ELPAC Speaking Domain Task Types 2 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: In the ELPAC Oral Language Production task, a student is shown a picture of a park scene and asked to describe what they see. Which skill is PRIMARILY being assessed?
- Reading comprehension of visual texts
- Spontaneous oral description using contextual vocabulary (Correct answer)
- Written response to visual prompts
- Listening and repeating phrases
Correct answer: Spontaneous oral description using contextual vocabulary
Picture description tasks assess a student's ability to spontaneously produce oral language using vocabulary appropriate to the visual context.
Question 2: During the 'Retell a Narrative' speaking task on the ELPAC, the examiner reads a short story aloud and then asks the student to retell it. What does this task primarily measure?
- Ability to read and summarize written text
- Phonemic awareness and pronunciation accuracy
- Listening comprehension combined with spoken language production (Correct answer)
- Vocabulary breadth in isolation
Correct answer: Listening comprehension combined with spoken language production
The Retell a Narrative task requires students to listen actively and then reproduce the story content orally, measuring both comprehension and production.
Question 3: A kindergarten student is shown three picture cards and asked to name each one. Which ELPAC speaking task type does this represent?
- Sentence completion
- Oral vocabulary naming (Correct answer)
- Collaborative discussion
- Read-aloud task
Correct answer: Oral vocabulary naming
Naming objects from picture cards is an oral vocabulary naming task assessing a young student's productive English vocabulary at a foundational level.
Question 4: When an ELPAC speaking task asks a student to respond to the question 'What do you like to do after school and why?', which discourse feature is MOST important for a high score?
- Using only present tense verbs consistently
- Providing an extended response with elaboration and reasoning (Correct answer)
- Answering with a single complete sentence
- Matching the exact phrasing of the question
Correct answer: Providing an extended response with elaboration and reasoning
Higher performance levels on ELPAC speaking tasks require extended discourse with elaboration, supporting ideas, and reasoning rather than minimal responses.
Question 5: In an ELPAC speaking task at grade 5, a student responds to 'Tell me about a time you solved a problem.' The student says only 'I solved a problem at school.' What score level does this likely reflect?
- Well Developed — the student answered the question directly
- Moderately Developed — the answer is grammatically correct
- Minimally Developed — the response lacks elaboration and detail (Correct answer)
- Not Developed — the student did not answer the question
Correct answer: Minimally Developed — the response lacks elaboration and detail
A single, unexpanded sentence with no detail, reasoning, or context reflects Minimally Developed proficiency for an extended speaking task at grade 5.
Question 6: Which of the following BEST describes the purpose of the 'Task Comprehension' criterion used when scoring ELPAC speaking tasks?
- It evaluates whether the student used correct grammar throughout
- It measures how well the student's response addressed the prompt's intent (Correct answer)
- It assesses the student's pronunciation and intonation patterns
- It counts the total number of words in the student's response
Correct answer: It measures how well the student's response addressed the prompt's intent
Task Comprehension evaluates whether the student understood what the task was asking and responded appropriately to that intent.
Question 7: On the ELPAC, which speaking task type asks students to engage in a back-and-forth exchange with the examiner, simulating real conversation?
- Read Aloud
- Oral Language Production — Interactive task (Correct answer)
- Picture-Naming
- Sentence Repetition
Correct answer: Oral Language Production — Interactive task
Interactive oral language production tasks simulate real conversational exchanges, requiring students to respond dynamically to examiner prompts.
ELPAC Speaking Domain Task Types 2
In the ELPAC Oral Language Production task, a student is shown a picture of a park scene and asked to describe what they see.
Which skill is PRIMARILY being assessed?