An Analysis of English-Spanish Cognates as a Source of General Academic Language

摘要

Three analyses of Spanish-English cognates were conducted, with the purpose of identifying features that might facilitate or inhibit bilingual students' cognate recognition and cross-language transfer of vocabulary knowledge. Results revealed that both the General Service List and the Academic Word List (AWL) contain a substantial number of English-Spanish cognates, a high percentage of which can be categorized by 1 of 20 cognate patterns. Orthographic and phonological transparencies were analyzed, suggesting that cognates are more transparent in terms of orthography than phonology. A frequency analysis indicated that most AWL cognates are more common in Spanish than in English. Results suggest that carefully designed cognate instruction may provide Spanish-speaking students with a “cognate advantage” in comprehending English academic texts.View full textDownload full textRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15235882.2011.568589