CTEL Prep Workshop

©2010Todd A. Morano, Ed.D.

Use only with permission

The CTEL Exam

• 3 separate subtests & 3 hours: 1. Language & Language Development2. Assessment & Instruction3. Culture & Inclusion• Criterion-referenced• Multiple choice & constructed response1: 50 MC + 1CR2: 60 MC + 2 CR3: 40 MC + 1 CR

CTEL 1: Language & Language Development

2 Domains:• Language Structure & Use

Linguistic structure of language

• L1 & L2 Development & Their Relationship to Academic Achievement

Theories & stages of language acquisitionFactors that influence language development

CTEL 1-Domain 1: Language Structure & Use

First off…All Languages have 5 things in common

Any Guesses??

Hint #1: Without this we couldn’t hear or speak a language…

Good! The #1 common thing is PHONOLOGY (phonemes are the sounds)

Phonology

1. Individual & necessary sounds: How many phonemes in English? What is an

“unnecessary” sound for English, but still used?Can you think of 1 Spanish sound not found in

English? What are the conditions (rules) for English

sounds? Do you know what a “plosive” is…how about a “fricative”?

PhonemesThe individual/meaningful soundsEnglish has 43-45 (depending on where you’re from) – 24

consonant sounds & 21 vowel sounds

What’s the difference between a pronunciation error and an accent?

How many phonemes in:CatSchoolTelephonePhoneme

When a student can’t distinguish a sound, what works?

Minimal pair activities (pat/pot)

Rhyming activities (pin/bin)

Rhymes in context (songs, poems, etc.)

More on Phonology…

2. Other phonological factors:Pitch: Intonation & Stress

How can we tell a question?, an exclamation?, sadness or excitement?

Stress: at the syllable or word level

So, an EL must be able to articulate phonemes AND properly control pitch (intonation & stress)

Moving on…what’s next on the list of 5?

Hint #2: When you hook a bunch of sounds together you get ____.

Right! Words. We call those Morphemes, so MORPHOLOGY is

common thing #2

Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in a language...ask me about “free” & “bound” morphemes

I’m glad you asked…

Free Morphemes:Stand alone & carry meaningWe call them words…cat, chair, over, the…and so

onContent words have a “solid” meaningGrammatical words are necessary, but no

independent meaning (the word what takes 15,000 words & 5 pages to define in the Oxford Dictionary)

Bound morphemes…

Change or adapt the meaning of a free morphemeCannot stand aloneCatsUnclearUnnecessarilyBrighterJumped

How many morphemes in: thoughtfully, helplessly, geese, undeservedly

Ok, what’s the next thing all languages have in common?

Hint #3: Clumping a bunch of words together gives you a _____.

Cool! Common thing #3 is sentences and the rules that govern them…called SYNTAX

Syntax is more than just the sum total of words in a sentence, though.

What does this mean?

Head principal teacher class the of to the his the brought.

How about now?The teacher brought his principal to the head of the

class.What happens here?The class brought to the teacher the head of his

principal.

From Alice in Wonderland…

“Say what you mean,” the March Hare went on.“I do,” Alice hastily replied; “at least I mean what I

say – that’s the same thing, you know.”“Not the same thing a bit,” said the Hatter, “Why,

you might just as well say that ‘I see what I eat’ is the same thing as ‘I eat what I see’”

…“Or that,” added the Dormouse, “‘I breathe when I sleep’ means the same as ‘I sleep when I breathe’!”

Now try this…

Draw the following sentence:

The boy saw the man with a telescope.

Which did you draw?

WHY?

It’s all about…

SEMANTICS (the #4 common thing).Semantics gives meaning to our

sentences. It is also what adds to the confusion in

English…what if the boy saw a whale?

Semantics & Syntax also give us wordplay in English – double meanings, etc.

Why is it so hard to make a clear sentence?

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the 500 words used most in the English language each have an average of 23 different meanings.

The word "round," for instance, has 70 distinctly different meanings.

What does this sentence mean?

Put the box on the table by the window in the kitchen

All of the possibilities:

• Put the box onto the table that is by the window in the kitchen.

• Take the box that is on the table and put it by the window in the kitchen.

• Take the box off the table that is by the window and put it in the kitchen.

• To understand the first and third meanings, it may be helpful to imagine that in the kitchen there are two tables: one by the window and one not.

Just for fun…Headlines

• KIDS MAKE NUTRITIOUS SNACKS • GRANDMOTHER OF EIGHT MAKES HOLE IN ONE • MILK DRINKERS ARE TURNING TO POWDER • STOLEN PAINTING FOUND BY TREE • LUNG CANCER IN WOMEN MUSHROOMS • QUEEN MARY HAVING BOTTOM SCRAPED• MINERS REFUSE TO WORK AFTER DEATH• JUVENILE COURT TO TRY SHOOTING DEFENDANT • COMPLAINTS ABOUT NBA REFEREES GROWING UGLY • PANDA MATING FAILS; VETERINARIAN TAKES OVER • POLICE BEGIN CAMPAIGN TO RUN DOWN JAYWALKERS

So, how can we make English work?

First, there are different types of meaning:Linguistic – encompasses both sense and

reference (word position & rules)Social – relies on social characteristics and

situations (“I pronounce you man & wife”)Affective – emotional connotations associated

with words (“Cockroaches taste good!”)These types of meanings are associated with

words, sentences, and utterances

Next, we look in the garage.Words that go together are organized into Semantic Fields: dog, cat,

turtle, bird, fish…

These words also belong to the same semantic field: aardvark, newt, gnu, urchin

Because they are less common members of the semantic field of “animals”, they are said to be more marked than the first set of animal words

More marked = more specific and less commonly used than the “less marked” words in the same semantic field.

It is by creating this hierarchy of meanings that we each build word/concept relationships.

Another example…

Our brains would organize these words in the following way:

Color (Superordinate – the semantic field)

green white red orange blue brown (hyponyms)

teal aquamarine royal blue (more marked hyponyms)

Another way our brains organize words:In addition to organizing by semantic fields, our brains also organize word by

their Part/Whole relationships.

Example: House and bedroom would be organized together, but since room is not a “kind of house”, it is not a hyponym.

Part/Whole Relationship Hyponymic Relationship

House Room

kitchen garage bedroom bedroom living room family room

Can you think of other part/whole or hyponymic relationships for the above words?

Additionally…Our brains store the following word relationships:

Synonomy: words with similar meanings

Antonymy: words with opposite meanings

Polysemy: words with multiple meanings

Homonymy: words with the same written or spoken forms but different meanings (dove/dove, steak/stake)

Converseness: words that share a relationship regardless of their order in a sentence (grandparent/grandchild, brother/sister)

As if it weren’t difficult enough…

We do the following with words:Use them as metaphors – “She’s a sharp kid”

We create new meanings for old words – “That car is bad” (meaning GREAT!)

We use idioms – “Raining cats and dogs” (we do this more than any other language)

How much more?** The average American encounters 7,000 – 10,000

idioms in a week!!

Putting it all together…When we hear a sentence/utterance, we begin deciphering the meaning

by first accessing each word in the lexical storage in our brains.

We check each word for its semantic field and look for relationships: hyponymy, part/whole, synonymy, homonymy, converse-ness – looking for double meanings/spellings, etc.

Next, we consider the social context of the utterance and the emotional context (if any) of the words.

Then, we decide whether there is a metaphor, idiom, or “new” word being used.

Once we have made our decisions regarding all of the above, we choose the meaning of the utterance…unfortunately, after all of that, we can still choose the wrong meaning!!

And finally…#5Hint #5: How can you say something in a way to make

it mean the opposite of what the words mean? And how do we know you mean the opposite??

We call that coming thing #5 PRAGMATICS.

Pragmatics refers to the social (or cultural) context surrounding a language…the facial expressions, tone, stresses, gestures, etc.

Example: a “thumbs up” is a good thing in America…but not in Asia (most Asians will also point with their middle finger – we giggle when someone in America does that!)

Now, some questions:

1. A group of elementary beginning- level English Learners has difficulty pronouncing a particular English phoneme. Which of the following strategies is likely to be the most effective first step in addressing the students' difficulty?

A. using meaningful minimal pair activities, such as rhyming words in poems and songs, to develop the students' ability to identify and produce the phoneme in the context of whole words

B. using an illustration or model of a human mouth to point out to the students the specific parts of the mouth and point of articulation involved in producing the phoneme

C. reading aloud meaningful connected discourse, such as dialogues and stories that contain instances of the phoneme, to expose the students implicitly to the phoneme in the context of whole paragraphs

D. repeating the phoneme several times while pointing to its corresponding letter(s) on an alphabet chart to prompt the students to associate the phoneme with its most common graphic representation(s)

Read the sentences below and answer the question that follows.

We worked hard on the bake sale. To raise money for the class trip.

Students in an early-advanced ELD class frequently make mistakes in their writing similar to the one underlined above. The first step the teacher should take in addressing this problem is to help the students learn how to do which of the following?

A. distinguish between phrase fragments and complete sentences B. distinguish between coordinating conjunctions and correlative

conjunctionsC. distinguish between prepositional phrases and infinitive phrasesD. distinguish between gerund phrases acting as subjects and those

acting as direct objects

Which of the following activities is likely to be most effective in helping high school English Learners develop familiarity with standard discourse structures and conventions used in academic essays?

A. helping students analyze sample essays and construct graphic organizers illustrating the structure of different types of essays, which they can refer to when drafting their own essays

B. asking students to review samples of different types of essays and to identify the vocabulary and grammatical structures the samples have in common

C. providing students with copies of essays that have key content-related vocabulary words omitted and asking the students to try to fill in the missing words

D. having a small group of students brainstorm a topic for an essay, after which each student writes a short draft of an essay that is analyzed by the rest of the group