2. BACKGROUND
The proximity of Latin America to the United States
and the growing influx of Latinos to this country
have given a progressively more important place to
the Spanish language here in the United States
(Farrell and Farrell, 2004). A result of this influx is
the increasing population
of ESL students speaking
Spanish as a first language (L1).
3. A COMPARISON OF ENGLISH AND SPANISH
ENGLISH SPANISH
Modern English is a language that The Spanish language is one of the
has developed over time and has Romance languages developed from
evolved over 3 historical time Latin (Pinker, 1994). There is some
periods: Old English, Middle disparity in the vocabulary and
English and Modern English pronunciation of Spanish spoken in
(Freeman &Freeman, 2004). Spain, but the Spanish spoken in
The English language has Latin America and other parts of the
borrowed some of its words from world is derivative of Castillian, which
Spanish, like banana, and orange is a dialect of the Spanish province of
(Pinker, 1994). Castile (Farrell and Farrell, 2004)
4. THE ALPHABET
No alphabet has a one to one correspondence
between letters and sounds (Freeman and
Freeman, 2004). The English alphabet consists of
26 letters and the Spanish alphabet contains 30
letters which includes the 26 letters of the
English alphabet, as well as a few groupings
of English letters that create
additional sounds
including: ch, ll, rr,
and n with a tilde over it.
5. SOUNDS
English has a ch sound but it is the letter /c/ and /h/ that
when combined together form a digraph. In Spanish the
ch is its own letter. Other English digraphs are /sh/ and /
th/. There is no /th/ digraph in Spanish. The Spanish
letter /h/ is silent and the /j/ has a sound closer to the
English letter /h/ (Freeman and Freeman, 2004). The
Spanish letter /y/ can sound like a traditional /y/ sound in
English like in the name Yolanda or the Spanish /y/ can
sound like the English /j/ the Spanish name Jarielys. The
/rr/ is rolled off the tongue for the /r/ sound.
The Spanish /b/ and /v/ have the same sound
and are pronounced like the English /b/.
6. PUNCUATION
There are similarities in punctuation between
English and Spanish. For example, periods,
commas, colons, semicolons are used in the same
manner. There are differences also. In English,
question marks and exclamation points are used at
end of the sentence. In Spanish, these marks are
written at the beginning, with the mark
being upside-down as well as at the
end with the mark right side up.
7. NOUNS
Nouns are used in the same way in both English and
Spanish. In English, some nouns are considered to
have gender to identify only if something is male or
female, for example, man and woman or boy and girl.
And English, gender typically makes no difference
unless there are two forms of the word like, actor and
actress, for example. In Spanish all nouns are either
masculine or feminine. This is important to
understand because the determiners in Spanish
change according to the gender of the noun that it
refers to (Farrell and Farrell, 2004).
8. NOUNS….continued
A determiner is a functional category that serves as a
specifier of a noun (O’Grady, 2005). Some examples
of specifiers in English are: a, the, these. Two singular
determiners in Spanish is the feminine la or the
masculine el. In Spanish there are plural determiners
as well, which are las and los. Nouns also have
singular and plural forms adding -s or –es in addition
to the irregular nouns in both languages.
The preposition /de/ forms possession in Spanish
whereas English nouns have a possessive case
formed by adding -’s or -s’.
9. PRONOUNS
Examples of English pronouns are: he, she, or we.
Some Spanish pronouns are: el (he), ella (she),
nosotros/as (we). Pronouns, like nouns, have gender,
number and case and they change depending on the
person like first, second, or third person (Farrell and
Farrell, 2004). Personal pronouns can be used as
subjects or objects. In Spanish there are three persons
and there is another alternative of using the familiar you
(tu) and polite (usted) forms (Farrell and Farrell, 2004).
In English, subject pronouns go before the verb in the
sentence. In Spanish, subject, direct object, and
indirect object pronouns go before the verb.
10. VERBS
In English, most verbs have four tenses: infinitive, simple
past, past participle, present participle (Farrell and Farrell,
2004). English does not normally conjugate verbs because
there is only one inflected ending by adding /s/ to the third
person singular of the present tense. In English some verb
tenses need special endings: -ed, -en, or -ing. Some verbs
require auxiliary verbs like: do, did, have, has, would, or
could. There are irregular verbs in both English and
Spanish. Spanish verbs are conjugated and endings are used
to indicate the appropriate tense like: a, as, aste, e, or ando.
In Spanish, various verbs use auxiliary verbs too like: cocer
(to bake) or bailar (to dance). In Spanish, verbs need to
agree in person and in number (Farrell and Farrell, 2004).
11. ADJECTIVES
Adjectives are used the same in English and Spanish
(Farrell and Farrell, 2004). But when using comparative
adjectives in Spanish, they are a single word which is
different than the suffixes -er, -est that are used in English.
Adjectives come before nouns in English and must agree
in gender and number. This is not the same, however, in
Spanish in most cases. There are some exceptions
to the rule, like for example, when
the words have different meanings
depending on placement.
12. ADVERBS
An adverb in English is often formed by an adjective and a
suffix, like, –ly as used in the work quickly. In Spanish
adverbs are usually formed from adjectives and a suffix
like - mente as used in rapidamente (quickly). In English
there are also a few irregulars that show comparison like:
better, best. There are four irregulars that show
comparisons in Spanish, which are: bien, poco, mal, and
mucho. Negatives are also adverbs and English does not
allow use of double negatives but in Spanish the word
“no” comes before a verb. There can be more than one
negative in a sentence in Spanish (Farrell and Farrell,
2004).
13. PREPOSITIONS
Prepositions express place, time, and show the
relationship between two parts of a sentence that
never change form and have a noun or pronoun as
their object. English prepositions do not translate
directly to Spanish. Conversational English
sometimes uses prepositions at the end of a
sentence but in Spanish this is never done and the
words por and para are used instead
(Farrell and Farrell, 2004).
14. CONJUNCTIONS & INTERJECTIONS
Examples of English conjunctions include: and,
or, and but. In both English and Spanish there are
three types of conjunctions: coordinating,
subordinating, and adverbial. They work closely
the same way. In both English and Spanish,
interjections express a strong feeling or emotion
that can be a single word or a phrase. Interjections
are used to communicate emotion and follow the
same rules in both languages (Farrell and Farrell,
2004).
15. DATA ANALYSIS
BACKGROUND
Trace (pronounced Tracey) is a sixth grade English as a
Second Language (ESL) student . She was born in the
Dominican Republic in 1999. She and her family moved to
Hazleton, Pennsylvania in January of 2010 when she was
nine years old. She began school here in the fourth grade,
the appropriate grade level for her age upon her arrival.
Trace has a solid literacy background in her native Spanish.
She can read and write in Spanish proficiently in her grade
level and achieved good grades while in school in the
Dominican Republic. Trace was a complete non-English
speaker when she immigrated to the United States and
qualified to receive ESL instruction in the HASD. She is
currently a level 2.1.
16. DATA ANALYSIS
ERRORS
One of the repeated errors Trace made in both written
and verbal language was difficulty using correct verb tense.
She confused come and came, study and studies, omitted
–ed on scared, -es on teaches and –s on works.
More common errors made by Trace were phonetic
problems with the following phonemes: /sh/ and /ch/ and
/d/ and /th/ and [i] and [I].
Trace confuses the phonemes [I] instead of [i] in “teach”
and “speak” and then does the reverse in “did”.
Trace also confuses the phonemes /sh/ and /ch/
17. POSSIBLE REASONS
These are most likely a developmental errors. In
English /d/ and /th/ are separate phonemes but in
Spanish both sounds are spelled with a /d/. Also,
Spanish words do not start with /th/. This is probably
why Trace often says and writes /d/ instead of /th/ in
“mother”, “with” and “that”. Trace will eventually
realize the differences in the two languages in written
form first, because she is such a good speller, and
then orally with more speaking practice. She may be
replacing the sound because as a new English
language learner she may be overcompensating usage.
In Spanish the vowel /i/ is pronounced like /e/ in
Maria or si which could explain Trace’s confusion
between the sounds.
18. SUGGESTIONS FOR EDUCATORS
My suggestions for ESL teachers would be to first, methodically
teach English. It might even mean starting with teaching simple
vocabulary, common phrases and basic parts of speech. The
teacher should then increase difficulty with a guided pace. In
addition to direct instruction, educator should immerse the
students in language. It is a good idea to label materials and objects
around the classroom. Role play or act out scenarios to give the
learning experience an authenticity and relevance. Teachers should
use technology and auditory materials whenever possible. Find a
balance for providing correction to remedy certain errors but still
provide positive feedback and encouragement. The ELL teacher
should set the learner up for success at every opportunity while still
challenging the student. Most important, ensure a comfortable
learning environment and provide whole
class activities that include ELL’s and
make them feel accepted into the group.
19. REFERENCES
Farrell, E. R. & Farrell, C.F. (2004). Side by side: Spanish and English grammar. 2nd ed.
NewYork, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Freeman, D. and Freeman, Y. (2004). Essential linguistics: What you need to know to
teach reading, ESL, spelling, phonics, and grammar. Portsmouth, NH: Heinneman.
O’Grady, W., Archibald, J., Aronoff, M., & Rees-Miller, J. (2005). Contemporary
linguistics: An introduction. (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Bedford St. Martin's.
Pinker, S. (2007). The language instinct: How the mind creates language . New York, NY:
Harper Collins.
