Cognates
I usually have general conversations on their comprehension of or lack of understanding the English language. I begin with the introduction of Cognates. Cognates or “cognados”, as used in my classroom, are words that are similar in the native language to English language. Cognates have a positive effect on vocabulary and language learning. English language learners from cognate backgrounds, including Spanish native speakers, tend to achieve much higher scores on vocabulary tests as well as tests on other language skills than those from non-cognate backgrounds[29] The author states ELL or English language learners revealed that the understanding of what cognates is one of the key factors contributing to vocabulary learning from listening and academic texts.[30] Cognates are more likely to be retained due to the closeness of the similarity of the word to the native language and the comprehension of the native speaker.[31]
One of reasons I focus on cognates is because on the other hand of the cognate having a similar meaning, there is the false cognate. The false cognate sounds alike and usually spelled similar but in fact it’s very different. False cognates are words that have similar orthographic and/or phonological forms in the two languages but refer to different concepts.[32] I can speak firsthand as to this confusion. In a conversation, in my high school days, I had made the horrible mistake of telling a classmate of mine I was embarrassed because of something I said to her. Instead of me saying the actual word for embarrassed in Spanish, I said the word “embarazada”. She began to laugh and I didn’t quite understand as to why she was laughing. She told me in the kindest way I said I was pregnant not embarrassed. Thank goodness for humor and wit for this save on my behalf. But unfortunately, most students don’t have someone who they are very comfortable with when they first arrive to have conversations with. Thus, the need for having an understanding or grasp of what the student knows or does not understand yet.
The authors, Dang and others, break down the identification of cognates and false cognates in a similar way to what I tend to lean on, in the classroom for my students. One of the first steps is identify the translation, does it mean the same thing or something close? Next, check the pronunciation of the word. This helps with clarification of the word being spoken. Third, check to see if it is a cognate or false cognate.[33] Does it mean the same, so we won’t have a lost in translation episode of the word “embarazada” and embarrassed. The large percentage of cognates among academic spoken words and their reasonable cover age in academic spoken English suggests that Spanish English students have a greater advantage when learning academic spoken English words than learners from non-cognate L1 backgrounds.[34]
So why focus on teaching cognates? Cognates are words with ancestral roots that are similar in appearance and meaning.[35] They occur in English and other ancestrally related languages.[36] If bilingual students know the meanings of cognate words in one language but not in the other language and are aware of cognate relationships, then they could use their cognate knowledge to access the meanings of unknown words in the other language. [37] One reason that cognate recognition could help Spanish-speaking bilingual students improve their knowledge is that many of the cognates in academic English texts are low-frequency words in English (e.g., abundant, form) but high-frequency words in Spanish).[38] Several researchers have explained that the high frequency of Spanish cognates means that Spanish speakers are very likely to know the meanings of the words and could use them to figure out the meanings of less frequent English cognates.[39] Although cognates might not always sound the same, they do follow consistent phonetic, prefix, and suffix patterns that bilingual students often recognize as characteristic of cognates in Spanish and English.[40] As mentioned earlier, one strategy I use is to hear and identify the cognate sounding the same, the author says something that is very relevant to me and my classroom practices. Although they do not sound the same, they follow a consistent pattern. A significant reason they do not often sound the same is because of the dialect. Each Latin American country has a specific dialect as do the different states of the United States. To assess each level of student understanding, scaffolding is a practice that is essential for cognate comprehension.[41]
Implementation of cognates to the Quincenera unit will consist of vocabulary words and/or phrases. For example, the word celebration in English is translated and spelled celebración. These two words look almost identical in spelling and almost identical in pronunciation. This would be a good example of a true cognate. Another example could be the word culture which is translated to cultura in Spanish. This exposure to the cognate in the lesson will let the student firsthand not only see the word being used but see a familiarity in the language, they previously might not have known existed. In contrast, to the understanding of the cognate as previously mentioned, the students will need to understand and identify a false cognate. In English, we use the word “success” to notate accomplishment when something has been worked for or when something is accomplished. In Spanish, the word for accomplishment or success is “exito”. The two sound nothing alike or spelled alike. But the word exit in English looks extremely close to “exito” in Spanish thus making it a false cognate.
One of my first exposures to cognates and false cognates was while working with a group of bilingual students in the elementary setting. I wanted students to sit on the carpet in a small circle. So, with my so-called familiarity of the Spanish language, I told them to sit down on the “carpeta”. To my surprise none of them moved and they looked at me with bewilderment. “Carpeta” in Spanish means folder. They were looking at me with confusion, because they were wondering why the teacher would be asking them to sit on the folder and not put something inside it.
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