ALTAVAS COLLEGE

Altavas, Aklan
S.Y. 2023-2024

PRELIM EXAMINATION IN ELT 1 – PRINCIPLES AND THEORIES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

BSED 2 – English

Name: ____________________________________________ Date: ___________________ Score: _____________

TEST I. MULTIPLE CHOICES
Directions: Circle the letter that corresponds to the correct answer. Strictly no erasures.
1. What theory of first language acquisition states that language is just one aspect of a child’s overall intellectual
development?
a. behaviourist theory b. nativist theory c. cognitive theory d. functional theory
2. Why is driving a car or learning to walk similar to speaking?
a. It involves the same process.
b. It is an automatic process throughout time.
c. It requires a lot of teaching.
d. It requires a lot of experience.
3. This theory adheres that a child’s brain contains special language-learning mechanisms at birth.
a. behaviourist theory b. nativist theory c. cognitive theory d. functional theory
4. The best time to learn a second language is in ________.
a. early childhood b. junior high school c. senior high school d. college
5. What theory of first language acquisition supports that children imitates adults, and their correct utterances are
reinforced when they get what they want or are praised?
a. behaviourist theory b. nativist theory c. cognitive theory d. functional theory
6. The LAD contains
a. All that is required for a person to be bilingual
b. The principles which are universal to all languages
c. The phonological features of a human being
d. All of the above
7. Which of the following is NOT an example of language acquisition from a behaviourist perspective?
a. Babies learn language by repeatedly associating the object ‘dog’ with the word ‘dog’.
b. Babies learn language by imitating adult patterns of speech.
c. Babies are born with an innate ability to learn language.
d. Babies are rewarded for attempts at speech when their caregivers smile and applaud their efforts.
8. Which of the following statements is true about language acquisition?
a. At birth, children know the elementary aspects of the language of their parents.
b. By age one, children typically use about three words consisting of single morphemes.
c. Babies learn a language best when they are forced to repeat phrases given to them by their parents.
d. None of the above.
9. By imitating and repeating the same structures, a person can learn a language. Which school of thought states this?
a. Structural linguistics and behavioural psychology
b. Generative linguistics and cognitive psychology
c. Constructivism
d. None of the above
10. Noam Chomsky espoused a NATIVIST theory of language acquisition. Which of the following is part of Chomsky’s
theory?
a. universal grammar b. conditioning c. silent period d. pivot grammar
11. What theory of first language acquisition claims that children are shaped by their environment and slowly conditioned
through various schedules of reinforcement?
a. behaviourist b. nativist c. cognitive d. functional
12. Who suggested that children learn by imitating adults?
 a. Noam Chomsky c. B.F. Skinner
b. Jean Piaget d. Lev Vygotsky
13. Noam Chomsky argues that babies acquire language
a. when caregivers talk softly to infants
b. by watching adults interact
c. by repeated exposure to sounds that have meaning
d. because humans are born with the ability to learn language
14. Which of the following does NOT play a significant role in the child’s learning of first language?
a. imitation of adult speech
b. learning rules for sound combinations
c. learning rules for sentence structure
d. learning rules for interaction patterns
15. This is a stage 0 to 6 months when babies make vowel-like sounds, pleasant noises, chuckles, and laughter and turns
head.
a. cooing stage b. babbling stage c. telegraphic stage d. 2-word stage
16. When do children enter the two-word stage?
a. around 6 months b. around 12 months c. around 18 months d. at birth
17. This is the natural faculty of the brain which makes language learning natural.
a. universal grammar b. language acquisition device c. tabula rasa d. schemata
18. It is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce
and use words and sentences to communicate.
a. language proficiency c. language acquisition
b. language competence d. language learning
19. Positive reinforcement is part of ______________.
a. Piaget’s theory b. Skinner’s theory c. Krashen’s theory d. Chomsky’s theory
20. Who is the major proponent of the Cognitive Theory?
a. Jean Piaget b. Jerome Bruner c. Noam Chomsky d. B.F. Skinner

TEST II. IDENTIFICATION

Directions: Identify what is being described in the following statements/questions. Write your answers on the space
provided.
____________________ 21. Who proposed the Language Acquisition Device (LAD) Theory?
____________________ 22. A cognitive framework or concept that helps organize and interpret information.
____________________ 23. According to this theory, human or animal behavior is based on mental training and the
influence of habit, rather than being explained by thoughts and feelings.
____________________ 24. In relation to Chomsky’s Generative Grammar Theory, it refers to the actual arrangement of
words in a sentence.
____________________ 25. In this stage of cognitive development, children begin to develop symbolic thought and can
create an internal representation of the world via language and mental imagery.
____________________ 26. To whom is the formalization of the theory of Constructivism generally attributed to?
____________________ 27. In this stage of language acquisition, a child produces two-word sentences with simple
semantic relations.
____________________ 28. This theory proposes that children are born with an inbuilt ability to organize and
comprehend fundamental laws and structures of language.
____________________ 29. In the context of second language acquisition, this refers to the study of how our mental
processes and knowledge influence our ability to learn a second language.
____________________ 30. It is the final stage of cognitive development that involves increased logical thought and the
beginning of the ability to understand more abstract and theoretical concepts.
____________________ 31. It is a branch of linguistics that studies the processes and rules that generate the various
structures of language.
____________________ 32. At this stage occurs fastest increase in vocabulary with many new additions everyday; no

babbling at all; utterances have communicative intent and children build increasingly complex sentences that allow them
to better communicate their ideas.
____________________ 33. It is a School of Thought that emphasizes both the learners’ role in constructing meaning out
of available linguistic input and the importance of social interaction in creating a new linguistic system.
____________________ 34. What do you call the school of thought in psychology, proposed by John B. Watson, which
maintains that psychologist should study only observable, measurable behaviors and not internal mental processes?
____________________ 35. It is a branch of constructivism that emphasizes the importance of social interaction and
cooperative learning in constructing both cognitive and emotional images of reality.
____________________ 36. It is defined as a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of
conventionalized signs, symbols, gestures, or marks having understood meanings.
____________________ 37. It is a field of study that investigates how individuals acquire a second language, beyond
their native language.
____________________ 38. This is a nativist theory by Mary Ainsworth which argues that infants have innate need to
form secure and nurturing attachments with their primary caregivers.
____________________ 39. Who is the major proponent of Nativist Theory?
____________________ 40. It is the process of taking in new information into an already existing schema.

TEST III. ESSAY

Directions: Mull over the following questions, and express your answer in your own words. You may write your answer
at the back page. (5 pts. each)

1. What is the difference between first language and second language?

2. Among the three theories of first language acquisition, to you which one is the most plausible? Support your
answer.

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”
– Zig Ziglar

Prepared by:
KRISTINE F. CANTILERO, MAT-English
Instructor I
ANSWERS KEY
1. C
2. B
3. B
4. A
5. A
6. B
7. C
8. B
9. A
10. A
11. A
12. C
13. D
14. B
15. A
16. C
17. B
18. C
19. B
20. A
21. Steven Pinker
22. Schema
23. Behaviorism
24. Surface structure
25. Preoperational Stage
26. Jean Piaget
27. 2-word stage
28. Nativist theory
29. Cognitive psychology
30. Formal operational stage
31. Generative Grammar
32. Multi-word Stage
33. Constructivism
34. Methodological behaviorism
35. Social constructivism
36. Language
37. Second Language Acquisition (SLA)
38. Attachment theory
39. Noam Chomsky
40. Assimilation