The In-service Methodology and Background Theory Diagnostic Test

Multiple-choice test
Make a note of your score at the end!

Choose the best answer.
ELT Concourse home page

  1. An acculturation model refers to:
    1.   how learners see their own culture.
    2.   the fact that learners who need to or can integrate with the target culture learn better.
    3.   how much a learner knows about the culture of the target language.
    4.   how learners can bring their own culture to the classroom.
  2. The term affordance refers to:
    1.   what the learner perceives as useful in an item.
    2.   how much a learner is involved.
    3.   what a learner can already do.
    4.   how much a learner is willing to invest in training.
  3. An agglutinating language will have:
    1.   endings on words only showing case and tense.
    2.   very few inflexions.
    3.   a low morpheme to word ratio.
    4.   a high morpheme to word ratio.
  4. An analytic or isolating language will have:
    1.   a low morpheme to word ratio.
    2.   lots of compound verbs.
    3.   many tense endings.
    4.   a high morpheme to word ratio.
  5. An approximative system is related to the concept of:
    1.   overgeneralisation.
    2.   interlanguage.
    3.   adjacency.
    4.   appropriacy.
  6. Avoidance is a kind of:
    1.   facilitation tactic.
    2.   testing strategy.
    3.   question evasion strategy.
    4.   coping strategy.
  7. A barrier test is designed to:
    1.   filter learners for admission to particular courses.
    2.   check a learner's aptitude for learning.
    3.   diagnose a learner's level.
    4.   discover learners' strengths and weaknesses.
  8. CLIL stands for:
    1.   Communicative Language in Cooperation.
    2.   Content and Language Integrated Learning.
    3.   Communication Level in Learning.
    4.   Class and Intelligence Interest.
  9. A cognate word is one which:
    1.   is always a false friend.
    2.   is misleadingly similar in a learner's first language.
    3.   forms a couplet.
    4.   is similarly derived and related in meaning in the learner's first language.
  10. Competence refers to:
    1.   the speaker's internalised knowledge of the language.
    2.   what a person can say in a language.
    3.   linguistic ability.
    4.   communicative ability.
  11. Construct validity describes:
    1.   whether a test really targets what the designer says it targets.
    2.   a test-setter's ability to identify what is being tested.
    3.   whether and how far a test will produce similar results to similar tests.
    4.   how the test is perceived by the test taker.
  12. Criterion referenced testing means:
    1.   measuring ability against a set of criteria.
    2.   grading learners in comparison to each other.
    3.   marking a test objectively.
    4.   setting a test that requires adherence to a set of criteria.
  13. The critical period hypothesis claims that:
    1.   children learn faster than adults.
    2.   language is acquired not learned.
    3.   language items must be introduced only when the learner is ready to process them.
    4.   language cannot be fully acquired after a certain age.
  14. A distractor is:
    1.   a wrong answer in a multiple-choice test.
    2.   an impediment to comprehension of a reading or listening text.
    3.   an impediment to noticing language items.
    4.   a poorly written test rubric.
  15. Encyclopaedic knowledge refers to:
    1.   what a person knows about the world in general.
    2.   what a learner is expected to know about the language.
    3.   what people know about each other.
    4.   what a teacher needs to know.
  16. Facilitation refers to:
    1.   operating in the Zone of Proximal Development.
    2.   the ways in which speakers can make their messages easier to understand.
    3.   making things simpler in tests.
    4.   scaffolding learners' efforts.
  17. Guided discovery is closely related to:
    1.   inductive learning.
    2.   deductive learning.
    3.   structural linguistics.
    4.   task-based learning and teaching.
  18. Shielding devices:
    1.   protect learners from feelings of insecurity.
    2.   are a way of rebutting criticisms.
    3.   disguise the writer's intentions.
    4.   protect the writer from accusations of too much certainty.
  19. Innateness theory claims that:
    1.   learning ability is genetically determined.
    2.   all languages are innate.
    3.   people learn by imitation.
    4.   the ability to learn a language is genetically determined.
  20. Interference refers to:
    1.   the effect of poorly timed error correction.
    2.   the effect of unknown vocabulary items blocking comprehension.
    3.   the effect of background noise or indistinctness in terms of listening comprehension.
    4.   the negative effect of a learner's first language(s) on the learning of a target language.
  21. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis refers to:
    1.   the claim that people's first languages determine the nature of their thoughts.
    2.   the claim that language is best learned through interactions with native speakers.
    3.   the claim that all languages have the same basic structural building blocks.
    4.   the assumption that language acquisition requires a cognitive commitment.
  22. The term lexicon refers to:
    1.   dictionary entries.
    2.   the possible words which can be constructed from the language's morphemes.
    3.   the way in which words are stored and retrieved from memory.
    4.   a learner’s total knowledge of words in a language.
  23. Metalanguage is:
    1.   a learner's use of invented or first-language words to help production.
    2.   asking for clarification and repetition.
    3.   the language we use to talk about language.
    4.   circumlocution.
  24. Mode of discourse refers to:
    1.   the topic area in which language is produced.
    2.   the nature of the verbal processes which are involved in a text.
    3.   the relationship between hearer and speaker and / or reader and writer.
    4.   the medium of communication which is used.
  25. Monitor listening is the equivalent in listening of:
    1.   extensive reading.
    2.   intensive reading.
    3.   skimming.
    4.   scanning.
  26. The natural approach is:
    1.   an approach similar to Dogme which focuses on emergent language.
    2.   a teaching approach based on a theory of how people acquire their first language(s).
    3.   a communicative approach focused on natural conversation.
    4.   another term for direct method.
  27. Noticing the gap consists of:
    1.   making yourself aware of language form and function.
    2.   testing learners through a Cloze test procedure.
    3.   being alert to how things are pronounced.
    4.   comparing what you see and hear with what you produce.
  28. A notional syllabus focuses on:
    1.   strategic communicative competence.
    2.   adjacency pairs.
    3.   language used to express fundamental concepts.
    4.   cognitive theories of learning.
  29. Overgeneralisation is also referred to as:
    1.   ignorance of rule restriction.
    2.   failing to hedge appropriately.
    3.   assuming an item will be irregular.
    4.   U-shaped learning.
  30. Problematising is also referred to as:
    1.   noticing.
    2.   task-based learning and teaching.
    3.   making tests at the right level.
    4.   the garden path approach.
  31. A procedural syllabus focuses on:
    1.   situations in which language may be used.
    2.   presentation before production.
    3.   writing skills.
    4.   tasks to be accomplished.
  32. Register refers to:
    1.   the level of formality.
    2.   the field of interest in which language occurs.
    3.   the relationship between speaker and listener.
    4.   the roles of the participants in communication.
  33. Reliability is:
    1.   a measure of how well a test focuses on the aims of a teaching programme.
    2.   a measure of how easy a test is to mark.
    3.   a measure of how practical a test is to administer.
    4.   a measure of how trustworthy a test is.
  34. Schemata are:
    1.   skeleton completion tests.
    2.   conversational frames.
    3.   mental frameworks in which information is ordered and classified.
    4.   various types of encyclopaedic knowledge.
  35. Bloom's taxonomy concerns:
    1.   learning styles.
    2.   multiple intelligence theory.
    3.   educational objectives.
    4.   cognitive modes.
  36. In genre theory, tenor of discourse is determined by:
    1.   the use of intonation and stress.
    2.   the relationship between the speaker / writer and the hearer / reader.
    3.   the intentions of the participants in an interaction rather than transaction.
    4.   the mode of communication.
  37. A topic sentence:
    1.   is one in which the object is raised to the subject position.
    2.   sets out the rheme of the paragraph.
    3.   refers anaphorically to the paragraph's contents.
    4.   sets out the theme of the paragraph.
  38. ZPD stands for:
    1.   Zero Potential Digression.
    2.   Zoned Pedagogical Determiners.
    3.   Zone of Proximal Development.
    4.   Zigzag Personal Development.
  39. A test which asks learners to select either True or False is:
    1.   ... a discrete item test.
    2.   ... a multiple choice test.
    3.   ... an alternative answer test.
    4.   ... a subjective item test.
  40. Audio-lingualism draws on:
    1.   notional analysis of language and behaviourist theories of learning.
    2.   structural linguistic analysis of language and behaviourist theories of learning.
    3.   functional analysis of language and behaviourist theories of learning.
    4.   structuralist analysis of language and cognitivist theories of learning.
  41. Authenticity is of two types which are:
    1.   absolute and relative authenticity.
    2.   true and quasi-authenticity.
    3.   quasi- and semi-authenticity.
    4.   text and purpose authenticity.
  42. The effect that the construction and content of a test or examination has on the content and activities of a teaching programme is known as:
    1.   reductive teaching.
    2.   backchaining.
    3.   backwash.
    4.   backchannelling.
  43. Community Language Learning is based on:
    1.   structural linguistics.
    2.   theories of counselling.
    3.   communicative motivation.
    4.   transactional theory.
  44. CALL stands for:
    1.   Competence Acquisition Language Learning.
    2.   Cognitively Advanced Language Learning.
    3.   Computer Assisted Language Learning.
    4.   Communicatively Adjusted Language Lessons.
  45. Contrastive analysis involves:
    1.   the differences between groups of learners.
    2.   the difference between two closely related lexemes.
    3.   the differences between two language structures.
    4.   similarities and differences between languages.
  46. Conversational analysis is:
    1.   a branch of functional linguistics.
    2.   another term for discourse analysis.
    3.   an approach to the study of social interaction concerned with verbal and non-verbal behaviours.
    4.   the analysis of turn-taking skills.
  47. A descriptive grammar may be contrasted most accurately with:
    1.   a prescriptive grammar.
    2.   a pedagogic grammar.
    3.   a structural grammar.
    4.   a functional grammar.
  48. EOP stands for:
    1.   English Otherwise Produced.
    2.   English to Other People.
    3.   English for Occupational Purposes.
    4.   English for Other Purposes.
  49. Instrumental motivation refers to:
    1.   learning a language to access literature and culture.
    2.   learning a language to fit in with the target culture.
    3.   learning a language for pleasure.
    4.   learning a language to achieve other aims.
  50. This is the last question. Make a note of your score now.
    Expectancy theory involves:
    1.   the enjoyability of the process, the learner's expectation of being able to learn the targets and the likelihood of success.
    2.   the value of the outcome, the learner's expectation of being able to learn the targets and the likelihood of success.
    3.   the ways in which the language can be used in expected situations.
    4.   the instrumentality of the outcomes of learning.