1. Figuring Words Out in Spanish

2.  What do you think of when you hear the word… school ◦ You associate many things with school ◦ This is the “big picture” of an idea  What do you think of when you hear the words… snow, tree, presents, food, family ◦ A group of words together associate with Christmas ◦ These are the “details” of an idea

3. school presents tree snow food family books and paper homework and tests teachers and students pencils and pens grades Christmas

4.  We use both the “big picture” and “details” all the time. ◦ It’s how we recognize our surroundings, remember things, and function!  Together, they are called context  Context gives us an idea about what is happening  We can use context to help us understand words in Spanish

5.  Think about your knowledge of Spanish. Do you know a lot of words, for example, compared to English? ◦ You know just a few words in Spanish  However, you already have ideas and the big picture in your head ◦ You know ideas, just not how to say them in Spanish  Use your knowledge of the world and combine it with the few words you know in Spanish ◦ Big picture + details ⇒ understanding

6. Tengo un murciélago que está muy furioso. Es del bosque en mi pueblo.  What words do you know? (i.e. details) ◦ tengo, un, está, muy, es, de, en  Other words you might know (again, details): ◦ furioso, bosque, pueblo ◦ furioso is a cognate

7.  Tengo un murciélago que está muy furioso. Es del bosque en mi pueblo.  We can form an idea out of what we know ◦ Details lead to the idea  “I have something is very furious. It is from the something in (or at, on) my something.”  Now, we have some idea about what it says. Use a dictionary to look up the rest and put all of the details together.

8.  A cognate is a word in one language that has similar spelling/sounds AND has the same meaning as a word in another language ◦ furioso/furious ◦ horrible/horrible ◦ computadora/computer ◦ *lápiz/pencil ◦ *carpeta/carpet  If a word in Spanish looks/sounds similar to a word in English, it might be a cognate!  Knowing cognates help you guess the meaning of a word.

9.  Estoy bien cansado aunque dormí mucho anoche y desayuné pan, fruta y tomé leche con chocolate.  What do you know?  What can you figure out?  Fruta looks like ‘fruit’, so we can guess that that’s what it means. What else?

10.  Estoy bien cansado aunque dormí mucho anoche y desayuné pan, fruta y tomé leche con chocolate.  If we know ‘tired’, ‘break’, ‘milk’, what can we guess that the sentence is talking about?  Then, look up the rest using a dictionary.

11.  When you have a paragraph to read in Spanish, search the whole text for words that you might know and then guess what the topic may be. ◦ This creates the ‘big picture’  Then, look up individual words to understand better. ◦ This fills in the rest with ‘details’

12. “Confesiones de invierno” by Sui Generis Me echó de su cuarto gritándome: "No tienes profesión" Tuve que enfrentarme a mi condición, en invierno no hay sol. Think: What words do you know? Which words look like a word in English?