After they finish, ask partners to share one example of each with the class. Examples of false cognates:Īsk students to work with a partner to find as many cognates and false cognates as they can from a given list of words. Give students some cognates and false cognates and ask them to identify each. What does embarrassed mean in English (to feel ashamed about something)? Does anyone know what embarazada means in Spanish ( pregnant)? Ask the students:ĭoes anyone know what pie means in Spanish ( foot)? What does the word pie mean in English ( dessert)?Īnother example of a false cognate is the word embarrassed in English and embarazada in Spanish. These are words that look alike but do not have the same meaning in English and Spanish. Warn students that they might run into some words that are false cognates. For example: embarrassed/ embarazada and pie/ pie. Write examples of false cognates on the board. Alternate between having them call out differences with the teacher circling and occasionally having students come up and circle the differences themselves. Circle DifferencesĪsk students to indicate which letters are different between the cognates by circling the letters. Then ask them what the word pairs have in common and write responses on the board. Pair students and give each pair a set of cognate cards: one card has the English cognate and the other has the Spanish cognate. Discuss spellings or sounds that are the same and different between the cognates. Before the class ends, read or have students read them to the class. Collect those notes and put them on an OUR COGNATES laminated chart.
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Student readingĪs ELLs read their texts, ask them to find three or four cognates and write them on sticky pads. If you have a French, Italian, or Portuguese speaker in your class, invite them to contribute cognates in that language. Point out the subtle differences you hear between the Spanish and English words. When you read aloud to your students, ask the Spanish speakers to raise their hand when they think they hear a cognate. Capitalizing on Similarities and Differences between Spanish and EnglishĬlassroom strategies for teaching cognates Read aloud.One example of a cognate with multiple meanings is asistir, which means to assist (same meaning) but also to attend (different meaning). As students move up the grade levels, they can be introduced to more sophisticated cognates, and to cognates that have multiple meanings in both languages, although some of those meanings may not overlap.
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Children can be taught to use cognates as early as preschool. Cognate awareness is the ability to use cognates in a primary language as a tool for understanding a second language. Not surprisingly, researchers who study first and second language acquisition have found that students benefit from cognate awareness. For Spanish-speaking ELLs, cognates are an obvious bridge to the English language. While English may share very few cognates with a language like Chinese, 30-40% of all words in English have a related word in Spanish. Cognates are words in two languages that share a similar meaning, spelling, and pronunciation.