The Effects of English
Morphology on EFL Learners’
Vocabulary Development
Adviser: Dr. Huang
Date of Submission: 2001/6/21
Student Name: Pan Chih-Pin
Student Number: A8960042
Class: 1A, DML, NPUST
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter
1.
2.
Page
Introduction
1
1.1. Statement of the problem
1
1.2. Research questions
2
1.3. Significance of the study
2
1.4. Delimitations
3
1.5. Limitations
4
1.6. Definition of terms
5
1.7. Summary
5
Literature review
6
2.1. Effectiveness of vocabulary development
6
2.1.1.
Morphology and vocabulary development
6
2.1.2.
Semantics and vocabulary development
7
2.2. Recall of learned vocabulary
3.
8
2.2.1.
Morphology and vocabulary retention
2.2.2.
Semantics and vocabulary retention
9
10
2.3. Summary
11
Methodology
12
3.1. Population
12
3.2. Instrument
13
3.3. Data collection
13
1
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Being bilingual or multilingual has been considered an essential skill in this
ever-changing international community.
In order to deal with this, Taiwanese
linguistic education has to be paid much more attention, English in particular.
Learning English as a foreign language has long been Taiwanese educational policy.
When English teachers nationwide are in pursue of students’ English proficiency, the
approaches to vocabulary development are widely investigated. As Wilkins (1972)
states that “Without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing
can be conveyed.”
Because vocabulary is the fundamental unit in the learning of a
foreign language, the purpose of this study is to examine the effects of English
morphology on EFL learners’ vocabulary development. By making learners aware
of English morphology, it is hoped that learners’ linguistic competence and
performance can be fostered to meet the needs of this multidimensional society.
1.1. Statement of the problem
Most EFL learners who are senior-high-bound are usually challenged by the
difficulty of memorizing vocabulary mainly caused by the complexity of English
word formation, which often leads to easily forgetting learned words.
Because of
their failure to keep a longer retention of vocabulary, frustration occurs when they
2
intend to apply their limited vocabulary knowledge to the traditional four plus
contemporary one skills of the target language, listening, speaking, reading, writing,
and translating, respectively.
In order to enhance EFL learners’ vocabulary
development, providing them with lectures on English word formation is perhaps a
better way to have an ideal understanding about the five interconnected skills of
English and to eventually achieve the goal of Taiwanese English language education,
which is defined by Howatt (1984) as “using English to learn.”
1.2. Research Questions
In order to probe and answer the above assumption, this study set the following
research questions in accordance with how English morphology affects vocabulary
size and vocabulary retention when tenth graders learn English.
1. Does studying English morphology benefit tenth graders in Taiwan who
attempt to expand their vocabulary size?
2. Does studying English morphology do good to pursue a longer retention of
vocabulary tenth graders have learned?
1.3. Significance of the study
Most EFL learners in Taiwan may agree that they cannot say anything
comprehensible in English without an adequate vocabulary size to create
comprehensible discourse, not to speak of advancing their English proficiency. The
3
flaw in building up learners’ themselves vocabulary size is usually resulted from the
fact that many English words are too complex to memorize or that learned words are
easy to forget.
It may attribute to learners’ lack of knowledge about how English
words are formed.
If learners have a thorough understanding about the rules of
English word formation, they will hold the high possibility to further their English
proficiency in listening, speaking, reading, writing, and translating.
Therefore,
bewaring of the system of word formation becomes very important to the learning of
the target language.
By doing this study, the researcher hopes to help EFL learners
at the tenth-grade level identify its effects on vocabulary development in order to
meet their lexical needs.
When they become college-bound and exposed to English
texts, their ability to effectively expand vocabulary knowledge and to recall learned
words will bring them better academic achievements.
More importantly, when they
are challenged by the impacts on globalization, the linguistic barrier will be overcome,
and they will possess the predominance in the application of the target language.
1.4. Delimitations
The delimitations of the study are as follows:
1.
The study will be limited to one semester.
2.
The subjects will be limited to tenth graders who have learned English for at
least three years.
4
3.
The study will be limited to the effects of English morphology on vocabulary
development.
4.
The students’ input will be limited to the chapter 3 of the book titled “An
Introduction to Language”, sixth edition and Mandarin Chinese version.
5.
Measurements of student achievement will be limited to pretest and posttest.
1.5. Limitations
The limitations of the study include:
1.
The subjects selected hinder the researcher from examining how the effects
influence other higher graders.
2.
The focus on first-year senior-high students who have learned English for at least
three years fails to perceive which English level they remain.
3.
The samplings of the subjects were limited to rural population, thereby
preventing those in urban areas.
4.
The effects of English morphology on vocabulary development limit the effects
on other linguistic areas.
5.
The use of the input material limits relevant input offered by other books.
1.6. Definition of terms
Proficiency-
be able to do something because of training and practice
EFL-
English as a Foreign Language
5
Morphology-
the study of the structure of words; the component of t
he grammar that includes the rules of word formation
Linguistic competence-
have the knowledge to produce sentences of a language
and apply this knowledge
Linguistic performance-
how one use this knowledge in actual speech production
and comprehension
Senior-high-bound-
be about to study in the senior high school
Retention-
ability to remember things
Five interconnected skills-
refer to listening, speaking, reading, writing, and
translating
1.7. Summary
This study intends to investigate the effects of English morphology on the
vocabulary development of tenth graders.
By setting the two research questions, the
answers are expected to provide the clues for tenth graders to expand their vocabulary
size and obtain longer vocabulary retention, and eventually use English to seek higher
academic achievements.
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CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. Effectiveness of vocabulary development
The studies that examined the effects of morphology and semantics on
vocabulary development will be reviewed in this section.
2.1.1. Morphology and vocabulary development
Al-QADI (1991) conducted a study in order to identify what specifically is
difficult for Arab speakers in their acquisition of English derivational
morphology.
The subjects were adult male Saudi EFL learners (N=150).
Data were collected by identifying major similarities and differences between
written standard Arabic and written standard English through contrastive
analysis, proposing hypotheses about degree of difficulty, and testing the
hypotheses through empirical investigation.
The result pointed out that
vocabulary development could be achieved by helping the EFL learners to
acquire one of the main sources of English word formation, namely, derivation.
The study completed by Nagy and Bhatt (1993) investigated the
development of two levels of morphological knowledge that contribute to
Spanish-English bilingual students’ ability to recognize cognates and to
recognize a cognate stem within a suffixed English word, and knowledge of
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systematic relationships between Spanish and English suffixes.
Latino
bilingual students (N=196) in fourth, sixth, and eighth grades, were asked to give
the Spanish equivalent for English words, some of which had derivational and
inflectional suffixes.
Results indicated that students’ ability to translate
cognates increase with age above and beyond any increase in their vocabulary
knowledge in Spanish and English. Other findings indicated that there was also
marked growth in students’ knowledge of systematic relationships between
Spanish and English suffixes. Students recognized cognates stems of suffixed
words more easily than non-cognate stems.
This suggested that cross-language
transfer might play a role not just in recognizing individual words but also in the
learning of derivational morphology in closely related languages such as Spanish
and English.
2.1.2. Semantics and vocabulary development
Myers (1981) implemented a study designed to bring forth evidence
focusing on four three hypotheses that (a) the attrition of L2 skills proceeds at
different rates for different skills, (b) the attrition of L2 skills will be in inverse
proportion to the cumulative average the student had in the low-intermediate
German class, and (c) the attrition of L2 patterns will reflect the learning order
and the frequency of occurrence of those patterns.
8
Data were collected by Bryn
Mawr College undergraduates (N=6) through the twenty-three tests administered
over the course of a year and covered such areas morphology, vocabulary,
writing skills, listening and reading comprehension.
The results suggested
useful instructional techniques aimed at lessening attrition, which is teaching
vocabulary via semantically paired items and via synonyms and antonyms, and
developing a linguistic sensitivity to word formation.
The study conducted by Page (2000) explored the possibility that grouping
words in a manner other than the traditional list of nouns, all fitting under a
common theme, might be more beneficial for students.
fourth,
and
fifth
grade
students
receiving
Participants were third,
the
same
level
of
English-as-a-Second-Language instruction. This study produced data on the
retention of new vocabulary data over three weeks and the students’ opinions
about the two types of word clusters (i.e. thematic and semantic clusters).
Results showed both word groupings were beneficial and suggested that teachers
might consider using both semantic and thematic groupings to help second
language elementary students learn new vocabulary words.
2.2. Recall of learned vocabulary
The studies that examined the effects of morphology and semantics on
vocabulary retention will be reviewed in this section.
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2.2.1. Morphology and vocabulary retention
Laufer (1988) set forth a discussion of the ease or difficulty in second
language vocabulary learning emphasizing on a variety of issues in L2
instruction. Research factors in vocabulary learning centered on similarity in
form and morphology, deceptive morphological structure, different syntactic
patterning in the native language, differences in the classification of experience
in the native language and second language, abstractness, specificity, negative
value, connotations nonexistent in L1, differences in the pragmatic meaning of
nearsynonyms and L1 translation equivalents, the learning burden of synonyms,
and the apparent rulelessness of collocations.
It was argued that word
learnability (i.e. the ease or difficulty of learning a particular word) could serve
as a guideline to the teacher in: (1) the selection and presentation (quantity,
grouping, language of presentation, isolation or context); (2) facilitation of
long-term memorization (through meaningful tasks, mnemonic techniques, rote
learning, and reactivation); (3) development of self-learning strategies; (4)
assessment of vocabulary knowledge.
A study carried out by Lutjeharms (1990) examined the processes and
strategies by which second language learners attain and organize verbal
knowledge with a review of the literature and teacher observations. Participants
10
were students (N=152) at a Dutch-speaking university. Classroom data were
derived from experience in teaching German.
The analysis focused on the
relationship of morphology and word recognition and retention, lack of attention
given by second language reader to word endings, and interference arising from
lack of word contrast.
The distinctions and relationships between mental
lexicon, semantic memory, and common semantic or conceptual stores across
language were also investigated.
The results indicated that a distinction
between semantic memory and mental lexicon was seen as necessary in
explaining interference from lack of word contrast.
2.2.2. Semantics and vocabulary retention
Lawson and Hogben (1998) administered a study to identify the effects of
training in the use of the keyword method on vocabulary acquisition. Subjects
were students (N=189) at Flinders University, Australia. Their reports on their
usual vocabulary acquisition pointed out that relatively little of the students’
strategic activity was similar in nature to that of the elaborative activity
encouraged by keyword training. Hierarchical linear modeling analysis was
employed to assess the long-term benefit of training in an elaborated keyword
technique, with students in both the experimental and control groups being tested
on four occasions.
The analysis showed that the keyword-trained students
11
maintained a significant and substantial advantage in recall of word definition
over control students on each occasion.
Schneider (1996) completed a study aimed at introducing a specialized
approach to teaching at-risk students a foreign language.
Because the
methodology placed a strong emphasis on the metacognitive aspects of language
in both native and foreign language instruction, the term “multisensory,
structured, metacognitive language instruction” was used to address at-risk
students’ weakness in recognizing linguistic rules and structure patterns, which
are necessary tools for becoming independent users of a foreign language. The
approach involved the students in learning to access their linguistic knowledge
and the instructor in facilitating metacognitive thought processes.
Summary
In the first section of this chapter, the review of literature identifies some
relevant researches exploring the relationships between morphology and vocabulary
development and between semantics and vocabulary development.
In the second
section, the review of literature identifies some researches exploring the relationships
between morphology and vocabulary retention and between semantics and vocabulary
retention.
In the next chapter, the procedures about how this study is conducted and
accomplished are unveiled.
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CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
This study intended to investigate the effects of English morphology on EFL
learners’ vocabulary development.
More specifically, this study concentrated on
investigating the effects of studying morphology on vocabulary development of tenth
graders. Since morphology is concerned with the rules of word formation, tenth
graders could try to expand their vocabulary size and keep longer vocabulary
retention by making themselves aware of English morphology.
Studying
morphology was therefore considered a good approach to activate learners’ mental
lexicon.
Then, the learners’ English proficiency in listening, speaking, reading,
writing, and translating could be also activated.
This study probed the relationships
between morphology and vocabulary development.
In order to investigate the
research questions, the researcher collected all the research data through Conjugation
Test, Word-meaning Match Test, and Recall Protocol. All the scored data were
analyzed by the multiple regression procedure of the Statistic Package for Social
Science (SPSS) program.
Population
The researcher employed the sampling plan “Stratified Random Sampling” to
choose population.
Population for this study was first-year senior-high students
13
from the National Pingtung Senior High School and the National Pingtung Girls
Senior High School in Taiwan. There were 400 first-year students, with half of them
male and the other female. Their average age was 15.6 and their average length of
English study was 3.7 years.
Instruments
The instruments for this study will be three kinds of tests, Conjugation Test,
Word-meaning Match Test, and Recall Protocol, respectively.
Before the students
study morphology, Conjugation Test and Word-meaning Match Test will be given to
them to identify their current ability to recognize the morphological features of words.
The two tests will last one hour.
After they have studied morphology for one
semester (about four months), the same tests will be given to them again in order to
observe how they employed the rules of word formation (morphology) in the tests.
The two tests will also last one hour.
Data collection
14