ESOL Praxis Practice Test (2023)

Which of the following is a clause?

• After several meetings about the situation

• Although she cannot be there on Monday

• In addition to his academic career

• The next speaker on the agenda

Answer explanation

A clause is a segment of a sentence that consists of a subject and a predicate. This example is a subordinate clause.

Makoto, a high school ELL, was in the school hallway speaking to his peers using an informal register with a good deal of slang. When Ms. Richards, his math teacher, approached him while he was with his friends, Makoto immediately spoke to her in a highly formal register. This is an example of

• back-channeling

• convergence

• self-repair

• feedback

Answer explanation

Convergence refers to strategies that individuals use to adapt to or accommodate the other's communication styles, for example, for their formality of register, to reduce social differences. In this question, the power structure is composed of a teacher-student relationship.

Which of the following activities most effectively uses technology to provide writing practice in English in an intermediate ESL classroom?

• Having students correspond by e-mail with a pen pal whose native language is English.

• Having students use a computer to copy English sentences from a textbook.

• Having students use a software program that displays direct translations from the ELL's native language.

• Having students write basic directions in English for using a computer program.

Answer explanation

Using technology can be a helpful resource for ELLs. If the goal of the exercise is to practice writing, the act of writing an e-mail to a native speaker of English would ensure using the skills that were learned in class.

In daily lessons, Ms. Peterson, an ESL teacher, uses vocabulary words and sentence structures that her students have seen before. Additionally, she incorporates words and structures that they have not yet studied. Ms. Peterson is using the concept of

• comprehensible input

• natural order

• positive transfer

• self-monitoring

Answer explanation

In Krashen's input hypothesis, he introduces the notion of comprehensible input, which allows students to take in information in a low-anxiety environment. According to Krashen, language acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language, in which speakers are concerned not with form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding.

The student's explanation of manubrio is an example of

• instrumental motivation

• communication strategy

• an idiomatic expression

• a dialectic difference

Answer explanation

ELLs use communication strategies to help them in expressing and negotiating meaning. In this question, the learner code-switches in her native language to state the missing term and then proceeds to use communication strategies to describe the word that she does not know in English (handlebars). She is able to get her meaning across through the communication strategy, circumlocution.

The passage contains an example of which of the following language features?

• code-switching

• hypercorrection

• language loss

• extralinguistic context

Answer explanation

Code-switching occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages. In this context, the speaker uses manubrio in the speaker's native language while speaking in English for the rest of the exchange.

A middle school beginning ESL classroom receiving a number of ELLs, some of whom have interrupted formal education in their L1. Which of the following would be MOST useful to the students in their first lessons.

• Asking students to read aloud.

• Assigning additional homework.

• Introducing commonly used vocabulary.

• Focusing on English grammar rules.

Answer explanation

Supporting ELLs with interrupted formal education (SIFEs) in a middle school requires special care. Since many SIFEs may have minor to severe literacy and academic gaps in their background, introducing commonly used, high-frequency vocabulary would be useful for SIFE students in their first lessons.

In the first half of the twentieth century, many school districts in the United States sought to Americanize ELLs and made no special accommodations for their linguistic and cultural differences. This practice reflects a policy of

• assimilation

• acculturation

• accommodation

• encapsulation

Answer explanation

Assimilation reflects the belief that one must give up one's original culture in order to fit into the mainstream culture.

Ms. Lee uses a fill-in-the-blank grammar test to assess her ELLs' knowledge of verb tenses. Which of the following terms best describes this type of testing?

• objective

• portfolio

• subjective

• holistic

Answer explanation

Since there is only one correct answer, it is an objective test.

Which assignment presents discrete practice in forming compound and complex sentences?

• Rearrange the following sentences to create a logically sequenced composition.

• Write a paragraph in which you explain how to make an omelet. Include the following words: eggs, milk, mix, beat, frying pan, first, then, and finally.

• Study this photograph of a sports car. Together with a classmate, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of owning such a car. Then write a list of the points you would include in an advertisement to encourage people to buy the car.

• Combine the following pairs of sentences using "and," "so," or "because."

Answer explanation

A compound sentence has two or more coordinate independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses, which are often combined using "and" and "so".