MDE English Language Proficiency 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which vocabulary instruction strategy asks students to rate their familiarity with words before reading?
- Semantic mapping
- Vocabulary self-collection
- Knowledge rating scale (Correct answer)
- Word sorts
Correct answer: Knowledge rating scale
A knowledge rating scale has students indicate how well they know each word before instruction, activating prior knowledge and focusing attention.
Question 2: The sentence 'She gave the book to him' can be rewritten with an indirect object as:
- She gave him the book. (Correct answer)
- She gave the book him.
- She gave to him the book.
- Him she gave the book.
Correct answer: She gave him the book.
When the indirect object precedes the direct object, the preposition 'to' is dropped: 'She gave him the book.'
Question 3: Which reading comprehension strategy involves students creating mental pictures based on text descriptions?
- Summarizing
- Visualizing (Correct answer)
- Questioning
- Predicting
Correct answer: Visualizing
Visualizing requires readers to form mental images from descriptive language, deepening comprehension and engagement with text.
Question 4: A teacher uses sentence frames like 'In my opinion, ___ because ___.' This scaffold primarily supports which skill?
- Decoding fluency
- Academic language production (Correct answer)
- Phonemic awareness
- Sight word recognition
Correct answer: Academic language production
Sentence frames provide structural support for academic language, helping ELL students produce complex discourse patterns they may not yet control independently.
Question 5: Which suffix changes the adjective 'beauty' into a noun in standard English?
- -ful (Correct answer)
- -ly
- -tion
- -iful
Correct answer: -ful
'Beautiful' uses the suffix '-ful' to form an adjective; 'beauty' is already a noun, but '-ful' applied to 'beauty' yields the adjective 'beautiful,' illustrating derivational morphology.
Question 6: What does BICS stand for in second language acquisition theory?
- Basic Instructional Competency Standards
- Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (Correct answer)
- Bilingual Integrated Content Standards
- Broad Intercultural Communication Strategies
Correct answer: Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills
BICS, coined by Jim Cummins, refers to Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills — the conversational fluency typically acquired within 1–2 years.
Question 7: A student uses the word 'library' for both 'bookstore' and 'library' in English because the L1 uses one word for both. This is an example of:
- Code-switching
- False cognate error
- Overgeneralization
- L1 transfer / interference (Correct answer)
Correct answer: L1 transfer / interference
L1 transfer occurs when a learner applies L1 patterns or meanings to L2, here mapping one L1 concept onto an English word that covers only part of that meaning.
MDE English Language Proficiency 3
Which vocabulary instruction strategy asks students to rate their familiarity with words before reading?