Literacy Beat

A Guest Post by Patricia Acosta and colleagues

Patricia and her colleagues at Eastern Oregon University compiled this list of online resources for vocabulary development using cognates. Thanks, Patricia, for sharing!

Cognates are words that have the same or similar spelling and meaning in two languages. Teaching cognate awareness is a way to build academic vocabulary and reading comprehension.  By connecting two words in two languages, knowledge of the word and concept in the native language transfers to English.

The following is a list of cognate resources.

• http://cognates.org/research/mfcogn2.html

Provides a list of English and Portuguese, Italian and French cognates.

• http://cognates.org/pdf/mdoc-sample.pdf

Provides a list of English and Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, French and Romanian cognates.

• http://www.colorincolorado.org/article/using-cognates-develop-comprehension-english

Provides strategies for teaching cognates, videos, and a list of English and Spanish cognates.

• http://cognates.org

Provides more than 25,000 frequently used English and Spanish, French, and Portuguese cognates.  Provides an Online Dictionary of Cognates, Google Chrome Cognate Highlighter that will automatically highlight cognates, false cognate awareness, information on psycholinguistic aspects of cognates, free materials, and other resources.

• https://www.123teachme.com/learn_spanish/cognates_and_false_cognates_conversation/#!/1

Provides a list of English and Spanish cognates that have the same spelling and words that vary slightly in spelling.  In addition, provides a list of false cognates; words with similar spelling but have very different meanings.  Vocabulary flashcards, vocabulary quizzes, spelling quizzes, matching, word order quizzes and multiple choice quizzes are available.

• http://russian.languagedaily.com/wordsandphrases/russian-cognates

Provides a list of Russian and English cognates.

• http://livinglanguage.com/blog/2015/11/16/closer-than-you-think-cognates-in-arabic-english-and-spanish/

Provides a video and list of English, Spanish and Arabic cognates.

• http://www.realfastspanish.com/vocabulary/spanish-cognates

Provides 1001 English and Spanish Cognates.  List includes words with the same spelling in both English and Spanish and words with similar spelling.

• http://spanishcognates.org/cognate-subject/a

Subject specific English and Spanish cognates from A-Z. Cognates are organized in alphabetical order and by subject; language arts, math science and social studies.

• https://www.berlinschools.org/uploaded/files/District/2014-15/ELL/Using_Spanish_cognates_to_support_comprehension.pdf

Provides English and Spanish cognates, as well as false cognate awareness. Lists cover common Greek and Latin Roots, common English and Spanish cognates in alphabetical order and cognates for weights and measurements.

Read more about Cognates on Literacy Beat.

Credit: This list of cognate resources was compiled by students from Eastern Oregon University, ED 556 Applied Linguistics, Winter Term 2017 course.

Patricia Acosta is an in-district substitute. She also taught Spanish Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Oregon, and she is a graduate student in the READ Oregon program at Portland State University. Her teaching endorsements include Spanish, ESOL, and library media.

Filed under: digital resources, English Language Learners (ELL), vocabulary | Tagged: Acosta, Wolsey | 1 Comment »