Teachers' Professional License – Specialized Test: English Language (2): free practice test

Past exam question Unit: Teaching Language Skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Vocabulary, Writing and Grammar

1. Aa memory strategy

   Memory strategies help store and retrieve language, such as using images or rhymes.

2. Ba social strategy

   Social strategies involve other people, for example asking for help, which did not happen here.

3. Ca metacognitive strategy

   Metacognitive strategies plan, monitor or evaluate learning, which is not what guessing does.

4. Da compensation strategy ✓ Correct answer

   Correct: guessing intelligently from context to make up for missing knowledge is a compensation strategy (Oxford).

Reference: ETEC Standards for English Language Teachers (2) (2020), Standard 6.9.1, indicator 2, p. 9; Oxford, Language Learning Strategies

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Past exam question Unit: Planning Learning Activities for L2 Objectives and the Curriculum

1. Acollaborative projects

   Projects need substantial language and knowledge already in place; they are not the usual means of activating prior knowledge at the start.

2. Bproblem-solving tasks

   Problem-solving tasks ask learners to apply knowledge; they come after the topic is already activated.

3. Cchallenging homework

   Challenging homework is set after the lesson and does not activate knowledge before it.

4. Dwarm-up activities ✓ Correct answer

   Correct: warm-up (lead-in) activities connect the topic to what learners already know and create interest before new material.

Reference: ETEC Standards for English Language Teachers (2) (2020), Standard 6.9.2, indicator 1, p. 9; Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching

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Past exam question Unit: Developing and Selecting Assessment Tools

1. Aformative assessment ✓ Correct answer

   Monitoring progress during instruction and giving feedback along the way is the core of formative assessment.

2. Bsummative assessment

   Summative assessment is given at the end of a period to judge overall achievement, not to give ongoing feedback.

3. Captitude assessment

   Aptitude assessment tries to predict future learning potential, not monitor current lessons.

4. Dplacement assessment

   Placement assessment is used before a course to put learners at the right level.

Reference: ETEC Standards for English Language Teachers (2) (2020), Standard 6.9.3, indicator 1, p. 9; Brown, Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices

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Past exam question Unit: Teaching Methods that Engage Learners

1. Athe Audio-Lingual Method

   The Audio-Lingual Method is teacher-directed: the teacher models and controls responses.

2. Bthe Silent Way ✓ Correct answer

   Gattegno’s Silent Way holds that the teacher should do as little as possible so that learners take charge of their own learning.

3. Cthe Direct Method

   In the Direct Method the teacher leads the lesson through questions and demonstration.

4. Dthe Grammar-Translation Method

   In the Grammar-Translation Method the teacher is the authority who explains rules and checks translations.

Reference: ETEC Standards for English Language Teachers (2) (2020), Standard 6.9.4, indicator 1, p. 10; Richards & Rodgers, Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching

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Past exam question Unit: Setting L2 Learning Objectives

1. ACreating ✓ Correct answer

   Correct: designing a new product from elements is a Creating task.

2. BEvaluating

   Evaluating means judging or critiquing against criteria, which is not the main task here.

3. CApplying

   Applying means using a known procedure in a given situation, not producing something new.

4. DAnalyzing

   Analyzing means breaking material into parts and finding relationships.

Reference: ETEC Standards for English Language Teachers (2) (2020), Standard 6.9.5, indicator 1, p. 10; Anderson & Krathwohl, revised Bloom's Taxonomy

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Past exam question Unit: Accessing and Designing L2 Learning Resources

1. APeer-reviewed research journals

   Research journals are written for specialists and are too difficult for intermediate learners.

2. BUniversity-level medical textbooks

   Medical textbooks use specialised vocabulary beyond the learners' level.

3. CA general news website ✓ Correct answer

   News websites use accessible language, are current and suit the topic and level.

4. DPersonal posts on social media

   Personal posts vary in reliability and are not a dependable source for a presentation.

Reference: ETEC Standards for English Language Teachers (2) (2020), Standard 6.9.6, indicator 2, p. 10; Hubbard, CALL materials evaluation

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Past exam question Unit: Second Language Acquisition in Teaching

1. AThe Monitor Hypothesis

   The Monitor Hypothesis is about conscious editing of one’s output, not about shyness.

2. BThe Affective Filter Hypothesis ✓ Correct answer

   Anxiety, shyness and low self-confidence raise the affective filter, which blocks input from becoming acquired language.

3. CThe Natural Order Hypothesis

   The Natural Order Hypothesis says grammatical structures are acquired in a predictable order.

4. DThe Input Hypothesis

   The Input Hypothesis concerns comprehensible input slightly beyond the learner’s level (i+1).

Reference: ETEC Standards for English Language Teachers (2) (2020), Standard 6.9.8, indicator 2, p. 11; Krashen, Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition (Affective Filter Hypothesis)

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Past exam question Unit: Theoretical and Methodological Developments in TESOL/TEFL

1. AIt involves using language effectively in social contexts.

   This is true: communicative competence centres on effective use in real social situations.

2. BIt includes knowing what is appropriate to say and when.

   This is true: appropriateness to context is the sociolinguistic side of communicative competence.

3. CLinguistic competence is identical to communicative competence. ✓ Correct answer

   Correct answer. Linguistic (grammatical) competence is only one component of communicative competence, which also includes sociolinguistic, discourse and strategic competence.

4. DIt includes producing sentences that achieve a communicative purpose.

   This is true: language use aims at communicative effect, not only at correct form.

Reference: ETEC Standards for English Language Teachers (2) (2020), Standard 6.9.9, indicator 1, p. 11; Canale & Swain (1980); Brown, Principles of Language Learning and Teaching

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Past exam question Unit: Understanding Language as a System

1. AA generative rule

   Generative rules are part of a formal model that produces the grammatical sentences of a language; this rule says how people ought to write.

2. BA universal rule

   A universal rule would apply to all languages, but this concerns one English usage preference.

3. CA descriptive rule

   A descriptive rule records how speakers actually use the language; many speakers do split infinitives.

4. DA prescriptive rule ✓ Correct answer

   Correct: it tells people how they should use English, which is prescriptive.

Reference: ETEC Standards for English Language Teachers (2) (2020), Standard 6.9.10, indicator 1, p. 11; Yule, The Study of Language; Crystal, A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics

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Past exam question Unit: Applying English Linguistics

1. AThree

   Too few: the word has a root, two derivational suffixes and a plural ending, which is more than three parts.

2. BFive

   Too many: since hospital is one root, -al is not counted separately.

3. CFour ✓ Correct answer

   Correct: hospital + -ize + -ation + -s. The root, two derivational suffixes and the inflectional plural -s give four morphemes.

4. DSix

   Too many: the word cannot be cut into six meaningful units.

Reference: ETEC Standards for English Language Teachers (2) (2020), Standard 6.9.11, indicator 2, p. 11; Yule, The Study of Language

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