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French K–12

Multiple Choice Section

Test Format and Sample Questions

The French K to 12 subject area test consists of sections that test your speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills, as well as your knowledge of pedagogy and French linguistic structures, vocabulary, and culture. The test includes approximately 78 questions, and you will have two-and-one-half hours to complete the entire test.

Multiple Choice

This section of the test consists of multiple-choice items. Read the question, select the best answer, and indicate your choice by selecting A, B, C, or D.

The table below presents types of questions on the exam and directs you to examples of these formats among the sample items that follow.

Table of Question Formats

Question Format Sample Items
Reading comprehension and vocabulary
Select the response option that best identifies, summarizes, or translates a short passage. 		Item 2
Culture
Choose the response option that identifies features of the culture, arts and literature, history, geography, and socioeconomic and political institutions of France and the Francophone world. Identify the relationships among the perspectives, products, and practices of the culture studied. 		Item 3
Language structures and linguistics
Choose the response option that best completes a sentence or identifies a feature of French linguistic structures. 		Item 12
Pedagogy
Choose the response option that best identifies methods, materials, and technologies used for teaching French or provides the best recommendation for a specific teaching situation. 		Item 19

Sample Questions

The following questions represent both the form and content of questions on the examination. These questions will acquaint you with the general format of the examination; however, these sample questions do not cover all of the competencies and skills that are tested and will only approximate the degree of examination difficulty.

Question 2

Multiple Choice Section

Competency 2—Knowledge of communication

DIRECTIONS: Read the following passage and select the correct response.

L'amitié

Ce que nous appelons ordinairement amis et amitiés, ce ne sont qu'accointances et familiarités nouées par quelque occasion ou commodité, par le moyen de laquelle nos âmes s'entretiennent. En l'amitié de quoi je parle, elles se mêlent et confondent l'une en l'autre, d'un mélange si universel qu'elles effacent et ne retrouvent plus la couture qui les a jointes. Si on me presse de dire pourquoi je l'aimais, je sens que cela ne se peut exprimer qu'en répondant : "Parce que c'était lui, parce que c'était moi".

Il y a, au delà de tout mon discours et de ce que j'en puis dire particulièrement, ne sais quelle force inexplicable et fatale, médiatrice de cette union. Nous nous cherchions avant que de nous être vus, et par des rapports que nous oyions l'un de l'autre, qui faisaient en notre affection plus d'effort que ne porte la raison des rapports; je crois, par quelque ordonnance du ciel. Nous nous embrassions par nos noms; et à notre première rencontre, qui fut par hasard en une grande fête et compagnie de ville, nous nous trouvâmes si pris, si connus, si obligés entre nous, que rien dès lors ne nous fut si proche que l'un à l'autre. (...)

From M. Montaigne, L'amitié. In A. Lagarde and L. Michard (eds), XVIe Siècle les grands auteurs français du programme anthologie et histoire littéraire [Great French authors of the 16th century anthology and literary history program]. (Paris: Bordas, 1985).

Sur quoi est basée l'affection de Montaigne pour cette personne?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 3

Multiple Choice Section

Competency 3—Knowledge of cultures

DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

Tagine is a regional dish of

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.

Question 4

Multiple Choice Section

Competency 3—Knowledge of cultures

DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

Hector Hyppolite is a representative of which of the following artistic movements?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 5

Multiple Choice Section

Competency 3—Knowledge of cultures

DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

Who was the architect of the liberation of Haiti from France?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.

Question 6

Multiple Choice Section

Competency 3—Knowledge of cultures

DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

At the beginning of July, which sports activity would receive the most media coverage in France?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 7

Multiple Choice Section

Competency 4—Knowledge of sociolinguistic patterns through comparisons of English and French

DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

A French family has invited friends to dinner at 7:00 p.m. The latest culturally acceptable time for their friends to arrive would be approximately

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 8

Multiple Choice Section

Competency 4—Knowledge of sociolinguistic patterns through comparisons of English and French

DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

A man is seated on a bench at a busy train station in France. Choose the culturally acceptable question to ask in order to share the bench.

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 9

Multiple Choice Section

Competency 5—Knowledge of linguistic patterns

DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

Which of the following expressions would French-speaking people use to say that they were feeling down or blue?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 10

Multiple Choice Section

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DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

In which occupation or discipline would the French vocabulary items logiciel, ordinateur, clavier, and souris be of most use?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 11

Multiple Choice Section

This heading intentionally left blank

DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

A teacher asks a student, "What is the capital of France?" The student answers, "Paris." What is the teacher's correct response?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 12

Multiple Choice Section

Competency 5—Knowledge of linguistic patterns

DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

Which of the following English statements corresponds to the French expression

« J'en ai ras le bol? »

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 13

Multiple Choice Section

Competency 5—Knowledge of linguistic patterns

DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

Which sentence correctly observes the French convention for capitalization?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 14

Multiple Choice Section

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DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

Which of the following sentences correctly observes the French convention for capitalization?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 15

Multiple Choice Section

Competency 5—Knowledge of linguistic patterns

DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

If someone is asked to explain how long he has been living in Florida, which is the correct response?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 16

Multiple Choice Section

Competency 5—Knowledge of linguistic patterns

DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

Select the correct type of agreement between the two underlined words in the following sentence.

La jeune  start underline fille conduisait end underline  trop vite.

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 17

Multiple Choice Section

Competency 5—Knowledge of linguistic patterns

DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

Select the correct article used with the noun in the following sentence.

Elle préfère  blank  romans écrits au dix-neuvième siècle.

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: D.

Question 18

Multiple Choice Section

Competency 5—Knowledge of linguistic patterns

DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

In French, the correct translation of "He is very influential" is

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 19

Multiple Choice Section

Competency 6—Knowledge of pedagogy

DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

Ms. Redmond's French III class will begin reading the first chapter of L'Étranger next week. The most appropriate prereading activity for Ms. Redmond to use to prepare her students for this assignment is

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: C.

Question 20

Multiple Choice Section

Competency 6—Knowledge of pedagogy

DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

During the second week of his French 4 course, Mr. Walsh administers a diagnostic speaking test to his students. Mr. Walsh uses the A C T F L Oral Proficiency Interview (O P I) to evaluate his students' level of proficiency. Mr. Walsh will follow four procedural steps, in the order presented below:

  1. warm-up
  2. level check
  3. blank
  4. wind-down

What is the third step?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.

Question 21

Multiple Choice Section

Competency 6—Knowledge of pedagogy

DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

Ms. Shelton's third grade French class is studying the culture of French Canada. A festival that the children learn to appreciate is « le carnaval du Québec ». To impart an understanding of this festival, Ms. Shelton should have the children create a

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 22

Multiple Choice Section

Competency 6—Knowledge of pedagogy

DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

Tactile and kinesthetic instructional modalities should be emphasized especially in teaching reading to which kind of learners?

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.

Question 23

Multiple Choice Section

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DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

To teach Madame de Lafayette's La Princesse de Clèves most effectively in an advanced placement French course, an instructor should ask students to

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.

Question 24

Multiple Choice Section

Competency 6—Knowledge of pedagogy

DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

An alternative to traditional listening comprehension tests that is particularly suited to dyslexic learners is a(an)

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: A.

Question 25

Multiple Choice Section

Competency 6—Knowledge of pedagogy

DIRECTIONS: Select the correct response.

The most effective use of the Internet to motivate students to improve their writing skills in French is to have students

Choose an answer
Enter to expand or collapse answer.Answer expanded
Correct Response: B.