Abstract
ABSTRACT This study attempts to investigate the effectiveness of teaching vocabulary based on analyzing words into prefixes, suffixes and roots. It overviews word formation rules and looks into the different types of morphemes and how morphemes are used to derive words in English language. This study also examines how the analysis of affixes supports teaching and learning vocabulary. The main purpose of this study is to focus on using prefixes and suffixes analysis as a tool that facilitates learning vocabulary. It also aims to explore the techniques that students follow in learning new words, this helps teachers adopt suitable teaching techniques that contribute to teaching vocabulary. This study particularly considers a group of undergraduate English major students. 50 students took part in this study at Tripoli university, Faculty of Arts, Department of English Language. A quantitative research design has been implemented in collecting the data needed for this research. This study further evaluates participants' affixation knowledge through a vocabulary test conducted to examine students' ability to analyze words into their component morphemes. The results attained from the data collected are supportive to indicate that learning vocabulary through word analysis techniques is proven to be effective for learning new vocabulary. 1.0. Introduction: CHAPTER ONE Words are considered as the most basic units that represent meaning in any language, however there are even smaller units that can be found in one single word, such units are the real carrier of meaning. Those small units that each word must have are known as morphemes. Morphemes cannot be divided further into smaller units since they are the smallest elements that can be found in a language. Morphemes are classified into bound morphemes and free morphemes. Bound morphemes which are attached to word roots, are called affixes. Affixes are morphemes that are added to the roots of words to form another word. Affixes are divided into two main types; derivational affixes are the ones that are added to a morpheme to derive a new word which often belongs to a different grammatical class. The other type of affixes is inflectional affixes, they are affixes added to nouns, verbs and adjectives. Such type of affixation does not change the grammatical class of the words to which they are added. The internal structure of words is determined by the rules of morphology, recent studies have paid more attention to the importance of word knowledge in language learning, word knowledge involves not only knowing a simple definition of a word 2 or being able to pronounce it, but it requires knowing further about its internal organization for a comprehensive understanding of words. A lot of researches have emphasized on affixes as a part of the morphological knowledge that language learners should focus on. Morphological knowledge involves the ability to cut up words into smaller constituents, figure out word classes through word parts and to be able to understand the meaning that each part carries. The main topic of this study examines the internal structure of words, and how morphemes work together to build up words. Vocabulary is an essential part of learning a new language, the more learners learn new vocabulary, the more likely they will be able to use the new language effectively. English vocabulary is rich in words that are mainly formed through different morphological processes, this study covers a great deal of derivational affixation, and the morphological process of word-formation. This study also includes an overview on vocabulary teaching strategies, and it examines the significance of using prefixes and suffixes as an effective tool in English language learning. This study consists of four chapters, the first chapter includes a brief introduction along with the main introductory components of this study. The second chapter covers the theoretical part this study, it discusses the important concepts of morphology and presents the main definitions of the different types of morphemes, 3 it also gives analysis and explanation for the internal structure of words. This chapter also introduces affixes and their types and examines particularly derivational affixation and word classes. The third chapter focuses on word learning strategies and the strategies followed in vocabulary teaching, it also presents the word part strategy for learning complex words. This chapter also contains statistic analysis for the empirical study that test the effectiveness of learning words based on affixation for Libyan learners of English. The final chapter includes a conclusion and some recommendations that the researcher recommends based on the findings of the current study. 1.1. Aims of Study: The aim of this study is to explore the different ways of how English words are constructed. This study also aims to investigate the effectiveness of using affixation as a tool that enhances learning English vocabulary based on teaching prefixes and suffixes. 1.2. Hypothesis: Learners of English who have knowledge about affixation can noticeably comprehend the meaning of various words and they can use these words in different contexts. Understanding the structure of words can help learners to identify the meaning of words through their internal formation, therefore learning 4 English word-formation system and how words are formed through analyzing word structure can facilitate learning English vocabulary. 1.3. Limitation of the Study : This study is limited to a group of undergraduate students at the department of English language, Faculty of Arts at Tripoli University. The sample for this study is relatively small, namely 50 students were chosen randomly amongst students registered at 6th, 7th and 8th semester. Those who are at their 7th and 8th semester attend morphology classes during their study program, while those who are still at the 6th semester had not yet attended morphology classes. The sample for this study is limited to university students, therefore it is hard to generalize the study findings to all English language learners. 1.4. Significance of the study: This study is in significance of three main aspects. First, it investigates how words are composed of meaningful parts and it describes the morphological structure of words, which is important for both English teachers and learners. Second, this study offers some empirical notes for English teachers. The outcomes of the empirical investigation of how students learn their English vocabulary, may inspire teachers to provide appropriate teaching techniques to their students when it comes to vocabulary teaching. Third, it is expected that this study will help students 5 through providing some information of how they can improve the strategies they can use in learning English vocabulary. 1.5. Purpose of the Study: This study is designed to investigate the techniques that learners use to find out what words mean when they encounter new words. Throughout the researcher's teaching experience, she noticed that most learners tend to divide a new word; which is usually a multisyllabic word that has affixes; into smaller parts to facilitate its pronunciation. By using this technique learners figure out the meaning of new words through associating the meaning of a root, prefix or a suffix which they have already learned. This study is intended to explore how teachers can make use of morphological instructions and word part identification in their teaching practice. This study also investigates how effective are word analysis techniques in learning new words. 1.6. Methodology: The methodology used for this study is based on the descriptive research method that deals with the theoretical foundations of derivational morphology, and the different aspects of affixation and the internal components of English words. A pilot study with a vocabulary test is also conducted to examine learners' ability in identifying the meaning of words through word part recognition.