USING COGNATES TO UNDERSTAND

THE GENERAL IDEA OF A TEXT

TRADITIONS, CULTURE & LANGUAGE UNIT

SPANISH 1
GRADES 9TH & 10TH
BY MS. HENRIQUEZ
 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
• STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THE
MAIN IDEA OF A TEXT BY IDENTIFYING LEARNED
WORDS, AND USING CONTEXT.
• STUDENTS WILL UNDERSTAND HOW TO
EFFECTIVELY UNDERSTAND THE MAIN IDEA OF A
TEXT IN SPANISH BY INTERPRETING WORDS AND
PHRASES IN TEXT.
• STUDENTS WILL BE ABLE TO DEDUCE THE GENERAL
IDEA OF TEXT BY USING BACKGROUND
KNOWLEDGE, INTERPRETING WORDS, AND
EXCHANGING IDEAS WITH OTHERS.
• STUDENTS WILL LEARN HOW TO READ AND
UNDERSTAND TEXT IN SPANISH WITHOUT HELP BY
USING THEIR BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE.
CA CONTENT STANDARDS
• A.1. EXCHANGING INFORMATION AND IDEAS
WITH OTHERS THROUGH ORAL COLLABORATIVE
DISCUSSIONS ON A RANGE OF SOCIAL AND
ACADEMIC TOPICS.
• B.6. READING CLOSELY LITERARY AND
INFORMATIONAL TEXTS AND VIEWING
MULTIMEDIA TO DETERMINE HOW MEANING IS
CONVEYED EXPLICITLY AND IMPLICITLY THROUGH
LANGUAGE.
CAN YOU THINK OF ANY WORDS YOU KNOW IN
SPANISH THAT ARE PRONOUNCED SIMILARLY IN
ENGLISH?

• IMAGES = IMAGENES
• RESULTS = RESULTADOS
• PROBLEM = PROBLEMA
 • WORDS THAT HAVE THE SAME LINGUISTIC
COGNATES DERIVATION AS ANOTHER.
EX: ENGLISH = FATHER
GERMAN = VATER
LATIN = PATER

• A WORD THAT LOOKS AND MEANS THE SAME THING

AS A WORD YOU ALREADY KNOW.

• 30%-40% OF THE WORDS IN ENGLISH ARE RELATED

TO SPANISH
 HISTORY BEHIND COGNATES

• IN LINGUISTICS, COGNATES ARE WORDS THAT HAVE A COMMON ORIGIN.

• FOR EXAMPLE, THE ENGLISH WORDS DISH AND DESK AND THE GERMAN WORD TISCH ("TABLE") ARE
COGNATES BECAUSE THEY ALL COME FROM LATIN, WHICH RELATES TO THEIR FLAT SURFACES.
• FALSE COGNATES.
• THE WORD COGNATE DERIVES FROM THE LATIN NOUN COGNATUS, WHICH MEANS "BLOOD RELATIVE".
 LETS SEE WHAT YOU GOT!

• LOOK AT THESE IMAGES.

• Elephant
• Elefante • WRITE THE SPANISH AND ENGLISH
COGNATES FOR EACH.

• Graduation • MAKE SURE BOTH NAMES ARE SIMILAR

• Graduacion TO EACH OTHER, OTHERWISE THEY
WILL NOT BE COGNATES!
• Camera
• Camara
IS IT POSSIBLE TO UNDERSTAND MAIN IDEAS IN
A FOREIGN TEXT?
 UNDERSTANDING A TEXT THROUGH COGNATES

• BY USING COGNATES YOU CAN UNDERESTAND A GENERAL IDEA OF A TEXT THAT IS WRITTEN
IN ANOTHER LANAGUAGE.

• IT MAKES LERARNING A NEW LANGUAGE EASIER.

• YOU DO NOT HAVE TO KNOW EVERY SINGLE SPANISH WORD THAT CORRESPONDS TO
ENGLISH, YOU JUST NEED TO LOOK FOR THE ROOT AND IF IT IS SIMILAR TO AN ENGLISH
WORD YOU KNOW, YOU MIGHT HAVE FOUND A COGNATE.
 STEPS TO UNDERSTAND A TEXT USING COGNATES

1. READ THE TEXT AND HIGHLIGHT ALL THE COGNATES YOU SEE.
2. MAKE A LIST OF THE COGNATES YOU FOUND AND PAIR THOSE WITH THEIR ENGLISH
PARTNERS.
3. COME UP WITH AN IDEA OF WHAT THE TEXT IS ABOUT BASED ON YOUR COGNATES.
4. CREATE A ROUGH DRAFT USING COGNATES
5. REFINE YOUR GENERAL IDEA BY EXPANDING ON YOUR IDEAS.
EXAMPLE OF HOW TO FIND COGNATES
 FIND AND UNDERSTAND COGNATES
COGNATES FOUND:

• COMPANIA = COMPANY • EN LINEA = ON LINE

• LISTA = LIST • ADOLESCENTES = ADOLESCENCETS
• GRUPO = GROUP
• RESULTADOS = RESULTS
• PERSONAS = PERSONS
• VISTIMAS = VICTIMS
 WHAT IS THE MAIN IDEA OF THE TEXT?

• A COMPANY MADE A LIST ABOUT A GROUP OF PEOPLE ON LINE, THEY ARE ADOLESCENTS
AND THE RESULTS SHOW THEY ARE VICTIMS.

• A RESEARCH CENTER CONDUCTED A SURVEY TO A GROUP OF PEOPLE, WHO ARE

ADOLESCENTS. THE SURVEY SHOWED THAT THESE ADOLESCENTS ARE VICTIMS ON LINE,
WHICH COULD BE A RESULT OF CYBERBULLYING OR SEXUAL HARASSMENT.
HOW CAN YOU FIND OUT WHETHER A COGNATE IS
FALSE OR NOT?
 FALSE COGNATES

• FALSE COGATES ARE THOSE WORDS WHO LOOK

AND SOUND SIMILAR IN ENGLISH AND SPANISH BUT
THEY DO NOT MEAN THE SAME THING.
• EVOLUTION OF WORDS, COUTRIES AND CULTURES
ARE SOME REASONS FOR FALSE COGNATES.
• AVOIDING WRONG USAGE OF FALSE COGNATES.
 LETS SEE WHAT YOU GOT!

ENGLISH SPANISH FALSE CORRECT • INVESTIGATE WHETHER OR NOT THESE

COGNATE? MEANING
WORDS ARE FALSE COGNATES.
EXIT EXITO YES TO BE
SUCCESSFUL
FABRIC FABRICA YES FACTORY • IF THEY ARE NOT WRITE NO UNDER THE
APPROPRIATE BOX.
CASUAL CASUAL NO

• IF THEY ARE FALSE COGNATES, WRITE THE

PIE PIE YES FOOT
CORRECT MEANING OF THE SPANISH WORD

RECORD RECORDAR YES TO REMEMBER UNDER THE APPROPRIATE BOX