Teachers and ESL Students:Cognates

Question: What can regular classroom teachers do in working with ESL students?

Answer: Find out as much as you can about the students’ education and literacy levels in the native language.

Quote: “For students who are literate in their first language, teachers will be able to draw parallels between the first language and English by teaching the students to use cognates that may exist between the two languages, while inferring the meaning of unfamiliar words….”

Comment; Many words in Spanish and French will relate clearly to words in English. RayS.

Title: “Instructional Approaches and Teaching Procedures.” AU Chamot and JM O’Malley. Pp. 82-107. In Kids Come in All Languages: Reading Instruction for ESL Students. Eds. K Spangensberg-Urgschat and R Pritchard. Newark, DE: IRA. 1994.