1. Running head: LANGUAGE COMPARISON PAPER 1
Language Comparison Paper
Kelly K. Fletcher
Wilkes University

2. Running head: LANGUAGE COMPARISON PAPER 2
Abstract
Rossi’s greatest area of difficulty is spoken English. As a student in a United
States elementary school, she has to be able to communicate in English. Rossi struggles
with pronoun use even though there are slight oral language advancements in this area of
linguistics; it remains an area of concern. As an ESL teacher, I have the flexibility to
work on pronouns with Rossi, both formally and informally.
Rossi also struggles with Spanish letters in relation to English alphabet sounds.
Her speech sounds are very much a hindrance when trying to differentiate the sounds of /
y/ and /th/ especially in English. We practice phoneme names and sounds while she is
working one on one or in small groups to assist with the correct placement of the tongue
and lips. The incorrect placement of the tongue, lips and air constriction are affecting her
oral language. Through planned lessons and scholastic activities and games, Rossi is
gaining confidence in her L2 langugae.

3. Running head: LANGUAGE COMPARISON PAPER 3
The student whom I chose to complete my language comparison paper is a third
grade student at Dr. David W. Kistler Elementary School. The student’s name is Rossi
and she is ten years old. Rossi has been in the United States for two years and is
completing her second year in a US elementary school. She came to the United States
from the Dominican Republic; Santo Domingo. Rossi traveled from Santo Domingo
with her father and two sisters. Rossi has stated that she is only allowed to speak Spanish
at home even though she wants to teach her father and grandmother English. She has
also shared that she and her sisters practice English in secret.
I studied Rossi and found that she learned Spanish as her L1 or native language.
Upon further study, I researched and came to the conclusion that Rossi speaks the dialect
of Dominican Spanish. Speakers of Dominican Spanish typically do not have difficulty
understanding speakers of other Spanish dialects because of the use of standard Spanish
in the educational systems of the Dominic Republic.
The phonologies of English and Spanish have many similarities while they both
utilize the same alphabet (Quilis, 1999). Spanish has 18 consonant phonemes compared
to the 26 in English (Goldstein & Iglesias, 1996). Spanish lacks the glottal /’/, the voiced
affricate /ʤ/ (judge), the voiced /ð/ and unvoiced /θ/ (thigh, thy), the voiced /z/ and
unvoiced /ʃ/ (azure, shy), the /z/, the /ŋ/ (sing), and the flap /ɾ/ (as in butter) (Quilis,
1999). English, on the other hand, does not employ the trilled /rr/ or the /ɲ/of Spanish
(Quilis, 1999).
The Spanish language also relies on five vowels, /a/,/e/,/i/,/o/and /u/. These
vowels are represented as English phonemes as well, plus an additional eight vowels. A
Spanish-speaker trying to speak English would be expected to create additional vowel

4. Running head: LANGUAGE COMPARISON PAPER 4
sounds that are not native to them. On the contrary, an English-speaker would be
expected to compress their speech to rely on less than half of the normal number of
vowels used.
Rossi made many errors in spoken English. In studying the similarities and
differences between English and Spanish, I formed a hypothesis as to why the errors were
produced in the L2 language. The conclusion I reached based on the hypothesis is
because of the lack of pronouns in Spanish and the disassociation of the English alphabet,
albeit similar to the Spanish alphabet, to the phonetics of Spanish letters. Humans learn
through oral language (Freeman & Freeman, xii) and as Rossi gained confidence through
oral language practice, some of the errors such as using plural forms of a word (i.e.
underwears) and incorrect singular forms of nouns (i.e. pant) became less frequent within
her use and practice of spoken English.
As an ESL teacher, I found that the most successful way to approach English
language acquisition with my student was to break the language down into manageable
chunks. While collecting the data found in the language chart of errors, I determined that
it would be too difficult to approach Rossi’s language errors all at once, so I broke the
errors down into categories based on the hypothesis and completed exercises and drills to
reinforce the correct use of English language acquisition. Rossi is in the ESL classroom
for two hours a day and this time is spent out of the mainstreamed third grade classroom
while English L1 students are receiving reading instruction. During this time, all ESL
students work with the ELL teacher as a group and then break into small groups for peer
tutoring or sometimes work one on one with a tutor. The students work on letter sounds,
counting and speech pattern practice through conversation.

5. Running head: LANGUAGE COMPARISON PAPER 5
Language Chart of Errors
Pronoun Articulati Phoneme Spelling Grammatic Syntax
use/misus on use/misuse al
e
she for he /j/ for /y/ in end instead Mrs. Goto instead of Mrs. Flecha,
word yes of the word Goine two words go you are the best
in should be to teacher end the
Goyne eart four evere.
her for he /t/ for /th/ in mineself wen for we sea instead I now evere year
words earth, when of we saw you be my best
with teacher end the
eart.
mineself for /e/for /y/ in eart for earth briends for sea instead of Goto fild day
myself the word friends see and we see the
every striar title
(faculty) play.
hers for /a/ for /er/ in da for the wit for the be used Tami and esl.
herself the name word with incorrectly (this was her
Fletcher sentence)
hims for /d/ for /th/ in briends for mines for mine Goto camp wit
himself the word the friends (cultural?) Mrs. Goine wit
my briends.
hers for her /a/ for /e/ in
the word the
hims for him /b/for /f/ in
the word
friends
Through evaluation of the data chart, I have created lessons that are based on the
difficulties that the students are struggling with in their L2 language. Once the district
prescribed lesson is taught, I will branch out and use scholastic games such as a minimal
pairs (O’Grady, 61) basketball or vocal recording via the smartboard. I find these tools
invaluable to the progress of the students, in particular the student whom this information
was gathered. I also chose to rely on informal assessments and portfolios to evaluate the
students.
The area that I struggle with the most is instruction based on pronouns. In
Spanish, possessive pronouns are usually preceded by a definite article or are simply
omitted. As a result, I use real life experiences to incorporate these into the student’s
vocabulary. Outside of the classroom I have the flexibility to walk the students to and

6. Running head: LANGUAGE COMPARISON PAPER 6
from the ESL classroom, during this time I ask the students to categorize students,
teachers and themselves in the form of pronouns. I will speak a sentence and purposely
use an incorrect pronoun to evaluate whether they have caught the error and I use this
information as an informal assessment. I witness the use of pronouns used marginally
better within the student’s day to day communication.
While English and Spanish share many phonological tendencies, there are
enough phonological differences to warrant the study of Rossi’s processes in both
languages. Accounting for patterns specific to Spanish ensures that phonological
differences reflecting the individual’s limited proficiency in English is not viewed as
developmental, as per the can do descriptors but rather interlanguage development.

7. Running head: LANGUAGE COMPARISON PAPER 7
References
Freeman, D. & Freeman, Y (2004). Essential Linguistics, What You Need to Know
to Teach. New Hampshire: Heinemann.
Goldstein, B. & Iglesias, A. (1996). Phonological patterns in normally developing
Spanish-speaking 3- and 4-year-olds of Puerto Rican descent. Language, Speech
and Hearing Services in the Schools, 27, 82-90.
Mitchell, D. et al. (2003). Understanding your international students: An educational,
cultural and linguistic guide. Michigan Teacher Resource.
O’Grady, W., Archibald, J., Aronoff, M. & Reese-Miller, J (2010). Contemporary
Linguistics, An Introduction. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.
Quilis, A., Fernandez, J.A. (1999). Cultural and Linguistic Diversity Resource Guide for
Speech Language Pathologists. New York: Singular Publishing Group, Inc.