Your FREE CTEL 2 Flashcards 2026 – 200+ Cards

Ongoing, low-stakes assessment during learning (observations, exit tickets, portfolios) used to adjust instruction.

Assessment at the end of a unit or year (a final test, the Summative ELPAC) measuring learning against standards.

Another name for formative assessment — it informs and changes ongoing teaching.

Another name for summative assessment — it measures achievement after instruction.

English Language Proficiency Assessments for California — the state test of English proficiency for English learners.

The first ELPAC, given to a potential English learner to determine EL status and starting proficiency level.

The annual ELPAC that measures an English learner's yearly progress and informs reclassification.

The ELPAC form for English learners with the most significant cognitive disabilities.

The California English Language Development Test — the older proficiency test that the ELPAC replaced.

A required survey of languages used at home that flags students who may be English learners.

Redesignating an English learner as fluent English proficient once they meet state criteria (incl. ELPAC).

Reclassified Fluent English Proficient — a former EL who has met reclassification criteria and is monitored.

Initially Fluent English Proficient — a student identified as already proficient at initial assessment.

A scoring tool listing criteria and performance levels so assessment is consistent, objective, and transparent.

A rubric that scores several traits separately (e.g., content, organization, language).

A rubric that gives a single overall score based on an integrated judgment of the work.

A collection of a learner's work over time, giving a comprehensive, growth-focused picture of development.

Assessment through real, meaningful tasks (a presentation, a written piece) rather than only test items.

Assessment in which students demonstrate skills by doing a task, not just selecting answers.

Students evaluating their own work or learning — builds metacognition and ownership.

Students giving structured feedback on each other's work; promotes collaboration when trained.

Awareness and understanding of one's own thinking and learning processes.

Assessment before/early in instruction to identify strengths and needs and plan teaching.

A test administered and scored uniformly; can be culturally or linguistically biased against ELs.

A test comparing a student's score to a norm group's performance.

A test measuring performance against fixed criteria or standards, not other students.

The degree to which an assessment measures what it claims to measure.

The degree to which an assessment produces consistent, repeatable results.

When test content or language disadvantages students from particular cultural or linguistic backgrounds.

When the language demand of a test obscures a learner's actual content knowledge.

Changes in how a test is given (extra time, glossary) that don't change what is measured.

Distinguishing whether a task measures English proficiency or knowledge of subject content.

A systematic record of a student's oral reading, used to assess reading behaviors.

Watching and recording a learner's language use in authentic classroom contexts.

A list of skills/behaviors marked present or absent to track development.

A brief written note describing a specific observed behavior or learning moment.

Planning by first defining desired outcomes/assessments, then designing instruction to reach them.

A real-world, meaningful task that reflects how language is actually used.

Assessment measuring how developed a learner's overall language ability is, independent of a curriculum.

Assessment measuring what a learner has learned from specific instruction or content.

To give ongoing feedback that lets a teacher adjust instruction to learner needs.

To measure overall learning outcomes against standards at the end of instruction.

Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing — the four skills the ELPAC assesses.

Typically ELPAC performance, basic-skills evidence, teacher input, and parent consultation.

Initial identifies and places a new EL; Summative measures yearly progress toward reclassification.

Assessment designed so language barriers don't mask an EL's true content knowledge.

Using several assessments together for a fuller, fairer picture than one test gives.

The specific traits a rubric evaluates (e.g., focus, organization, language conventions).

Statements describing what work looks like at each rubric or proficiency level.

A quick end-of-lesson check of understanding — a common formative tool.

One-on-one teacher–student discussion to assess and guide learning.

Assessment before instruction to find out what learners already know.

Assessment tied directly to content and ELD standards.

Authentic uses real tasks; standardized uses uniform items and scoring — each has trade-offs.

Permitted supports (extra time, bilingual glossary) that keep what's measured the same.

Distinguish whether a low score reflects content knowledge or English proficiency.

Shows growth over time and a range of authentic work a single test cannot capture.

Develops metacognition and student ownership of learning.

Builds collaboration and gives learners more feedback when properly structured.

Makes scoring consistent, objective, transparent, and shared with learners in advance.

Language a learner can understand though it's slightly beyond their current level (Krashen's i + 1), made clear through context, visuals, and scaffolding.

A mental barrier raised by anxiety, low motivation, or low confidence that blocks comprehensible input from being acquired.

Basic interpersonal communicative skills — everyday conversational language; develops in roughly 1–3 years (Cummins).

Cognitive academic language proficiency — the decontextualized academic language of school; develops over roughly 5–7 years (Cummins).

An early stage in which a learner understands more than they produce — listening and comprehending while speaking little.

Input one step beyond the learner's current level ('i'); acquisition happens when '+1' input is made comprehensible.

Krashen: acquisition is subconscious (like a first language); learning is conscious rule-study. Acquisition drives fluency.

Krashen's claim that consciously learned rules act only as an editor on output, not the source of fluent speech.

Krashen's claim that grammatical features are acquired in a predictable order that explicit teaching cannot fully change.

Krashen's claim that acquisition occurs when learners understand input slightly beyond their level (i + 1).

Krashen's claim that anxiety, low motivation, or low confidence raise a filter blocking input; a safe class lowers it.

Swain's idea that producing language (speaking/writing) pushes learners to notice gaps and refine their English.

Cummins: a bilingual's two languages share a cognitive/academic base, so skills and concepts transfer from L1 to L2.

Cummins: literacy and academic skills developed in the first language transfer to support the second language.

A model classifying tasks by cognitive demand and context support (context-embedded vs. context-reduced).

Language supported by gestures, objects, and shared situation, making meaning easier to grasp (low demand).

Decontextualized language where meaning is carried by words alone, typical of academic text (high demand).

Vygotsky's gap between what a learner can do alone and what they can do with guidance — the basis for scaffolding.

Zone of proximal development — the space between independent ability and assisted ability where learning is optimal.

The influence of the first language on the second; can be positive (helps) or negative (causes errors).

When a feature of the L1 helps L2 learning (e.g., shared cognates or reading strategies that carry over).

When an L1 pattern causes an error in the L2 (e.g., applying L1 word order to English).

Alternating between two languages within one conversation or sentence — a normal, rule-governed bilingual practice.

A learner's evolving in-between language system containing rules of both the L1 and the developing L2.

When non-target language forms become permanently established in a learner's interlanguage.

Applying a regular rule where it doesn't belong (e.g., 'foots,' 'goed') — a sign of rule learning, not mere error.

Developing English while maintaining and growing the home language — the goal of dual-language models.

Replacing the home language with English, so the L1 is lost as English is gained.

Acquiring two languages from birth or early childhood at roughly the same time.

Acquiring a second language after the first is established.

A learner's home or native language, a resource that supports second-language and academic development.

A language learned in addition to the first — here, English for English learners.

View (Vygotsky) that language and learning develop through social interaction and cultural context.

The social rules of language use — how meaning depends on context, audience, and purpose.

The ability to hear and manipulate the sounds of language (rhymes, syllables, phonemes) — a foundation for reading.

The smallest unit of sound that distinguishes meaning (e.g., /b/ vs. /p/ in 'bat' and 'pat').

Awareness of individual phonemes — hearing and manipulating single sounds in spoken words.

Translating printed words into sounds and meaning by applying letter-sound relationships.

The smallest unit of meaning in a language (e.g., 'un-,' 'happy,' '-ness' in 'unhappiness').

The study of how morphemes combine to form words; helps learners infer word meaning.

Words that look and mean alike across languages (e.g., 'family'/'familia') — a transfer resource.

Words that look alike across languages but differ in meaning (e.g., 'embarazada' means pregnant, not embarrassed).

Language a learner understands (listening and reading) — often ahead of productive ability.

Language a learner produces (speaking and writing).

Preproduction, early production, speech emergence, intermediate fluency, and advanced fluency.

The silent period: learners comprehend but produce little; respond nonverbally.

Learners use one- or two-word answers and short memorized phrases.

Learners produce simple sentences and phrases with growing vocabulary.

California's English Language Development Standards describing proficiency across Emerging, Expanding, and Bridging.

The first CA ELD proficiency level: beginning English; needs substantial support.

The middle CA ELD level: increasing English skills across more contexts; moderate support.

The advanced CA ELD level: approaching grade-level English; light, targeted support.

Stephen Krashen — proposed five hypotheses of second-language acquisition (input, affective filter, monitor, etc.).

Jim Cummins — known for BICS/CALP and the common underlying proficiency (interdependence) model.

Lev Vygotsky — sociocultural theory and the zone of proximal development underpinning scaffolding.

Merrill Swain — proposed the comprehensible output hypothesis.

The vocabulary, grammar, and discourse used in school texts and tasks (CALP).

Everyday conversational language used with peers and in informal settings (BICS).

Reading strategies and concepts learned in the first language support English literacy development.

Predicting, questioning, summarizing, and monitoring used to understand text; transferable across languages.

Emotional influences on learning — motivation, anxiety, self-confidence, attitude — that affect acquisition.

Wanting to learn a language to connect with and belong to its community.

Wanting to learn a language for a practical purpose (a job, a grade).

The overarching name for Krashen's five-hypothesis theory of second-language acquisition.

Cummins's view that L1 and L2 draw on one shared cognitive base (common underlying proficiency).

The disproven idea that languages are stored separately and compete for limited cognitive space.

Conversational fluency typically develops in about 1–3 years.

Academic language proficiency typically takes about 5–7 years or more.

Bilinguals flexibly drawing on their full linguistic repertoire across both languages to make meaning.

The rules governing how words combine into phrases and sentences.

The study of word and sentence meaning.

The sound system of a language and the rules for combining sounds.

Reading with accuracy, appropriate rate, and expression so attention is free for meaning.

Input is understandable language received; output is language a learner produces (Swain).

Breadth = how many words a learner knows; depth = how well they know each word.

Tier 1 everyday words, Tier 2 high-use academic words, Tier 3 domain-specific terms.

Strong first-language literacy accelerates English literacy through transfer.

Learners typically understand language before they can produce it.

An error reflects a gap in knowledge; a mistake is a slip the learner can self-correct.

Learners use more complex sentences and express opinions with fewer errors.

Learners approach native-like proficiency in social and academic contexts.

Prior knowledge structures (schemas) shape how readers comprehend new text.

What a learner already knows; activating it improves comprehension of new content.

English Language Development — instruction that targets English itself (listening, speaking, reading, writing) at the learner's level.

Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English — teaching grade-level content in English using sheltering strategies.

Teaching content comprehensibly to English learners through visuals, scaffolds, modeling, and clear language objectives.

Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol — a framework organizing sheltered teaching into observable components.

Temporary, targeted support (sentence frames, models, organizers) that helps a learner do a task, then is removed.

A method where learners respond to spoken commands with physical actions, linking language to movement.

Total Physical Response — action-based instruction ideal for newcomers and the silent period.

Teaching subject content and language together, using real content as the context for developing English.

Content and Language Integrated Learning — teaching a subject and a target language at the same time.

A protected instructional time focused specifically on developing English, aligned to the ELD Standards.

English language development woven into content instruction by all teachers throughout the day.

A stated goal for the language students will use or learn in a lesson, paired with a content objective.

A stated goal for the subject-matter knowledge or skill students will learn in a lesson.

Making instruction understandable through visuals, realia, modeling, slower speech, and clear context.

Real objects brought into the classroom to anchor meaning and make input comprehensible.

Partial sentence structures students complete to produce academic language with support.

A visual that maps relationships among ideas, aiding comprehension and organizing writing.

Pictures, charts, and diagrams that make abstract language and content comprehensible.

Structured small-group work where students depend on and support one another's learning.

Students working together toward shared goals, providing low-anxiety language practice.

A structure where students think alone, discuss with a partner, then share with the class.

Demonstrating a process or product so learners see exactly what is expected before doing it.

Verbalizing one's thinking while reading or solving to make invisible strategies visible.

Pausing after a question to give learners time to process and formulate a response.

Activating what students already know to connect new learning and build background.

Connecting new content to students' experiences and pre-teaching key vocabulary.

Students dictate a story from experience that the teacher records and uses as reading text.

Adjusting content, process, or product to meet learners' varied proficiency levels and needs.

'I do, we do, you do' — shifting work from teacher to student as competence grows.

Real texts and media (menus, articles, videos) used to make language learning meaningful.

Teaching organized around learners' active participation, choice, and needs.

Interaction in which speakers clarify and confirm to reach mutual understanding — drives acquisition.

ELD delivered by removing students from the regular class for separate language instruction.

ELD support provided inside the regular classroom alongside content instruction.

A program where nearly all instruction is in English with ELD support, for a temporary period.

Structured English Immersion — near-all-English, sheltered instruction for not-yet-fluent ELs.

Using the home language early to teach content, then shifting to English-only quickly (subtractive).

Developing and keeping the L1 alongside English so students become biliterate (additive).

Another name for maintenance bilingual — long-term development of both languages.

A two-way program where English learners and English speakers learn together in both languages.

Dual-language program mixing two language groups, with bilingualism/biliteracy as the goal for all.

A specialized short-term program for recently arrived English learners.

A language tied to a learner's family or community background, valued as a resource.

Using a learner's first language strategically to support comprehension and learning.

TPRS — combining TPR with stories to teach vocabulary and grammar in context.

A fill-in-the-blank text used to build and assess comprehension and vocabulary.

Pre-teaching key terms before a lesson so input is comprehensible.

Asking questions matched to each learner's proficiency level to keep all students engaged.

Designing a unit from desired results and assessments back to daily instruction.

Streamlining content so learners spend time where they most need it.

ELD's goal is English proficiency; SDAIE's goal is grade-level content taught comprehensibly.

Lesson prep, building background, comprehensible input, strategies, interaction, practice, review/assessment.

Visuals, realia, gestures, slower speech, modeling, and clear context to make meaning accessible.

Sentence frames, graphic organizers, word banks, modeling, and partially completed work.

Gradually removing support as learners gain independence (gradual release).

Designated = protected language time; integrated = ELD within content instruction all day.

Structured cooperative tasks that give ELs low-anxiety, meaningful language practice.

Real objects used to anchor vocabulary and concepts for beginners.

Maps relationships among ideas to support comprehension and organize writing.

Provides a structure so learners can produce academic language at their level.

Best for newcomers/silent period — show comprehension through action before speaking.

Develops academic English through meaningful engagement with real grade-level content.

Effective sheltered lessons state both a content goal and a language goal.

Strategic L1 use to clarify, preview, or check understanding.

Short-term, intensive support for recently arrived English learners.

Bilingualism, biliteracy, academic achievement, and cross-cultural competence for all students.

Two-way mixes two language groups; one-way serves a single language group.

Uses L1 as a temporary bridge to English-only — a subtractive design.

Sustains and grows the L1 alongside English — an additive design.

Structured English Immersion serves ELs not yet reasonably fluent in English.

Grade-level subject classes taught with SDAIE strategies for English learners.

Gives ELs time to process language and content before responding.

Connects new learning to students' experiences and pre-teaches key vocabulary.

Interaction that clarifies meaning provides the comprehensible input that drives acquisition.

Real-world texts make language learning meaningful and contextually rich.

Adjusting content, process, or product to each learner's proficiency level.

Active participation and choice increase engagement and language use.