ESL Certification Exam – Texas Questions
With 100% Verified Answers.
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.
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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)
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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
Active voice - answer✔Subject is the do-er