Language and Cognates

1
Language and Cognates

• CLASE Conference
• Atlanta, Georgia
• February 23, 2007

2
Objectives

• Workshop participants will be able to
• Devise and articulate a personal policy regarding
  students use of native languages in the
  classroom
• Describe the advantages inherent in the
  linguistic similarities of English and Spanish,
  the two languages most commonly used in the
  United States

3
The Language of the Home

• is the most powerful learning tool that students
  bring to school
• can be used to accelerate students learning of a
  second language

Reading of Learning to Speak American
4
Table Talk

• What appears to be Mr. Kaeseleaus attitude about
  language use in his classroom?
• What is young Andrews attitude to his home
  language?
• What is your district or school policy regarding
  students use of languages other than English in
  the classroom?

5
Which skills develop first?

• Receptive English skills listening and reading
• Productive English skills speaking and writing

6
De Talen van de wereld

• De vijf talen die het grootste aantal sprekers
  ter wereld hebben zijn Mandarin, Hindi, het
  Engels, het Spaans en Bengaals, in die orde.
  Eerste vier hebben wereldwijd meer dan 300
  miljoen sprekers. Hiervan, slechts zijn het
  Engels en het Spaans Indo-European talen, met een
  alfabet dat oorspronkelijk fonetisch waren en
  woordenschat die grotendeels wordt afgeleid uit
  Latijn. Het Engels en het Spaans worden ook
  beschouwd de meest internationale talen als van
  de wereld omdat zij "officiële nationale taal"
  status in de Amerikas, Europa, Afrika en andere
  delen van de wereld hebben.

7
Semantic Feature Analysis

• Work as a group at your table
• Place a or in the box for any item you
  believe you can answer correctly
• Leave blank the ones you are not very sure about
• Consider the implications created by the
  information you added, whether partial or
  complete

8
World Languages

• The five languages that have the greatest number
  of speakers on earth are Mandarin, Hindi,
  English, Spanish and Bengali, in that order. The
  first four have more than 300 million speakers
  worldwide. Of these, only English and Spanish are
  Indo-European languages, with an alphabet that
  was originally phonetic and vocabulary that is
  largely derived from Latin. English and Spanish
  also are considered the worlds most
  international languages because they have
  official national language status in the
  Americas, Europe, Africa and other parts of the
  world.

9
Language Distance

• The Defense Language Institute lists languages in
  four categories, based on their average learning
  difficulty from the perspective of native English
  speakers. For Category 1 languages, military
  personnel can reach the intermediate oral level
  in six months, but it takes a year for Category 4
  languages, such as Arabic or Mandarin, which are
  members of the most distant language families
  from English and use very different writing
  systems.

10
English/Spanish Closeness

• Spanish is a Category 1 language to English
• The two languages were born at the same time
• They share a similar alphabet and sound system
• They each have an Indo-European heritage Spanish
  from Latin, English from German
• Most of the English lexicon now derives from
  Latin only 15 of the original Anglo-Saxon
  remains in use
• (see handout)

11
German and Spanish

• Evidence of the Visigothic influence can still be
  found in Spanish surnames
• Heinrich-Enríquez
• Gundisalv-González
• Hrodric-Rodríguez

12
The huge advantage of a shared heritage

• Mañana Daniel y su papá visitarán al magnífico
  zoológico municipal de San Diego. Allí
  observarán varios tipos de animales salvages,
  incluyendo los elefantes, los hipopótamos, los
  cocodrilos y las jirafas. Daniel cargará una
  cámara para tomar fotos. En septiembre
  presentará las fotos en su clase como parte de un
  reporte titulado Mi vacación en California.

13
Which is more difficult for an ELL to read?

• A. Daniel will tote a camera along to take
  snapshots. In September hell share the pictures
  with his class back in England, as part of a
  report entitled, My Trip to California.

• B. Daniel will carry a camera to take photos. In
  September he will present the pictures to his
  class back in England, as part of a report
  entitled, My Vacation in California.

14
The point is this

• Often it is the simple English words that can
  be the most challenging to ELLs
• Cognates between English and Spanish can help
  comprehension, though students should know false
  cognates also exist

15
Classroom Application

• The study of personal names provides a powerful
  means of
• engaging students in learning
• developing rapport with students

Activity Name Study