During a fifth-grade science partner task, an Expanding student says, “The plant need sun for make food.” Her partner asks, “It needs the sun to do what?” The student replies, “It needs sun to make food.” This exchange best illustrates which concept from Long’s interaction hypothesis?

Negotiation of meaning that prompts the learner to modify her output

Comprehensible input pitched slightly above the learner’s current level

Fossilization of an interlanguage form that resists later correction

Scaffolding within the zone of proximal development by an adult expert

A second-grade Emerging student who arrived from Mexico six months ago is reading below grade level in English. Her teacher wants to refer her for special education testing. Which step should the team take FIRST?

Compare her first-language skills and progress with similar EL peers

Wait until she has been in an English-speaking school for at least seven years

Administer an English-language IQ test to identify a gap between ability and achievement

Refer her for a full special education evaluation because early intervention is critical

A grade 8 U.S. history teacher has a class of Expanding and Bridging English learners. Which planning decision is most consistent with Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE)?

Keep grade-level content standards and make them accessible with visuals, organizers, and interaction

Deliver core content in students’ home languages and use English only for review activities

Replace grade-level standards with lower-grade standards until students reach full English proficiency

Postpone content instruction and organize the course around a sequence of grammar structures

Before a high-stakes math test, a high school counselor tells a class, “This test is a strong measure of your natural math ability, and we will be reporting results by gender and ethnicity.” Several high-achieving Latina students score well below their usual performance. Which explanation is most consistent with research by Claude Steele and colleagues?

Concern about confirming a negative group stereotype consumed attention needed for the task

Low expectations communicated over many years produced a self-fulfilling prophecy

An oppositional peer culture discouraged the students from appearing academically successful

Limited academic English proficiency reduced the students’ comprehension of the test items

A sixth-grade Emerging student cannot write a comparison paragraph alone, but she can do so when the teacher provides a Venn diagram, sentence frames (“Both ___ and ___ have…”), and guiding questions. Over several weeks the teacher removes the frames one at a time. This approach most directly applies which concept?

Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, with supports gradually withdrawn

Schmidt’s noticing hypothesis, with target forms made visually salient

Krashen’s natural order, with structures taught in their acquisition sequence

Cummins’s threshold hypothesis, with first-language skills developed first

On a seventh-grade statewide math assessment intended to measure mathematical reasoning, which support for an Expanding Spanish-speaking student is LEAST likely to change the construct being measured?

A Spanish glossary for selected non-math words in the items

A calculator on items designed to assess computational fluency

A teacher who rephrases items to hint at the operation needed

A scribe who corrects the student’s math steps while recording

A grade 1 teacher following Krashen and Terrell’s Natural Approach has a newcomer who, after three weeks, responds only by pointing and nodding. Which teacher response is most consistent with this approach?

Keep providing comprehensible input and accept nonverbal responses without pressuring speech

Require the student to repeat model sentences aloud each day to build oral accuracy and fluency

Correct each nonverbal response and supply the full target sentence for the student

Refer the student for a speech evaluation, since weeks of silence signal a delay

The parents of Amir, a newly arrived eighth grader from Iran, tell his teacher, “Here our son can study anything. School is hard and some kids tease him, but it is still far better than what we had.” In John Ogbu’s framework, this statement best illustrates which concept?

A dual frame of reference typical of voluntary minorities

An oppositional cultural frame typical of involuntary minorities

A folk theory of limited opportunity typical of involuntary minorities

A pattern of cultural inversion typical of involuntary minorities

CTEL – California Teacher of English Learners

Free CTEL Practice Questions

10 sample questions for the CTEL – California Teacher of English Learners, with the correct answer and an explanation for each. No account needed. Try each one before you open the answer.

Sections covered on the exam: Domain 1, Suprasegmentals, Domain 2, Antonymy, Domain 4, Domain 3, Domain 6, Domain 7, Domain 5, Allomorphy, Collocation.

Question 1 · Domain 1
A first-grade teacher is preparing an Elkonin-box phoneme segmentation activity for a small group of Emerging English learners. She wants a word that needs exactly three boxes, one box per phoneme. Which of the following words should she choose?
- A.stamp
- B.clap
- C.box
- D.thumb
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. thumb
“Thumb” has three phonemes, /θ/ /ʌ/ /m/: the digraph th spells one sound and the final b is silent. “Box” is tempting because it has three letters, but x spells two phonemes, /k/ and /s/, giving four (/b/ /ɑ/ /k/ /s/). “Clap” has four phonemes and “stamp” has five.
Question 2 · Domain 2
During a fifth-grade science partner task, an Expanding student says, “The plant need sun for make food.” Her partner asks, “It needs the sun to do what?” The student replies, “It needs sun to make food.” This exchange best illustrates which concept from Long’s interaction hypothesis?
- A.Negotiation of meaning that prompts the learner to modify her output
- B.Comprehensible input pitched slightly above the learner’s current level
- C.Fossilization of an interlanguage form that resists later correction
- D.Scaffolding within the zone of proximal development by an adult expert
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Negotiation of meaning that prompts the learner to modify her output
Long argued that conversational adjustments such as clarification requests and confirmation checks (negotiation of meaning) make input comprehensible and push learners to modify their output, as when the student revises to “It needs sun to make food.” Comprehensible input at i+1 is Krashen’s idea and does not address the interactive repair, and Vygotskian scaffolding is tempting but the partner is a peer and the key mechanism here is the conversational repair Long described.
Question 3 · Domain 6
A second-grade Emerging student who arrived from Mexico six months ago is reading below grade level in English. Her teacher wants to refer her for special education testing. Which step should the team take FIRST?
- A.Wait until she has been in an English-speaking school for at least seven years
- B.Administer an English-language IQ test to identify a gap between ability and achievement
- C.Refer her for a full special education evaluation because early intervention is critical
- D.Compare her first-language skills and progress with similar EL peers
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. Compare her first-language skills and progress with similar EL peers
Distinguishing a language difference from a learning disability requires evidence that difficulties appear in the first language as well and that progress lags behind “true peers” with similar language and educational backgrounds, given appropriate instruction. An English-only IQ test would be linguistically biased for this student, and both an immediate full referral and an arbitrary seven-year wait ignore the need for data-based decision making.
Question 4 · Domain 4
A grade 8 U.S. history teacher has a class of Expanding and Bridging English learners. Which planning decision is most consistent with Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English (SDAIE)?
- A.Deliver core content in students’ home languages and use English only for review activities
- B.Replace grade-level standards with lower-grade standards until students reach full English proficiency
- C.Keep grade-level content standards and make them accessible with visuals, organizers, and interaction
- D.Postpone content instruction and organize the course around a sequence of grammar structures
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Keep grade-level content standards and make them accessible with visuals, organizers, and interaction
SDAIE teaches grade-level content in English while making it comprehensible through strategies such as visuals, graphic organizers, and structured interaction, so the content standards are maintained rather than reduced. Lowering the standards waters down the curriculum. SDAIE is delivered in English, not primarily in the home language, and it is content instruction, not a grammar sequence.
Question 5 · Domain 6
Before a high-stakes math test, a high school counselor tells a class, “This test is a strong measure of your natural math ability, and we will be reporting results by gender and ethnicity.” Several high-achieving Latina students score well below their usual performance. Which explanation is most consistent with research by Claude Steele and colleagues?
- A.Low expectations communicated over many years produced a self-fulfilling prophecy
- B.Concern about confirming a negative group stereotype consumed attention needed for the task
- C.An oppositional peer culture discouraged the students from appearing academically successful
- D.Limited academic English proficiency reduced the students’ comprehension of the test items
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Concern about confirming a negative group stereotype consumed attention needed for the task
Steele’s research on stereotype threat shows that framing a test as diagnostic of ability and making group identity salient can cause anxiety about confirming a negative stereotype, which consumes working memory and depresses performance. A self-fulfilling prophecy is tempting, but it develops over time through teacher expectations rather than from one pre-test message; the students are high achievers, so oppositional culture and limited English are not supported by the scenario.
Question 6 · Domain 1
A fifth-grade Expanding English learner whose home language is Arabic says, “My dad will bark the car,” and reads “push” as “bush.” The teacher plans a listening activity with minimal pairs. Which word pair is a minimal pair that isolates the contrast the student needs?
- A.pig / big
- B.pat / bad
- C.pin / spin
- D.pea / bean
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. pig / big
Arabic has /b/ but no /p/ phoneme, so learners often substitute [b]; “pig / big” differs only in the initial /p/ versus /b/, making it a true minimal pair. “Pat / bad” is tempting because it begins with the target contrast, but it also differs in the final consonant. “Pin / spin” and “pea / bean” differ in the number of sounds.
Question 7 · Domain 2
A sixth-grade Emerging student cannot write a comparison paragraph alone, but she can do so when the teacher provides a Venn diagram, sentence frames (“Both ___ and ___ have…”), and guiding questions. Over several weeks the teacher removes the frames one at a time. This approach most directly applies which concept?
- A.Schmidt’s noticing hypothesis, with target forms made visually salient
- B.Krashen’s natural order, with structures taught in their acquisition sequence
- C.Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, with supports gradually withdrawn
- D.Cummins’s threshold hypothesis, with first-language skills developed first
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, with supports gradually withdrawn
The zone of proximal development is the gap between what a learner can do alone and what she can do with expert assistance; scaffolds such as frames and guiding questions are provided within that zone and gradually withdrawn as competence grows. Noticing is tempting because frames highlight language, but the defining feature here is assisted performance followed by fading support, not drawing attention to a form.
Question 8 · Domain 3
On a seventh-grade statewide math assessment intended to measure mathematical reasoning, which support for an Expanding Spanish-speaking student is LEAST likely to change the construct being measured?
- A.A Spanish glossary for selected non-math words in the items
- B.A calculator on items designed to assess computational fluency
- C.A teacher who rephrases items to hint at the operation needed
- D.A scribe who corrects the student’s math steps while recording
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. A Spanish glossary for selected non-math words in the items
A translated glossary for construct-irrelevant vocabulary reduces language barriers without doing the mathematics for the student, so the test still measures mathematical reasoning. Calculators on computation items, hinting at the operation, and correcting the student’s steps all change or supply the very skills the items are designed to measure.
Question 9 · Domain 5
A grade 1 teacher following Krashen and Terrell’s Natural Approach has a newcomer who, after three weeks, responds only by pointing and nodding. Which teacher response is most consistent with this approach?
- A.Keep providing comprehensible input and accept nonverbal responses without pressuring speech
- B.Require the student to repeat model sentences aloud each day to build oral accuracy and fluency
- C.Correct each nonverbal response and supply the full target sentence for the student
- D.Refer the student for a speech evaluation, since weeks of silence signal a delay
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Keep providing comprehensible input and accept nonverbal responses without pressuring speech
The Natural Approach holds that comprehension precedes production and that learners in the preproduction stage should be allowed to respond nonverbally while receiving rich comprehensible input; speech emerges when the learner is ready. Required repetition drills reflect audiolingual practice. A silent period is normal for newcomers and is not by itself evidence of a disability, and correcting nonverbal responses raises the affective filter.
Question 10 · Domain 6
The parents of Amir, a newly arrived eighth grader from Iran, tell his teacher, “Here our son can study anything. School is hard and some kids tease him, but it is still far better than what we had.” In John Ogbu’s framework, this statement best illustrates which concept?
- A.An oppositional cultural frame typical of involuntary minorities
- B.A dual frame of reference typical of voluntary minorities
- C.A folk theory of limited opportunity typical of involuntary minorities
- D.A pattern of cultural inversion typical of involuntary minorities
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. A dual frame of reference typical of voluntary minorities
Ogbu described voluntary (immigrant) minorities as using a dual frame of reference, comparing their current situation favorably with conditions in the homeland, which helps them tolerate hardships and pursue school success. Oppositional cultural frames, folk theories of limited opportunity, and cultural inversion are concepts Ogbu associated with involuntary minorities.

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