Jorge Diaz is a 23-year-old Mexican immigrant who has lived in the United States for 3.5 years and currently works in the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania. He moved from Texas and has never taken an official English course, instead learning through conversations with bilingual friends and coworkers. The document analyzes differences and similarities between Spanish and English phonology and grammar that impact Jorge's language acquisition and provides examples of errors in his speech. It recommends continued conversation practice and adult ELL courses to help Jorge improve his pronunciation and language skills.

1. Data Analysis & Language Comparison Spanish English

2. -Jorge Diaz -Mexican immigrant -23 years old -Works in the natural gas industry in Towanda, Pa. -He has lived in the U.S. for 3.5 years. -He has moved to PA from Texas. -Jorge has never taken an official English course.

3. Jorge thinks that everyone talks really fast! He learns from being around people and he has bilingual friends and co-workers that help him to converse at work and with others. The phonological system of Spanish is significantly different from English in the aspect of vowel sounds and sentence stress. There are also similarities. They utilize the same alphabet with some variation The Spanish sound system is concise. Spanish spelling is phonetic since every letter represents one sound. The pronunciation is logical as words are pronounced as they are spelled and vice-verse. Spanish lacks the glottal /'/, (Quillis, the voiced affricate /ʤ/ (judge), the voiced /ð/ and unvoiced /Ɵ/ (thigh,thy), the voiced /ž/ and the unvoiced /ʃ/ (azure,shy), the /z/, the /ŋ/ (sing) and the flap /ɾ/ (butter) (Bilinguistics. Inc., 2007) Dipthongs are prevalent in Spanish, usually a combination of a hard vowel and weak vowel. These examples include, v ia je, p ue do, camb io , etc. Spanish has one-to-one verb correspondence in the use of tenses and in particular sentences, auxiliary verbs may be absent. Spanish word order is generally Subject-Verb-Object and the adjective follows the noun in sentence structure. Spanish uses gender which means nouns are masculine or feminine and the article or adjective must agree (Shoebottom, 2011).

4. L1 Impact Distinct languages but share patterns of speech acquisition. Similar phonology but difficulty for Spanish speakers when pronouncing sounds lacking in Spanish. Distinct vowel sounds in Spanish become an array of sounds in English. Intonation patterns are carried over from Spanish to English. False cognates impact interlanguage as well as words with multiple meanings. Absence of auxiliary verbs when Spanish speakers speak or write (Shoebottom, 2011). Phonology

5. Examples of Jorge’s errors DESCRIPTION OF ERROR JORGE'S ERROR EXAMPLE 1. Omitted s on a plural noun I am 23 year old. 2. Omission of a preposition I from Texas. 3. No [k] pronunciation. Texas (ˈtɛ k səs) 4. Improper preposition Now I live in Main Street. 5. Improper tense: needs past tense -ed In Mexico I graduate. 6. Improper tense: needs irregular past tense. I never have English. 7. Improper [ɪ] pronunciation English 8. Preposition not needed/ or *ing to be added to verb to make a gerund. I am work in the area. 9. Omission of a preposition I work the afternoon. 10. Omission of a preposition I not so well 11. Added unnecessary -s to a verb I come s here. 12. Double subject My amigos, they help.

6. Errors continued 13. Substitution of English word My amigos, they help. 14. Improper [ð] pronunciation They help 15. Added unnecessary -s to a verb I like s work. 16. Contraction is not completed I don like cold. 17. Contraction not completed. I don know snow. 18. Wrong word choice I don't know snow. 19. Improper [ð] pronunciation They fun. 20. Missing verb They fun. 21. Improper verb. You is nice. 22. Contraction not completed You welcome

7. As a beginning language learner, Jorge had difficulty with pronunciation. He could not distinguish phonology between the two languages. He did not hear a difference between the pronunciation of dare-there. They are phonetically similar. He also stated several words without the contractions. Spanish speakers are not accustomed to pronouncing the final “t”.

8. Instructional Implications Jorge will continue to learn through collaboration with English speakers (Garcia, 1991). Discussion & conversation with friends & co-workers will help Jorge with pronunciation. An adult ELL course would be helpful in Jorge’s language acquisition. The most beneficial instruction will come through reading (Freeman and Freeman, 2004). He will learn vocabulary and consciously recognize words. Reading the newspaper

9. References Bilinguistics Inc. (2007) Typical Development of Speech in Spanish in Comparison to English. www.Bilinguistics.com . Freeman, D. and Freeman Y. (2004). Essential Linguistics: What You Need to Know to Teach Reading, ESL, Spelling, Phonics, and Grammar. Heinneman. Garcia, Eugene E.(1991). The Education of Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Students: Effective Instructional Practices. UC Berkeley: Center for Research on Education, Diversity and Excellence. Retrieved from: http://escholarship.org/uc/item/2793n11s Shoebottom, Paul. (2011) The Differences between Spanish and English. Retrieved from Lecture Notes Online Web site: http://www.esl.fis.edu/grammar/langdiff/spanish.htm