WHEN BILINGUALISM GOES BEYOND ONE’S EXPECTATIONS: THE LEARNING OF COGNATES AMONGST ADULT EFL STUDENTS

Abstract

Learning a foreign language (FL) is often perceived as a difficult objective to accomplish by adult learners. This is the case of Spanish adult learners who resume their Secondary Education studies and are required to study English as a mandatory subject, even if they have had little or no contact with the FL before. Therefore, neither educational authorities nor teachers support the implementation of a bilingual program since they consider these students’ success in it would be limited. Research suggests that vocabulary plays a crucial role in learners’ FL overall competence and that adult beginners benefit from explicit training in vocabulary acquisition strategies. The present study examines the role of Spanish-English cognates and a technology-based approach in the improvement of learners’ lexical knowledge. An experimental and a control  group from the same adult education centre were recruited for the study. While the control group continued with regular instruction, the experimental group received teaching in cognate awareness as a learning strategy. Along with this training, participants completed a Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) focused on the self-study of 1,000 highly frequent English words, among which cognates played a salient role. Both groups completed a vocabulary test before and after the intervention period, with the experimental group significantly outperforming the control group. Therefore, as predicted by previous studies, explicit training in cognates fosters the acquisition of FL lexical competence by assisting the learning of less-proficient students, such as those enrolled in Adult Education.