An analysis of the practicability of morphology to vocabulary development of students from huflits foreign languages department

HO CHI MINH UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
AND INFORMATION

DEPARTMENT

TECHNOLOGY

OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

GRADUATION PAPER

AN ANALYSIS OF
THE PRACTICABILITY OF MORPHOLOGY
TO VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT OF
STUDENTS FROM HUFLIT'S
FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT

I

I

I

!

Advisor: MS. Bin THJ PHUONG THAO, M.A.
Student: NGUYEN NAM TRUNG
Student's number: llDH710290
Class: BAll03
Major: English - Vietnamese Translation and Interpretation
HUFLlTLIB

"'' '101001392
' 1111111111111 """

June, 2015


HO CHI MINH UNIVERSITY OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES
AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

GRADUATION PAPER

AN ANALYSIS OF THE
PRACTICABILITY OF MORPHOLOGY
TO VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT
OF STUDENTS FROM HUFLIT'S
FOREIGN LANGUAGES
DEPARTMENT

Advisor: MS. BiJI THJ PHUONG THAo, M.A.
Student: NGUYEN NAM TRUNG
Student's number: llDH710290
Class: BAl103
Major: English - Vietnamese Translation and Interpretation

June, 2015


TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE

CONTENTS

ABSTRACT

1

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

3

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background

5

1.2 Research gap

7

1.3 Objective

7

1.4 Scope

7

1.5 Research question

7

1.6 Organization

8

2. LITERATURE

REVIEW

2.1 Vocabulary acquisition in Second Language Learning

10

2.2 Approaches to vocabulary learning

10

2.2.1 Repetition Learning Approaches

11

2.2.2 Word-Form Learning Approaches

12

2.3 Morphology:

Basic introduction

13

2.3.1 What is Morphology?

13

2.3.2 Terminologies

15

in Morphology

i. Morpheme

15

ii. Free and bound morphemes

16

iii. Affixes and Bases, Roots

17

a. Affixes

17


Prefix... .

17

Infix

18

Suffix...........

18

b. Bases & Roots

20

Bases

20

Roots

20

2.3.3 The importance ofleaming roots

21

3. METHOD
3.1 Description of the Subjects
3.1.1 The subjects in the survey

23

3.1.2 The subjects in the experiment and in the interviews

23

3.2 Materials
3.2.1 The survey questionnaire

24

3.2.2 The experiment tests

25

3.2.3 The list of Latin and Greek roots in English

25

3.2.4 The post-test interview questions

26

3.3 Procedures
3.3.1 The survey

26

3.3.2 The experiment

27

3.3.3 The post-test interviews

28

3.4 Statistical treatment...

28

4. RESULTS

4.1 The results in the survey

30

4.2 The results in the experiment...

36

4.3 The results in the post-test interview

38


!

5. DICUSSION
5.1 Discussion

5.1.1 On the survey

44

5.1.2 On the experiment

47

5.1.3 On the post-test interviews

50

5.2 Recommendations and Applications

52

6. CONCLUSION
6.1 Conclusion

55

6.2 Limitations and Implications

59

APPENDIX
I. The Survey Questionnaire

61

II. The Experiment Materials

67

Test 1

68

Test 2

76

The Latin and Greek Root List

84

III. The Interview Transcripts
Vietnamese Interview Transcripts
English Interview Transcripts
IV. The list of the subjects

94
107
122

The subjects in the experiment

123

The subject in the interview

124

REFERENCES

-

93

125


ABSTRACT

English linguistics are often considered as a "bridge" leading learners
into a much deeper world of the language's lexicons. Among linguistics
subjects, Morphology is of great importance in lexical development, however,
there seems to be a common trend that many EFL students have no much
interest in learning the subject. The aim of this study was to investigate the
practicability of Morphology to vocabulary development of 10 senior students
from Foreign Languages Department at Ho Chi Minh University of Foreign
Languages and Information Technology (HUFLIT) by means of a twomultiple-test experiment. Results indicated that Morphology helped the
participants acquire lexical items more easily and systematically. Morphology
can even bring out more benefits in enriching one's vocabulary and to other
related fields if further research has been carried out.


BANG TOM TAT
CaC man hQc ngon ngfr hQc ti6ng Anh thuang duqc xem nhu "cfru n6i"
giup nguai hQc ti6p xuc sau hon v&i kh6i luqng tu vvng cua ngon ngfr do. Trong

s6 nhfrng man hQc do, Hinh thai hQc co tim quan trQng trong vi~c phat tri~n tit
VlJIlg, tuy nhien hi~n t~i co nhi€u sinh vien nganh Ngon ngfr Anh khong danh
nhi€u hUng tM cho hQc man nay. Bai khoa lu~n nay huang t&i vi~c nghien Clm
tinh kha thi cua Hinh thai hQc trong vi~c phat tri~n tit vlJIlg cua 10 sinh vien
nam cu6i khoa Ngo~i ngfr thuQc huang f)~i HQc Ngo~i ngfr va Tin HQc Thanh
ph6 H6 Chi Minh (HUFLIT) thOng qua mQt thlJc nghi~m v&i hai ki~m tra tr~c
nghi~m tit vlJIlg. K6t qua cho thfry duqc Hinh thai hQc giup nhfrng nguai tham
gia thlJc nghi~m hQc tit nhanh va

M th6ng

hon. Hinh thai hQc co th~ dem nhi€u

lqi ich hon trong vi~c rna rQng v6n tit cua nguai hQc cung nhu nhfrng Ung dl,mg
cac linh VlJClien quan n6u co nhi€u nghien Clm duqc ti6n hanh trong tuong lai.

2


ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Initially, I would like to express my gratitude to my advisor - Ms. Bui
Thi Phuong Thao - for her constructive feedbacks. Her profound knowledge of
Morphology as well as insightful questions on my paper really challenged me
to think deeply on the topic the and stay focused.
My deep appreciation also goes to Ms. Bui Thi Thanh Truc for giving
precious advice, to Ms Tran My Uyen for allowing me an access to the lab
room for the test experiment, to Mr. Tran Thanh Tu for his ardent supports at
the beginning of this research.
I also owe thanks to my friends who were always willing to help me

during the experiment even though they were really busy with the final
examinations.
Finally, I would like to thank my parents for supporting me throughout
the process of writing this paper.

3


Chapter I

INTRODUCTION
Background
Research gap
Objective
Scope
Research question
Organization

4


INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

No one can deny the important role of English as it is now the most
widely used language in the world. English becomes more and more simplified
for communicative needs because of the fast-paced globalization. Depended on
specific purposes, the language is divided into two categories: English for
Occupational Purposes (EOP) and English for Academic Purposes (EAP).

In the process of learning English, one can build up his or her vocabulary
by practicing skills from listening, speaking, reading and writing. Learners may
come across a wide range of new words and gradually improve their lexical
skills such as guessing meanings by context or mastering the use of word choice
in speaking or writing if they keep on practicing those mentioned skills.
As learners advance their English learning, especially for academic
purposes (EAP), the density of advanced lexicons is very high. Therefore, many
EFL students face a lot of difficulties in struggling with comprehending
specialized texts or writing formal essays that require high standards because
they may lack methods of learning and using words properly. English
linguistics subjects are considered as a better tool to enrich one's vocabulary
comprehensively and academically. They serve as a bridge into a much deeper
world of the language's lexicons. That explains why most language universities
put some linguistic subjects in the main curriculum for EFL students. As a
matter of fact, HUFLIT's Department of Foreign Languages (DFL) currently
introduces courses such as Phonetics, Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, and
Semantics to EFL students as the basic introduction to English academic

5


context. However, there seems to be a common trend that they have no much
interest in learning those subjects and make steady progress in their lexical
improvement.
A survey was carried out at HUFLIT on 100 final year students of
Foreign Languages Department from April 20th, 2015 to April 24th, 2015. The
survey consist of two sections: (l) questions asking for opinions regarding to
the surveyees' English vocabulary learning, and (2) a mini-test which was
designed to check the students' application of morphology to solving the five
vocabulary questions.

The result, as shown in the Figure 1.1 and 1.2 below, reveals that 56%
of the total students learned English vocabulary by practice. Nonetheless, 73%
of them had difficulty in memorizing words due to the infrequent usage of those
lexicons, which seems to be a surprising contradiction.

.

"

Il

• By practice
.By healt
• By visual aids
• Others

• Tendency to forget due
to infrequent usage
• Inability to guess
meaning

• Length or order of
characters
• Others

FIGURE 1.1 Common methods of

FIGURE 1.2 Common difficulties in

learning English vocabulary

learning English vocabulary

6


Following the opinion-based questionnaire in the survey, the result of the
mini-test shows that less than 30% get the scores above average.
A rough conclusion drawn from this survey is that many EFL students
nowadays still follow the traditional rote-learning and lack a scientific method
of building up their own vocabulary.
1.2 Research gap

Although much research has been devoted to English vocabulary
development, little information is available on the application of Morphology
to EFL students' vocabulary acquisition. Therefore, the researcher raised this
lack of research as one of the reasons for this paper besides the personal interest
in English linguistics.
1.3 Objectives

The purpose of the study is to investigate the practicability of
Morphology to vocabulary development of EFL students by the means of two
lexical tests.
1.4 Scope

In the scope of the research, this paper is limited to word roots and their
application to vocabulary development of senior students from HUFLIT's
Foreign Languages Department.

7

1.5 Research questions

The researcher has some following questions regarding the practicability of
Morphology to vocabulary development of the EFL students who took part in
the test experiment.
1. What are the differences in the experiment results before and after the
treatment?
2. How did the distributed material (a list of Latin and Greek roots) help
the subjects in the experiment?
3. Are there any difficulties during the process oflearning word roots?
4. How important is the application of root analysis in the experiment?
5. How much practicable is the application of Morphology to vocabulary
learning of EFL students?
1.6 Organization

This paper begins with the introduction in chapter one. It is expanded in
the following chapter - chapter two - with the literature review. The method
describing how the study was carried out is in chapter three. The findings of
the research are presented in chapter foUf.Chapter five is devoted to discussion
with some recommendations. The paper ends with conclusion of chapter six.

8


Chapter II.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Vocabulary acquisition in second language learning
Approaches to vocabulary learning
Morphology: Basic Introduction

9


I
,

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Vocabulary Acquisition in Second Language Learning
Vocabulary
acquisition

acquisition

[40]. As Wilkin

is increasingly
emphasized

viewed as crucial to language
the importance

of vocabulary:

"Without grammar, very little can be convey; without vocabulary, nothing can
be convey." [45: 111]

Vocabulary

plays a pivotal role in developing

four skills: listening,

speaking, reading and writing. Nation [25] believed that English learners need
to have around 3,000 word families as the threshold for understanding

the

language they are exposed to . Therefore, having an extensive vocabulary can
help learners clearly express their ideas and communicate with others not only
in speech but also in written forms. It also assists them in reading fluently,
comprehending

and discussing what has been read, and learning. [32: 15-16]

2.2 Approaches to Vocabulary Learning
In the English language, there are between 1,200,000 and 2,000,000
words. Moreover, every year about 20,000 new words are created thanks to the
contribution
acquisition

of technology

[32: 11]. As

in the language, they encounter

learners

their

lexical

an increasing amount of more

complex words [2]. When it comes to vocabulary
language acquisition,

advance

learning in the second

there comes a variety of approaches. Some learners may

learn new words by looking them up in the dictionary. Others might commit
the words to memory by repeating a number oftimes until they feel comfortable
with it or learning by heart. Some would place the words in writing an example

-

sentence or use them actively in daily conversations. Each strategy mentioned
above will determine to an extent how and how well a new word is learned. A
10


lot of research has been done into investigate the effectiveness of learning
vocabulary. The researcher has collected the information and classified it into

two common categories: (1) repetition learning approaches and (2) word-form
learning approaches.
2.2.1 Repetition Learning Approaches
The approaches in this section require a large amount of repetition, which
is sometimes associated with memory learning.
Anderson and Jordan [1] conducted an experiment to check the memory
durability of learners when they encountered new words for the first time. It
was observed after one week 48% of the number words could be recalled. After
3 weeks and 8 weeks, the percentage gradually went down to 39% and 37%
respectively. Seibert [34, 35] also replicated the same method and found out
similar results. Therefore, it was concluded that learners should begin
"repeating newly learned words immediately after the first encounter". In other
words, learning by repetition was emphasized as an important factor in learning
vocabulary.
Nation [24] inferred that it requires 5 - 16 exposures to a new word in
order to learn it from context. Horst, Cobb, and Meara [12] conducted a study
in which low intermediate EFL learners were demanded to read a 109-page
book in 10 days. A 20% boost in their vocabulary size was prevailed under
observation. They came to conclusion that "words with appeared over eight
times were more likely to be learned than words that were repeated less".
A lot of experiments have been carried out to prove the correlation
between better gains in vocabulary and the exposures to words by reading. (e.g.:
Ferris [9] ; Pitt, White and Krashen [31]; Day, Omura and Hramatsu, [7]). Day

11


I

•

I

et al. [7:545] concluded that the more exposure to words positively influences
students' ability to recognize them in vocabulary tests.
2.2.2 Word-Form Learning Approaches
Word-form learning approaches refer to the strategies oflearning words
by analyzing their structure or forms, which is closely correlated with
Morphology - the study of word forms or roots.
Nation [24] provided a word-form learning approach through a threestep method: (1) breaking a new word into parts or decoding, (2) getting the
meaning of parts by the prior knowledge of roots, (3) making lexical
connections of those parts to form the possible meaning of the word.
Kelly [16] pointed out that vocabulary development can be assisted with
the knowledge of Greek-Latin roots which help learners predict or guess the
meaning of a word and remember it by knowing "how its current meaning
evolved from its metaphorical origins".
It might seem that the number of repetition approaches mainly occupy
the lion's share of recent research in English vocabulary acquisition. There is
still a need for more word-form based methods to shed clearer lights upon the
importance of learning vocabulary by means of morphological analysis (e.g.:
unlocking meanings based on knowledge of roots). The researcher conducted
this paper in an endeavor to be a part of this contribution.

12


2.3 Morphology: Basic Introduction
2.3.1 What is Morphology?
Morphology, a sub-discipline in linguistics, deals with the identification,
analysis and description of the structure of a language from morphemes (the

smallest meaning unit) to other linguistics units, such as root words, affixes,
parts of speech, intonations and stresses, or implied context. [44]
The word "morphology" is made up of two parts: the Greek word morphwhich means "form, shape" and -ology which means "the study". Literally,
morphology

implies "the study of forms". The term was coined early in the

nineteenth century and originally only used for biological context or "the study
of form and structure of organisms". However, since the middle of nineteenth
century, it has been used to describe "the type of investigation that analyzes all

those basic 'elements' used in a language' [46:62-63]
The purpose of learning Morphology (as basic introduction to linguistics)
is to help students expand their vocabulary with the analysis of word structure,
reinforce their word awareness and partially explain the relationship between
Morphology and other related sub disciplines in linguistics.
First of all, students with the knowledge

of Morphology

can make

"connections among semantically related words and or word families" based
on the analysis on word structure. [23]

"By separating and analyzing the meaning of a prefix, suffix, or other
word root, students can often unlock the meaning of an unknown word.
If we teach students that bi-means "two," for example, they can use
that information tofigure out biannual or biaxial. When introducing
the concept ofphotosynthesis, we can easily point out its roots: photo-

13


means "light," and syn- means "with." As students grapple with the
complex process of how light (photo) is combined with (syn) carbon
dioxide and water to make sugar, knowledge of these word roots will
support their efforts." [32:21]

Secondly, as students gain the lexical skills in analyzing roots or guessing
words based on the roots, simultaneously they also become more conscious of
words they encounter. They "reinforce the vocabulary they already acquired
and then build on that reinforced foundation" which will not only expand their
passive vocabulary but also stimulate their active one. [32:32]
Figure 2.3-1 as shown below illustrates for the third benefit mentioned
above [11]. Learners will understand more about the interrelationship among
linguistics subjects if they get more academically involved in the subject.

Morphology
Morphemecombination rules

Syntax
Word-combination

rules

Phonology
Pronunciation
rules

Figure 2.3-] The relationship between Morphology, Syntax and Morphology

14


2.3.2 Terminologies

in Morphology

i. Morpheme

According to Yule, a morpheme

IS

"a minimal unit of meaning or

grammatical function" [46:63]
Katamaba gave another definition that "the morpheme is the smallest
difference in the shape of a word that correlates with the smallest difference in
word or sentence meaning or in grammatical structure" [15:24]
For example:
(1) floors - There are two morphemes: one minimal unit of
meaning is "floor" and the other minimal unit of grammatical
function is "-s" (indicating plural)
(2) disagreement - There are three morphemes: one minimal
unit of meaning is open, another minimal unit of meaning is "dis-"
(meaning 'not') and a minimal unit of grammatical function is "
ment" (changing class ofword:from verb to noun)

Nguyen provides an analogy of the structure of morpheme to the
structure of legos as: "Morphemes can be compared to pieces of lego that can
be used again and again as building blocks toform different words" [27: 10]
e.g.: disapprove, disagree, dismiss, disappear, disallow

15


ii. Free morphemes and bound morphemes:
Morphemes

are divided into two types: free morphemes

and bound

morphemes [46:63]

Free morphemes are morphemes that can stand by themselves as single
words, for example: agree, help, quicker

Bound morphemes are those forms that cannot normally stand alone
and are typically attached to another form, for example: dis-, -s; -er; -est; -ly

For example:
(l) helpers : the word 'helpers' contains one free morpheme

(help) and two bound morpheme (-er, -s)
(2) quicker: the word 'quicker' contains onefree morpheme

(quick) and one bound morpheme (-er)

(3) disagreements: the word "disagreement" contains one

free morpheme (agree) and three bound morpheme (dis-, -ment, -s)

16


iii. Affixes and Bases, Roots

Another classification of morphemes puts them into two classes: affixes
and bases [37].
a) Affixes
An affix is bound morpheme that occur before or within or after a base.
There are three kinds: prefixes, infixes, suffixes.
Prefixes are those bound morphemes that occur before a base, as m
import, reconsider. Prefixes in English are a small class of morphemes,
numbering about seventy-five [37:89]. Their meanings are often those of
English prepositions and adverbials.
For example:
- antifreeze
.-

circumvent

: prefix "anti-" means 'against'
: prefix "circum-" means 'around'

- copilot

: prefix "co-" means 'together'

- contradict

: prefix "contra-" means 'against'

- devitalize

: prefix "de-" means 'opposite'

- disagreeable

: prefix "dis-" means 'not'

- insecure

: prefix "in-" means 'not'

- imperfect

: prefix "im-" means 'not'

- inegal

: prefix "il-" means 'not'

- intramural

: prefix "intra-" means 'inside'

- obstruct

: prefix "ob-" means 'against'

- prewar

: prefix "pre-" means 'before'

- postwar

: prefix "post-" means 'after'

- subway

: prefix "sub-" means 'under'

17


Infixes

are bound morphemes

that have inserted within a word. In

English these are rare. As Stageburg [37:90] points out that "infixes in English
are most commonly replacements, not additions". They occur in a few plurals,
like the -ee- in geese, replacing the

-00-

tense and past participles of verbs like the
the

-00-

of goose, and more often in the past
-0-

of chosen and chosen in replacing

of choose.

Suffixes are bound morphemes that occur after a base. Suffixes may pile
up to the number of three or four [37:91]
For example: "normalizers" reaches the limit with four suffixes
as follows:

norm - al - lze - er - s
(base)

S1

When suffixes multiply like this, their order is fixed: there is one and
only one order in which they occur. Suffixes are divided into derivational
suffixes and inflectional suffixes.
A derivational

suffixes is only applied to any morpheme that adds up to

the root to form a word. It influences the meaning of a word. A derivational

suffix changes the part of speech of the word to which it is added.
For example:
-

adornment

: suffix "-ment" (from verb to noun)

-

friendly

: suffix "-ly" (from noun to adjective)

-

harden

: suffix "-en" (from adjective to verb)

-

uselessness

: suffix "-less" (from noun to adjective)
: suffix "-ness" (from adjective to noun)

18

An inflectional suffIx or "ending" is only applied to any morpheme
serving to derive a grammatical form and having no lexical meaning of its own.
The inflectional suffixes include:
- The non possessive morpheme (-S[) : Jack's, men's, boys'
-

The noun plural morpheme (-S2): flowers

-

The verb present third person singular morpheme (-S3): buys

-

The verb present participle morpheme (-ING): swimming

- The verb past tense morpheme (-ED!): cried
- The verb past participle morpheme (-ED2): laughed, eaten,
- The comparative morpheme (-ER): weaker
- The superlative morpheme (-EST): weakest
The word to which these suffixes are attached are called stems. The
stems includes the base or bases and all the derivational suffixes.

19


b. Bases & Roots

A base morpheme is the part of a word that has principle meaning. Bases
are very numerous, and most of them in English are free morphemes; but some

are bound morpheme, like "-sent" in consent, dissent, and assent. A word may
contain one base and several affixes.
Root is a word that does not have a prefix or a suffix. The root word is
the primary lexical unit of a word, and of a word family, which carries the most
significant aspects of semantic content and cannot be reduced into smaller
constituents. Root is then called base word. As cited in Ransinski, et al [32:27] ,
a root is "a word part that means something .. [ J

.... a group of letters with

. "
meanmg.
Yule [46:66] proposed a chart as a generalization for all different types
of morpheme:
lexical
functional

/
bound

<----

20

(child, teach)
(an, the)

derivational (re-, -ness)

inflectional (- 's; -ed)