Spanish Picture Book Read-Alouds and Cognate Vocabulary Learning: A Study of Primary School English Learners

• In Event: Leveraging Home-Language Literacies in the Education of Emergent Bilinguals

Abstract

This study investigated the learning of English-Spanish cognates by first- and second-grade Latino ELs in a summer program. The students were given direct instruction about the cognates following a read-aloud of a Spanish picture book.
The researcher read a picture book to the students once daily for four weeks. After each reading, the researcher provided a 45 minute vocabulary lesson featuring the cognates from the book.
Student performance was based on the student-generated lists of cognates turned in daily to the researcher. The numbers of cognates correctly listed were tallied for each student as were the incorrect responses. The percent of correct associations minus the incorrect responses was used as one measure of a student’s understanding of cognates.

Authors

• Jose A. Montelongo, New Mexico State University

• Anita C. Hernandez, New Mexico State University