FTCE Professional Education Practice Exam

What characterizes the Early Production stage of language acquisition?

1. Absence of verbal response to questions

2. Students start to produce one- to two-word answers and have around 1,000 words

3. Students can converse fluently in English

4. Students have a vocabulary of 6,000 words

The correct answer is: Students start to produce one- to two-word answers and have around 1,000 words

The Early Production stage of language acquisition is characterized by learners beginning to produce simple language forms, specifically one- to two-word responses. During this phase, students typically have a vocabulary of about 1,000 words, which they use to communicate basic ideas and needs. This stage indicates a growing understanding of the language and confidence in using it, although the learners are still limited in their ability to construct more complex sentences. This ability to generate short answers signifies progress from initial non-verbal stages, but the learner has not yet developed fluency or a larger vocabulary that would characterize later stages of language acquisition. Students are still in the process of absorbing the language and building their communication skills, which is evident in their limited sentence structure and vocabulary size.