Cognate Literacy Instruction for Secondary Students: An Experimental Spanish-English Vocabulary Study

• In Event: Moscone Center North Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: Vocabulary and Language Development for Emergent Bilinguals

Abstract

The study compares a Spanish-English cognate vocabulary intervention with treatment and control groups. The purpose was to compare the learning of cognates using transformation rules with no instruction of rules to control group. Conceptual framework: literacy development is influenced by the strong relationship between vocabulary and comprehension. An experimental matched-subjects, matched stimulus design measured a 3-week intervention using cognate transformation rules. Lparticipants’ ability to transform words from English-to-Spanish and vice-versa; fifteen of seventeen (p < .005) one-tailed Sign Test of the matched pairs in the explicit English to Spanish group showed greater gains from the pre- to post-test. Daily post-tests indicate gains each day for the explicit and non-explicit groups during the Cognate Learning and Cognate-Rule Learning.

Authors

• Hillary Cathleen Vozza, New Mexico State University

• Anita C. Hernandez, New Mexico State University