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
Recommended Citation
Saborio, Alexis, "Developing Mexican and Central American Spanish Phrases for U.S Construction Workforce to Improve Jobsite Communication" (2022). All Theses. 3940.
https://open.clemson.edu/all_theses/3940