TEXAS ESL CERTIFICATION EXAM ACTUAL EXAM
Phonetics - ANSWER: The articulation and perception of speech sounds as physical
objects, the study of how speech sounds are made and perceived.
Phonology - ANSWER: The study of how a language organizes speech sounds into a
meaningful system
Phonemes - ANSWER: smallest unit of sound. Occur at point of articulation and the
manner of articulation. There are at least 44 phonemes (sounds) and 26 graphemes
(letters).
Allophones - ANSWER: Sounds that occur in a phonetic environment; word-initial
position, word-final position, word-middle position, etc.
Voicing - ANSWER: Occurs when our vocal cords vibrate or not because of the
pronunciation of the sounds.
Voiceless - ANSWER: Produced without vocal cord vibration
Voiced - ANSWER: Produced with vocal cord vibration
Suprasegmentals - ANSWER: Organization of sounds into larger units: length, tone,
intonation, and stress.
Length - ANSWER: Duration of sound; vowel/consonant
Tone - ANSWER: The use of pitch (low or high) to convey meaning at the word level.
Tone may be lexical; it might change the meaning of the word.
Intonation - ANSWER: Distinguishes different kinds of sentences or phrases, and/or
different words. Refers to the rise and fall of pitch over entire sentences.
Stress - ANSWER: A prosodic element used to give intensity or emphasis to certain
syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or a sentence. It can change the
meaning of a word.
Morphology - ANSWER: The system of how words are built or word formation.
Morpheme - ANSWER: The smallest units of language that carry information about
meaning or function. Cannot be divided into smaller parts.
Free Morpheme - ANSWER: Can be a word by itself
Bound Morpheme - ANSWER: Must be attached to another element
,Syntax - ANSWER: The system of how phrases and sentences are built from the
words they contain, and how phrases are combined into larger phrases and
sentences.
Semantics - ANSWER: The study of meaning of words or the interpretation of words
and sentences.
Denotation - ANSWER: The dictionary definition of a word
Connotation - ANSWER: The implied meaning of a word
Synonym - ANSWER: Words or expressions that have the same meaning in some or
all contexts
Antonyms - ANSWER: words that have opposite meanings
Polysemy - ANSWER: A word that has two or more related meanings
Homophony - ANSWER: A word in a single form that has two or more entirely
distinct meanings but sound the same.
Idiom - ANSWER: A set of words or an expression whose meaning is not predictable
from the usual meaning of the words.
Pragmatics - ANSWER: The system of the use of language in social contexts;
sociolinguistic awareness.
Discourse - ANSWER: The connected series of utterances produced during a
conversation, story, or lecture.
Lexicon - ANSWER: The vocabulary of a language. Also refers to the total inventory of
morphemes.
Allomorphs - ANSWER: The morphemes used to express indefiniteness in English.
Registers - ANSWER: Functions and use of social and academic language.
Language Borrowing - ANSWER: Words that we borrow from another language
Language interference - ANSWER: Interference from the first language (negative
transfer)
Phonological differences - ANSWER: Different pronunciations (accent)
Code-Switching - ANSWER: When a speaker alternates two or more languages in the
same sentences or between sentences
, singular noun - ANSWER: names one person, place, thing, or idea
plural noun - ANSWER: names more than one person, place, thing, or idea
count nouns - ANSWER: Can be counted as one or more, and take an 's' to form the
plural
Non-count nouns - ANSWER: Cannot be counted
Possessive Nouns - ANSWER: Shows ownership
collective noun - ANSWER: names a group of people, placed, ideas or things
Personal pronouns - ANSWER: Refer to a person
Indefinite article - ANSWER: An- used before singular count nouns beginning with a
vowel
A- used before singular count nouns with consonants
Definite article - ANSWER: The- can be used before singular and plural, count and
non-count nouns
Adjectives - ANSWER: Describe or modify nouns
Comparative adjective - ANSWER: Compare two things
Superlative adjectives - ANSWER: Compare more than two things
Adverbs - ANSWER: Modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
Regular verb - ANSWER: Form their past and past participle by adding 'ed'
irregular verb - ANSWER: Do not have definite rules
Gerrunds - ANSWER: Verb+ing acts like a noun in a sentence
Direct objects - ANSWER: A noun or pronoun that receives the action of a verb
indirect object - ANSWER: The noun or pronoun. For which the action is done.
Present progressive - ANSWER: Indicates continuing action, something going on now.
Third person singular - ANSWER: Verbs that take the 's' suffix when the subject is
third person
Phonetics - ANSWER: The articulation and perception of speech sounds as physical
objects, the study of how speech sounds are made and perceived.
Phonology - ANSWER: The study of how a language organizes speech sounds into a
meaningful system
Phonemes - ANSWER: smallest unit of sound. Occur at point of articulation and the
manner of articulation. There are at least 44 phonemes (sounds) and 26 graphemes
(letters).
Allophones - ANSWER: Sounds that occur in a phonetic environment; word-initial
position, word-final position, word-middle position, etc.
Voicing - ANSWER: Occurs when our vocal cords vibrate or not because of the
pronunciation of the sounds.
Voiceless - ANSWER: Produced without vocal cord vibration
Voiced - ANSWER: Produced with vocal cord vibration
Suprasegmentals - ANSWER: Organization of sounds into larger units: length, tone,
intonation, and stress.
Length - ANSWER: Duration of sound; vowel/consonant
Tone - ANSWER: The use of pitch (low or high) to convey meaning at the word level.
Tone may be lexical; it might change the meaning of the word.
Intonation - ANSWER: Distinguishes different kinds of sentences or phrases, and/or
different words. Refers to the rise and fall of pitch over entire sentences.
Stress - ANSWER: A prosodic element used to give intensity or emphasis to certain
syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or a sentence. It can change the
meaning of a word.
Morphology - ANSWER: The system of how words are built or word formation.
Morpheme - ANSWER: The smallest units of language that carry information about
meaning or function. Cannot be divided into smaller parts.
Free Morpheme - ANSWER: Can be a word by itself
Bound Morpheme - ANSWER: Must be attached to another element
,Syntax - ANSWER: The system of how phrases and sentences are built from the
words they contain, and how phrases are combined into larger phrases and
sentences.
Semantics - ANSWER: The study of meaning of words or the interpretation of words
and sentences.
Denotation - ANSWER: The dictionary definition of a word
Connotation - ANSWER: The implied meaning of a word
Synonym - ANSWER: Words or expressions that have the same meaning in some or
all contexts
Antonyms - ANSWER: words that have opposite meanings
Polysemy - ANSWER: A word that has two or more related meanings
Homophony - ANSWER: A word in a single form that has two or more entirely
distinct meanings but sound the same.
Idiom - ANSWER: A set of words or an expression whose meaning is not predictable
from the usual meaning of the words.
Pragmatics - ANSWER: The system of the use of language in social contexts;
sociolinguistic awareness.
Discourse - ANSWER: The connected series of utterances produced during a
conversation, story, or lecture.
Lexicon - ANSWER: The vocabulary of a language. Also refers to the total inventory of
morphemes.
Allomorphs - ANSWER: The morphemes used to express indefiniteness in English.
Registers - ANSWER: Functions and use of social and academic language.
Language Borrowing - ANSWER: Words that we borrow from another language
Language interference - ANSWER: Interference from the first language (negative
transfer)
Phonological differences - ANSWER: Different pronunciations (accent)
Code-Switching - ANSWER: When a speaker alternates two or more languages in the
same sentences or between sentences
, singular noun - ANSWER: names one person, place, thing, or idea
plural noun - ANSWER: names more than one person, place, thing, or idea
count nouns - ANSWER: Can be counted as one or more, and take an 's' to form the
plural
Non-count nouns - ANSWER: Cannot be counted
Possessive Nouns - ANSWER: Shows ownership
collective noun - ANSWER: names a group of people, placed, ideas or things
Personal pronouns - ANSWER: Refer to a person
Indefinite article - ANSWER: An- used before singular count nouns beginning with a
vowel
A- used before singular count nouns with consonants
Definite article - ANSWER: The- can be used before singular and plural, count and
non-count nouns
Adjectives - ANSWER: Describe or modify nouns
Comparative adjective - ANSWER: Compare two things
Superlative adjectives - ANSWER: Compare more than two things
Adverbs - ANSWER: Modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.
Regular verb - ANSWER: Form their past and past participle by adding 'ed'
irregular verb - ANSWER: Do not have definite rules
Gerrunds - ANSWER: Verb+ing acts like a noun in a sentence
Direct objects - ANSWER: A noun or pronoun that receives the action of a verb
indirect object - ANSWER: The noun or pronoun. For which the action is done.
Present progressive - ANSWER: Indicates continuing action, something going on now.
Third person singular - ANSWER: Verbs that take the 's' suffix when the subject is
third person
