Language Comparison
Kathryn Gaugler ESL 502
Spanish vs. English
Language Origins and Features
Variances
Case Study
Language Origins
Spanish is a Romance language but English is a Germanic language
Spanish migrated across the Atlantic with the exploration and conquering of the “New World”
Spanish is currently 2nd most spoken language in US
Alphabet
Vowels are super easy in Spanish – no long or short vowels!
A (sounds like what you say to the Dr. when you stick out your tongue!)
E (sounds like a way to clarify something in Canadian English…eh?)
I (Say the English letter “E”, that’s all there is to it!)
O (not any different than the way we say the letter)
U (sounds like the double “o” sound you make when impressed. Oo!)
Spanish vowels never change their sound.
English “E” and Spanish “I” are phonetically the same, and create a lot of confusion.
Alphabet
Both languages use the Latin alphabet
BUT…. There are a few additional letters in Spanish:
CH LL RR Ñ
Dictionaries published after 1994 do not recognize them as distinct letters, but they do have a different sound than their counterparts: C, L, R and N respectively.
Variation
Formal vs. Informal
In Spanish, there exists a formal form to address some one you do not know well or someone of higher importance or of age. The informal is used to address a friend.
This distinction requires different pronouns (tú/usted, vosotros/ustedes) and verb forms
For example: How are you? Could be translated:
¿Cómo estás tú? Or ¿Cómo está usted?
(friendly) (formal)
Adjectives
In English, adjectives go before the noun they descirbe
I live in a red house.
Adjectives in Spanish go after the noun
Vivo en la casa roja.
Many adjectives will modify in gender and number to agree with the noun they describe.
Masculine Singular
Feminine Singular
Masc. Plural
Fem. Plural
Rojo Roja Rojos rojas
Pronoun Elimination
Spanish verb conjugation is similar to one particular English verb:
I am
You are
He is
Each of these verbs looks different….
Pronoun Elimination
Sample Spanish verb conjugation
Yo soy
Tú eres
Él es
Each of these verb forms also looks different….
Almost EVERY verb form (in most tenses) will look different than any other form. Because of this, the subject can be inferred from just the verb. While not appropriate to say just “Are tall.” with out a subject in English, Spanish speaker would drop the subject and simply say “Eres alto.” The subject ‘you’ is inferred from eres.
Word Order
Both languages follow SVO order.
Subject Verb Object
He rides a bike
Él monto en bicicleta.
Case Study
Lola
1st year ELL
Going into 2nd grade
Speaks Spanish fluently for age, does not have home English exposure
Analysis done through written work
Case Study
errors are a combination of developmental (like the omission of verbs)
interference of L1 like putting adjectives after nouns. (Some of her errors made sense knowing Spanish and the word arrangement and acceptable writing policies of that language.)
Spelling is developmental
mastery of L1 and knowledge base to apply rules and strategies to her English acquisition is not there.
Spelling in English can be difficult since there are so many ways to change vowels that do not exist in Spanish
Lola will need to work on English spelling, but doesn’t have a strong base in Spanish spelling
Verb tense errors – overgeneralization of the –ed rule
Subject omission – Who has yellow hair?
homophone errors – to vs. too
Error samples were limited to writing examples.
When asked to write words she knew in English, she wrote “sop” including the Spanish vowel /o/ but not the correct English spelling with “o” and “a”.
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