A Study On Chinese English Learners’ Morphological Awareness

Morphological awareness is language learners’ awareness of the morphemic structure of words and their ability to reflect on and manipulate structures.In recent years,scholars at home and abroad have studied morphological awareness.These studies mainly focus on the classification of morphological awareness,the measurement of morphological awareness and its correlation with language learners’ listening,speaking,reading and writing.Vocabulary knowledge is an indispensable part of improving learners’ language proficiency and promoting the success of language learning.Foreign research has suggested that morphological awareness may be an effective learning strategy for English learners to acquire vocabulary knowledge.Although there have been related studies in China,different researchers have not reached a consensus on whether there is a correlation between learners’ morphological awareness and their vocabulary knowledge.Therefore,the correlation between English learners’ morphological awareness and their vocabulary knowledge needs to be further explored.In view of this,this study takes Chinese college non-English majors as the research participants,aims to explore the current situations and characteristics of Chinese English learners’ morphological awareness,and further investigate the differences in morphological awareness among Chinese learners of different English proficiencies and the relationship between morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge.Therefore,the following three research questions are addressed in the present study:1.What are the current situations and characteristics of Chinese English learners’ morphological awareness?2.Do Chinese English learners of different English proficiencies show differences in their morphological awareness?3.Is there a significant relationship between Chinese English learners’ morphological awareness and their vocabulary knowledge?In this study,270 non-English majors from Lanzhou Jiaotong University were selected as participants,and the data were collected through the morphological awareness test,and vocabulary levels tests,questionnaire,and the interview.Using SPSS 16.0 to analyze the data,the study finds that:(1)Chinese college non-English majors generally have a low level of morphological awareness.In terms of the types of morphological awareness,Chinese college non-English majors have a significantly better receptive morphological awareness than the productive morphological awareness.Studying the morphological awareness of specific affix types,Chinese English learners’ morphological awareness of inflectional affixes is found to be better than that of derivational affixes,having reached at a medium level,while the productive morphological awareness of inflectional affixes remains weak.Those Chinese English learners’ morphological awareness of derivational affixes is at a low level as a whole,among which the productive morphological awareness of derivational affixes is the worst,especially the class-maintaining derivational affixes.(2)There are significant differences in morphological awareness among students at different language levels.Students with high language levels are significantly better in morphological awareness than the students with elementary and intermediate language levels.As the types of morphological awareness are concerned,all three groups show significant differences in receptive and productive morphological awareness.The productive morphological awareness of the intermediate and elementary groups of students are discovered to be at a very low level.In terms of morphological awareness of specific affix types,significant differences exist among the three groups.Advanced-level students have better morphological awareness of the three affix types than elementary-level and intermediate-level students.However,advanced level students’ morphological awareness of derivational affixes is still weak.There is no significant difference in the receptive morphological awareness of inflectional affixes between the elementary-level and intermediate-level students.The two groups’ receptive morphological awareness of inflectional affixes have reached the medium level,but their productive morphological awareness of derivational affixes is basically at the primary level,especially the use awareness of class-maintaining derivational affixes.The study has also found that frequency of affixes and productivity have no obvious effect on s receptive morphological awareness of students at different levels but have an impact on their productive morphological awareness.(3)There is a significant correlation between the Chinese college non-English majors’ morphological awareness and their vocabulary knowledge.And there is a positive correlation between non-English majors’ receptive vocabulary knowledge,productive vocabulary knowledge and their morphological awareness.The findings of this study shed light on the teaching and learning of English vocabulary.Firstly,in response to the generally poor morphological awareness among Chinese non-English major English learners,teachers should help students pay attention to the morphological awareness,and help them realize the importance of morphological awareness for vocabulary acquisition and use so that students can invest more time and effort in learning morphology.Secondly,teachers should increase the teaching contents of morphological awareness.On the one hand,teachers should cultivate students’ interest and awareness of morphology and encourage them to study the rules of language,especially the rules of English word formation,so that students can master knowledge of English roots and affixes and acquire English vocabulary efficiently.On the other hand,teachers can take cultivating students’ morphological awareness as a teaching strategy helping students to follow the rules of language and expand their receptive and productive vocabulary.Teachers may design a variety of vocabulary teaching activities,such as breaking down the structure of new words and using affix knowledge to deconstruct the meaning of words,so as to guide students to use their morphological knowledge for better vocabulary acquisition and to help them use vocabulary better.In different contexts,students are encouraged to use their existing morphological knowledge to understand words’ meanings and even express meanings creatively,so as to obtain flexibility in language learning and use.