Get Ready! Soar - PROGRAM SAMPLER

English Learners (ELs) possess linguistic knowledge in their home languages . When teachers recognize what ELs already know about sounds, word structure, syntax, and spelling in their home languages, students may have an advantage . However, there will also be times when the home language poses a linguistic conflict with English, causing negative language transfer . There are three types of transfer demonstrated by ELs as they move within and across their home language and English: • Positive transfer is an asset . In this case, English and the home language share certain phonemes (sounds), graphemes (written symbols for sounds), root words, prefixes, suffixes, or grammatical features (such as a similar word order) that make the acquisition of English easier because of the similarities . For example, if the home language and English both have the /s/ sound, that would be considered positive transfer . Cognates also fall into this category . For example, the words matemáticas in Spanish and mathematics in English sound very similar and share many phonemes and graphemes . • Zero transfer means that an EL’s home language offers no equivalent sound, symbol, or grammatical feature . Because the item does not exist in the home language, it has to be learned from scratch . Because many English sounds do not exist in other languages, English language learners may lack the auditory acuity to “hear” these English sounds and have difficulty producing them . These students are not accustomed to positioning their mouth in a way the sound requires . For example, Haitian Creole speakers do not have r -controlled vowels in their language, so it will be difficult for them to hear and pronounce . Another example of zero transfer would be when Chinese speakers (of any dialect) have to learn the English alphabet . • Negative transfer is called interference . In this case, the phonemes, graphemes, root words, prefixes, suffixes, or grammatical features are different from English and will conflict . For example, the Spanish grapheme j has the sound of /h/ in Spanish, so a Spanish-speaking EL will pull in the sound they know when they try to read an English word with that grapheme . For example, they may pronounce the word gentle as “hentle .” Further, English learners make grammatical errors due to interference from their home languages . In Vietnamese, Arabic, and Spanish, adjectives follow nouns, so some ELs may say the girl tall instead of the tall girl. While English changes the verb form with a change of subject ( I walk. She walks .), some Asian languages keep the verb form constant across subjects, so adding /s/ to the third person singular may be difficult for some ELs . In Somali, verbs come at the end of sentences, so the syntax is altogether different from English . ELs may know the grammatical rule, but applying it consistently can be difficult, especially in spoken English . Cross-linguistic transfer The Cross-Linguistic Transfer Charts include information about some of the most common home languages of ELs, as well as some often found in current Newcomer populations . These include: Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin Chinese, Arabic, Haitian Creole, and Somali . The phonics charts provide a quick reference for comparing English sounds with those of the other languages . Within the charts, the sounds are exemplified with a sample word from Get Ready! The chart has columns for each language with rows corresponding to each English phoneme . Each cell in the chart gives an example word using that sound in the language, followed by transference tips . If there is no sound equivalent in English, a common substitution used by speakers of that language may be provided . Likewise, if a sound interferes with English, the conflicting sound may be provided . Grammar transfer The Grammar Transfer Charts provide a quick reference for comparing grammatical features . Specifically, the charts identify areas in which the various EL home languages will pose some difficulty in acquiring English grammar (syntax) . The type of transfer error that causes interference is outlined for each grammatical category . Each cell in the chart gives an example of the grammar point, the type of transfer error, the home language(s) for which it occurs, and the cause of transfer difficulty . LANGUAGE TRANSFER AND INTERFERENCE Txxxvii