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English Language Acquisition and Education Policies — LET Practice Questions

This English Language Acquisition and Education Policies section of the LET English Major exam covers 7 expert-reviewed practice questions. Each question has a plain-English explanation and notes on why the wrong answers are wrong.

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Sample questions with answers and explanations

Sample 1

According to Noam Chomsky, what is the innate biological endowment that allows children to acquire language rapidly?

Answer: A

Chomsky said children are born with a Language Acquisition Device (LAD) — a built-in mental mechanism that lets them pick up language quickly from limited input. Universal Grammar is the set of shared language rules inside it: the LAD is the toolbox, Universal Grammar the tools.

Why the other choices are wrong
  • B. Universal Grammar is what's INSIDE the LAD — the set of language principles. The LAD is the device that uses them. Toolbox vs. tools.
  • C. Krashen's Input Hypothesis (i+1) is about comprehensible input being slightly above current level. It's about exposure, not the innate mechanism.
  • D. Behaviorism (Skinner) denies innate language capacity and says language is learned by reinforcement. Chomsky's LAD was specifically built to argue against that view.

Sample 2

What does the 'Affective Filter' refer to in the context of second language acquisition?

Answer: B

Stephen Krashen's Affective Filter Hypothesis states that emotional barriers—like anxiety, self-doubt, or stress—act as a filter that blocks language input from reaching the brain's language acquisition mechanism. When a student is nervous about making mistakes, they close themselves off; even if they hear correct input, it doesn't stick. A supportive, low-stress classroom environment lowers this filter, allowing comprehensible input to get through. Teachers who emphasize fluency over accuracy and create psychologically safe spaces help lower students' affective filters.

Why the other choices are wrong
  • A. Grammatical rules are processed by the brain, not 'filtered' in the way the hypothesis describes.
  • C. Input is not 'discarded' by learners in a filtering sense; it is blocked from processing.
  • D. The affective filter is an internal psychological mechanism, not the teacher's error correction method.

Sample 3

What is 'fossilization' in second language acquisition?

Answer: B

Fossilization occurs when a second language learner stops improving and gets stuck with errors that should be correctable. Imagine a Filipino speaker who says 'I am going to the market yesterday' for years—the tense error is fossilized; despite repeated input and correction, it never changes. This happens when the interlanguage (the learner's developing language system) stabilizes prematurely, often due to limited input, reduced motivation, or learned tolerance of errors. Fossilization is the opposite of the continuous refinement most learners experience.

Why the other choices are wrong
  • A. Forgetting the mother tongue is language loss or attrition, not fossilization in L2.
  • C. Historical study of language evolution is linguistic paleontology or historical linguistics, unrelated to L2 acquisition.
  • D. Using archaic vocabulary is a stylistic choice, not a frozen error in acquisition.
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