Page 272 - Beyond Methods

260 Ensuring social relevance
11.1.5 Switch gears and turn to cognate words. Explain to your stu- dents that these are words from two different languages that are simi- lar in form and meaning, because both languages may have the same origin. Give examples such as brother in English and Bruder in Ger- man. In small groups or as a whole class, depending on time, ask them to think of similar examples focusing on their L1 and L2. Discuss these examples. If they cannot come up with any examples in class, ask them to do the task as a take-home assignment, talking to people at home or consulting a dictionary, and bring examples to the next class session.
11.1.6 Then, focus on false cognates (also called false friends). Ex- plain to them that these are words that have the same or very similar form in two languages, with a different meaning in each. Give an ex- ample such as the French word expérience, which means experiment and not experience. Then, follow the same procedure as in 11.1.5.
11.1.7 Turn now to borrowed words. Explain the concept with ex- amples (e.g., kampuni in Swahili is a borrowing from English company). Then, follow the same procedure as in 11.1.5.
11.1.8 Devote a class session in which you allow students to present examples of cognates, false cognates, or borrowings in their home lan- guage and the target language. Encourage them to provide adequate explanations for the benefit of those who may come from a different L1 background.
11.1.9 Finally, pull all the class discussion together and explain how consciously looking for cognates, false cognates, and borrowings is a good learning strategy particularly for building vocabulary or for in- creasing one’s reading comprehension.
Microstrategy 11.2: No Spanish, Please
11.2.0 As we discussed earlier in this chapter, language policy and planning have more to do with politics than with linguistics or even education. There are multilingual countries where the political estab- lishment would like to encourage the use of a dominant language and discourage the use of minority ones, often resulting in personal or polit- ical tension. Issues arising out of such a tension can be raised in class not only for focusing on certain lexical or grammatical items but also for raising social consciousness among the learners. Newspapers are a good source of materials that can be used for this purpose. Here’s an example. Adapt this microstrategy to suit your learning and teaching situation.