Language Comparison poster

Language ComparisonEnglish vs Tagalog

Celeste HolovacsWilkes - 502

The Philippines is an archipelago in South-East Asia. The nation consists of 7,107 islands located between the Philippine Sea and the South China Sea, on the eastern edge of Asia. Tagalog is an Austronesian language with about 57 million speakers in the Philippines, particularly in Manila, central and southern parts of Luzon.

Tagalog pronounced (ta-GA-log) serves as the basis of the Filipino language, the national language of the Philippines. The two languages are basically identical. However, there is a significant political and social history that underlies the reasons for differentiating between Tagalog and Filipino.The current constitution of the Philippines maintains that Filipino is the country’s national language. Today, Filipino is considered the proper term for the language of the Philippines, especially by Filipino-speakers who are not of Tagalog origin. Many Filipino-speakers acknowledge Filipino’s roots by referring to the Filipino language as “Tagalog-based.”

http://www.alsintl.com/resources/languages/Tagalog/

Tagalog Background

Rica is an eleven year old sixth grade student who has been in the United States for four months. She came from Pampanga Luaon, an island in the Philippines. She is currently at an independent reading level of grade four and instructional reading level of grade five. The primary language spoken in her home is Tagalog. She attended public school five days a week where English was a core subject.

Student Background

English TagalogFive vowels, a, e, i, o, u, short and long sounds

Five vowel sounds, a, e, i, o, u, all short, long vowels are nonexistent

21 consonant sounds, Nine English consonants do not occur in Tagalog: /v/, /j/, /z/, voiced and voiceless th, sh, dz, ch, z.

16 consonant sounds - b, d, k, g, h, l, m, ng, p, r, s, t, w, and y. The consonants have only one sound each, most notably the g always pronounced as the hard g, never soft

Language is written left to right

Language is written left to right

English and Tagalog Comparisons

English Tagalog

Present, past, future tense, and there are several different forms of these tenses

Almost all verbs are regular tense.

English has linking verbs like: am, is, are, was, were

No auxiliary or linking verb

English words are not always pronounced the same way it is spelled.

Highly phonetic language, most words are spelled like they sound

English and Tagalog Comparisons

English Tagalog

Pronouns indicate gender: he, she, we, they, his, her, us

Pronouns do not indicate gender. Siya means he or she

Nouns do not require an article

All nouns, even proper nouns require an article.

Plurals are made by adding “s” or “es”

The plural word is preceded by "mga" i.e. "mga apple" means "apples“ and "the child" would be "ang bata"; "the children" would be "ang mga bata".

English and Tagalog Comparisons

English Tagalog

Sentence structure is SVO Sentence structure is usually VSO

Focus is placed by voice, important words are emphasized

Focus of the sentence is done by placing a marker in front of the word that is the focus. marker comes before a noun. Ang, ng, and sa are markers.

Three degrees of adjectives Three degrees of adjectives

English and Tagalog Comparisons

Below are some errors made by Rica:

• The teacher gived us the test.• The tall boy growed two inches over the summer.• I have these last time, instead of I had these last time. • The baby toys instead of the baby’s toys• The boy books instead of the boys’ books• Him exchanged the tickets instead of he

Most of Rica’s errors were developmental. However, she also made interlingual errors which should be addressed. Rica had the most problems with verbs especially in the omission of past tense. This was understandable since Tagalog verbs are of the regular tense.

In Tagalog, verbs start with verb roots. To create tenses, an affix is added to the root. To make verbs future tense, the first two letters are repeated. For example, the verb jump is “Talon”. Future tense is “TATALON” the T and A is repeated. To turn a verb to past tense, insert “UM” between the first and second letter of the word. Past tense of Talon is TUMALON. To turn a verb into present tense, combine the future and past tense rules. Repeat the first two letters, and then add “UM” between them. The present tense of Talon is TUMATALON

Addressing past tense difficulties:− Have students tell you what they did the night before− Have students tell you about a TV show they watched− Have students fill in correct past tense verbs in sentences−Give students sentence starters like “ Last night….. or Yesterday…..− Show students pictures and have them write sentences in past tense− Use tongue twisters such as: Swan swam over the sea. Swim, swan, swim! Swan swam back again. Well swum, swan!

INSTRUCTIONAL IMPLICATIONS

The word order in Tagalog is different in than English. In English one would say "The house is beautiful." which is translated into Tagalog as "Magandá ang báhay." which literally means "Beautiful the house."

Sentence structure difficulty:Write individual words on index cards representing

various parts of speechColor code each part of speech the same colorStart with simple sentencesWork collaboratively to build sentences by picking

words from index cards

INSTRUCTIONAL IMPLICATIONS

Tagalog usually stresses the last syllable. It also uses glottal stop which can be stressed. The diacritical marks are used to show which vowel should be stressed and which vowel should be accompanied with the glottal stop and which should be the combination of both the stress and the glottal stop. This is very important because the meaning of a word can be changed if you don't make the stress or glottal stop correctly.

suka - vomitsukà – vinegarbága - live charcoalbagà - lungs

These could be a real problem if mixed up!

− Introduce IPA - to capture accents by showing students how a word should be pronounced. Students would not have to depend on hearing the words to learn them.

− Cooperative Learning Groups – to build confidence with speaking

−Read stories that are familiar to students

INSTRUCTIONAL IMPLICATIONS

Whether we as teachers have an ESL class, a special needs class, or a regular population class, it is important to meet the diverse needs of all students. Activities must be geared to all learning modality styles.

General ELL strategies:− Bring in magazines that interest the student or junior scholastic and have students read and discuss− Read various types of literature aloud− Be aware of and respectful of the student’s culture− Use Dialogue Journals− Introduce vocabulary that has meaningful context

Reyes, R. (1997). About the Tagalog language. In A handbook and grammar of the Tagalog language. Retrieved from http://tagalog.ryanreyes.com/tagalog.htm