The document summarizes observations of a 15-year-old male student from Honduras learning English in Pennsylvania. He has little prior English exposure, lives in a household where no English is spoken, and has no internet access at home. Data shows he struggles most with spelling, verb tenses, and rules, but is making progress communicating with peers. Many of his errors stem from interference from his native Spanish language, which differs from English in areas like pronunciation, word order, verb conjugation, and expressing possession. Through this experience of teaching English to a Spanish speaker, the author learned it is important to explain key differences between the languages.
1. LANGUAGE COMPARISON An observation of a native Spanish-speaker learning the English language.
2. THE STUDENT -15 year old male -moved to Pennsylvania from Honduras in the spring of 2009 -had very little exposure to English prior to arriving in the U.S.A. -Is the only member of his household studying English -there is no English spoken at home. -this student has no internet access at home -Upon arrival, the student was reading on a 7th grade level in his native language -Area of strength in English is listening. -placed in Level 1 as a result of his WIDA assessment.
3. Data Analysis Summary *Data was collected from two writing pieces. *spoke with the student in Spanish to gather information about his learning experience. *expressed that he is frustrated by all the rules. *expressed that spelling and verb tenses are difficult for him *expressed that he is proud of the progress he’s made since he started studying English. *finds it easier to communicate with his peers each day!
6. English vs. Spanish -Many of the student’s errors were made as a result of interference from his L1. -Spelling in Spanish is easier because every letter is pronounced. -Spanish has fewer letter combinations that create a single sound. -Spanish is a syllable-timed language whereas English is a stress-timed language. -Although English and Spanish have the same vowels, they are pronounced differently. -For example, the letter “e” in English has the same sound as the letter “I” in Spanish. .
7. English vs. Spanish cont. -English and Spanish share many consonants and they are pronounced similarly. -Word order is different in these two languages. In Spanish, an adjective typically follows the noun it modifies, opposite from the English language. -A single Spanish verb provides the person, number and tense. English verbs are often more complex. -expressing possession is also very different in these two languages. The use of the ‘s does not exist in the Spanish language.
8. A Learning Experience Through this experience, I learned… *It is important to be conscious of the confusing letter sounds, specifically the vowels, when teaching the alphabet. *Significant time should be taken to teach the difficult English letter combinations, like “sh”. *When teaching English to a native Spanish-speaker, it is important to explain the differences with word order and possession. *With a better understanding of the key differences between English and the ELL’s native language, an ESL teacher can be better prepared when approaching some challenging aspects of learning English.. learning
