Date of Award

11-2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Construction Science and Management (MCSM)

Department

Construction Science and Management

Committee Chair/Advisor

Dr. Shima Clarke

Committee Member

Dr. Jason Lucas

Committee Member

Dr. Dhaval Gajjar

Abstract

This paper gives an overview of a study conducted with US construction practitioners and Hispanic construction workers to develop Mexican and Central American construction Spanish phrases. Many companies face the challenge of a language barrier between the English construction supervisors and the Spanish-- speaking speaking Hispanic workers. This language gap is creating poor expectations among different sectors in the construction industry. Over the past several years as the number of Hispanic construction w orkers have increased in the United States so has the language barrier. The majority of the Hispanic construction workforce comes from Mexico and Central America. US construction supervisors were interviewed to collect common English phrases on a jobsite. Phrases were also developed through observational method. A survey questionnaire was developed and distributed to construction supervisors to determine the most commonly spoken English phrases on construction jobsites. A second survey was developed with th e phrases translated into Mexican and Central American Spanish and sent out to construction supervisors to determine the accuracy of the translation. The two surveys resulted in developing a list of top 10 construction Spanish phrases to be learned by nonSpanish speaking supervisors on construction jobsite. The result of learning these top 10 construction phrases would be a starting point to help mitigate the language barrier that currently exists between nonEnglish speaking Hispanic workers

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