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Cross-linguistic connections are the understanding of differences between languages. Students can bridge their knowledge of various languages and cultures through this important aspect of translanguaging pedagogy.
Spanish Speaking Countries
One example of cross-linguistic connections that can be learned by students is their understanding of varied accents throughout the world. Easy Languages is a YouTube channel that I utilize often in my classroom. Easy Spanish has videos and interviews from a variety of Spanish speakers that discuss aspects about their respective cultures.
As a whole group, we watch a different cultural video every week. Linked above are some examples of Easy Spanish videos I have used. After viewing, I pose some essential questions for the students to discuss in small groups.
Example Preguntas for the Videos
¿Qué define los argentinos? ¿Los mexicanos? ¿Los españoles? Explique 2-3 razones.
¿Qué diferencias escuchaste en el acento? What differences did you hear in the accent?
¿Qué sonidos o palabras escuchaste? What sounds or words did you hear?
¿Qué comida es típico en el país? What food is typical in the country?
¿Algo más interesante que aprendiste para ti?
Il calendario italiano
Another unit of study in my Italian course is learning the days & months vocabulary, as well as learning about the origins of the calendar and how to write out the date in Italian. Displayed above are two presentations I created to teach the content and vocabulary. The first presentation includes the days & months where the vocabulary is introduced and students make linguistic connections between the English and Italian terms. Students are shown a video that explains the origins of the days & months and then we analyze the comparisons between the planets, romance languages, and English. Once students have an understanding of the vocabulary, I teach them how to formulate the date in Italian. In the presentation above, you can see the rules and structure displayed. Students then practice writing the date in Italian using all of the resources provided. Throughout the study of this unit, students can make cross-linguistic connections by bridging connections between similarities and differences of language through sentence structure and vocabulary.
References
Hamman-Ortiz, L. & Hesson, S. (2023) 10 Purposes for Pedagogical Translanguaging
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