Unit 11 Language Comparison Poster

Language Comparison Poster

Emily StriteWilkes University

Hola! Hello! Me gusta tus zapatos. I like your shoes. Que bueno! How great!

Language Comparison of English and Spanish

Starting With the Basics

• Spanish and English both use the Roman Alphabet (ColorinColorado, 2007).

• Despite this similarity, differences do occur.• Spanish is a Romantic language consisting of 28 graphemes and 5 separate vowel phonemes.• Of those 28 graphemes, 21 do not have exclusive relationships with produced sounds. (Teschner, 2000, 1). • English has 26 graphemes and 40+ phones or speech sounds.

• However there are similarities too…

Digging a Little Deeper

• Each language shares syntactical and morphological systems for creating discourse in a variety of tenses. Verbs are commonly used to convey information in the simple present, past, and future as well as the present and past perfect, conditional, and progressive.

• Both are a language that consists of unique combinations of idiomatic expressions, regional dialects, and slang.

• Spanish and English are created using a “fixed-word-order”. Their syntax uses a subject-verb-object structure (Pinker, 1994, 232-233).

• Spanish uses gender specific nouns- el pan (M) la leche (F)

• They share all the same graphemes apart from the /rr/ and /ñ/ found in Spanish

• “30%-40% of English words share a similar word in Spanish” (ColorinColorado, 2007.)

• There are many phonemic and phonological differences

• An accento (accent) mark is used with certain Spanish words- this can be a contextual change

More Comparisons and Contrasts between…

English and Spanishinglés y español

Looking at Interlangugae, data analysis, and implications for teaching

Impacts of the Ell’s L1 on her L2

• My student had difficulty identifying the subjects of her sentences.• This is a negative interference of her L1,

because she is unaccustomed to using separate subjects in front of the verb(s) in sentences.

• She formed syntactically correct sentences.• This is a positive transference of her L1

skills for using the subject-verb-object structure.

• She misspelled and mispronounced several words during oral and written communication. • This is another negative interference

from her L1. She relied on her phonological and phonemic Spanish skills.

Implications for TeachingSome Highlights…

• In order to foster second language acquisition with Hispanic students, it is necessary to do the following things:

• Plan lessons and activities that address phonology (includes phonemic awareness)

• Demonstrate the use of cognates• Reinforce syntactic structures, but emphasize

morphological differences and word order (noun/adjective and subject/verb)

• Introduce, practice, review, and evaluate conjugation of verbs

• Use cooperative strategies to support collectivistic learners/communicators – pragmatics and semantics

• Utilize realia, graphic organizers, word walls, & dictionaries• Provide ample opportunities for written and oral expression• Give appropriate feedback (varies upon context)

References: C o l o r i n C o l o r a d o ’ s   . ( 2 0 0 7 ) . C a p i t a l i z i n g o n S i m i l a r i t i e s a n d D i ff e r e n c e s b e t w e e n S p a n i s h a n d E n g l i s h r e t r i e v e d f r o m h t t p : / /w w w . c o l o r i n c o l o r a d o . o r g / e d u c a t o r s / b a c k g r o u n d / c a p i t a l i z i n g /

P i n k e r, S . ( 1 9 9 4 ) .   T h e L a n g u a g e I n s t i n c t : H o w t h e m i n d c r e a t e s L a n g u a g e. N e w Y o r k , N Y : H a r p e r P e r e n n i a l / H a r p e r C o l l i n s .

Te s c h n e r, R i c h a r d V. ( 2 0 0 0 ) . C a m i n o O r a l : Fo n é t i c a , f o n o l o g í a y p r a c t i c a d e l o s s o n i d o s d e l e s p a ñ o l. ( 2 n d E d i t i o n ) . E l P a s o , T X : M c G r a l l H i l l .

 Thank you! Gracias!