A Study On The Relationship Between Affix Acquisition And Second Language Level Of Chinese English Learners

Since the1990s, many scholars have explored the affix acquisition, which has been a very important aspect of English vocabulary. Previous empirical studies show that acquiring affix knowledge is a boon to both language teachers and learners and plays an active role in enlarging their vocabulary and improving their English level especially their reading ability.This paper aims at investigating the relationship between affix acquisition and second language level of Chinese English learners. It puts forward the following questions, based on the classification of affix difficulty and the three dimensions of affix, namely recognition, comprehension and utilization by Nation (2001) and others.1. What is the main feature of Chinese English learners’affix acquisition in the aspects of recognition, understanding and application?2. Does learners’second language proficiency have effect on their second language affix acquisition in the dimensions of recognition, understanding and application? Is the classification of affix difficulty level formulated by Nation suitable for Chinese English learners?3. Can vocabulary size benefit from the improvement of affix acquisition including suffix acquisition and prefix acquisition? Can the second language proficiency be influenced by it?To answer these questions, this research will choose English learners of three different levels (160persons in all) for this test, respectively:group one are eighty students of senior two in common high school, divided into two teams, forty students for each team coming from two classes with equal English level; group two are forty sophomores of non-English majors in an English academy; group three are junior students of English majors in colleges. In order to answer the above-mentioned research questions precisely, this paper tries to investigate the vocabulary and affix acquisition of English learners of different levels with self-administered questionnaires, based on former studies and making use of test for vocabulary and affix acquisition as tools. There are two tests:test one is test for English affix acquisition, in which there are forty English affixes, all from common affixes by Nation (2001), of which15are prefixes and25are suffixes. These affixes are divided into five different grades, for each grade eight affixes are chosen randomly to answer the former two research questions. Test two is test for second language level, divided into test for vocabularies and for comprehensive English level to answer the third research question.After the research we can conclude that:1) there are significant differences among the three aspects of affix acquisition. From difficult to easy, the order is recognition, understanding and application.2) The second language level of Chinese English learners’has great effect on the understanding and application of English affixes, while the effect on recognition is not as obvious as the other two aspects. The five difficulty levels of affixes acquisition divided by Nation are suitable for Chinese students, but in the aspect of understanding and application, there are some differences more or less.3) The development of affix acquisition can contribute to the improvement of second language level, especially in the aspects of recognition of new words.The significances of researches and tests are as follows:First of all, most previous studies involve only a few affixes. The scope of these affixes is limited, so that the representativeness is not as satisfactory as expected. In this thesis, the author will enlarge the number and scope of affixes, and make use of longitudinal research method in addition to traditional method.Secondly, most researchers are not paying enough attention to the studies of affix knowledge in every aspect by contrast analysis. In this study the author will test affix acquisition from three aspects—recognition, understanding and application.Finally, in the aspect of practice, this research will certainly contribute to English teaching especially vocabulary teaching. It is of great significance to expand students’ vocabulary breadth through teaching English affixes.