Subarea I · Language, Linguistics, and Comparisons (Questions 1–15) In earlier centuries the English word "nice" meant "foolish" or "ignorant," and the word "meat" referred to food of any kind. An ESL teacher shares these examples with advanced English learners. Which concept do the examples BEST illustrate?

Semantic change, in which word meanings shift over time

Grammaticalization, in which content words become function words

Dialect leveling, in which regional differences in words disappear

Borrowing, in which words enter English from other languages

Several English learners from cultures that emphasize group harmony disengage during the teacher's competitive individual review games. Which adjustment BEST supports these students while keeping academic expectations high?

Use structured cooperative tasks with shared goals and individual accountability

Excuse these students from review games and assign them independent worksheets

Keep the competitive games so that students adjust to classroom norms in the U.S.

Offer prizes to raise their motivation to win during the individual competitions

A teacher's lesson consists of students listening to a model dialogue, repeating it chorally, completing substitution drills in which one word changes each time, and receiving immediate correction to prevent errors from forming habits. Which method does this lesson most closely reflect?

Communicative language teaching

Writing sample (grade 6, personal narrative): "My family come to Michigan last year we live with my uncle he work in factory. I like my school my teacher is nice she help me." Based on the writing sample, which instructional priority is MOST appropriate for this English learner?

Mini-lessons on sentence boundaries, using the student's own run-on sentences to show where each idea ends

Vocabulary lessons that replace simple words such as "live" and "work" with more precise and advanced alternatives

Lessons on indenting paragraphs and capitalizing titles so that the writing follows standard formatting

Lessons on persuasive essay structure, including how to state a claim and respond to a counterclaim

A multidisciplinary team is evaluating a grade 4 English learner for a possible learning disability. Which practice BEST reduces the risk of misidentification?

Assessing in both languages where possible and interpreting results in light of the student's proficiency and schooling history

Translating the English test items word for word into the home language at the time of testing and scoring them as normed

Relying on the student's ACCESS for ELLs scores as the main evidence that a disability is or is not present

Using only nonverbal intelligence tests, since these remove all cultural and linguistic bias from the evaluation results

Subarea I · Language, Linguistics, and Comparisons (Questions 101–115) Which statement describes a feature that linguists consider universal across human languages?

Every language has a way to form questions and to express negation

Every language uses subject-verb-object order in basic statements

Every language marks the difference between singular and plural nouns

Every language shows past tense with an ending added to the verb

The parents of an English learner rarely attend conferences and say they trust the teacher to make all decisions about their child's schooling. Which interpretation is MOST appropriate?

In some cultures, families show respect by leaving school matters to teachers

The parents are avoiding the school because they do not trust the teachers there

The parents are not interested in their child's education and progress

The parents do not understand English well enough to take part at all

A high school ESL elective relies mainly on translating literary passages into the home language and memorizing grammar rules and vocabulary lists. Which limitation of this approach is MOST significant for English learners?

It gives learners little practice using English for oral communication and academic interaction

It requires so much cooperative group work that individual accountability for learning is lost

It depends too heavily on authentic input from native speakers in real, unscripted communicative situations

It overemphasizes spontaneous oral fluency at the expense of accuracy in written grammar

Writing sample (grade 4): "Yesterday my brother and me goes to the store and buyed three apple." Which analysis of this English learner's sentence is MOST accurate?

The student signals past time and attempts a past form, but needs work on irregular verbs, consistent tense, and plural nouns

The sentence shows that the student needs to learn basic word order, since the subject and verb are in the wrong positions

The student has not yet acquired any past-tense forms and should begin by learning the meaning of time words like "yesterday"

The errors come entirely from first-language transfer, so instruction should focus on contrasting the two languages' grammatical systems

A teacher-made math test includes the item: "If it wasn't for the fact that Maria had been given a piece of cake by her aunt, she would not have had the 3 pieces she ended up eating. How many did she have before?" What change would MOST improve fairness for English learners?

Rewriting it in plain language with simple sentences and no idioms while keeping the same mathematics

Giving English learners extra time on this item only and keeping the original wording for the class

Replacing the item with a computation problem so that the item contains no words at all for students

Reading this item aloud to English learners twice while letting them answer in their home language

MTTC English as a Second (126)

Free MTTC English as a 126 Practice Questions

10 sample questions for the MTTC English as a Second (126), 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: Language, Linguistics, and Comparisons, Culture, Second Language Acquisition and Instructional Practices, Application of Standards-Based Curriculum and Instruction, Assessment, Professionalism.

Question 1 · Language, Linguistics, and Comparisons
Subarea I · Language, Linguistics, and Comparisons (Questions 1–15)
In earlier centuries the English word "nice" meant "foolish" or "ignorant," and the word "meat" referred to food of any kind. An ESL teacher shares these examples with advanced English learners. Which concept do the examples BEST illustrate?
- A.Grammaticalization, in which content words become function words
- B.Semantic change, in which word meanings shift over time
- C.Dialect leveling, in which regional differences in words disappear
- D.Borrowing, in which words enter English from other languages
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Semantic change, in which word meanings shift over time
Both words kept their form but changed meaning, which is semantic change, one of the ordinary ways all living languages change over time. Borrowing is a tempting choice because English has borrowed heavily, but nice and meat are not new words entering English; only their meanings moved.
Question 2 · Culture
Several English learners from cultures that emphasize group harmony disengage during the teacher's competitive individual review games. Which adjustment BEST supports these students while keeping academic expectations high?
- A.Excuse these students from review games and assign them independent worksheets
- B.Keep the competitive games so that students adjust to classroom norms in the U.S.
- C.Use structured cooperative tasks with shared goals and individual accountability
- D.Offer prizes to raise their motivation to win during the individual competitions
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. Use structured cooperative tasks with shared goals and individual accountability
Cooperative learning with positive interdependence aligns with collectivist values, and individual accountability keeps rigor high for every student. Keeping competition so that students adjust is the assimilationist response, and excusing them lowers their access to the review entirely.
Question 3 · Second Language Acquisition and Instructional Practices
A teacher's lesson consists of students listening to a model dialogue, repeating it chorally, completing substitution drills in which one word changes each time, and receiving immediate correction to prevent errors from forming habits. Which method does this lesson most closely reflect?
- A.The grammar-translation method
- B.Communicative language teaching
- C.The audiolingual method
- D.Total Physical Response
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. The audiolingual method
Dialogue memorization, pattern and substitution drills, and immediate correction to prevent bad habits are hallmarks of the audiolingual method, rooted in behaviorism. Grammar-translation centers on rule explanation and translating written texts, and communicative language teaching tolerates errors in favor of meaningful exchange. Total Physical Response pairs commands with physical actions.
Question 4 · Second Language Acquisition and Instructional Practices
Writing sample (grade 6, personal narrative): "My family come to Michigan last year we live with my uncle he work in factory. I like my school my teacher is nice she help me."
Based on the writing sample, which instructional priority is MOST appropriate for this English learner?
- A.Vocabulary lessons that replace simple words such as "live" and "work" with more precise and advanced alternatives
- B.Lessons on indenting paragraphs and capitalizing titles so that the writing follows standard formatting
- C.Lessons on persuasive essay structure, including how to state a claim and respond to a counterclaim
- D.Mini-lessons on sentence boundaries, using the student's own run-on sentences to show where each idea ends
Show answer and explanation
Answer: D. Mini-lessons on sentence boundaries, using the student's own run-on sentences to show where each idea ends
The sample's biggest barrier to meaning is that several independent clauses run together without punctuation, so teaching sentence boundaries with the student's own writing addresses the most pervasive pattern. Advanced vocabulary is a common but misplaced focus, since the simple words are used correctly. Formatting and persuasive structure do not address the errors shown.
Question 5 · Assessment
A multidisciplinary team is evaluating a grade 4 English learner for a possible learning disability. Which practice BEST reduces the risk of misidentification?
- A.Assessing in both languages where possible and interpreting results in light of the student's proficiency and schooling history
- B.Translating the English test items word for word into the home language at the time of testing and scoring them as normed
- C.Relying on the student's ACCESS for ELLs scores as the main evidence that a disability is or is not present
- D.Using only nonverbal intelligence tests, since these remove all cultural and linguistic bias from the evaluation results
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Assessing in both languages where possible and interpreting results in light of the student's proficiency and schooling history
A sound evaluation of an EL gathers evidence in both languages where possible and interprets every result against the student's English proficiency, home-language development and schooling history. Nonverbal tests reduce but do not remove bias, word-for-word translation breaks the test's norms and validity, and ACCESS for ELLs measures English proficiency, not disability.
Question 6 · Language, Linguistics, and Comparisons
Subarea I · Language, Linguistics, and Comparisons (Questions 101–115)
Which statement describes a feature that linguists consider universal across human languages?
- A.Every language uses subject-verb-object order in basic statements
- B.Every language has a way to form questions and to express negation
- C.Every language marks the difference between singular and plural nouns
- D.Every language shows past tense with an ending added to the verb
Show answer and explanation
Answer: B. Every language has a way to form questions and to express negation
All known languages can ask questions and negate statements, which makes these functions language universals. The other options describe features of English that many languages lack: Mandarin does not obligatorily mark plural or tense with inflections, and Japanese and Korean use subject-object-verb order.
Question 7 · Culture
The parents of an English learner rarely attend conferences and say they trust the teacher to make all decisions about their child's schooling. Which interpretation is MOST appropriate?
- A.The parents are avoiding the school because they do not trust the teachers there
- B.The parents are not interested in their child's education and progress
- C.In some cultures, families show respect by leaving school matters to teachers
- D.The parents do not understand English well enough to take part at all
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. In some cultures, families show respect by leaving school matters to teachers
In many cultures, schooling is regarded as the teacher's domain and deferring to the teacher shows respect, so low conference attendance can reflect different expectations of family roles rather than lack of care. The teacher can then explain how U.S. schools invite family partnership and offer flexible, interpreted options.
Question 8 · Second Language Acquisition and Instructional Practices
A high school ESL elective relies mainly on translating literary passages into the home language and memorizing grammar rules and vocabulary lists. Which limitation of this approach is MOST significant for English learners?
- A.It gives learners little practice using English for oral communication and academic interaction
- B.It requires so much cooperative group work that individual accountability for learning is lost
- C.It depends too heavily on authentic input from native speakers in real, unscripted communicative situations
- D.It overemphasizes spontaneous oral fluency at the expense of accuracy in written grammar
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. It gives learners little practice using English for oral communication and academic interaction
The grammar-translation method focuses on rules, vocabulary lists, and translation of written texts, so learners get almost no practice speaking or listening for communication. The distractors describe features of communicative or cooperative approaches, which is the opposite of what grammar-translation does. That mix-up is the common mistake.
Question 9 · Second Language Acquisition and Instructional Practices
Writing sample (grade 4): "Yesterday my brother and me goes to the store and buyed three apple."
Which analysis of this English learner's sentence is MOST accurate?
- A.The sentence shows that the student needs to learn basic word order, since the subject and verb are in the wrong positions
- B.The student has not yet acquired any past-tense forms and should begin by learning the meaning of time words like "yesterday"
- C.The student signals past time and attempts a past form, but needs work on irregular verbs, consistent tense, and plural nouns
- D.The errors come entirely from first-language transfer, so instruction should focus on contrasting the two languages' grammatical systems
Show answer and explanation
Answer: C. The student signals past time and attempts a past form, but needs work on irregular verbs, consistent tense, and plural nouns
The student marks past time with "yesterday" and overgeneralizes the regular -ed ending ("buyed"), showing an emerging past-tense system; remaining needs include irregular forms, keeping "goes" in the past, and plural -s on "apple." Saying the student has no past-tense forms ignores the evidence in "buyed." Word order is correct, and overgeneralization is developmental rather than only L1 transfer.
Question 10 · Assessment
A teacher-made math test includes the item: "If it wasn't for the fact that Maria had been given a piece of cake by her aunt, she would not have had the 3 pieces she ended up eating. How many did she have before?" What change would MOST improve fairness for English learners?
- A.Rewriting it in plain language with simple sentences and no idioms while keeping the same mathematics
- B.Giving English learners extra time on this item only and keeping the original wording for the class
- C.Replacing the item with a computation problem so that the item contains no words at all for students
- D.Reading this item aloud to English learners twice while letting them answer in their home language
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A. Rewriting it in plain language with simple sentences and no idioms while keeping the same mathematics
The item's complex conditional and idiom add language demands unrelated to the mathematics, so rewriting it in plain language with simple sentences and no idioms while keeping the same mathematics reduces linguistic bias without changing the construct. Replacing it with bare computation removes the problem-solving skill being tested, and extra time does not remove the confusing language.

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