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Study Guide

Field 101: Chinese (Mandarin)
Sample Multiple-Choice Questions

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Sample Directions for Multiple-Choice Questions

This section of the test consists of multiple-choice questions. Each multiple-choice question has four answer choices. Read each question and answer choice carefully and choose the ONE best answer. Try to answer all questions. In general, if you have some knowledge about a question, it is better to try to answer it. You will NOT be penalized for guessing.

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CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING, COMPARISONS, AND CONNECTIONS

Objective 007
Understand the products and perspectives of Chinese-speaking cultures.

1. Which of the following best describes a major focus of the "scar literature" (傷痕 / 伤痕) that emerged in China after the Cultural Revolution?

  1. to justify any harm caused by the policies of the Cultural Revolution
  2. to assess the strengths and limitations of the Cultural Revolution
  3. to maintain the spirit of the Cultural Revolution
  4. to examine the traumas caused by the Cultural Revolution
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

2. Which of the following best describes why, in the 1990s, the Chinese government decided to construct a large dam in the Three Gorges area of the Yangtze River?

  1. to create a reservoir for the irrigation of rice fields
  2. to eliminate siltation that periodically causes the river to change course
  3. to control flooding and facilitate inland trade
  4. to expand agricultural lands in downstream areas
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

3. In Beijing, traditional foods are likely to include wheat dumplings and noodles, while in Guangzhou, traditional foods are likely to include rice and rice noodles primarily due to regional differences in which of the following?

  1. historical trade connections
  2. the role of Buddhism in daily life
  3. the influence of Mongol culture
  4. temperatures and rainfall
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

4. The English words brother and sister do not exist in an equivalent form in the Mandarin language. Instead, siblings are referred to with words that convey their age-order, such as gege for elder brother and meimei for younger sister. This linguistic difference most clearly reflects the influence of which of the following belief systems on the development of Chinese cultural perspectives?

  1. Legalism
  2. Confucianism
  3. Daoism
  4. Buddhism
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.
Objective 008
Understand the practices (e.g., political and economic practices, practices of daily life and communication) and perspectives of Chinese-speaking cultures.

5. Political reforms in China since the late 1970s have been most influenced by which of the following?

  1. changes in the country's relationship with the former Soviet Union
  2. popular demands for greater governmental accountability
  3. pressure from the world community to abandon the Communist system
  4. a strong commitment to economic development and expansion
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION, INSTRUCTION, AND ASSESSMENT

Objective 009
Understand processes of language acquisition.

6. Which of the following best describes an affective factor that might have a negative impact on a student's acquisition of a new language?

  1. The society in which the student lives places a low value on the target language and cultures in which it is spoken.
  2. The sound system of the student's first language is very different from the sound system of the target language.
  3. The student has difficulty retaining new information, such as target language vocabulary words, in long-term memory.
  4. The target language class in which the student is enrolled is conducted primarily in the student's first language.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.
Objective 010
Understand principles and practices of instruction in the language classroom.

7. A middle school teacher of Chinese learns that four heritage learners will be enrolled in a beginning Chinese class. In considering instructional approaches for this class, it is most important for the teacher to keep in mind that the heritage learners:

  1. are overqualified to be in a beginning class and will require additional activities from the first day.
  2. come from diverse cultural back-grounds and can have varying oral proficiency and literacy skills in Chinese.
  3. are teacher's aides that can be called upon to model Chinese pronunciation and usage for nonheritage learners in the class.
  4. will make the best progress if they work by themselves in a minigroup rather than work with the class as a whole.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.
Objective 011
Understand the integration of standards into language curriculum and instruction.

8. When designing instruction that reflects the goals of the national K–12 Standards for Foreign Language Learning, it is most important for a Chinese teacher to keep in mind that:

  1. students' needs and interests should guide the choice of which standards should be emphasized in any given class.
  2. the interpretive mode of the communication standard should take precedence over the interpersonal and presentational modes.
  3. instruction of the culture, connections, comparisons, and communities standards should be embedded within the study of the language.
  4. students' mastery of each of the standards should be measured against the progress indicators given for their grade level.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.
Objective 012
Understand principles and practices of assessment in the language classroom.

9. A high school Chinese teacher asks students to assemble a portfolio of their homework, projects, assignments, journal entries, audio and video recordings, and other work that they completed during a particular grading period. The teacher then schedules individual conferences with students to discuss their portfolios and to plan future focal points in their language learning. Which of the following best describes the primary benefit of this assessment approach?

  1. It allows students to reflect on their progress and develops their autonomy as learners.
  2. It provides benchmarks for determining the teacher's goals and objectives.
  3. It gives the teacher appropriate feedback for her own professional growth.
  4. It yields objective, quantitative data for impartial student evaluation.
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.
Objective 013
Understand the role of a teacher as a professional.

10. A new Chinese teacher is looking for information about instructional strategies for teaching students with various special needs in the language classroom. The teacher will have a few gifted/talented students and a few students with language or learning disorders in the general classroom population. The teacher could best prepare for these students by consulting which of the following resources?

  1. professional journals about language teaching
  2. a teacher who is serving as a mentor at the school
  3. school specialists who work with special populations
  4. pedagogy texts from the school's teaching library
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.