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Capitalizing on Similarities & Differences between Spanish & English 

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Capitalizing on Similarities & Differences between Spanish & English 

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Fortunately for Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs), there are many similarities between English and Spanish.

First of all, both languages use the Roman alphabet. That knowledge helps build a phonemic and phonological foundation.

Secondly, 30% to 40% of all words in English have a related word in Spanish. With similar sound, appearance, and meaning, these cognates help students transfer that word knowledge into their second language.

Thirdly, except for a couple of word order exceptions (adjective before noun in English and noun before adjective in Spanish), sentences in both languages have the same basic structures (as compared to English and Chinese or other non-Latin derived languages).

And fourth, learning to read and write uses the same basic processes (phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, comprehension, writing mechanics).

When teachers and students know these basic similarities between the two languages, it saves time and guess work as students transfer their knowledge of Spanish literacy into English literacy.

Phonemic and phonological differences between Spanish and English

There are also some differences between the two languages that may interfere with English pronunciation (phonemic differences) and with decoding or spelling (phonological differences).

Perhaps the greatest difference between English and Spanish is that Spanish has only five vowel sounds while English has more than 14, depending on regional dialects. This is the reason Spanish speakers have difficulty differentiating between vowel phonemes in words like seat and sit. Both phonemes are pronounced differently from the Spanish sí ( yes), which is pronounced somewhere between those two English phonemes. These differences also affect students' spelling. Here are some other examples of possible interference from Spanish:

Here are a few differences between Spanish and English:

Combinations in Spanish that are pronounced differently: que, qui, güe, güi. For example: the u is not pronounced unless it is written as ü; therefore, students may not be sure how to pronounce words like queen, quiet, or quick

Quotation marks vs. dashes: "Come here," he said. -Ven aquí-le dijo.

Spanish does not have the following sounds (listed by category):

Strategies for Spanish-speaking ELLs

Point out differences when you introduce phonemic awareness activities (distinguishing sounds) by showing students how to make those sounds.

Say to students, for example:

To make the sound for /sh/ in ship, pronounce it like the Spanish /sh/ by letting air out between your teeth. Notice how you can stretch the /sh/ sound until you run out of air. But, to make the sound /ch/ in chip, you touch the top of your mouth with your tongue and let the air out with a little explosion. Notice how you cannot stretch that sound.

Spanish speakers have difficulty distinguishing the ways to pronounce the final -s in plurals and third person.

Give students examples for each as follows:

Spanish speakers have difficulty distinguishing the ways to pronounce the -ed in past-tense verbs.

Give students examples for each as follows:

"We pronounce it /d/ when the word ends with..."

"We pronounce it /t/ when the word ends with..."

"When the word ends with t, it sounds like /tid/ as in patted."

"When the word ends with d, it sounds like /did/ as in added."

Spanish speakers may leave out word endings when saying or spelling a word.

For example: restauran instead of restaurant; end instead of ended. They may also have problems spelling words that contain the consonant blends, initial sounds, and final sounds listed in the box above.

Additionally, students might substitute:

ll for y (because ll is the nearest sound in Spanish. For example: llelow instead of yellow.)

j for h (because h is silent in Spanish, they might use j. For example: jope instead of hope.)

There are also some differences in question and sentence structures between both languages.

Question markers

Do you want to go to the movies tonight?
¿Quieres ir al cine esta noche?
(Spanish speakers will likely leave out do)

Adjective-Nouns

white horse
caballo blanco (horse white)
(Spanish speakers will often use the adjective after the noun)

With these similarities and differences in mind, pay close attention to your Spanish-speaking ELLs' written and spoken "errors." When you recognize a student saying horse white, for example, point out that in English the noun and adjective are reversed: white horse, brown cow, etc. Once ELLs understand these patterns, they will begin to apply them on their own to new situations.

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Capitalizing on Similarities and Differences between Spanish and English

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Fortunately for Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs), there are many similarities between English and Spanish. First of all, both languages use the Roman alphabet. That knowledge helps build a phonemic and phonological foundation. Secondly, 30% to 40% of all words in English have a related word in Spanish.

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Elfrieda Hiebert - What is a Generative Approach to Vocabulary Instruction?

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Knowledge helps you remember new information, and people who know a great deal about a topic also know its vocabulary. One critical finding from research is that word learning takes place most efficiently when the reader or listener already understands the context well. In fact, we learn words up to four times faster in a familiar context than in an unfamiliar one (Landauer & Dumais, 1997; Hirsch, 2006). Vocabulary instruction that compares and contrasts word meanings and that activates prior knowledge not only helps students learn new words, but also has been shown to improve comprehension of a reading selection (Graves, 2006). Therefore, an important goal of instruction in any subject grade, in any grade, should be to help students acquire the vocabulary associated with the content and to make connections between known and unknown words.

There are four activities that are part of my professional development program titled The Key Vocabulary Routine that are designed to teach words in relation to other words: Semantic Mapping, Categorizing, Semantic Feature Analysis, and Opposites (sometimes called Scaling). This post will provide details for how to use Semantic Mapping (Heimlich & Pittelman, 1986) which is a well-researched activity that helps students draw on background knowledge of a topic and see connections between ideas and words related to that topic. It is highly interactive and offers opportunities for rich, collaborative discussion among students.

There are two steps for generating a semantic map. First, the teacher chooses a key concept word that is central to the topic covered in the reading or classroom lesson and writes this word in the center of a page or on the board. Students are then asked to brainstorm as many words as they know associated with the key word. This brainstorming is best done as a whole class or in smaller cooperative groups. The teacher or a scribe writes the words generated on the board. The visual below is an example of semantic map that was generated in a fifth grade classroom related to text students were reading that had information about baseball.

Once a significant number of words has been generated, students are asked to make connections among the words and group them into categories. See the visual below of the categorized baseball words. There is no "right" or "wrong" answer to this task! Sometimes one of the words on the map becomes the word for a category (e.g., uniform), and sometimes a new word needs to be generated for the category (e.g., referee, equipment). Once the categories are identified, students can be asked to add more words to each category. Sometimes there will be words that are not easily grouped into a category (e.g., innings, game, summer, dugout). This is a simple example, but semantic mapping can be used with any grade level, right up through high school, using a sophisticated key content word and more advanced academic vocabulary.

Scaffolds
Sometimes a new concept word will be so foreign to students that they are unable to generate many of their own words. For example, the background information for students growing up in a city may not be sufficient to brainstorm many words related to the word harvest. When this happens, teachers can provide some background knowledge about the topic to get the brainstorm going. Another scaffold is to provide a list of words that includes some that are related to the key word and some that are not. Students consider each word to determine if it should be added to the semantic map. The categorizing part of the activity can also be scaffolded by the teacher providing category topics. If you are working with young children who have not yet developed solid reading and writing skills, you can use a picture in the center of the map instead of a word, an the brainstorming can be done orally with the teacher transcribing the words.
A Before and After Activity
A semantic mapping activity can begin before students read or learn new information as a way to help them access what they already know about a topic. It also serves as a great "after" activity to extend the vocabulary learning. The teacher can bring back the semantic map or the words listed in categories and ask students to add any new words they have learned about the topic. As noted above, one advantages of semantic mapping is that it is a collaborative task that provides lots of opportunities for the students to talk about words and how they are related, using real-life contexts to explain the words they generate. It also is engaging and motivating, and important part of developing a word conscious classroom in which students enjoy learning words!

I'll end this post by showing several classroom examples of semantic maps. The first one from a grade 2 classroom is interesting because you can see that the words at the top of the map were generated before the students listened to a read aloud about snails. Word such as slow, slimy, small, and slithery are words the students already associated with snails. The words on the bottom of the map were generated after the read aloud. Words such as gastropod, herbivore, and mollusk represent new, academic words that the students learned.

References:
Graves, M.F. 2006. The vocabulary book. New York: Teachers College Press

Heimlich, J.E., & Pittelman, S. D. (1986). Semantic mapping: Classroom applications. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Hirsch, E.D. (2006). The case for bringing content into the language arts block and for a knowledge-rich curriculum core for all children. American educator. Spring, 2006.

Landauer, T.K., & Dumais, S. T., (1997). A solution to Plato's problem" The latent semantic analysis theory of acquisition, induction, and representation of knowledge. Psychological Review, 104 (2).

Joan Sedita

Joan Sedita is the founder of Keys to Literacy and author of the Keys to Literacy professional development programs. She is an experienced educator, nationally recognized speaker and teacher trainer. She has worked for over 35 years in the literacy education field and has presented to thousands of teachers and related professionals at schools, colleges, clinics, and professional conferences.

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Semantic Mapping to Grow Vocabulary - Keys to Literacy

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Knowledge helps you remember new information, and people who know a great deal about a topic also know its vocabulary. One critical finding from research is that word learning takes place most efficiently when the reader or listener already understands the context well.

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Lenski, S. D., Wham, M. A., & Johns, J. L. (1999). Reading and learning strategies for middle and high school students. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt.

Taba, H. (1967).Teacher's handbook for elementary social studies. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Tierney, R.J., & Readence, J.E. (2000). Reading strategies and practices: A compendium (5th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

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List-group-label is a form of semantic mapping. The strategy encourages students to improve their vocabulary and categorization skills and learn to organize concepts. Categorizing listed words, through grouping and labeling, helps students organize new concepts in relation to previously learned concepts.

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Gr 1 rdg building good reading habits - Dec 21 2017 - 1-33 PM.pdf

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Lesson Planning EXAMPLE (reference time chunks)

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Lesson Planning EXAMPLE (reference time chunks)

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Blachman, B. A., Ball, E. W., Black, R., & Tangel, D. M. (2000). Road to the code: A phonological awareness program for young children. Baltimore: Brookes.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

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Elkonin boxes are used to build phonological awareness skills by having children segment spoken words into their individual sounds (phonemes). To use Elkonin boxes, a child listens to a word and moves a token into a box for each sound or phoneme.

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Reading Wars, Reading Science & English Learners

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Dr. Claude Goldenberg: Literacy for English Learners

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Dr. Claude Goldenberg: Literacy for English Learners

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Claude Goldenberg - Literacy for English Learners: What's "Reading Science" Got to Do With It?

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Ways to Lift Oral Comprehension during Read Aloud

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Orthography English/Spanish Side by Side

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Dictado (Interactive Writing) to support encoding and transfer of phonics

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Interview with Dr. Linnae Ehri - Phases of Word-Reading Development

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Interview with Dr. Linnae Ehri - Phases of Word-Reading Development

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Teaching, Reading and Learning: The Reading League Podcast- Episode 11: Interview w/ Dr. Linnae Ehri

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1. What is the Science of Reading?, August 4, 2020

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SoR-What I Should Have Learned in College

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Phonics Lesson Plan Template w/ sentence stems

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Phonics Planning Template w/ sentence stems

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Phonics Lesson Plan Template w/o sentence stems

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Phonics Lesson Plan Template w/o sentence stems

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Copy of DRAFT 2022 Phonics Planning Template

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The Science of Reading: Beyond English (Part I: La sílaba) - Himilcon Inciarte

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The Science of Reading: Beyond English (Part I: La sílaba) - Himilcon Inciarte

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The Science of Reading: Beyond English (Part I: La sílaba)

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The Science of Reading: Beyond English (Part II: La ortografía)- Himilcon Inciarte

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Mouth Maps™: English Simple Vowels with Spanish Anchors

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Mouth Maps™: English Simple Vowels with Spanish Anchors

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Mouth Maps™: English Simple Vowels with Spanish Anchors

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Mouth Maps™: Spanish Simple Vowels with English Anchors

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Mouth Maps™: Spanish Simple Vowels with English Anchors

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Mouth Maps™: Spanish Simple Vowels with English Anchors

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Elfrieda Hiebert - What is a Generative Approach to Vocabulary Instruction?