Language and vocabulary on the Ohio English II test: complete overview - Ohio's State Test for ELA II

Language and vocabulary is one of the core skill areas tested on Ohio's State Test for English Language Arts II. The Language standards are tested in context: vocabulary as used in a passage, word parts, the feeling words carry, and the conventions of standard English in editing items. This site breaks the area into five dot points. This overview maps the five skills, how they connect, and how they feed both the reading items and the extended-response conventions score.

The five language skills

Each skill applies a Language standard to the test.

• Vocabulary in context. Working out a word's meaning from the passage around it, choosing the sense the sentence requires. See vocabulary in context.
• Word parts: roots, prefixes, and suffixes. Inferring meaning from a word's parts, and seeing how a suffix changes part of speech. See word parts: roots, prefixes, and suffixes.
• Denotation, connotation, and figurative meaning. Reading the feeling a word carries and the meaning of idiom and figures of speech. See denotation, connotation, and figurative meaning.
• Grammar and usage conventions. Agreement, tense, parallelism, and standard usage, tested in editing items and scored on the essay. See grammar and usage conventions.
• Punctuation and sentence structure. Joining clauses correctly and fixing comma splices, run-ons, and fragments. See punctuation and sentence structure.

The thread through every skill: meaning and correctness in context

Two ideas run through all five skills. The first is context: vocabulary, connotation, and figurative meaning are all read from the passage around a word, not from an isolated definition, the same evidence habit that runs through the reading modules. The second is that language counts twice: the grammar, usage, and punctuation rules are tested directly in editing items and then scored again on the extended response under Conventions of Standard English. A student who masters these conventions improves both scores at once, which makes language one of the highest-leverage areas to study.

How the language skills are tested

• Vocabulary and word meaning: multiple-choice and multi-select items asking what a word means as used, or which word best fits.
• Word parts and connotation: items asking you to infer meaning from parts, or to read the feeling and figurative sense of a word.
• Editing items: choose or fix the sentence that corrects an agreement, tense, parallelism, usage, or punctuation error.
• Extended response: the Conventions of Standard English domain scores your control of these same rules in your own writing.

How to study language and vocabulary

1. Read widely and learn common roots and affixes, then work out new words from context.
2. Compare near-synonyms to read connotation and an author's tone.
3. Drill editing items, learning to name the single convention each one tests.
4. Master the three clause joins (comma plus conjunction, semicolon, period) to fix splices and run-ons fast.
5. Apply the same rules in your writing, because Conventions is scored on the extended response.

For the official exam materials

ODEW publishes practice tests and information on the ELA II assessment and Ohio's Learning Standards. See the ELA II course resources page and the English language arts standards page. Always study from the current released materials, because the item types and standards are set by ODEW.