Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-bvgqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-30T17:32:43.691Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Spanish-speaking students' use of cognate knowledge to infer the meaning of English words*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2011

CHERYL DRESSLER ,
MARIA S. CARLO ,
CATHERINE E. SNOW ,
DIANE AUGUST  and
CLAIRE E. WHITE
CHERYL DRESSLER*
Affiliation:
Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, DC
MARIA S. CARLO
Affiliation:
University of Miami
CATHERINE E. SNOW
Affiliation:
Harvard Graduate School of Education
DIANE AUGUST
Affiliation:
Center for Applied Linguistics
CLAIRE E. WHITE
Affiliation:
Harvard Graduate School of Education
*
Address for correspondence: Cheryl Dressler, 75 Westminster Ave., Arlington, MA 02474, USAcheryl.dressler@comcast.net
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This research examines the processes which native Spanish-speaking learners of English and English-only students engage in when inferring meaning for unknown English words that have Spanish cognates. Conducted within the context of a large-scale vocabulary intervention that taught word inferencing strategies, including a cognate strategy, this qualitative study describes cognate strategy use among a small sample of participants. The data suggest that explicit instruction, students' metalinguistic and metacognitive skills, and the structural characteristics of cognate pairs are associated with cognate recognition.

Keywords

cognate wordscognate strategyvocabularymetalinguistic skillsSpanish–English bilingualism

Information

Type
Research Notes
Information
Bilingualism: Language and Cognition , Volume 14 , Issue 2 , April 2011 , pp. 243 - 255
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

*

This research was funded by a grant from the Institute for Education Sciences (Award #R306F60077-97). The authors are very grateful to the teachers and students who participated in this study for their effort and time. We would also like to express our sincere gratitude to the editor and two anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments and suggestions.

References

August, D., & Shanahan, T. (eds.) (2006). Developing literacy in second-language learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-minority Children and Youth. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bakeman, R., & Gottman, J. (1997). Observing interaction: An introduction to sequential analysis. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bravo, M. A., Hiebert, E. H., & Pearson, P. D. (2007). Tapping the linguistic resources of Spanish/English bilinguals: The role of cognates in science. In Wagner, R. K., Muse, A. & Tannenbaum, K. (eds.), Vocabulary development and its implications for reading comprehension, pp. 140–156. New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Carlo, M. S., August, D., McLaughlin, B., Snow, C. E., Dressler, C., Lippman, D. N., Lively, T. J., & White, C. E. (2004). Closing the gap: Addressing the vocabulary needs of English-language learners in bilingual and mainstream classrooms. Reading Research Quarterly, 39 (3), 188–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, J. (1960). A coefficient for agreement for nominal scales. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 20, 37–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coxhead, A. (2000). A new academic word list. TESOL Quarterly, 34, 213–238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, M. (2001). Corpus del Español. http://www.corpusdelespañol.org (retrieved September 20, 2004)Google Scholar
Dulin, K. L. (1970). Using context clues in word recognition and comprehension. The Reading Teacher, 23, 440–445.Google Scholar
Ehrlich, E. (ed.) (1979). Oxford American dictionary. New York: Avon.Google Scholar
García, G. E. (1991). Factors influencing the English reading test performance of Spanish-speaking Hispanic children. Reading Research Quarterly, 26 (4), 371–392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
García, G. E. (1998). Mexican-American bilingual students’ metacognitive reading strategies: What's transferred, unique, problematic? National Reading Conference Yearbook, 47, 253–263.Google Scholar
Hancin-Bhatt, B., & Nagy, W. (1994). Lexical transfer and second language morphological development. Applied Psycholinguistics, 15, 289–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, J. (1986). Snarks, quarks and cognates: An elusive fundamental particle in reading comprehension. The ESPecialist, 15 (1), 13–40.Google Scholar
Holmes, J., & Ramos, R. G. (1993). False friends and reckless guessers: Observing cognate recognition strategies. In Huckin, T., Haynes, M. & Coady, J. (eds.), Second language reading and vocabulary learning, pp. 86–108. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Jiménez, R. T., García, G. E., & Pearson, P. D. (1996). The reading strategies of bilingual Latina/o students who are successful English readers: Opportunities and obstacles. Reading Research Quarterly, 31, 90–112.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lubliner, S., & Hiebert, E. H. (2008, March). An anaylsis of English–Spanish cognates. Presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New York.Google Scholar
Malabonga, V., Kenyon, D. M., Carlo, M. [S.], August, D., & Louguit, M. (2008). Development of a cognate awareness measure for Spanish-speaking English language learners. Language Testing, 25 (4), 495–519.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKeown, M. (1983). The acquisition of word meaning from context by children of high and low vocabulary ability. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh.Google Scholar
Nagy, W. E., García, G. E., Durgunoglu, A. Y., & Hancin-Bhatt, B. (1993). Spanish–English bilingual students’ use of cognates in English reading. Journal of Reading Behavior, 25, 241–259.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagy, W. E., & Scott, J. A. (2000). Vocabulary processes. In Kamil, M. L., Mosenthal, P., Pearson, P. D. & Barr, R. (eds.), Handbook of reading research (vol. 3), pp. 269–284.Google Scholar
Nash, R. (1997). NTC's dictionary of Spanish cognates: Thematically organized. Lincolnwood, IL: NTC.Google Scholar
National Center for Education Statistics (2004). The condition of education, 2004. http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe (retrieved July 16, 2004).Google Scholar
Paris, S. G., Lipson, M. Y., & Wixson, K. K. (1983). Becoming a strategic reader. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 8, 293–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stelter, G. A. (2005). London (England): Microsoft Encarta Dictionary. http://Encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761574117/London_England.html (retrieved March 12, 2004).Google Scholar