Cognates

From section 2.3, the Sourcebook for Teaching Science

Academic language is the language needed by students to understand and communicate in the academic disciplines. Academic language includes such things as specialized vocabulary, conventional text structures within a field (e.g., essays, lab reports) and other language-related activities typical of classrooms, (e.g., expressing disagreement, discussing an issue, asking for clarification). Academic language includes both productive and receptive modalities.

Cognates - "When you're learning a new language, a cognate is an easy word to remember because it looks and means the same thing as a word you already know. For example, gratitude in English means the same as gratitud in Spanish. Just as words that are cognates have a shared origin — like gratitude and gratitud both coming from the Latin word gratitudo, meaning "thankfulness" — people can be cognates based on their shared blood. For example, you and your sister are cognates of your parents. You probably even look alike, just like word cognates. The adjective form of cognate can describe blood relations or anyone whose ancestors spoke the same language."(1)

Cognates: Spanish>>>English - Spanish is one of the most influential languages in the world, particularly in the Western Hemisphere where it is the dominant language in Central and South America. Spanish is also prevalent in the United States where it is the first language of many immigrants. Spanish is a Latin-based language and shares much in common with other Romance Languages, such as Italian, French and Portuguese. It also shares much in common with English, particularly in the realm of science where many words in both languages are based on Latin roots. As a result, an English-speaking scientist with no formal training in Spanish can recognize many scientific words in Spanish, and a Spanish-speaking scientist, with no formal training in English, can recognize many scientific words in English. Words that have similar linguistic roots are known as cognates. A list of a few English/Spanish science cognates appears in table 2.2.Try to determine the English equivalent of each Spanish science term without referring to a Spanish/English dictionary.

Activities

• Foreign Roots of English Language - Seeing the international origin of common words

• Translate terms into multiple languages - Translate terms from you discipline into many languages. Indicate all that cognates by highlighting in yellow.

• History of the English Language - Slide show