Learning Spanish (L3) and Forgetting English (L2)? Intervention of Cognates Teaching in Lexical Production in China: A Longitudinal Comparative Study

This article was based on a 14-week longitudinal study to analyze the role of bilingual (English-Spanish) cognates in learning Spanish as a third language (L3) in China. Using lexical production tasks, it examined learners’ cognate awareness, strategies, and recognition under cross-linguistic influence. The results show that explicit instruction of L2-L3 cognates significantly enhanced cognate awareness, reinforcing metalinguistic skills at morphological and semantic levels. The findings also reveal a motivational dimension, as learners intentionally applied cognate strategies in multilingual lexical production.