CTEL CTEL Language and Language Development 4 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is BEST described as the gap between:
- A student's reading level and grade level
- What a learner can do alone and what they can do with support (Correct answer)
- A student's BICS and CALP proficiency
- Comprehensible input and incomprehensible input
Correct answer: What a learner can do alone and what they can do with support
The ZPD is the distance between what a learner can accomplish independently and what they can achieve with guidance from a more capable person.
Question 2: Which of the following is an example of a minimal pair used to demonstrate phonemic distinctions in English?
- 'cat' and 'cats'
- 'ship' and 'sheep' (Correct answer)
- 'running' and 'ran'
- 'happy' and 'happiness'
Correct answer: 'ship' and 'sheep'
Minimal pairs differ by only one phoneme; 'ship' (/ɪ/) and 'sheep' (/iː/) contrast the short and long vowel sounds.
Question 3: An English learner from a language that does not have articles (like Russian) frequently omits 'the' and 'a' in English. This is an example of:
- Overgeneralization
- Negative transfer (Correct answer)
- Positive transfer
- Pragmatic failure
Correct answer: Negative transfer
Negative transfer (interference) occurs when L1 structures that differ from L2 lead to errors in the target language.
Question 4: Which of the following BEST defines 'discourse competence' as a component of communicative language ability?
- The ability to pronounce words accurately
- The ability to connect sentences into coherent, organized text (Correct answer)
- Knowledge of vocabulary meanings
- Understanding grammatical rules
Correct answer: The ability to connect sentences into coherent, organized text
Discourse competence involves organizing language at the sentence level and above to create coherent spoken or written texts.
Question 5: Which term describes the phenomenon where a second language learner's errors stop progressing and become permanent features of their speech?
- Backsliding
- Attrition
- Fossilization (Correct answer)
- Regression
Correct answer: Fossilization
Fossilization occurs when certain L2 errors become permanently fixed in a learner's interlanguage, resisting correction.
Question 6: Which feature of academic language makes it particularly challenging for English learners transitioning to content-area instruction?
- Use of contractions and colloquial expressions
- High density of technical vocabulary and complex syntactic structures (Correct answer)
- Reliance on contextual clues and visual supports
- Emphasis on conversational turn-taking
Correct answer: High density of technical vocabulary and complex syntactic structures
Academic language is characterized by low-frequency vocabulary, complex syntax, and abstract concepts with fewer contextual supports.
Question 7: According to Cummins's Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis, strong literacy skills in a student's first language:
- Interfere with second language acquisition
- Have no effect on second language development
- Transfer to and support second language literacy development (Correct answer)
- Must be suppressed to accelerate L2 acquisition
Correct answer: Transfer to and support second language literacy development
Cummins found that cognitive and literacy skills developed in L1 transfer to L2, so a strong L1 foundation supports L2 academic development.
CTEL CTEL Language and Language Development 4
Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) is BEST described as the gap between: