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Correct Response: D. This item requires candidates to demonstrate knowledge of current research- and evidence-based approaches to  E S O L  instruction and their application in Integrated  E N L  and Stand-alone  E N L  classes in New York State. Content-based  E N L  instruction integrates English language instruction with content instruction using  E N L  instructional strategies. These strategies include building background knowledge, providing comprehensible input, and pre-teaching key vocabulary. Research has shown that content-based  E N L  instruction effectively promotes English Language Learners' academic success because it meets both the linguistic and academic needs of English Language Learners.

Competency 0004 
Instructing English Language Learners in English Language Arts

7. A fourth-grade  E S O L  teacher has selected the following excerpt to use in a language arts lesson focused on promoting students' ability to interpret figurative meanings of words and phrases in a literary text.

Far away from here, following the Jade River, there was once a black mountain that cut into the sky like a jagged piece of rough metal. The villagers called it Fruitless Mountain because nothing grew on it and birds and animals did not rest there.

From The Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin. Copyright 2009 by Grace Lin. Reprinted by permission of Little, Brown and Company.

Which language arts activity related to this lesson would be most appropriate for the  E S O L  teacher to use to scaffold transitioning-level English Language Learners' understanding of the excerpt and their achievement of the lesson's goal?

  1. modeling for students how to consult a dictionary to determine shades of meaning among related words in a literary text
  2. teaching students how to distinguish between the literal and figurative meanings of idioms used in a literary text
  3. modeling for students how to use contextual clues to verify the meaning and pronunciation of multiple-meaning words in a literary text
  4. teaching students how to recognize and interpret the meaning of simple similes or metaphors in a literary text in context
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Correct Response: D. This item requires candidates to apply knowledge of research- and evidence-based resources for scaffolding English Language Learners' achievement of relevant learning standards related to comprehending complex literary texts. According to New York State Next Generation English Language Arts Learning Standards Grade  P to 12  (NYSLS-ELA), students should demonstrate understanding of figurative language in a literary text, such as the simile found in the excerpt above. To support and scaffold transitioning-level English Language Learners' understanding of the excerpt, teachers need to provide instruction to students on how to recognize and interpret the meaning of simple similes and metaphors.

Competency 0004 
Instructing English Language Learners in English Language Arts

8. A middle school  E S O L  teacher of an Integrated  E N L  English language arts class wants to develop English Language Learners' discourse competence in order to promote their achievement in English language arts and across the curriculum. Which instructional strategy or approach is most likely to offer opportunities for student discourse practice?

  1. using a tiered approach to vocabulary instruction that incorporates visual supports
  2. modeling effective reading comprehension strategies and providing students with guided practice with a variety of texts
  3. requiring students to support answers to text-dependent questions with textual evidence
  4. using an inquiry-based approach that helps students search for, construct knowledge from, and share a variety of texts
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Correct Response: B. This item requires candidates to apply knowledge of the dimensions of communicative competence (i.e., grammatical, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic competence). Modeling effective reading comprehension strategies and providing students with guided practice with a variety of texts are appropriate approaches in this context. These approaches promote students' general communicative competence and textual discourse competence. They also foster students' ability to read and comprehend a variety of texts and produce their own texts.

Competency 0005 
Instructing English Language Learners in the Content Areas

9. A high school  E S O L  teacher in an Integrated  E N L  United States history class leads expanding-level students in a close reading of a text about  King George, the third  during the period leading up to and including the American Revolution. During the reading, the teacher supports students in annotating the text. As a follow-up activity, the teacher has students work with a partner to complete the following graphic organizer.

Significant Action by  King George, the third  Relating to the 13 American Colonies Distinguishing Characteristic or Trait Revealed by This Action
  •  empty line 
  •  empty line 
  •  empty line 
  •  empty line 
  •  empty line 
  •  empty line 

This follow-up activity supports English Language Learners' content-area learning primarily by:

  1. providing students with a strategy for making inferences from evidence presented in an informational text.
  2. promoting students' ability to identify a text's key ideas and details when taking notes about an informational text.
  3. helping students understand the importance of considering multiple perspectives when analyzing an informational text.
  4. improving students' self-monitoring skills during reading to facilitate their comprehension of an informational text.
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Correct Response: A. This item requires candidates to demonstrate knowledge of research- and evidence-based strategies for supporting content-area learning. The graphic organizer above supports English Language Learners' ability to make inferences using evidence from a text by having students first identify  King George, the third's actions,   as revealed in the text, and then infer what those actions say about his character.

Competency 0005 
Instructing English Language Learners in the Content Areas

10. Students in a second-grade Integrated  E N L  class will be learning about animal life-cycle changes. As part of the unit, the classroom teacher plans to read aloud an informational text about metamorphosis, the sequence of physical changes some insects undergo. Which strategy would be most appropriate for the  E S O L  teacher to use to facilitate entering-level English Language Learners' comprehension of this lesson?

  1. using vivid adjectives and verbs to supplement the read-aloud text's description of how an insect changes from one stage to another (e.g., from larva to pupa)
  2. identifying for the students specific language from the read-aloud text that reinforces the characteristic features of each stage in the development of an insect's life cycle
  3. helping the students associate an illustration of each stage of an insect's life cycle with a label (e.g., egg, larva, pupa) and a simple phrase from the read-aloud text
  4. having the students complete the captions in a graphic organizer that represents each stage of an insect's development as they listen to the text being read aloud
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Correct Response: C. This item requires candidates to apply knowledge of research- and evidence-based methods and resources for making subject matter accessible and comprehensible to English Language Learners. Entering-level English Language Learners are at the beginning stage of English language acquisition and reading proficiency. They require scaffolds that make the subject matter accessible and comprehensible. Providing the student with illustrations of the stages of an insect's life cycle accompanied by labels and simple phrases from the read-aloud text is an appropriate scaffold for the students' level of proficiency. This approach will facilitate the student's comprehension of the lesson by providing a visual representation of the content and new vocabulary.

Competency 0006 
 E S O L  Professional Environments

11. The United States Supreme Court case  start italics Lau v. Nichols end italics  and the associated Lau Remedies published by the United States Commissioner of Education affected educational programs for English Language Learners in the United States primarily in which way?

  1. They upgraded the quality of educational programs for English Language Learners by ensuring that every school district make available a uniform process for English Language Learners and their families/caregivers to file formal complaints regarding insufficient instructional materials, inadequate school conditions, and teacher vacancies or misassignments.
  2. They increased the demand for bilingual education programs by allowing parents/guardians of English Language Learners to ask for a waiver so that their children can learn English through bilingual education methodologies after first completing 30 days of structured English immersion ( S E I ).
  3. They improved the quality of language instruction provided to English Language Learners by mandating that programs for English Language Learners be based on sound educational theory and that instructional practices used in such programs must be proven to be effective in helping students overcome language barriers.
  4. They increased English Language Learners' access to educational programs by requiring that public school districts have appropriate systems in place for identifying English Language Learners, evaluating their English language skills, and providing them with language support services.
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Correct Response: D. This item requires candidates to demonstrate knowledge of key court cases and their effects on educational programs for English Language Learners. The United States Supreme Court case  start italics Lau v. Nichols end italics  (1974) and the associated Lau Remedies published by the United States Commissioner of Education in 1975 promoted regulations related to the identification of English Language Learners and the way they receive services.

Competency 0006 
 E S O L  Professional Environments

12. A high school  E S O L  teacher wants to advocate for English Language Learners' equitable assessment in content-area classes, while also promoting their development of self-sufficiency and self-efficacy as students across the curriculum. The  E S O L  teacher could best achieve these goals by recommending that content-area teachers:

  1. annotate assessments with detailed written instructions.
  2. arrange for English Language Learners to collaborate on assessments.
  3. allow English Language Learners to take assessments in a separate location.
  4. include relevant bilingual glossaries in assessment materials.
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Correct Response: D. This item requires candidates to demonstrate knowledge of the importance of and strategies for advocating for English Language Learners' full, equitable access to school resources and for serving as an advocate for English Language Learners by helping them develop self-sufficiency in the school community. English Language Learners must have a fair and equitable opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skills in the content area being assessed. The inclusion of bilingual glossaries in assessment materials provides English Language Learners with a linguistic support that makes assessments accessible to them while promoting their self-sufficiency and self-efficacy.