MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRANING CAN THO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES MORPHOLOGICAL AWARENESS IN ENLARGING THIRD-YEAR ENGLISH-MAJORED STUDENTS' VOCABULARY SIZE IN CAN THO UNIVERSITY B.A THESIS SUPERVISOR: STUDENT: LE TRUNG KIEN MRS NGUYEN THI VIET ANH, M.A CLASS: NN0954A4 STUDENT’S CODE: 7096462 CAN THO, APRIL 2013 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to express my appreciation to my supervisor, Mrs Nguyen Thi Viet Anh for her insightful guidance and support Her expertise about morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge, her thoughtful questions and her reflections on my work, all challenged me to deeply think about the topic Second, I owe thanks to the some of my teachers who helped me during my thesis progess: Ms Vo Thi Tuyet Hong, B.A, Ms Ly Thi Anh Tuyet, B.A, and especially, Mr Nguyen Hong Qui, M.A who allowed me an access to the participants Finally, I would like to thank my father and mother for their assurance and support throughout the process of writing the thesis Announcement of copy right with the researchers’ and supervisor’s signiture Researcher: Supervisor: TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………… i TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………iii LIST OF CHARTS AND FIGURES…………………………………… iv TÓM LƯỢC……………………………………………………………….vi ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………… vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION………………………………………….1 1.1 Statement of the problem………………………….……………….1 1.2 Background information……………………… ………………….2 1.3 Aims of the research……………………………………………… 1.4 Significance of the research………………….…………………… 1.5 Thesis organization……………………… ……………………….4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW……… ……………………….5 2.1 Definitions of technical terms……………… …………………… 2.2 Review of the related literature…………………………………….9 2.3 Summary and indications………………………………………… 12 2.4 Research question(s)………………………… ……………… ….13 2.5 Research hypothesis(es)………………………………………… 13 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY………………………….14 3.1 Research design…………………………………………………… .14 3.2 Sample and sampling………………………….…………………… 14 3.3 Data collection………………………………….…………………… 14 3.3.1 Measuring instrument(s)…………………….………………… 14 3.3.2 Procedure…………………………………………………………14 3.5 Data analysis………………………………………………………… 15 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS, DISCUSSION, AND CONCLUSION……….…17 4.1 Research results…………………………………………………… …17 4.2 Discussion………………………………………………………………20 4.3 Conclusion……………………………………………………….…… 22 CHAPTER 5: LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATION……… ……23 5.1 Limitations of the research………………………………………… 23 5.2 Recommendation………………………………………………………23 - REFERENCES………………………………………………………… .viii - APPENDIX 1…………………………………………………………………x - APPENDIX 2…………………………………………………………… …xiii LIST OF CHARTS AND FIGURES - CHART 1: Students’ rate of marks in prefixes, suffixes and roots in two tests……………………………………………………………………………………… 18 -CHART 2: Students’ changes of mark percentage through five scales in Morphology pre-tests and post-tests………………………………………………….19 TÓM LƯỢC Nhiều nghiên cứu liên quan tới vai trò việc nhận thức hình vị tiếng Anh lên việc mở rộng vốn từ vựng người học tiếng Anh ngôn ngữ thứ tiến hành nhiều nơi giới Tuy vậy, nhiều nhà nghiên cứu bàn cãi chủ đề Nghiên cứu nhằm tìm tỷ lệ điểm số sinh viên rơi vào hình vị thấp (tiền tố, hậu tố hay gốc từ) để từ trọng hình vị đó, đồng thời kiểm tra xem liệu có tác động kiến thức hình vị sinh viên lên việc mở rộng vốn từ họ hay không Nghĩa người nghiên cứu tìm lời đáp cho câu hỏi: (1) Trong kiểm tra kiến thức hình vị sinh viên gồm phần, phần hình vị sinh viên có điểm số thấp nhất? (không nằm mục “Các nghiên cứu có liên quan”, câu trả lời tìm từ kết nghiên cứu) (2) Liệu có tác động kiến thức hình vị sinh viên lên việc mở rộng vốn từ họ hay không? Đối tượng tham gia nghiên cứu 75 sinh viên năm thứ chuyên ngành tiếng Anh Phương pháp nghiên cứu thực nghiệm áp dụng nghiên cứu Các kết cho thấy, trước tiên, loại hình vị, phần gốc từ phần sinh viên có tỷ lệ điểm thấp nhất, thứ hai là, sinh viên có kiến thức hình vị nhiều bao nhiêu, dễ dàng cho họ nhiêu việc tìm nghĩa từ vựng mà họ bắt gặp ABSTRACT A lot of research related to the role of English morphological awareness in enlarging EFL learners’ vocabulary size has been conducted in many parts of the world However, there are still arguments about this topic amongst the researchers The present study aims at finding out in which part (prefixes, suffixes, roots) the students’ marks are the worst and need to be paid attention to more, and investigating the effect of students’ morphological awareness on their vocabulary size, that means it answers the two questions: (1) Amongst the three kinds of morphemes (prefixes, suffixes and roots) included in the tests as the separated part of multiple choice questions, which is at the lowest rate of marks?(This is not included in Literature Review part, but the answer comes from the results of the study), (2) Is there a relationship between students’ English morphological awareness and their vocabulary size? The participants are 75 third-year students of English in Can Tho University The experimental research method is used in the study The findings showed that, first, amongst the three kinds of morphemes (prefixes, suffixes and roots) included in the tests, the part of multiple choice questions on roots is at the lowest rate of marks, and second, the more morphological awareness the students have, the more easily they can figure out the meanings of new words that they come across CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Statement of the problem Vocabulary is part and parcel of every language Vocabulary items are sets of words which form the basis for producing and understanding sentences (Miller, 1991).Therefore, “without some knowledge of that vocabulary, neither language production nor language comprehension would be possible” (Angelin, Miller & Wakefield, 1993) As you might know, to master a language, there are four main skills namely Listening, Speaking, Writing and Reading, and knowledge from generality to details related to that language practiced and accumulated intentionally and regularly However, maybe, not all of language learners have realized the importance of vocabulary acquisition during their study In fact, possessing a large amount of vocabulary can help learners to easily access those skills and the knowledge, leading them to language proficiency 1.2 Background information According to Nation (1993), vocabulary knowledge is one of the language skills crucial for fluent language use To him, knowledge of around 3,000 word families is the threshold needed for tapping other language skills Without this threshold, learners encounter problems understanding the language they are exposed to (Alderson and Banerjee, 2002) Vocabulary size is an indicator of how well the second language (L2) learners can perform academic language skills such as, reading, listening, and writing (Bear, Invernizzi, Templeton and Johnston, 2008; Treiman and Casar, 1996) Ellis (1997) argues that vocabulary knowledge is a predicator of learners’ discourse comprehension, which allows grammatical rules to be patterned in the learners’ mind Having inadequate vocabulary hampers learners’ reading comprehension in a way that makes it more likely the learners will face difficulties in the path of academic achievement English is not an exception A fundamental way to dominate English is that learners must have as much vocabulary knowledge as possible Understanding its importance, a lot of researchers have conducted studies to find out the most effective strategies for learning English vocabulary One method is applying morphological knowledge to infer the meanings of new words In this method, students apply morphological analysis when they read or hear a complex word that they have never encountered before They analyze the words to see if they recognize any of the pieces (White, Power, & Sheida, 1989) Because English has borrowed many words from different foreign languages, students should learn how to analyze the different parts of any new word Mastering such skills will equip students with a useful tool to decode most unfamiliar words in a given text (Nation, 2001) Other researchers (Morin, 2003; McBride-Chang, Wagner, Muse, Chow, & Shu, 2005; Schiff & Calif, 2007) have also suggested that using morphological cues for inferring meaning can help with L2 learning It is recommended that students are taught to identify affixes and Greek and Latin roots in English words in order to predict the meanings of unknown vocabulary Through analyzing words into recognizable roots and affixes, classroom teachers can demonstrate that each isolated element of words can provide informational clues (Brown, 1994; Aebersold & Field, 1997) Certain affixes are more useful than others, so when students are instructed to which affixes they should pay more attention to, they can be less frustrated The most important affixes are claimed to be the combining forms, prefixes, or suffixes that carry single, invariant meanings However, students should not be exposed to long lists of affixes in isolation Rather, teachers should present affixes as they are in need; to analyze the structure of the words that students will encounter in an assigned reading text (Vacca & Vacca, 1989; Seal, 1991; Johnson & Steele, 1996) Although morphological analysis is not the only strategy teachable to enhance learners’ vocabulary size, it is a potential learning strategy that seems particularly 10 The chart illustrates the 3rd-year English-majored students’ results of marks in percent within the two tests In the pre-test, the number of the correct answers of the prefix-part was at 76.53%, overwhelming the rate of Suffix-part and Root-part respectively (46.80% and 37.20%) In the post-test, the rate of marks in the three parts showed an increase (77.87% in prefixes, 47.60% in suffixes, and 43.33% in roots) However, although the rate of marks of the root-part developed by 6.13%, much more than the others (1.37% for the prefix-part and 0.8% for the suffix-part), they were still far under the average point (50%) 60.00% 50.00% 40.00% pre 30.00% post 20.00% 10.00% 0.00% very good good average bad very bad Chart 2: Students’ changes of mark percentage through five scales in Morphology pre-tests and post-tests The bar chart illustrates that there was a change in students’ rate of marks measured by five scales in Morphology pre-test and post-test It can be noticed from the chart that, except the “very good” scale, all of the other scales had improvements In details, the two scales (average and bad) showed the 27 outstanding positive changes in the two tests In the pre-test, the students’ changes of rate of marks in ‘Average scale’ was at 37.3% but in the post-test, there was a development of the rate (48%), increasing by 10.7% compared to the former Similarly, in the case of ‘Bad scale’, the mark percentage changed positively In the pre-test, the rate was at 45.3% However, there was a remarkable decrease of the rate in the post-test (33.3%), overwhelming the rate of the pre-test by 12% In conclusion, obviously, there were positive changes in students’ rate of marks within the five scales in Morphology pre-tests and post-tests 4.2 Discussion 4.2.1 The part in which students’ marks are the worst (Root part) In reality, although there have been a lot of studies conducted to examine whether there is a relationship between EFL learners and their vocabulary size, as I know, only this present research contains the content of the part in which students’ marks are the worst In details, it is the root part The results of the part are not what I have predicted, but from my personal experiences and the students’ marks In fact, before testing the students, I had already examined myself The results revealed that I got the very good rate of marks in the prefix-part and the suffix-part (90% and 80% respectively) However, in the root part, my rate of marks was at 50% These results are rather similar with the students’ There might be one main reason for this That is because the number of roots is more various than the number of prefixes and the one of suffixes The evidence of the variety is from the book called “MO RONG VON TU VUNG TIENG ANH QUA TIEN TO, HAU TO VA GOC TU” (LE VAN SU, English teacher at Lac Hong University, 2008) In the book, there are 308 word roots while the number of prefixes and suffixes is fewer (147 prefixes and 100 suffixes) From this fact, I suggest that when EFL learners learn vocabulary through word formation, among the three, they should pay more attention to learn word roots 28 4.2.2 The relationship between students’ morphological awareness and their vocabulary size Most of the studies on the relationship between EFL learners’ morphological awareness and their vocabulary size show that there are improvements in their vocabulary size if they have morphological awareness (despite some limitations) Here are examples: Nation (1990) asserts that attending to prefixes, suffixes and roots is like mnemonics and operates on a similar principle As they are meaningful units, the ability to recognize these parts of the words and elaborating on them might facilitate successful recall of the vocabulary Knowing prefixes, suffixes and roots helps students in a very important way, which makes it easier for them to remember the definitions of new words In other words, knowing prefix, suffix and root meanings is a memory aid in the process of language learning As Henry (1997) stated, the greatest benefit from instructional time spent on word study can be gained from exploring roots, prefixes, suffixes, and networks of related words Also, when encountering morphologically complex words in the text, students apply their morphological knowledge to break down the complex words into meaningful morphemes as a way to better understand the word meaning (Wagner, Muse, & Tannenbaum, 2006) Moreover, the findings of Amene Sorbi (2010) revealed that: (1) The students who had the stronger command of word knowledge were able to predict more word’s meanings, and (2) The students who had less knowledge about words were able to predict less word’s meanings Nearly the same improvements as the results were showed in my studies (See chart above) 4.2.3 Discussion for further studies: Applying EFL learners’ morphological awareness to learn vocabulary is a very useful method, but it is not the unique purpose The further purpose is that having large vocabulary size might serve EFL learners in dominating English skills, especially the Reading skill In fact, in TOEFL reading section, there are always parts to check 29 candidates’ vocabulary size through morphological awareness (See Appendix 2) Beside, in the Reading book named “Reading Interaction 2” used to teach Englishmajored students in Can Tho University, there is also a part in which students have to analyze word roots and Affixes without using a dictionary (See appendix 3) 4.3 Conclusion The conducted research aims at investigating the part in which the students get the lowest rate of marks, and whether there is a relationship between students' morphological awareness and their English vocabulary size The findings showed that, first, amongst the three kinds of morphemes (prefixes, suffixes and roots) included in the tests, the part of multiple choice questions on roots is at the lowest rate of marks, and second, the more morphological awareness the students have, the more easily they can figure out the meanings of new words that they come across In the light of the research, there are some indications First, candidates who have morphology knowledge and want to challenge themselves with the reading section of TOEFL can get some benefits This is because there are some questions on getting the meanings of words through word formation Besides, analyzing word prefixes, suffixes and roots is involved in READING- INTERACTION (SILVER EDITION) 30 CHAPTER 5: LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 5.1 Limitations of the research Although the two research questions were answered, there is still a limitation related to the time, and a mistake from the researcher First, due to the limited time in the whole process of conducting the research, the accuracy of research results just reached the relative level In fact, in order to check students’ morphological awareness, only one instrument was used- Morphological test Idealistically, there should be two more added instruments- A questionnaire and an interview to check participants’ attitude on morphological awareness Second, the researcher’s mistake cannot be denied In detail, the researcher forgot to ask the participants to write their names on the top of the test papers Therefore, each student’s improvement cannot be measured 5.2 Recommendation The first recommendation is that instead of spending just one semester on carrying out and completing the research, the time for this should be extended (at least year) Also, due to the fact that it is not until the third year at the university, English majored students approach “Morphology” It is a limitation for them This is because learning vocabulary through morphemes is one of best methods for enlarging EFL learners’ vocabulary size According to the book “WORD FORMATION” (Collins Cobuild English Guides), it is said that when a learner knows the meanings of some prefixes or suffixes, he can recognize and understand more words, even though he did not come across them before Therefore, it might be very good for English-majored students to study “Morphology” in their first year at Can Tho University Moreover, “SPSS software” should be included in the curricula to ensure that it can be used well for the part of data analysis in the research 31 REFERENCES Ebel, C O S a C (2004) Using Morphological Analysis to Teach Vocabulary In English and French Classes, Princeton University Judith E Rispens, C M.-C., Pieter Reitsma (2007) Morphological awareness and early and advanced word recognition and spelling in Dutch: 21:587–607 Phil D Liu, C M.-C (2010) "What Is Morphological Awareness? Tapping Lexical Compounding Awareness in Chinese Third Graders." Journal of Educational Psychology 102: 62-73 Sorbi, A (2010) "The relationship among word knowledge, word prediction and reading comprehension." International Journal of Language Studies (IJLS) 4(1): 1-28 Alsalamah, N S (2010) The relationship between morphological awareness and English vocabulary acquisition of Saudi female students at King Saudi University The Master of Science in Education Professional Development Degree From http://minds.wisconsin.edu/handle/1793/61500 Arnoff, M., & Fudeman, K (2005) What is morphology? (3-21) Malden: Blackwell Farsi, B A (2008) Morphological Awareness and Its Relationship to Vocabulary Knowledge and Morphological Complexity among Omani EFL University Students The School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies, University of Queensland Wilson-Fowler, Elizabeth B., "Influence of Morphological Awareness on College Students' Literacy Skills: A Path Analytic Approach" (2011) Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations Paper 897 Michael J Kieffer, N K L (2008) "The role of derivational morphology in the reading comprehension of Spanish-speaking English language learners." 21:783–804 Maag, L K (2007) Measuring morphological awareness in adult readers: Implications for vocabulary development, University of Florida A disssertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 32 Isabel L Beck, M M., Linda Kucan (2002) Bringing Words to Life, Robust Vocabulary Instruction New York, The Guilford Press Mansour Koosha, Mohsen Salimian (2010) "The Potential Relationship between English Vocabulary Knowledge and Morphological Knowledge of Iranian PreUniversity Students." 249-274 White, T.G., Power, M.A;, & White, S (1989) Morphological analysis: Implications for teaching and understanding vocabulary growth Reading Research Quarterly, 24(3), 283-304 Jeong-ryeol, K (1999) "The effects of three learning strategies on EFL vocabulary” The Korea TESOL Journal Laura Ferguson (1999) The effects of explicit teaching of morphemic analysis on vocabulary learning and comprehension and it transfer effects to novel words Wichita State University 33 APPENDIX DETERMINE MEANINGS FROM WORD PARTS (TOEFL READING COMPREHENSION) The passage Ring Lardner himself was born into a wealthy, educated, and cultured family For the bulk of his career, he worked as a reporter for newspapers in South Bend, Boston, St Louis, and Chicago However, it is for his short stories of lower middle-class Americans that Ring Lardner is perhaps best known In these stories, Lardner vividly creates the language and the ambiance for this lower class, often using the misspelled words, grammatical errors, and incorrect diction that typified the language of the lower middle-class The questions: The word “vividly” in line is closest in meaning to A in a culture way B in a correct way C in a lifelike way D in a brief way The word “misspelled” in line is closest in meaning to A highly improper B vulgar C incorrectly written D slang 34 The word “diction” in line is closest in meaning to A writing B sentence structure C form D speech ANALYZING WORD ROOTS AND AFFIXES (INTERACTION 2-READING) -USE YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF MORPHOLOGY TO GUESS THE MEANING OF EACH HIGHLIGHTED WORD There were some amorphous clouds in the sky a/ without form or shape b/ thick and dark c/ beautiful d/ related to rain e/ bright white 2/ Many ancient peoples were polytheists a/ very well educated b/ people with many culture centers c/ People who studied m any language d/ people who believed in many gods 35 e/ people who believed in having several wives 3/ Movies often anthropomorphize creatures from other planets a study b/ give human form or characteristics to c/ present in a terrible way d/ depict e/ try to imagine 4/ The actor wore polychromatic body paint a/ beautiful b/ symbolic c/ complex d/ made of natural dyes e/ of many colors 5/ She sometimes has a problem with somnambulism a/ sleepwalking b/ drinking c/.lying 36 d/ breathing e anxiety APPENDIX MORPHOLOGY TEST (30 ITEMS) Adapted from Amene Sorbi 2010 AND the book “22000 VOCABULARY FOR TOELF” (HAROLD LEVINE) Duration: 30 minutes A CIRCLE THE CORRECT MEANING OF EACH PREFIX 1/ Ante- as in : This event antedates the discovery of America by several centuries A before B against C self 2/ Anti- as in: The trip itself was a bit anticlimax after all of the excitement of planning it A against B around C in 3/ Auto- as in: A more detailed account of the incident is given in her autobiography A between B self C round 4/.hemi- as in: In the northern hemisphere, December is a winter month A quarter B a third C a half 5/ Co- as in: He is a co-producer of that film A separate B together C after 37 6/ Inter- as in: Perfume interacts with the skin natural chemicals A between B behind C from 7/ Micro- as in: The school playground is a microcosm of the world at large A among B small C large 8/ Macro- as in: Macroeconomics is the study of economic factors on a large scale A small B among C large 9/ De- as in: These latest measures should help to defuse the situation A opposite B down C cross 10/ Ir- as in: I was shocked by his irrational behavior A not B beyond C for B CIRCLE THE CORRECT MEANING OF EACH SUFFIX 1/ –ible as in: It was sensible of you to lock the door A state B capable of being C full of 2/.-ation as in: There is no relation between these to persons A condition B receiver of the action C like national 3/.-cide as in: It is claimed that current levels of pesticide not pose a threat to health A to seize B to kill C to yield 4/ –en as in: This is a golden opportunity to enjoy the holiday of a lifetime A of the nature of B full of C.without 38 5/.-red as in: She shot him a look of pure hatred A diminutive B state C agent 6/ –ful as in: It’s so peaceful out here in the country A after B without C characterized by 7/ –ic as in: Your feelings are so absolutely poetic A pertaining to B loose from C act of 8/.-ish as in: She is a foolish interfering old woman A belonging to B capable C skill 9/ –ness as in: People think she has all sweetness and light, but she actually has a temper A state B without C characterized by 10.-ly as in: Children play happily on the beach A like B with the quality of C result of an action C BASED ON THE ROOT WITHIN EACH HIGHLIGHTED WORD, CHOOSE THE CORRECT ANSWER 1/ –amor- as in: An enamored individual is _ A well- rounded B armed C captivated 2/ –litera- as in: The literal meaning of a word is its _ A original meaning B every meaning 39 C meaning in literature 3/ -derm- as in: A dermatologist is a _specialist A skin B foot C heart 4/.-lateral- as in: Any unilateral action is a undertaking A worldwide B cooperative C one-sided 5/.-soli- as in: In the soliloquy, one person A does most of the talking B questions a group C talks to himself 6/.-scrib(e)- as in: A scribe belongs to the _profession A teaching B acting C writing 7/ –ver(a) as in: Now that my veracity has been questioned, I feel deeply _ A honored B.insulted C relieved 8/ –chron- as in: A mistake in _order is a mistake in chronology A word B alphabetical C time 9/.-ped(a)- as in: Pedagogue is mainly concerned with A politics B medicine C teaching 10/ –aster- as in: The punctuation mark _ is called an asterisk A (;) B.(‘) C.(*) 40 41 [...]... it can be seen that there are improvements: - In the Frequency column, the number of students having the correct sentences changes through 5 scales: 25 +Very bad: decreasing from 4 students (in pre-test) to 3 students (in post-test) +Bad: decreasing from 34 students (in pre-test) to 25 students (in post-test) +Average: increasing from 28 students (in pre-test) to 36 students (in post-test) +Good: increasing... method, but it is not the unique purpose The further purpose is that having large vocabulary size might serve EFL learners in dominating English skills, especially the Reading skill In fact, in TOEFL reading section, there are always parts to check 29 candidates’ vocabulary size through morphological awareness (See Appendix 2) Beside, in the Reading book named “Reading Interaction 2” used to teach Englishmajored. .. Englishmajored students in Can Tho University, there is also a part in which students have to analyze word roots and Affixes without using a dictionary (See appendix 3) 4.3 Conclusion The conducted research aims at investigating the part in which the students get the lowest rate of marks, and whether there is a relationship between students' morphological awareness and their English vocabulary size The findings... with Reading texts should be offered 1.3 Aims of the study The study aims at investigating the part in which the students get the lowest rate of marks, and whether there is a relationship between students' morphological awareness and their English vocabulary size 1.4 Significance of the research The findings of the study proved that, with the morphological awareness, the students' vocabulary size could... +Good: increasing from 8 students (in pre-test) to 10 students (in post-test) +Very good: being unchanged - In the Percent column, the number of students having the correct sentences is calculated by percentage through 5 scales: +Very bad: decreasing from 5.3% (in pre-test) to 4% (in post-test) +Bad: decreasing from 45.3% (in pre-test) to 33.3% (in post-test) +Average: increasing from 37.3% (in pre-test)... the state of being, -s= to indicate plural nouns), and reassembling the meaningful parts into new meanings (motherhood, fatherhood, brotherhood) 2.3 Vocabulary size 2.3.1 Definition of Vocabulary Vocabulary is knowledge of words and word meanings “Knowing a word is a matter of degree rather than all or nothing Knowing a word implies knowing how that word relates to other knowledge and being able to... variables in both sections Possible reasons for the lack of correlation between the two variables were discussed and implications for teaching vocabulary were considered 2.5 Summary and indications In conclusion, the definition of morphology, morphemes, morphological awareness, vocabulary, vocabulary size, and the relationship between morphological awareness and vocabulary size are mentioned and discussed in. .. when attempting to tackle the meanings of new words (Badriya Al Farsi, 2008) Therefore, in my study, I focus on checking whether the knowledge of morphological awareness of 3rd-year students in English major in Can Tho University can help them enlarge their vocabulary size effectively Besides, some implications on English language learners who want to challenge themselves with TOEFL Reading sections... challenging Another piece of research is from Badriya Al Farsi (2008) His subject was Omani EFL university students The aim of the study was to assess morphological awareness as a learning strategy for promoting learners’ vocabulary size It first examined earlier research that looked at the role of morphological awareness in vocabulary 18 development Of particular interest was the relationship between morphological. .. deal with morphologically complex words in L2 learning Within the study, morphological awareness was measured using the Morphological Awareness Test adapted from McBride- Change et al.(2005); the test assessed both analytic and synthetic aspects of morphological knowledge Analytic referred to breaking down complex words into smaller meanings and synthetic involved reassembling smaller meanings to make