Cognate-Based Language Teaching and Vocabulary Learning

Abstract

This current research determined the importance of learning vocabulary through the use of cognates. A total of 73 university students (26 males and 47 females), of the higher levels at Universidad Técnica de Ambato, were enrolled in descriptive research. The data were collected through a survey with 23 items on a Likert scale and 3 openended questions. It was validated with the coefficient Cronbach ’s Alpha (0,898). Furthermore, the research was based on the following three research questions: What types of cognates do learners use when learning vocabulary? What are the strategies that learners use to learn vocabulary? What activities of Cognate-based language teaching are used to foster vocabulary learning? The results revealed that the types of cognates students used to learn vocabulary were exact cognates, partial cognates, false cognates, cognates with Latin and Greek roots and cognates with prefixes and suffixes. On the other hand, most of the students mentioned different strategies to learn vocabulary, among the strategies, were watching videos, using words every day and using them to write or speak about their own lives. Then the cognate-based activities students choose to learn vocabulary were cognates word families, use of cognates from the teachers during the class and cognate guessing game. Finally, it was evidenced that cognates are a very good tool for vocabulary learning, since they help students take advantage of their L1 to learn L2.