The first thing I did was start with transferring skills from the language that I know. I looked at the Spanish words to see if I could see anything similar to English in any of the words. I was able to decode a couple of words this way.
Secondly, I started pronouncing some of the bigger words in the text to see if they sounded like any English words. Hearing the words made me think about the word a little differently. I was able to decode a few more words this way.
Knowing a bit of the text helped me to figure out the possible theme of the song. I decided that the song was about a religious experience. I used my background knowledge as a tool to decide what other words might be in this type of text. This helped me to decode some more words.
I read and reread the text many times, making more guesses as to what the words meant.
As you can see below, I didn't get very far in the decoding of the lyrics. I believe that the song is about some sort of religious experience, but I really couldn't say anymore about what the song is saying. I am sure many of my guesses are incorrect.
The Spanish text is on one side, and my guesses are on the other. I have highlighted the words that I was decoding.
Lyrics in Spanish ____ __MyGuess____
Experiencia Religiosa ...................................................Experience religion/religious experience
Un poco de ti para sobrevivir
esta noche que viene fría y sola
un aire de éxtasis en la ventanapara vestirme de fiesta y ceremonia..................................................................party...ceremony
yo descubro el infinito........................................................................................forever, infinity
tiembla el suelo
la noche se ilumina............................................................................................Illuminate/angel
el silencio se vuelve melodía..............................................................................silent melody
Y es casi una experiencia religios...........................one experience religion/one religious experience
sentir que resucito si me tocas..............................................................................resurrect, live again
subir al firmamento prendido de tu cuerpo
es una experiencia religiosa....................................one experience religion/one religious experience
Casi una experiencia religiosa.................................one experience religion/one religious experience
contigo cada instante en cada cosa...........................................................................instant
besar la boca tuya merece un Aleluya..............................................................mercy...Allelujah
es una experiencia religiosa....................................one experience religion/one religious experience
Vuelve pronto mi amor te necesito ya.............................................................fast and necessary
porque esta noche tan honda me da miedo
necesito la música de tu alegría..........................................................................necessary music
para callar los demonios que llevo dentro
Cada vez que estoy contigo
ya no hayuna experiencia religiosa .........................one experience religion/one religious experience
las horas pasan mejor entre tus brazos
me siento nuevo y a nada le hago caso.........................................................................new
Y es casi una experiencia religiosa.........................one experience religion/one religious experience
subir al firmamento prendido en tu cuerpo
es una experiencia religiosa....................................one experience religion/one religious experience
Casi una experiencia religiosa................................one experience religion/one religious experience
contigo cada instante en cada cosa.................................................................................instant
besar la boca tuya merece un Aleluya....................................................................mercy...Allelujah
es una experiencia religiosa....................................one experience religion/one religious experience
Y es casi una experiencia religiosa..........................one experience religion/one religious experience
sentir que resucito si me tocas......................................................................resurrect, live again
subir al firmamento prendido en tu cuerpo
es una experiencia religiosa...................................................experience religion/religious experience
Casi una experiencia religiosa.................................one experience religion/one religious experience
contigo cada instante en cada cosa.................................................................................instant
besar la boca tuya merece un Aleluya....................................................................mercy...Allelujah
es una experiencia religiosa.....................................one experience religion/one religious experience
After doing this activity, I realized how hard it is for those children learning English as a second language. We, as educators, must do everything we can to help these students be successful. Teachers can help students use their first language to make connections to the learning of English. We must also have pictures available to help explain new vocabulary. We need to talk with these students about using their background knowledge to help them make meaning. Lastly, we need to understand how difficult their situation is. We need to get to know them and understand their background so that we can better serve them in our classroom.
Mary-
ReplyDeleteI also tried to understand the lyrics to a song and found it to be so difficult! Your experience sounds very similar to mine. Just like you, I started with any words I recognized and then tried to read the text aloud to listen for words that sounded familiar.
I like how you ended with "we need to understand how difficult their situation is. We need to get to know them and understand their background so that we can better serve them in our classroom." This is the feeling that struck me the most during this activity. I became frustrated while trying to decode the other language, and I only had to deal with that challenge for one assignment. I can't imagine how difficult it is for a child sitting in a classroom for hours a day struggling through task after task. Like you said, this was definitely an "eye-opener"!
Mary-
ReplyDeleteI agreed with much of what you said when you wrote about the challenges of trying to read and understand ANYTHING in another's language. I felt the experience helped me to better understand how my English language learners must feel while trying to read and understand English.
Being someone that loves to read, I also felt a lot of frustration because I knew that I should be able to read the article I selected but wasn't able to. I wanted to be able to read and understand the content of the article but could only find words that seemed familiar. Understanding a word here and there simply isn't enough to gain a real understanding of an entire article. I spent so much time reading word by word that I knew it would be nearly impossible for me to comprehend the whole article. Similar to struggling readers that spend so much time decoding that they aren't able to comprehend what they've read.
Mary,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you! This assignment was very overwhelming for me. I felt frustrated as I read in Spanish and I had time to think about it! It really made me think of our ELL students who are learning how to read when they don't even know the language! I did the same thing as you. I tried to decode any word that I could (which was not very many) and it left me confused and even more frustrated. Even though I knew SOME of the words, it was still impossible for me to comprehened anything that the recipe said. You are exactly right when you said that we need pictures too to help us understand another language, just like our ELL students need. Even with visuals I would still struggle with understanding!
Mary,
ReplyDeleteI was amazed at the experience as well. I randomly picked up a french book about the French president and tried the same method that you did to gain some meaning from it. As we learned in our reading last week, trying to transfer the similarities between the two languages is a great way to make your life a little easier when trying to learn a new language. There are a lot of cognates between English and Spanish and you found most of them in the song you chose. For ELL students, helping them see the similarities between the two languages helps with the stress that they may feel when initially learning English. You are also right that picture support helps a great deal!