ESL 502

Lindsay Guenter

POSTER OVERVIEIW OF PRESENTATION There are three key contrasting features

of English & Spanish. This relationship between the two

languages impacts errors. There are instructional tools teachers

can implement to correct these specific language errors.

1. SPELLING

1. NOUN FORMS

1. VERB TENSES

SPANISH ENGLISH•Phonetic spelling•Every letter represents one sound•Make reading and writing logical and consistent

*Perplexing spelling*Even native speakers come across words they do not know how to spell or pronounce*English spelling does not look like the pronunciation*For example: -enough -bough -dough -though -cough

SPANISH ENGLISH *Masculine & feminine forms*Any article or adjective must agree in gender

*English uses no gender in grammar except for personal pronouns*For example: -he -she -his -her -hers

SPANISH ENGLISH*Spanish verbs must agree with the subject*There are many different forms in every tense of a verb*For instance, eat in Spanish is comer*A few forms of eat are -como -comes -come*A few forms of ate are -comi -comiste -comio

*English has 3 forms for the present of the verb to be -am -is -are*English has 2 forms of other simple present affirmative verbs -do/does -work/works*And only 1 form in the past tense -did/went*Therefore, there are not SEVERAL different forms for every tense of a verb

This YouTube clip demonstrates the difference in noun forms and verb tenses while singing the familiar childhood favorite.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaHNmJIohpI&feature=fvsr

A kindergarten teacher may observe phoentic spelling in kidwriting.wuz (was), iz, (is), kud (could) In these examples, one letter represents

each sound. English has about 40 phonemes while

Spanish has about 22.

In my data analysis, I observed native Spanish speaking students omitting or incorrectly use gender subject pronouns.

This is common in Spanish ELLs because subject pronouns are often ommitted in Spanish sentences.

For example: I like to play with my toys and my brother

because she plays with me.

Spanish ELLs use incorrect tenses or create new forms for tenses.

This is because Spanish verbs must agree with the subject and there are many more forms of verb tenses in Spanish.

For example:“Yes, you was talking.”“When we eat dinner she leave. She come

home in the morning when the sun come up.

Phonetic spelling is related to the complexity of the English vowel system.

ELLs struggle to identify vowel sounds for many reasons.

When a vowel is followed by a nasal sound, the vowel picks up some of the nasal quality.

In ELL kidwriting examples, I have observed students write went as wet because ELLs recognize the nasal ‘n’ sound as part of the vowel, not a separate phoneme.

The Freemans sums it up perfectly, “Educators who understand the complexity of the English vowel system can better appreciate the difficulty children have as they attempt to represent these sound as they write” (Freeman, D. & Freeman, Y., 2004, p. 60).

According to Freeman and Freeman (2004), there are about 15 vowel sounds in American English that are represented in several different ways.

In contrast to American English, Spanish has only 5 vowel phonemes, and NONE correspond exactly to any English vowel.

Prolific reading and analytic activities help students to spell accurately.

“The best way to help students become more proficient spellers is to involve them in problem-solving activities so they can make sense of the English spelling system” (Freeman, D. and Freeman, Y., 2004, p. 60).