Print (will print without answers) To print with the answers, first select Expand All, then print The sample test questions in this study guide are designed to give you an introduction to the nature of the questions included in the Washington Educator Skills Tests—Endorsements (WEST–E). They represent the various types of questions you may expect to see on an actual test in this test field; however, they are not designed to predict your performance on the test as a whole. Work through the sample questions carefully before referring to the answers. The correct response and test objective being assessed are provided for each question. When you are finished with the sample questions, you may wish to review the test objectives and descriptive statements provided in the test framework for this test field. In addition to reading and answering the sample questions, you should also utilize the following preparation materials available in this study guide:
Practice QuestionsExpand All | Collapse All Language and Literacy DevelopmentObjective 0001: Demonstrate knowledge of major concepts, theories, and research in first- and second-language acquisition.1. A second-grade bilingual education teacher modifies his spoken language in class by speaking clearly and slowly, avoiding confusing idioms, repeating important concepts, and summarizing content frequently. The teacher most likely makes these modifications to provide students with:
2. During class discussion, an elementary school English Language Learner utters the sentence, "I drinked orange juice for breakfast." In this context, the sentence most likely exemplifies which of the following language acquisition processes?
3. A middle school bilingual education teacher plans a lesson on conversational repair strategies. The lesson will focus on vocabulary and sentence structures intended to enhance mutual understanding during discussions. The lesson is designed to primarily promote which of the following aspects of the students' communication skills?
Objective 0002: Demonstrate knowledge of variables that affect the process of language learning.4. Which of the following statements best describes why a speaker may have an accent when speaking in a second language?
5. In a bilingual education classroom that focuses on the development of biliteracy, which of the following strategies would best help students transfer literacy skills from the first language into the target language?
6. A four-year-old child and a thirteen-year-old child are newly arrived in the United States. Given the difference in age, the two children face the challenge of learning a new language with different sets of advantages and disadvantages. Which of the following statements most accurately describes the primary advantage that will differentiate the older child's language learning from that of the younger child?
Objective 0003: Demonstrate knowledge of applied linguistics in the development of biliteracy.7. A bilingual education teacher wants to help students who are having difficulty understanding idiomatic expressions in the target language. The teacher can best help the students understand these expressions by explaining that idiomatic expressions:
8. Prior to reading aloud in the classroom, a kindergarten bilingual education teacher always explicitly shows students how to hold the book, how to look at its cover, where to start reading, and in what direction to begin. The teacher's practice most effectively promotes students' academic progress by:
9. A bilingual education teacher shows students a short video in which actors use the target language to convey interpersonal expressions, such as requesting, apologizing, advising, and greeting, in a variety of social and conversational contexts. The teacher would most effectively use the video to provide instruction related to which of the following pragmatic features of language?
Development and Assessment of BiliteracyObjective 0004: Demonstrate knowledge of how to apply research-based best practices in first- and second-language instruction to plan, implement, adapt, and modify standards-based curricula and instruction for bilingual education students.10. An elementary school bilingual education class contains students who are at varying levels of proficiency in both languages of instruction. Which of the following instructional strategies would best allow the teacher to promote the literacy development of all students?
11. Which of the following best explains the purpose of the Washington State English Language Development (ELD) Standards?
12. Which of the following statements most accurately describes the rationale for adopting Developmental Bilingual Education (DBE) as a model for a bilingual education program in an elementary school setting?
Objective 0005: Apply knowledge of differentiated instruction to provide bilingual education students with Washington State English Language Development (ELD) Standards–based listening and speaking instruction in English and the second language.13. Use the information below to answer the question that follows. A middle school bilingual education teacher creates the rubric below in both languages to help students prepare for a formal class presentation. The teacher breaks the students into groups of three or four and has students practice their presentations in these small groups. Each student takes a turn presenting to the group and then all the students, including the presenter, check the boxes on the rubric about the performance.
Which of the following activities should the students do next to further improve their oral communication skills?
14. A social studies bilingual education teacher is teaching a seventh-grade class a unit on the United States Supreme Court. As part of the unit, the teacher gives students an assignment to summarize an important court case in the target language. During the revision stage of the students’ essay writing, the teacher engages students in peer review sessions by dividing the class into small groups and having students read aloud their essays and comment on the coherence, clarity, and persuasiveness of each other's writing. This small group activity most effectively promotes students' learning by:
15. A high school bilingual education teacher has students watch video clips recorded in the target language of diverse materials, such as daily news, weather forecasts, advertisements, and songs. The students then answer literal and inferential questions about the recorded materials. This practice would most effectively promote students' learning by enhancing their:
Objective 0006: Apply knowledge of differentiated instruction to provide bilingual education students with Washington State English Language Development (ELD) Standards–based reading and writing instruction in English and the second language.16. A bilingual education teacher is beginning English-language reading instruction with a group of intermediate-level eighth-grade students. According to the Washington State English Language Development (ELD) Standards, the teacher can most likely expect students who are at this grade and language proficiency level to be able to:
17. Which of the following instructional activities is the best example of scaffolding in which first-language skills are used to foster target-language development?
18. A high school bilingual education teacher regularly introduces a new reading assignment of an informational or literary text by leading a classroom discussion that is intended to help students articulate background knowledge, personal experiences, and attitudes that are directly related to the content of the assigned text. The teacher then asks students to summarize in writing the main lessons they draw from the discussion. These prereading activities would most effectively improve students' reading proficiency by:
Objective 0007: Apply knowledge of how to support the development of bilingual education students' content-area knowledge and cognitive academic language proficiency (CALP) in English and the second language of instruction.19. A high school teacher is introducing a new content-area topic to a group of students who are at the intermediate level of language proficiency in the target language. Which of the following activities would best help students build on their first-language background skills and knowledge when working on the content-area topic in the target language?
20. An elementary school bilingual education teacher provides sheltered content instruction on Earth's water cycle to a group of bilingual education students. During instruction, the teacher encourages students to share personal knowledge that is directly related to various aspects of the water cycle, and to illustrate the information they share with photos they find online. The teacher's instruction most effectively achieves which of the following objectives?
21. A second-grade bilingual education teacher is planning a social studies lesson that includes reading aloud a section from a textbook in the target language by taking the following steps:
These steps best exemplify which of the following critical factors involved in planning content-area instruction?
Objective 0008: Demonstrate knowledge of principles and issues of assessment as they relate to the education of bilingual education students in English and the second language of instruction.22. Parent notification of student qualification for language support services in Washington State must include:
23. In contrast to a criterion-referenced language test, a norm-referenced language test would be most appropriate for a bilingual education teacher to use for which of the following purposes?
Objective 0009: Demonstrate knowledge of methods of assessment as they relate to the education of bilingual education students in English and the second language of instruction.24. During content-area instruction in the target language, a bilingual education teacher has students demonstrate achievement in a variety of ways, including oral presentations, written assignments, informal class discussions, and the creation of multimedia materials such as videos. Which of the following goals does the teacher achieve by having students demonstrate achievement in this way?
25. A bilingual education teacher wants to assess students' progress in learning the target language by informally observing their use of vocabulary, grammar, and social language skills during academic work in the classroom. Which of the following strategies would most effectively enable the teacher to achieve this goal?
Cultural Foundations of Bilingual EducationObjective 0010: Apply knowledge of major concepts, theories, and research related to the nature of culture.26. Use the information below to answer the question that follows. A bilingual education teacher asks students to take advertisements from newspapers and magazines written in their first language and work in groups to translate the advertisements into the target language. The students then translate target-language advertisements into the first language. As a class, they look at the new advertisements together and evaluate whether or not the advertisements are still effective. This activity will most likely foster students':
27. In the context of contemporary social life in the United States, which of the following demographic characteristics of a community best demonstrates that its members endorse the value of cultural pluralism?
28. A middle school bilingual education teacher has students create a family-tree diagram as a visual representation of their respective extended families. Students use the target language to write brief biographical notes on individual family members represented in the diagram. This activity most effectively enables the teacher to teach students which of the following aspects of culture?
Objective 0011: Apply knowledge of diverse cultural groups and how cultural identity affects the teaching and learning of bilingual education students.29. A bilingual education teacher is keeping a personal journal in which he reflects on his reactions to the different interactions he has with students from various cultures in the classroom. This activity would best help a teacher become aware of:
30. A bilingual education teacher notices that several students in the class are having difficulty completing assignments that require extensive independent work in class. In determining how best to support these students, the teacher should first consider whether the students:
31. A bilingual education teacher works with a group of students from multiple cultural communities. The teacher regularly organizes group work by dividing students into culturally diverse groupings and having students in each group discuss and solve open-ended, content-based problems. The teacher's approach to group work effectively contributes to a learning environment that is responsive to students' cultural identities primarily by:
Objective 0012: Demonstrate knowledge of culturally inclusive instruction and how to incorporate cultural and linguistic diversity into instruction to support the teaching and learning of bilingual education students.32. In a culturally diverse school, a teacher is trying to plan an activity that would help students evaluate their personal attitudes, experiences, and behavior concerning their own cultural heritage and that of all other students in the school. Which of the following activities would best achieve this goal?
33. At the beginning of the school year, a bilingual education teacher meets with students' parents/guardians to learn about their cultural backgrounds and home cultures. The teacher then searches Internet sources for more systematic knowledge to augment the information provided by parents/guardians. The teacher uses these sources of information to create lesson plans that provide students with opportunities for sharing their distinctive home cultures and cultural experiences during relevant content lessons. The teacher's actions most effectively achieve which of the following instructional objectives?
Professional LeadershipObjective 0013: Demonstrate knowledge of the historical, legal, and research foundations of education for bilingual education students in Washington State and in the United States.34. Use the information below to answer the question that follows. Bilingual education programs must be anchored in the following criteria: Which of the following court decisions is reflected in the above criteria?
35. The philosophical and theoretical foundations of programs in bilingual education in the United States are primarily based on espousing which of the following values?
Objective 0014: Demonstrate knowledge of how to serve as an effective resource and advocate for bilingual education students and their families.36. A bilingual education teacher wants to encourage students and their families to read books and watch films in the family's home language on a regular basis and to familiarize themselves with print and film resources available in the community. The teacher could best achieve this goal by:
37. Which of the following strategies would best promote a classroom environment that supports cultural understanding?
38. A bilingual education teacher sets up volunteer training sessions for parents/guardians of English Language Learners who expressed interest in volunteering but are unsure what services would be most helpful to the teacher and students. The teacher also meets with parents/guardians who volunteer to serve on school committees to discuss their role as committee members. The teacher's actions most effectively achieve which of the following goals?
Objective 0015: Demonstrate knowledge of the role of the bilingual education teacher as a professional resource in the learning community and how to collaborate with other educational staff to support bilingual education students' language learning and school achievement.39. A bilingual education teacher is leading a workshop designed to foster a deeper understanding of bilingual education students among all faculty and staff. Which of the following activities would best help the bilingual education teacher achieve this goal?
40. During a middle school professional training conference, a bilingual education teacher will be working with a group of content-area teachers on developing English Language Learners' vocabulary knowledge to enhance content learning. In this context, which of the following strategies would be most appropriate for the bilingual education teacher to adopt?
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