# Bidirectional Cross-Linguistic Interference in Spatial Cognition: Behavioural Evidence from Chinese Learners of French

## TL;DR

This study shows that Chinese learners of French rely on their native spatial concepts even in French tasks, with some reverse influence from French to Mandarin.

## Contribution

It documents bidirectional cross-linguistic influence in spatial cognition among late L2 learners, including L2-to-L1 effects.

## Key findings

- Learners' French spatial responses were strongly shaped by Mandarin frames of reference.
- Higher French proficiency did not correlate with success in French spatial tasks.
- A moderate L2-to-L1 influence was observed, reducing alignment with Mandarin spatial patterns.

## Abstract

This study investigates how cross-linguistic differences in spatial cognition affect Chinese learners’ acquisition of French in the conflict domain of page turning, which is encoded in opposite ways by French and Mandarin. Two hundred and sixty-one Chinese university students completed a video-based spatial task in both languages, comprising both comprehension and production components. The results revealed a marked asymmetry in spatial cognition between the first language (L1) and second language (L2): while learners consistently relied on stabilised Mandarin-based construals, their French responses remained strongly shaped by L1 frames of reference. We found no significant association between global French proficiency and success in the French spatial tasks, indicating that higher proficiency does not automatically entail conceptual restructuring in this domain. Meanwhile, a small to moderate negative correlation between French and Mandarin scores indicated a subtle L2-to-L1 influence, whereby adopting French-conventional spatial construals was accompanied by reduced alignment with Mandarin-conventional patterns. These findings contribute to research on bidirectional cross-linguistic influence in spatial cognition by documenting L2-to-L1 effects in late, classroom-based learners. They also point to the need for pedagogical approaches that explicitly target spatial conceptualisation—through contrastive reflection and embodied practice—rather than focusing solely on the formal properties of spatial expressions.