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Do you wonder about the importance of teaching cognates?  
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Read on and learn a little more about this important teaching concept.

What are cognates?

Vocabulary/vocabulario, animal/animal, actor/actor,  color/color are just a few of the thousand of English and Spanish cognates.

Cognates are an important part of learning English.  Cognates are words in two languages that have the same or similar meaning, spelling, and pronunciation.  Spanish and English cognates include:  doctor/doctor, family/familia, construction, constucción, and electricity/electricidad.  Some languages like Spanish have thousands of cognates with English and other languages like Chinese and Arabic have very few. 

Cognates, words in two languages that have the same or similar meanings and spelling increases English language learners vocabularies.

Why teach cognates?

These similarities in meaning and often in spelling give second language learners the ability to figure out new words and learn vocabulary in English more quickly.  These cognates give students an instant foundation of vocabulary. 

When students can identify cognates from their first language it increases student English knowledge of vocabulary by thousands of words they already know. 

English learners need to simply learn the spelling and pronunciation rules that go with the cognate and they have a strong foundation of English vocabulary.

What does the research say?

According to Nagy and Nagy, et al (1988; 1993) many Spanish second language learners need help recognizing and using cognates.  Direct instruction by the teacher helps students use cognates to understand new or unknown words in English.

What are false cognates?

False cognates are words that are spelled or pronounced similarly in two languages, but do not have the same meaning.  Idioma/Idiom in Spanish and English are examples of false cognates.  Idioma in Spanish means language, while idiom in English means a phrase that does not mean what the words say (raining cats and dogs). 

Another important reason to teach English language learners about cognates is to alert them to the false cognates.

What can parents do?

Talk with your children. 

When you see a cognates, words in two languages that have the same or similar meaning, spelling, and pronunciation, point them out to your child and talk about the meaning in your first language.  Remember, Spanish and English cognates include:  doctor/doctor, family/familia, construction, constuccion, and electricity/electricidad.  Cognates are everywhere!

Here is a list of everyday cognates you can use to help teach your child the recognize and use  cognates to build English Vocabulary!  Have Fun!

	ENGLISH	SPANISH
A	animal	animal
B	bicycle	bicicleta
C	coyote crocodile	coyote cocodrilo
D	dance dinosaur	danza dinosaurio
E	elephant	elefante
F	family flower	familia flor
G	giraffe gorilla	jirafa gorila
H	hippopotamus	hipopótamo
I	insects	insectos
J	jar	jarra
L	lemon lion	limón leon
M	music	música
N	necessary	nessesario
P	penguin police	pinguino policía
Q	quiet	quieto
R	rock radio	roca radio
S	secret	secreto
T	telephone	teléfono
U	use	usar
V	vegetables	vegetales

Click on over to my Teachers Pay Teachers store and download this article! 

Happy Teaching!