Implementing Spanish and English Cognates into Daily Content

Implementing Spanish and English Cognates into Daily Content Instruction Amanda Guarino Monmouth University Research Question Will implementing Spanish and English cognates into daily instruction for native Spanish speaking English language learners enable students to achieve higher grades on content area assessments? Introduction Students classified as English Language Learners are faced with three daunting tasks; acquiring a new language, building academic knowledge in various subject areas, and bridging social connections with peers and school faculty (Amengual, 2011; Collier and & Thomas, 2017; Cummins, 1999). These responsibilities can be extremely intimidating and challenging, especially for those who are new to the country, new to the American way of life, and new to the English language. However, it is evident that discovering similarities between the new and the old often brings comfort and boosts confidence when tackling these tasks (Amengual, 2011; Collier and & Thomas, 2017; Cummins, 1999). Studies have shown that implementing cognates into daily classroom instruction eases the language acquisition process while simultaneously making academic content knowledge more accessible for language learners (Amengual, 2011; Collier and & Thomas, 2017; Cummins, 1999). The following information highlights the academic achievement gap between English language learners and general education students at New Dorp High School, a NYC Public High School located in District 31 in Staten Island, New York. Due to the language barrier and lack of language support available to these students, they are falling behind academically, causing various educational discrepancies. RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION DESIGN © 2019 www. Poster. Presentations. com Problem Statement Background Information Methodology/Action Plan When comparing the English Language Learner graduation rates to the graduation rates of the overall student population in New York City public schools, data shows that the overall graduation rate has not dropped below 72% between the years of 2006 and 2016 (New York City Public School Graduation Rates). The highest graduation rate for all students between the years of 2006 through 2016 is equivalent to 83% which is almost double the highest graduation rate for English Language Learners throughout those same years; furthermore, the lowest graduation rate amongst all students is 72% which is almost five times greater than the lowest graduation rate for English language learners at 14. 5% (New York City Public School Graduation Rates). This issue remains prevalent at New Dorp High School. At New Dorp High School, the English language learner population consists of roughly 265 students out of a total of 2, 800 students. These students range in proficiency level, ranging from the beginning stages as entering and emerging speakers, the middle stage as transitioning speakers, and the proficient stages as expanding and commanding speakers. Within each of these proficiency levels, a variety of languages are spoken. Some classes may include four or five different languages at a time and two to three different proficiency levels at a time; as a result, it can be very difficult for educators to meet each of these diverse needs at once. Students will be split into a treatment group and a comparison group. A series of pre-assessments, intermediary assessments, and post assessments will be conducted to assess student understanding of various content material; comparing the data between the treatment and comparison groups will help determine whether implementing Spanish and English cognates into daily content instruction across English and history classes makes content instruction more accessible to Spanish speaking English language learners after being taught Spanish and English cognate pairs in comparison to Spanish and English non-cognate translations. Furthermore, the assessments will determine whether high school students were able to use their knowledge of Spanish and English cognates to infer the meaning of unknown English words. It is assumed that as content instruction becomes more accessible to language learners, academic achievement will increase, causing the academic achievement gap to narrow between English language learners and their general education peers. In 2019, nineteen English language learners were set to graduate; however, 47% (9 students) of the senior ELL students did not meet graduation requirements indicating a major instructional disconnect within the ELL population at New Dorp High School (NYSED, 2019). Furthermore, according to the 2018 -2019 data, only 11% of the students met the graduation requirement of passing the required regent exams (NYSED, 2019). In addition to the academic achievement gap, there are roughly 154, 276 students classified as English Language Learners within the New York City Department of Education; within that number, about 25% are also classified as special education students, while 19% of the entire New York City student population, roughly one million students, are classified as special education (NYSED, 2019). Clearly, there a disproportionate amount of English language learners classified as special education students. Students who bridge connections between their native language and the target language are often able to acquire the target language at a faster rate; therefore, incorporating the native language into daily content instruction has a positive impact on the language acquisition process for English language learners (Amengual, 2011). When native Spanish speakers are studying the English language or vice versa, they will find many similarities between different words in each language; these words are known as cognates, words that share a similar linguistic derivation, morphological structure, or phonological structure (Amengual, 2011). For example, cognates such as “tumor” in Spanish and “tumor” in English share very similar phonologies, which enables language learners to maintain a native-like phonological contrast across both languages (Amengual, 2011). The Spanish and English languages share a common alphabet and 10, 000 - 15, 000 cognates, words that are Latin-based, mean approximately the same thing, and share similar orthographic features (Lubliner and Hiebert, 2011). Incorporating cognates into daily content instruction across multiple subject areas will enable students to use their full linguistic repertoire, to gather a general sense of the instruction at hand, increasing the likelihood of engagement and participation. Conclusion Educational researchers have determined that prior knowledge in one’s home language plays an influential role in acquiring a second language, as building connections between the native language and the target language fosters a deeper understanding (Collier and & Thomas, 2017; Cummins, 1999). Language acquisition stretches far beyond the simple memorization of the language; when students are able to truly understand the patterns and grammatical structures of the target language, they are able to use it to its fullest potential throughout the four language modalities: reading, writing, speaking, and listening (Collier and & Thomas, 2017) References 2019: NEW DORP HIGH SCHOOL - Enrollment Data: NYSED Data Site. (n. d. ). Retrieved from https: //data. nysed. gov/enrollment. php? year=2017&instid=80000004174 3 Amengual, M. (2011). Interlingual influence in bilingual speech: Cognate status effect in a continuum of bilingualism. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15(3), 517– 530. doi: 10. 1017/s 1366728911000460 Collier, V. P. , & Thomas, W. P. (2017). Validating the power of bilingual schooling: Thirty-two years of large-scale, longitudinal research. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 37, 1 -15. PDF Cummins, J. (1999). Beyond Adversarial Discourse: Searching for Common Ground in the Education of Bilingual Students. Language Education. doi: 10. 4324/9780203416709_chapter_1