ALT Teaching English Language Learners 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which instructional model places ELL students in mainstream classrooms for most of the day while receiving pull-out ESL support?
- Dual language immersion
- Transitional bilingual education
- Sheltered instruction with pull-out ESL (Correct answer)
- Late-exit bilingual education
Correct answer: Sheltered instruction with pull-out ESL
Sheltered instruction with pull-out ESL integrates ELLs in mainstream classes and provides additional language support outside the general classroom.
Question 2: Cummins' distinction between BICS and CALP is important for ELL instruction because:
- BICS is more academic than CALP
- Students may appear conversationally fluent yet still need support for academic language tasks (Correct answer)
- CALP develops before BICS in most learners
- Both skills develop at the same rate
Correct answer: Students may appear conversationally fluent yet still need support for academic language tasks
BICS (social language) develops faster than CALP (academic language), so conversational fluency can mask gaps in academic proficiency.
Question 3: A teacher uses Total Physical Response (TPR) with beginning ELLs. What is the primary benefit of this approach?
- It focuses exclusively on reading comprehension
- It connects language to physical movement, reducing anxiety and building meaning (Correct answer)
- It accelerates grammar acquisition through rule memorization
- It develops writing skills through kinesthetic activities
Correct answer: It connects language to physical movement, reducing anxiety and building meaning
TPR links verbal commands to physical actions, making meaning concrete and lowering the affective filter for beginning language learners.
Question 4: An ELL student who arrived two years ago scores proficient on oral fluency but below grade level on reading comprehension tests. The BEST explanation is:
- The student has an undiagnosed learning disability
- Academic literacy (CALP) takes 5–7 years to develop to grade-level proficiency (Correct answer)
- The student is not motivated to read
- The school's reading program is ineffective for all students
Correct answer: Academic literacy (CALP) takes 5–7 years to develop to grade-level proficiency
Research shows academic language proficiency typically takes 5–7 years to develop, even after social language appears fluent.
Question 5: Which of the following is a key principle of sheltered instruction (SIOP)?
- Eliminating all content objectives to focus on language
- Posting and addressing both content and language objectives in every lesson (Correct answer)
- Teaching grammar rules before introducing content vocabulary
- Avoiding cooperative learning because it confuses ELLs
Correct answer: Posting and addressing both content and language objectives in every lesson
SIOP requires dual objectives—content and language—to be explicitly stated and addressed so ELLs understand both what they are learning and how language is used.
Question 6: A student consistently uses correct grammar in structured exercises but reverts to errors in spontaneous conversation. This pattern best illustrates:
- The monitor hypothesis — conscious rules are hard to apply under real-time pressure (Correct answer)
- Fossilization of correct forms
- Interference from the second language into the first
- A processing disorder that requires special education referral
Correct answer: The monitor hypothesis — conscious rules are hard to apply under real-time pressure
Krashen's Monitor Hypothesis explains that consciously learned rules are difficult to apply when speaking spontaneously because monitoring requires time and focus.
Question 7: Under Title III of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), schools are primarily accountable for:
- Providing bilingual instruction to all students
- Annual English proficiency assessment and progress toward reclassification (Correct answer)
- Hiring only bilingual teachers for ELL classrooms
- Translating all curricula into students' home languages
Correct answer: Annual English proficiency assessment and progress toward reclassification
Title III requires states to assess ELL English proficiency annually and hold schools accountable for students' progress toward proficiency and reclassification.
ALT Teaching English Language Learners 3
Which instructional model places ELL students in mainstream classrooms for most of the day while receiving pull-out ESL support?