This document compares and contrasts the key features of the English and Spanish languages. It discusses how Spanish uses the Latin alphabet and has consonant and vowel sounds that coincide with spelling. Spanish is considered an inflectional language where words change form to indicate relation to other words. Both English and Spanish have aspects of inflectional, isolating, and agglutinative features. The document also explores differences in phonemes between the languages and how punctuation is used. It provides examples of how the differences between the first language and new language can cause errors for English language learners and implications for instruction.

1. Language Comparison
A look into the dynamics of English and Spanish
By: Jessie Berry

2. Key Features of Spanish
 Uses the Latin alphabet, which
includes 5 vowels, 5 diphthongs, and
15 phonemes
 Spelling and sound of the words
coincide
 Considered an inflectional
language: forms of words change to
indicate how they relate to the other
words in a sentence (e.g. The
conjugation of verbs occurs to
identify who and when )

3. Key Features of Spanish
continued…
 Sometimes considered an Isolating Language: the
relationship of words to each other are conveyed
primarily by the use of word order or by words
known as "particles" to indicate the relationship
among them (e.g. word orders and prepositions
identify the function of a noun )
 Sometimes considered an Agglutinative
Language: the words are frequently formed by
combining various combinations of "morphemes,"
word-like units with distinct meanings (e.g. prefixes
and suffixes)
 Each syllable has the same duration no matter
where the stress falls

4. Comparison & Contrast of
English and Spanish
 BOTH
 utilize
the Latin alphabet and
includes 15 phonemes
 includes aspects of all three
(inflectional, isolated, and
agglutinative langauges)

5. Comparison & Contrast of
Spanish and English continued…
 Differences
 Spanish includes 5 separate phonemes
from English and English includes 9
separate from Spanish
 English’s sounds and spelling do not
always coincide
 Punctuation occurs at the beginning and
end of sentences in Spanish
 In English the duration of time spent on
accented syllables is longer than those
unaccented

6. Language Relationships and
Impacts on Errors and Interlanguage
Development in ELL
 The phonemes “ch” and “sh”
nonexistent in the Spanish language
prove to be difficult to differentiate
and pronounce for a Spanish
speaker
 In English “b” and “v” and “s” and “z”
have distinct pronunciations where in
Spanish they are pronounced the
same way
 Spanish students learning English
may have difficulty with adjectives
due to the fact in their L1 adjectives
are conjugated according to number
and gender

7. Enlightenment on Errors Made
by ELL in Data Collection
Journal
 The ELL whom the Data Collection Journal
referred to had the most difficulty with
verbs and tenses
 The Spanish language depends heavily on
inflectional characteristics where the words
change depending on the other words in the
sentence. Although, this can be seen somewhat
in English it is not as prevalent.
 Another struggle for the ELL was using the
correct present form of the English verb to
be: am, is, and are
 In Spanish the verb is conjugated every time
according to the noun or pronoun it refers to and
in English some of the pronouns share the same
form of verbs

8. Instructional Implications
 Understanding the L1 of a student
helps determine the source of an
error
 In understanding the source of an
error an instructor is better equipped
to help that student
 It allows teachers to go to the source
of the problem and better serve his
or her students and teach explicitly
what is being misunderstood

9. Works Cited
 Erichsen, Gerald. (2012). A Linguistic Look
at Spanish Languages Often Classified by
Origins, Structure. Retrieved from
http://spanish.about.com/od/historyofspanis
h/a/linguist.htm
 Frankfurt International School. (2011). A
Guide to Learning English. Retrieved from
http://esl.fis.edu/index.htm
 Frederick, M. M.S. (2005). Common
Articulation Variations Between English
and Spanish. Retrieved from
http://www.superduperinc.com/handouts/pd
f/82_commonArticulation.pdf