Conejo

Cognado

Conejo Cognado is a little rabbit that loves to learn! He has discovered that through cognates he can learn even more. This week Conejo Cognado is visiting his other conejo friends in Mexico. He has promised his friends a fabulous homemade dinner as a thank you for having him over at their home. However, when he starts looking at the recipes in his cookbook and goes to the grocery store, he realizes everything is in Spanish of course! As a teacher, you can use Conejo Cognado in a series of lessons. You can have one lesson dealing with food vocabulary, another with meal etiquette and Mexican culture, and another with shopping vocabulary.

For one lesson, you can have Conejo Cognado make a trip to the grocery store. As Conejo Cognado hops up and down the aisles, he starts to notice that some words on his list and on the labels look very similar to English words. He realizes that he can figure out a lot of the meanings simply by associating the words with similar words in English. He uses his knowledge about the English language to learn about Spanish.

Conejo Cognado runs into words such as la ensalada, la pasta, la hamburgesa, vegetariano, el plato, and la fruta. Conejo Cognado immediately knows what each of these words mean because they so closely resemble words he knows in English. As he finds each item in the grocery aisle, he starts to pick up the vocabulary. He realizes he is learning Spanish on his own! A student can do the same thing by using the cognate learning strategy. A teacher can write a paragraph in the target language and project it up on the board. Students can attempt to understand the paragraph and answer comprehension questions at the end. Students can also circle any words in the paragraph that they consider cognates. Because the cognate learning strategy is such a helpful and easy method, students quickly gain confidence in learning the target language.

A student uses the cognate learning strategy by referring to previously attained linguistic knowledge. By recognizing words that are similar in other known languages, they are able to infer meanings and acquire new vocabulary. Along with this learning strategy certain metacognitive processes are also used. The metacognitive processes that are involved are: monitoring, problem-solving, and remembering information.

Knowing that these words look and maybe even sound so similarly to English, students are more likely to remember them and use them in verbal and written conversation. Using Conejo Cognado, the students can also have a visual to associate with the cognate learning strategy. Every time a teacher refers to the Conejo Cognado, the students will know exactly what strategy to use and how to use it. Even after the unit’s lessons on food, meals, and grocery shopping, Conejo Cognado can up again almost for every unit.

By Regina Hubard