Similarities and differences between English and Spanish

Fortunately for Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs), there are many similarities between English and Spanish.  On one hand both languages use the Roman alphabet. That knowledge helps build a phonemic and phonological foundation.  Furthermore, the  30% to 40% of all words in English have a related word in Spanish. With similar sound, appearance, and meaning, these cognates help students transfer that word knowledge into their second language. Another Aspect that a  couple of word order exceptions (adjective before noun in English and noun before adjective in Spanish), sentences in both languages have the same basic structures (as compared to English and Chinese or other non-Latin derived languages). Learning to read and write uses the same basic processes (phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, comprehension, writing mechanics). When teachers and students know these basic similarities between the two languages, it saves time and guess work as students transfer their knowledge of Spanish literacy into English literacy.

Axel Omar Castillo Aldaz, Oscar Romero Valadez

Module 4

Lesson 1 – What is attention to detail?