A Study Of The Relationship Between Derivational Knowledge And Vocabulary Size Among Nonenglish Major Students

Morphological skills have been associated with performance on multiple literacy outcomes.While most of the research has focused on how morphological skills have an impact on vocabulary knowledge,less is known about the relationship between derivational morphology and vocabulary size.The current study is an attempt to investigate the relationship between derivational morphology and vocabulary size in the context of English as Foreign Language(EFL)for university students in China.The subjects were the freshmen from Shanghai International Studies University.The students can be divided into two groups: 51 students are from School of Economics and Finance(SEF)and the other 60 are from College for International Cooperative Programs(CICP).Measurements of students' receptive and productive vocabulary size and derivational morphology are obtained and then correlated to assess the degree to which knowledge of derivational morphology can be related to vocabulary size.The subjects were given Productive Levels Test(PLT)and Vocabulary Levels Test(VLT),both of which tested knowledge of words drawn from the 2000,3000 and 5000 most frequently occurring word families.The two morphological knowledge tasks were the Tests of Morphological Structure and the Derivational Suffix Choice Test.The Tests of Morphological Structure was used to assess students' knowledge of derivational morphology productively.Used to measure students' derivational knowledge receptively,the Morpheme Sensitivity Test contains two sessions,the derivational suffix choice with real words task and with nouncewords task.Based on the findings,the possible role that derivational morphology can play in second language(L2)vocabulary development is discussed.Implications for vocabulary instruction are also addressed.It is discovered that for poor learners,there are strong correlations between productive derivational knowledge and productive vocabulary size.Also,strong correlations exist between derivational knowledge and receptive vocabulary size.On the other hand,for advanced learners,their receptive derivational knowledge has nothing to do with their vocabulary size.Only one correlation exists between productive derivational knowledge and productive vocabulary size.Thus,the findings have implications as to the importance of facilitating the students' knowledge of derivational morphology in English vocabulary learning for college students in China.