Data Analysis Journal

ELL is a 4-year-old Pre-K student

Born in the United States

Spanish-speaking parents born in Uruguay, came to US in 2005

Student began daycare at age of 2

Data was collected through classroom observation and conversation

Spoken Language Errors

Number of spoken errors documented while observing student:

Random Errors – 20

Article Errors – 12

Verb Omission – 6

Subject-verb Agreement – 5

Verb Tense Errors – 8

Uruguayan/Brazilian “Fronterizo”

Dialect Characteristics:

Vowel /a/ may be articulated in unstressed syllables

Mid vowels /e/ and /o/ are normally raised to [i] and [u] in unstressed syllables

The place of articulation of preconsonantal /s/ may be retracted to the palato-alveolar position, yielding voiceless [ʃ] or voiced [ʒ]

English and Spanish Language Comparison

English Language Eight pure vowel sounds

Twelve diphthongs

Length of vowel sounds is important

Stress-timed language

Spanish Language Uses Latin Alphabet

Vowels can take acute accent

Additional letter ñ

Five pure vowel sounds

Five diphthongs Syllable-timed language

Grammar Comparison

Many aspects of verb grammar that are similar in both languages. This can make the transition of learning an L2 much easier for the ELL.

Major problems for Spanish learners: No one-to-one correspondence in the use of the tenses.

ELL may incorrectly use a simple tense instead of a future or progressive tense.

The formation of interrogatives or negatives in English—

The absence of an auxiliary in such structures in Spanish may cause an ELL to say: “Why you say that?” or “Who he saw?”

Summary

To be effective, teachers must comprehend differences among their students in many individual characteristics.

Age is often mentioned as an influence on language learning success.