This document discusses the challenges a Spanish-speaking student named Sue faced in learning English. [1] Sue dropped out of high school and took ESL classes that were too advanced for her level. [2] She later learned English with help from her brother and coworkers. [3] The document analyzes challenges Spanish speakers face in pronouncing certain English sounds and with grammar rules like tense and pluralization.

1. Alyssa Savitski
ESL 502
Wilkes University

2.  Interviewed “Sue” who came to the United States from
Mexico in 1999.
 She took ESL at a local high school. However, she did
not learn English because the students and the teacher
were on a more advanced level than she was.
 Sue dropped out of high school in 11th grade to take
care of her sister’s children.
 She returned to Mexico for 2 years, then came back.
 Sue’s brother and her co-workers helped her to learn
English.
 She can read English better than she can write it.
 In Spanish, she is proficient at a 12th grade level. Her
English is not as advanced.

3. Omission of letters /r/, /ir/ sound Pronunciation
Hones- honest Beerd-bird Jes- yes
Omission of /t/ sound /ir/ sound not present /j/ sound is pronounced
in Spanish as a /y/ sound
Fro-from Wite- write Wights- lights
Omission of /m/ sound /r/ sound not present in /l/ sound is pronounced
Spanish as a /w/ sound
Jus- just Theerty- thirty Seemilar- similar
Omission of /t/ sound /ir/ sound not present The letters “si” are
in Spanish pronounced with a
long /e/ sound

4. SINGULAR/PLURAL
WORDS TENSE AND ARTICLES
It make no sense Incorrect form of We complete the Incorrect tense
to me. “make”- plural program. (past)-
“completed”
I doesn’t have a Incorrect form of
car. “doesn’t”-
singular Class was the Omission of the
reason I didn’t article “the” at
He get away with Incorrect form of like school. the beginning of
a lot. “get”- plural the sentence.

5. SPANISH ENGLISH
 Syllabic-language  Stressed-time language
 Alphabet has 27 letters  Alphabet has 26 letters
 Nouns are either  Nouns do not need to
feminine or masculine have article in the front
(el, la) to make it masculine or
 Five diphthongs feminine
 Five pure vowels  Eight diphthongs
 Twelve pure vowels

6.  /s/ and /z/ have the same sound in Spanish.
 /h/ sound is silent in Spanish, although words
that begin with “j” use the /h/ sound.
 In Spanish, there are no words that end in /t/
or /h/, therefore it is hard for them to
pronounce it at the end of English words.
 The /ir/ and /r/ sound are not present in
Spanish, making it difficult to pronounce them
in English.

7.  Students whose L1 is Spanish may have a
difficult time with producing certain sounds.
 This can lead to difficulty in writing English as
well as speaking it.
 Written text may not be as difficult for L1
Spanish students, but understanding
punctuation and where it belongs in text can be
challenging.

8.  Vocabulary and reading are the most beneficial
to students.
 Six strategies to help ELL’s
 Cognitive
 Metacognitive
 Memory-related
 Compensatory
 Affective
 Social (Hancock, 2002)

9.  There are several various forms and dialects of
the Spanish language.
 It is important for teachers to understand their
students’ backgrounds and how it will affect
their L2 learning.

10. Hancock, Zennia. (2002). Heritage Spanish
Speakers’ Language Learning Strategies.
CAL-Center for Applied Linguistics, EDO-
FL-02-06. Retrieved from
http
://www.cal.org/resources/digest/0206hancock.ht