• 58 questions

Free ESL Praxis Practice Test

Unofficial practice questions in the six categories of the ETS outline for English to Speakers of Other Languages (5362).

Which pair of words is a minimal pair?

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Exam mode: 58 questions, 58 minutes.

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Unofficial practice questions, not affiliated with ETS (Educational Testing Service). Bank checked October 9, 2026.

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All 58 questions

Linguistics 11

  • A Spanish-speaking student writes that she felt "embarazada" to mean embarrassed, but the Spanish word means pregnant. What is such a misleading look-alike pair called? Wikipedia, "False friend", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, I. Foundations of Linguistics (18%).
  • Adding -ness to "happy" gives "happiness", and adding un- gives "unhappy". Which process forms these new words? Wikipedia, "Morphological derivation", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, I. Foundations of Linguistics (18%).
  • At lunch a student moves between Tagalog and English as she talks with different friends. What is this shifting between languages called? Wikipedia, "Code-switching", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, I. Foundations of Linguistics (18%).
  • For what purpose was the International Phonetic Alphabet devised? Wikipedia, "International Phonetic Alphabet", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, I. Foundations of Linguistics (18%).
  • How does a collocation differ from an idiom? Wikipedia, "Collocation", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, I. Foundations of Linguistics (18%).
  • In the three-circle model of World Englishes, which country is in the Inner Circle? Wikipedia, "World Englishes", classification. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, I. Foundations of Linguistics (18%).
Show all 58 questions (52 more)

Linguistics, continued

  • In the word "unkindly", which part is a free morpheme? Wikipedia, "Bound and free morphemes", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, I. Foundations of Linguistics (18%).
  • Which branch of linguistics studies how context contributes to meaning? Wikipedia, "Pragmatics", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, I. Foundations of Linguistics (18%).
  • Which pair of words is a minimal pair? Wikipedia, "Minimal pair", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, I. Foundations of Linguistics (18%).
  • Which rhetorical device is at work in "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers"? Wikipedia, "Alliteration", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, I. Foundations of Linguistics (18%).
  • The words "rain", "reign" and "rein" are examples of what? Wikipedia, "Homophone", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, I. Foundations of Linguistics (18%).

Language learning 12

  • A learner's own developing version of English keeps some features of her first language and overgeneralizes some English rules. What is this system called? Wikipedia, "Interlanguage", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, II. Foundations of Language Learning (22%).
  • A student carries a word order from his first language into English, where it is wrong. Which term names this source of error? Wikipedia, "Language transfer", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, II. Foundations of Language Learning (22%).
  • A student studies English mainly because she is open to, and wants to connect with, the community that speaks it. Which motive is this in Gardner's socio-educational model? Wikipedia, "Motivation in second-language learning", Integrativeness. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, II. Foundations of Language Learning (22%).
  • According to Krashen's monitor hypothesis, what is consciously learned language used for? Wikipedia, "Input hypothesis", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, II. Foundations of Language Learning (22%).
  • According to the figures usually given for Cummins's model, about how long do students take to develop the academic language (CALP) needed to match native-speaking classmates? Wikipedia, "Cognitive academic language proficiency", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, II. Foundations of Language Learning (22%).
  • After years of study, an adult learner's errors with verb endings have stopped changing. Which term names an interlanguage that has ceased developing? Wikipedia, "Interlanguage", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, II. Foundations of Language Learning (22%).
  • In Krashen's acquisition-learning hypothesis, how do acquisition and learning differ? Wikipedia, "Input hypothesis", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, II. Foundations of Language Learning (22%).
  • In Krashen's formula "i+1", what does the "+1" stand for? Wikipedia, "Input hypothesis", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, II. Foundations of Language Learning (22%).
  • In second-language acquisition, which skills develop first? Wikipedia, "Second-language acquisition", attrition. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, II. Foundations of Language Learning (22%).
  • In Swain's comprehensible output hypothesis, when does learning take place? Wikipedia, "Comprehensible output", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, II. Foundations of Language Learning (22%).
  • When knowledge of the first language leads to correct production in the second, as with the use of cognates, what is this called? Wikipedia, "Language transfer", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, II. Foundations of Language Learning (22%).
  • Which researcher popularized the critical period hypothesis in 1967 with the book Biological Foundations of Language? Wikipedia, "Critical period hypothesis", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, II. Foundations of Language Learning (22%).

Planning and instruction 13

  • A teacher gives a newcomer sentence starters for a lab report and removes them as the student's writing grows. What is this tailored, temporary help called? Wikipedia, "Instructional scaffolding", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, III. Planning and Implementing Instruction (23%).
  • A teacher gives English learners a diagram with boxes and arrows to show how the causes of an event relate. What is this tool called? Wikipedia, "Graphic organizer", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, III. Planning and Implementing Instruction (23%).
  • An ESOL teacher teaches a science unit on weather so that students learn the subject matter and English together. Which approach is this? Wikipedia, "Content-based instruction", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, III. Planning and Implementing Instruction (23%).
  • Before a reading on volcanoes, the teacher has students share what they already know about them. Which mental structure is she activating? Wikipedia, "Schema (psychology)", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, III. Planning and Implementing Instruction (23%).
  • Each small group studies one part of a text, and the class then puts the parts together, so that students depend on one another to succeed. Which technique is this? Wikipedia, "Jigsaw (teaching technique)", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, III. Planning and Implementing Instruction (23%).
  • In communicative language teaching, what is both the method and the final aim of study? Wikipedia, "Communicative language teaching", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, III. Planning and Implementing Instruction (23%).
  • In task-based language teaching, what is assessment primarily based on? Wikipedia, "Task-based language learning", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, III. Planning and Implementing Instruction (23%).
  • Students memorize grammar rules and then translate sentences between English and their native language. Which method is this? Wikipedia, "Grammar–translation method", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, III. Planning and Implementing Instruction (23%).
  • Total physical response, the method developed by James Asher, is based on what? Wikipedia, "Total physical response", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, III. Planning and Implementing Instruction (23%).
  • What marks the direct method of language teaching? Wikipedia, "Direct method (education)", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, III. Planning and Implementing Instruction (23%).
  • Which pair of practices does the natural approach of Krashen and Terrell limit? Wikipedia, "Natural approach", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, III. Planning and Implementing Instruction (23%).
  • Which term names the range in which a learner can perform a task only if a teacher or a more knowledgeable peer helps? Wikipedia, "Zone of proximal development", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, III. Planning and Implementing Instruction (23%).
  • Which theory is the audio-lingual method based on? Wikipedia, "Audio-lingual method", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, III. Planning and Implementing Instruction (23%).

Assessment 9

  • A mathematics test made of long word problems in English is given to newcomers. Their low scores may reflect reading in English more than mathematics. Which quality of the test is in doubt? Wikipedia, "Test validity", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, IV. Assessment and Evaluation (15%).
  • During a running record, what does the teacher do while the child reads a passage aloud? Wikipedia, "Running record", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, IV. Assessment and Evaluation (15%).
  • From which state test may a state exempt a recently arrived English learner, and how many times? 34 CFR 200.6 (ESEA Title I regulations), paragraph (i)(1)(i). Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, IV. Assessment and Evaluation (15%).
  • In the federal Title I regulations, who is a "recently arrived English learner"? 34 CFR 200.6 (ESEA Title I regulations), paragraph (k)(2). Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, IV. Assessment and Evaluation (15%).
  • The SOLOM rates five domains on a five-point scale each. What is the range of its total score? Student Oral Language Observation Matrix (SOLOM), as published by the Center for Applied Linguistics, description. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, IV. Assessment and Evaluation (15%).
  • Under the federal Title I regulations, how often must each district assess the English language proficiency of all its English learners? 34 CFR 200.6 (ESEA Title I regulations), paragraph (h)(1)(ii). Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, IV. Assessment and Evaluation (15%).
  • What does Recommendation 1 of the 2007 IES guide on literacy for English learners in the elementary grades tell schools to do? IES practice guide, Effective Literacy and English Language Instruction for English Learners in the Elementary Grades (2007), Recommendation 1. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, IV. Assessment and Evaluation (15%).
  • What kind of instrument is the Student Oral Language Observation Matrix (SOLOM)? Student Oral Language Observation Matrix (SOLOM), as published by the Center for Applied Linguistics, description. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, IV. Assessment and Evaluation (15%).
  • Which skills must a state's English language proficiency assessment cover, under 34 CFR 200.6(h)? 34 CFR 200.6 (ESEA Title I regulations), paragraph (h)(1)(i). Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, IV. Assessment and Evaluation (15%).

Culture 6

  • A form of language used by a particular socioeconomic class, profession or age group is called what? Wikipedia, "Sociolect", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, V. Culture (11%).
  • A newly arrived student is at first excited by everything in her new country. Which phase of culture shock is this? Wikipedia, "Culture shock", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, V. Culture (11%).
  • A student writes formally in a lab report and casually in messages to friends. Which term names a language variety suited to one purpose or situation? Wikipedia, "Register (sociolinguistics)", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, V. Culture (11%).
  • A teacher judges a family's customs as wrong by using only the standards of her own culture. What is this called? Wikipedia, "Ethnocentrism", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, V. Culture (11%).
  • Which field studies how a writer's first language and culture influence writing in a second language? Wikipedia, "Contrastive rhetoric", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, V. Culture (11%).
  • Which term names the process in which a minority group comes to resemble the majority group or fully adopts its values, behaviors and beliefs? Wikipedia, "Cultural assimilation", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, V. Culture (11%).

Law and professionalism 7

  • A Title III subgrant report must show how many former English learners meet state academic standards. For how many years after they stop receiving services? 20 U.S.C. 6841 (Title III reporting), subsection (a)(5). Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, VI. Professionalism and Advocacy (11%).
  • How do the acronyms TEFL and TESL differ? Wikipedia, "English as a second or foreign language", lead section. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, VI. Professionalism and Advocacy (11%).
  • In Plyler v. Doe (1982), which provision did the Supreme Court say Texas violated by denying free public education to undocumented school-age children? Plyler v. Doe, 457 U.S. 202 (1982), text at the Legal Information Institute, syllabus. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, VI. Professionalism and Advocacy (11%).
  • In the federal education law (ESEA), the definition of "English learner" covers an individual of what age? 20 U.S.C. 7801 (Elementary and Secondary Education Act definitions), paragraph (20). Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, VI. Professionalism and Advocacy (11%).
  • On which law did the Supreme Court rest its decision in Lau v. Nichols (1974)? Lau v. Nichols, 414 U.S. 563 (1974), text at the Legal Information Institute, syllabus. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, VI. Professionalism and Advocacy (11%).
  • Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars discrimination in federally assisted programs on which grounds? 42 U.S.C. 2000d (Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964), section 2000d. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, VI. Professionalism and Advocacy (11%).
  • Which court decided Castañeda v. Pickard in 1981 and set a three-part assessment for language programs? Wikipedia, "Castañeda v. Pickard", article text. Outline: ETS Study Companion for Praxis 5362, VI. Professionalism and Advocacy (11%).

How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to the content topics of the ETS Study Companion for Praxis English to Speakers of Other Languages (5362) (https://www.ets.org/pdfs/praxis/5362.pdf, read 2026-10-09; test page https://praxis.ets.org/test/5362.html): Foundations of Linguistics 18%, Foundations of Language Learning 22%, Planning and Implementing Instruction 23%, Assessment and Evaluation 15%, Culture 11%, Professionalism and Advocacy 11%. The bank holds 11, 12, 13, 9, 6 and 7 questions. Every fact was read on 2026-10-09 in the public document the question names: the Supreme Court opinions in Lau v. Nichols and Plyler v. Doe and three sections of the U.S. Code (law.cornell.edu); 34 CFR 200.6 (ecfr.gov, current on 2026-10-07); an IES practice guide (ies.ed.gov); the SOLOM as the Center for Applied Linguistics publishes it (cal.org); and 42 Wikipedia articles for linguistics, language acquisition, teaching methods and culture terms. The real test has listening questions; this bank has none. Licence: Questions, choices and explanations are original work of this site.

How it works

A free ESL Praxis practice test of 58 questions, all our own, on the six categories ETS publishes for English to Speakers of Other Languages (5362). It is unofficial: ETS had no part in it and does not endorse it.

Read the full guide

What the test covers

Test 5362 has six categories, by the Study Companion read October 9, 2026: foundations of linguistics (18%), foundations of language learning (22%), planning and implementing instruction (23%), assessment and evaluation (15%), culture (11%) and professionalism and advocacy (11%). The questions here number 11, 12, 13, 9, 6 and 7.

Timing

Exam mode allows 58 minutes for the 58 questions, the pace of the real test.

Where the answers come from

Law answers name the Supreme Court opinion, the U.S. Code section or the federal regulation. Linguistics, acquisition and teaching-method terms name the Wikipedia article they were checked against.

  • ETS says some real questions ask for more than one answer. Every question on this page has exactly one.
  • For the professionalism category ETS names the Every Student Succeeds Act, Plyler v. Doe and Castañeda v. Pickard.

Questions and answers

Is this ESOL Praxis practice test the real exam?

No. It was written for this site from the content topics in the ETS Study Companion for test 5362. No question is taken from a real test or an ETS sample question, or reworded from one, and a score here forecasts nothing.

What does the Praxis ESL practice test cover?

Morphemes, minimal pairs and pragmatics; interlanguage, transfer and Krashen's hypotheses; teaching methods from grammar-translation to task-based teaching; validity and the federal testing rules for English learners; culture shock and register; Lau v. Nichols, Plyler v. Doe and Title VI.

How many questions are on the Praxis ESOL test?

There are 120 selected-response questions in 120 minutes, taken on a computer. ETS says the test may contain some questions that do not count toward your score.

Does this ESL Praxis test practice include listening?

No. ETS embeds listening questions in the real test, each with a recorded prompt you can hear more than once. This bank is text only: it practices the knowledge behind them, not the listening itself.

What is the passing score for the Praxis ESOL test?

No single score applies. ETS does not set passing scores; the state or agency that licenses you does, and the figures vary by state. Results here are a count of right answers.

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