FTCE Professional Education Practice Exam

What are the four stages of second-language acquisition?

1. Pre-production, early production, speech emergent, intermediate fluency

2. Understanding, production, comprehension, fluency

3. Beginning, developing, expanding, bridging

4. Listening, speaking, reading, writing

The correct answer is: Pre-production, early production, speech emergent, intermediate fluency

The four stages of second-language acquisition are accurately represented by the stages outlined in the first choice: pre-production, early production, speech emergent, and intermediate fluency. In the pre-production stage, learners are typically silent and may not yet speak in the new language, focusing instead on listening and comprehending basic vocabulary and structures. This stage is critical as it lays the foundation for language understanding. As students move into the early production stage, they begin to produce single words or simple phrases. It's a time of limited output, but crucial for building confidence and starting to communicate. The speech emergent stage marks a significant growth in language ability. At this point, learners can form more complex sentences and express ideas more clearly, although their speech may still contain errors. Finally, in the intermediate fluency stage, students can speak conversationally with increasing accuracy and complexity. They begin to develop a more extensive vocabulary and can engage in discussions on various topics. Each of these stages is integral to a comprehensive understanding of how learners acquire a second language, demonstrating the natural progression from comprehension to fluency. In contrast, the other choices either refer to different types of language skills or frameworks that do not specifically outline the stages of acquisition as effectively as the first choice does