Introduction to the Teaching of Reading (0200)

Test at a Glance
Test Name Introduction to the Teaching of Reading
Test Code 0200
Time 2 hours
Number of Questions 100
Format Multiple-choice questions
Approximate Approximate
Content Categories Number of Percentage of
Questions Examination

V I I. Reading as a Language-Thought Process 15 15%

IV II. Text Structure 20 20%
II III. Instructional Processes in the Teaching
of Reading 40 40%
III IV. Affective Aspects 10 10%
V. Environmental/Sociocultural Factors 15 15%

About This Test

The Introduction to the Teaching of Reading test is intended for examinees who have typically completed a bachelor’s
degree program in elementary or secondary education that included a program of 3 to 4 semester hours on the teaching of
reading. The 100 multiple-choice questions cover knowledge about the teaching of reading that is common to all grade
levels and content areas. The test includes content on reading as a language-thought process, text structure, instructional
processes, affective aspects, and environmental/sociocultural factors.

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Introduction to the Teaching of Reading (0200)

Topics Covered III. Instructional Processes in the

Teaching of Reading
IV. Affective Aspects
● Utilization of activities such as
Representative descriptions of topics ● Appropriate use of specific art expression, drama, and the
covered in each category are provided strategies: reciprocal teaching, media to motivate students and
below. critical questioning, to stimulate interest in and
monitoring, scaffolding, enjoyment of both reading
I. Reading as a Language- activating schema, language and writing
Thought Process expansion, story grammars,
● Construction of meaning: scripts, organizational patterns, V. Environmental/Socio-
theoretical approaches to the guided oral and silent reading cultural Factors
reading process or how readers ● Strategies appropriate to various ● Understand literacy, and factors
construct meaning from a ages and reading levels influencing literacy and
printed text; acquisition and including emergent literacy biliteracy development,
understanding of language; ● Classroom management: including parental support for
readers’ awareness of their own grouping, use of paraprofessionals, literacy, extent of congruence
thought processes while learning centers, writing centers, between home and school
reading, or metacognition cooperative grouping, peer linguistic environments, and
● Interrelatedness of the processes helping, computers approaches to literacy,
of listening, speaking, and ● Reading in the content areas at and the impact of teacher
writing, especially the reading/ all grade levels expectations
writing connection and the use ● Study skills: study skill ● Recognize the influence of
of writing to respond to reading strategies, test taking, note family and peers, along with
taking, planning, outlining ethnic, socioeconomic,
II. Text Structure ● Assessment: use of criterion- regional, and cultural linguistic
● Considerations regarding text: based tests or achievement differences, and select
structure for narrative and tests; use of appropriate appropriate instructional
expository texts; syntactic individual and group assessment strategies and materials
complexity; organization; and strategies, such as informal to address these factors
vocabulary and concept load; assessments, questioning
story grammars; and semantic, techniques, surveys
syntactic, graphophonic, and
experiential cues

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Introduction to the Teaching of Reading (0200)

Sample Test Questions 3. Which of the following best describes the process of
language acquisition in young children?
The sample questions that follow illustrate the kinds of questions
in the test. They are not, however, representative of the entire (A) The child infers the underlying rules of the
scope of the test in either content or difficulty. Answers with language that he or she is exposed to and tests
explanations follow the questions. those inferences by constructing his or her
own utterances.
Directions: Each of the questions or statements below is
(B) The child is hampered by a limited attention
followed by five suggested answers or completions. Select
and memory span and cannot understand full
the one that is best in each case.
sentences until a relatively late stage in language
development.
1. A child attending preschool says to the teacher, “He (C) The child learns to speak only when explicit
eated my apple, teacher.” The child’s statement is an responses of approval or disapproval from adults
example of are given in response to the utterances he or
(A) inadequate language development for age level she makes.
(B) egocentrism (D) The child exhibits random, highly variable errors
(C) overgeneralization in sentence construction.
(D) telegraphic speech (E) The child is likely to achieve mastery faster if
(E) semantic confusion there is planned early instructional intervention.

2. Semantic and syntactic cues can be used by a reader 4. Knowledge of story grammar generally enables readers
to help identify an unfamiliar word in a sentence to do which of the following?
because these cues (A) Predict what element of the story will come next
(A) rely on the reader’s use of letter-sound (B) Recognize parts of speech using context
correspondences to analyze and pronounce (C) Organize information the reader is expected
the word to remember
(B) limit the reader to using syllabication rules to (D) Understand the role of grammar in
pronounce and recognize the word communicating meaning
(C) encourage the reader to use a glossary to (E) Summarize a story in a single grammatically
determine the word’s meaning correct expression
(D) permit the reader to use spelling patterns to
recognize the word and its meaning
(E) provide the reader with information about what
would make sense in the sentence

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Introduction to the Teaching of Reading (0200)

5. A child consistently reads sentences such as “She is 8. A teacher is teaching teenage nonfluent speakers
my friend” as “She be my friend.” Which of the of English to comprehend written text in English.
following is the most likely explanation for this During the class, he has the students read orally and
phenomenon? focuses on correcting their errors in pronunciation.
(A) A semantic miscue A criticism of this approach is based on which of the
(B) The use of dialect following principles of teaching language skills?
(C) A graphophonic weakness (A) Pronunciation is too advanced a skill for most
(D) Standard English usage beginners.
(E) A contextual anomaly (B) Pronunciation drills are a more effective way to
improve speaking than is oral reading.
6. Of the following, which is likely to be LEAST (C) Only after reading skills are well established can
effective in fostering a student’s interest in reading? a nonfluent speaker of English learn correct
pronunciation.
(A) An intensive basal program for large-
(D) Nonfluent speakers of English can comprehend
group instruction
written text without accurately pronouncing all
(B) Parental support of and involvement in the
the words.
reading program
(E) Oral reading should not be attempted before
(C) A well-stocked reading corner in the classroom
students can read grade-level texts silently with
(D) A schoolwide program of sustained silent reading
adequate comprehension.
(E) A reading laboratory with both printed materials
and media components
9. Of the following statements, which is the most
consistent with a whole-language approach
7. Which of the following best defines affective aspects
to instruction?
of reading instruction?
(A) Teaching specific hierarchical subskills in the
(A) Validation of the results of one particular
language arts develops skills essential to learning
approach to reading instruction
in the content areas.
(B) Concern with students’ attitudes, interests,
(B) Instruction that focuses on student partici-
and values
pation in a discourse community is critical for
(C) Development of beginning readers’ auditory and
developing good reading and writing skills.
visual abilities
(C) Teaching students phonetic decoding strategies
(D) Quantification and comparison of students’
facilitates student comprehension and
reading progress
composition of text.
(E) Analysis of various approaches to teaching
(D) Direct instruction is necessary to develop the
reading and evaluation of the results
greatest proficiency in comprehension.
(E) Teacher-centered questions are an integral part of
developing students’ communication processes.

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Introduction to the Teaching of Reading (0200)

10. A second-grade child who has recently transferred 12. Which of the following procedures for initiating
from a southwestern rural community to a southeastern reading instruction is most likely to stimulate interest
urban community has difficulty answering reading and development in reading in a first-grade class in
comprehension questions after reading a chapter on which about a tenth of the children do not speak
transportation in the city. The child can accurately standard English?
pronounce and smoothly read oral selections of the (A) Provide a classroom environment in which all
chapter. Which of the following is the most probable the children in the class work together, and have
explanation for this type of phenomenon? the children use their experiences to work
(A) The child’s reading achievement level is together composing reading matter for the class.
significantly below the reading achievement level (B) Using large-group instruction and basal readers,
of the other children in the class. teach the class reading skills and simultaneously
(B) The child’s background of experiences does provide everyone with oral and written exercises
not include knowledge of the topic discussed in standard English.
in the text. (C) Provide small-group instruction in pre-reading
(C) The child’s former reading instruction focused skills for those who do not speak standard
on the development of word attack skills. English while the other children read books of
(D) The child’s nervousness and apprehension at their own selection.
being in an unfamiliar class have limited the (D) Delay the teaching of reading for about three
child’s ability to respond adequately to the months while providing structured concrete
comprehension questions. experiences within the classroom and on field
(E) The child’s written expressive language abilities trips in order to prepare the class for large-group
are significantly below the child’s oral expressive reading instruction.
language abilities. (E) Send the children who do not speak standard
English to the kindergarten classroom for basic
11. Which of the following techniques used in teaching reading readiness experiences while the others
begin a language-experience reading program.
reading comprehension is intended to help students
make predictions, formulate questions, summarize
information, and clarify points of confusion when
reading assignments?
(A) Literal thinking exercises
(B) Script writing
(C) Oral reading
(D) Silent reading
(E) Reciprocal teaching

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Introduction to the Teaching of Reading (0200)

Answers
1. Preschoolers who are in the process of acquiring 7. Affective aspects of reading refer to students’ attitudes,
language often overgeneralize the rules of the language. In interests, and values. The correct answer is B.
this case, the child has overgeneralized the /-ed/ inflected
8. By interrupting students and drawing attention to their
ending to an irregular verb. The best answer is C.
mispronunciations, the teacher is actually impeding the
2. Syntactic cues are provided by the meaningful structure students’ comprehension of the text. It is not necessary for a
of written text, and semantic cues are provided by the reader to pronounce accurately each word in a text in order
knowledge a reader has of the meanings of other words. to comprehend that text. Therefore, the best answer is D.
Readers can use these linguistic cues to help identify an
9. The whole-language approach promotes the development
unfamiliar word because they limit the range of alternatives
of reading and other communication skills in a social,
that are likely to make sense within a particular sentence.
communicative network. Therefore, B is the best answer.
The correct answer is E.
10. According to schema theory, we use our background
3. According to psycholinguists and others who specialize
knowledge to help us comprehend the information in a
in human growth and development, young children begin
text. If a person’s background knowledge does not include
to acquire the ability to communicate through hypothesis
information about the topic of the text, his or her
testing. Children’s perception of adult speech helps them
comprehension of that text will be significantly reduced or
form hypotheses about how different ideas are expressed
distorted when compared to that of people who do have
in the language they are acquiring. They then test their
knowledge of the topic. The best answer is B.
hypotheses by finding out how well their own utterances
are understood by others. The best answer is A. 11. During a reciprocal teaching lesson, students make pre-
dictions, formulate questions, summarize information, and
4. Story grammar is a set of rules that describes the
clarify points of confusion. The correct answer is E.
organization of stories, including the typical sequence
of elements within the particular genre. Knowledge of 12. An environment in which children are free to explore
sequence helps readers predict what follows each element and converse with each other facilitates the language
read. Therefore, the best answer is A. development necessary for developing reading ability.
Composing reading matter based on the students’ own
5. The use of the verb form “be” instead of the verb form
experiences not only promotes interest but also develops in
“is” in the sentence above is a regular syntactic structure in
children the awareness or concept that reading and writing
certain dialects. Therefore, the best answer is B.
are connected skills. The correct answer is A.
6. Parental support and involvement; a wide variety of
reading materials, including materials in both print and
other media; and setting aside classroom time for students to
read materials of their own choosing are all ways to foster
students’ interest in reading. The best answer is A, because it
does not allow students to pursue their individual interests.

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Copyright © 2005 by Educational Testing Service. All rights reserved. EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE, ETS, and the ETS logo are registered trademarks of Educational Testing Service.
THE PRAXIS SERIES is a trademark of Educational Testing Service.