Which of the following environmental factors plays the largest role in language development in early childhood?

• proximity to a local library

• experience with multiple languages

• engagement with educational technology

• access to language-rich social interactions

Answer explanation

Language development is a social process. The more back-and-forth conversations a child has with caregivers, the more vocabulary they develop. Therefore, talking to children and engaging them in conversation about books and topics that interest them lead to higher levels of language development.

Based on convergent research, oral language is the foundation for reading and writing development. Which of the following instructional approaches would best promote language development?

• providing a variety of speaking opportunities for students to use new academic vocabulary

• motivating students to practice listening and speaking skills independently

• designing student projects requiring equal use of all four components of language

• crafting instruction targeting the development of oral and written language in isolated units

Answer explanation

Research conveys a positive correlation between the ease at which a student learns to read and write and the student's prior oral language experiences, such as exposure to a wide array of academic vocabulary. Multiple oral language experiences benefit reading comprehension and writing development.

A prekindergarten teacher begins each school day with a "question of the day." The teacher provides sentence stems, models answering using a complete sentence, and gives the class "think time" before asking for responses. Taking turns, children respond in complete sentences. Which of the following rationales best supports the use of this instructional routine for developing oral language in emergent readers?

• promoting social interactions and peer engagement is highly effective in oral language development and future reading success.

• scaffolding learning ensures children at all levels of oral language development can respond in writing successfully.

• creating a welcoming classroom environment and fostering student relationships increases oral language development and literacy success.

• establishing daily routines and procedures helps children transition into a learning mindset and maximizes instructional minutes necessary for oral language development.

Answer explanation

Oral language, speaking and listening, is the foundation for reading and writing success. Oral language is the utilization of spoken sounds and words to communicate. Promoting and nurturing oral language development through social interactions with peers and adults helps build and foster a strong foundation for reading and writing development.

Which of the following instructional activities would be most appropriate for reinforcing phonemic awareness skills?

• 1. segmenting syllables in spoken words

• 1. blending onsets and rimes to form spoken words

• 1. recognizing alliteration from spoken words

• 1. substituting individual sounds in a spoken word

Answer explanation

Phonemic awareness, the most advanced skill of phonological awareness, is the understanding that words are composed of individual sounds (phonemes) and the ability to blend, segment, or substitute individual sounds within words. According to evidence-based research, phonemic awareness is the best predictor of reading success in children as it is the foundation for learning phonics. Strong phonemic awareness skills support the development of decoding, spelling, and reading comprehension skills.

A kindergarten teacher incorporates environmental print during small-group lessons with students who are developing alphabet knowledge. This practice best supports children's literacy development primarily by:

• establishing the foundational skills needed to orally retell a story.

• encouraging independent handwriting practice on letter formation.

• bridging the connection between letters and initial attempts to read.

• introducing language skills needed for developing phonological awareness.

Answer explanation

Environmental print is print that appears in the everyday world, for example, stop signs; labeled products, such as cereal boxes, juice cartons, and milk bottles; and names (often accompanied by symbols) of stores and restaurants. Environmental print allows children to understand that words and symbols carry meaning and is the connection between letters and initial attempts to read.

Which of the following instructional strategies would be most effective for supporting a beginning reader's understanding that print is read from left to right in an alphabetic language?

• asking children to identify the capital letters on each page in a big book during a teacher read-aloud

• reading aloud a predictable storybook to the class and asking children to read chorally

• having children dictate stories to the teacher and then draw illustrations to go with their stories

• pointing to each word in a big book as the teacher reads during a read-aloud

Answer explanation

Pointing to each word while reading aloud is a strategy known as "tracking print" or "one-to-one correspondence." This explicitly supports a beginning reader's print concepts, particularly the understanding that:

• *Print carries meaning

• *Print is read from left to right and top to bottom in English (an alphabetic language)

• *Words are separated by spaces

• *Spoken words match written words

By modeling how to follow the print with their finger (or a pointer), the teacher draws attention to directionality, helping children internalize that print is read in a specific order — a foundational skill for reading.

Which of the following emergent literacy skills reflects a key component of phonological awareness?

• clapping each syllable of a multisyllable word

• pointing to objects in the classroom named by the teacher

• identifying the first letters of students' names

• repeating multisyllable words with accurate articulation

Answer explanation

Phonological awareness is the knowledge that spoken language is composed of smaller linguistic units, including words, syllables, onsets and rimes, and phonemes. Phonological awareness skills involve recognizing or manipulating these linguistic units. Clapping syllables reflects students' awareness of and ability to count the component parts in a multisyllable word.

Several students are having difficulty segmenting syllables and distinguishing between single-syllable and multisyllable words presented orally. Which of the following intervention activities would be most effective to use first to promote students' development in this area?

• 1. orally presenting short words to the students and helping them substitute a new sound for the initial sound of each word

• 1. modeling for students how to clap in time to songs that have a strong rhythm (e.g., "The Itsy Bitsy Spider")

• 1. asking students to place a hand under their chins and count each time their chin touches their hand while saying a word aloud

• 1. modeling for students the correct pronunciation of new multisyllable words and having them repeat the words

Answer explanation

A syllable is a unit of spoken language made with one opening of the mouth (a vowel sound). This multisensory approach allows students to feel their mouths open each time a syllable is spoken. Counting each syllable in a word reflects an ability to perceive syllables in spoken language, which is one skill in a developmental sequence of skills related to understanding that spoken language is composed of smaller linguistic units. An activity in which students must actively listen to and compare the length of a single-syllable and a multisyllable word may promote their recognition of differences in the phonological structure of words.

According to convergent research, which of the following factors is the best predictor of a child's success in beginning reading?

• level of phonemic awareness and letter knowledge skills

• exposure to a variety of books and academic vocabulary

• amount of prior knowledge and varied experiences

• level of phonological awareness and handwriting skills

Answer explanation

Letter knowledge and phonemic awareness form the basis of early decoding and spelling ability as both have a strong correlation with later reading and spelling achievement. Components of research-based early literacy programs should be reflective of the key predictors of reading development and include explicit, systematic instruction focused on phonological processing (phonemic awareness) and development of letter knowledge.

Which of the following emergent reading skills is most essential to developing beginning spelling skills in an alphabetic language?

• distinguishing between letters with visually similar structures

• understanding the most common meanings of spoken words

• manipulating individual phonemes in spoken words

• matching letter names with their written letter/symbol

Answer explanation

Phonemic awareness is the foundation for reading and writing in alphabetic languages. Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate individual phonemes in a spoken word. This is a crucial skill for learning accurate decoding and spelling. As a result of learning letter-sound correspondence and phonetic patterns, students are equipped to learn how to decode accurately, identify spelling patterns, and develop fluency skills.