The relationship between morphological awareness and English vocabulary acquisition of Saudi female students at King Saud University

Abstract

The present study examined the relationship between English vocabulary size and morphological awareness of Saudi female students at King Saud University. The participants in this study were 89 students divided into two sections: section one (40 students) and section two (49 students). The students were finishing a two-year EFL program, which prepares them for a three-year Arabic-English/English-Arabic translation program. In order to determine the relationship between vocabulary size and morphological awareness, it was necessary to first measure these two variables in the participants in the study. Two types of tests were used: the Vocabulary Size Test and the Morphological Awareness Test. The Vocabulary Size Test was used to estimate the vocabulary size of the students, which could range from 1,000 to 14,000 word-families. The results showed that the vocabulary size in both sections of students was over 4,000 word-families. The Morphological Awareness Test included two subtests: the Morphological Structure Test and the Morpheme Identification Test. They were used to estimate the level of morphological awareness. The findings showed that the students' overall morphological awareness level was relatively low. To answer the research question concerning the relationship between English vocabulary size and morphological awareness, correlational analyses were done to test for a relationship between vocabulary size and morphological awareness scores on the two tests in the two sections of classes. The results of the correlation tests indicated that there was no relationship between the two variables in both sections. Possible reasons for the lack of correlation between the two variables are discussed and implications for teaching vocabulary are considered.