Morpohology

Topic 4: Morphology The knowledge of morphology can contribute to our understanding of English vocabulary and grammar better and help us in our future role as an English teacher. Discuss the statement above. Provide examples to support your answer. In comparison to Malay language, English is more complicated morphologically. In general, morphology refers to the system involved in word formation, their internal structure, and how they are formed (Aronoff & Fudemen, 2005). To be specific, English morphology revolves around the knowledge of both inflectional and derivational processes in the linguistic field. Here, Fromkin, Blair and Collins (1999) define inflectional morphology as changes in the form of a word according to its grammatical function, for example, talk becomes talked to indicate activity in the past time. On the other hand, derivational morphology concerns changes of a word to give additional meaning to the original word (e.g. sufficient becomes insufficient) and may be in a different grammatical class from the underived word as well (e.g. beauty, a noun, becomes beautiful, an adjective). In brief, each morphology components actually makes a distinctive contribution to our understanding of English vocabulary and grammar rules. This is because based on the knowledge of inflectional morphology, it can thus be presumed that it plays a key role in grammatical accuracy, while knowledge of derivational morphology plays a role in the development of our vocabulary knowledge. With these both inflectional and derivational morphology knowledge hand in hand, it indirectly further equips us in playing the effective role as the future English teacher. Due to this important role, this essay will thus focus on the role of morphology knowledge in the development of L2 vocabulary plus grammar, and to what extent it helps our role as the future English teachers. As noted above, morphology refers to the meaning and structure of morphemes that are part of or related to the word. It includes knowledge of derivational morphology such as prefixes (e.g., the un- in undisciplined to indicate the antonym of the original, disciplined), suffixes (e.g., the -ion in graduation changes the part of speech of the base word –graduate is a verb whereas graduation is a noun), and compounding (e.g., cowboy to create new word combining the two root morphemes: cow and boy). A study conducted by Nonie Lesaux (in press) as cited in Aronoff and Fudemen (2005) shows that a learner who understands how words are formed, by combining prefixes, suffixes, and roots, tends to have larger vocabularies and better reading comprehension. In addition, Kuo and Anderson (2006) also argue that morphology knowledge in English becomes an increasingly important predictor of reading ability as children grow older because this awareness contributes to the decoding of morphologically complex words and it is therefore assumed to contribute to the development of reading comprehension finally. In another study, Read (2004) found that L2 learners are typically aware of the extent to which limitations in their vocabulary knowledge hinder their ability to communicate effectively in the target language. This is because morphology carries the basic information load of the meanings one wishes to comprehend and express (Griva & Anastasiou, 2009). In other words, the learners here realize that knowing more about morphology will have a direct effect on their ability to use and further develop the L2 vocabulary they are learning. Thus, morphology plus vocabulary can lead the learners to be more confident in using the language. From both of the studies discussed above, it can be concluded that morphology knowledge should benefit the development of our vocabulary as it makes a significant contribution to the vocabulary size and finally the confidence in using the language. This is because when we are aware of the formation of the words whether suffixes or prefixes, it somehow contributes to our understanding of the complexity of the words in English texts. In addition, this is where the reading skills ability also intertwines as the increment of vocabulary size manages to expand our reading comprehension ability finally. Apart from expanding vocabulary and reading skills, knowledge of derivational and inflectional morphology also contribute to the development of our grammatical component in writing skills. As discussed earlier, inflectional morphology focuses primarily on indicating grammatical changes in words (e.g., the s in dogs to indicate the plural form of the base or the -ed in acted to refer to the action in the past time). This can cause confusion and difficulties for L2 Malaysian learners, who learn English as the second language. For instance, morphologically conditioned allomorphs such as perceive, perception, perceptive can cause problems to Malaysian learners. Nevertheless, when a learner understands the rules of word derivation and how words are formed, it may lead to his or her ability to know the contexts in which it can be inserted. This can be seen obviously in a written text especially. According to Domínguez (1991), if we do not understand the words which represent them acoustically and in writing it is as if we did not have them. Therefore, it can be presumed that to learn English language means to acquire some knowledge of the inflectional and derivational morphology which allow us to express ourselves with the greatest fluency possible in a written form. This is because these morphological rules provide the learner with the means to form new lexical units, and to accept or discard the newly formed words he comes across as well or wrongly formed (Dominguez, 1991). With this awareness of the newly or wrongly formed words, it thus helps us in terms of our spelling formation as well. As Henderson (1985) and Ehri (1986) have emphasized that especially in the middle stages of spelling development, correct spelling involves awareness of the morphological components of words. In sum, morphology knowledge that we gained not only develop our vocabulary learning but it also contributes to the better grammar usage and higher confidence of using the language. Thus, this component obviously can help us in our future role as an English teacher. Firstly, knowing how words are formed enable us as English teachers to be able to use the knowledge of morphology to explain spelling. Here, the teachers who are aware of the meaningful parts in words can teach students the reasons many words are spelled as they are. For instance, accumulate has two c's because it is composed of a Latin prefix (ad, which has become ac to fit the root beginning with c) and a root (cumulare). The word acute, in contrast, is one morpheme and there would be no reason to double the c. In other instances, knowing how a root word is spelled will help students remember derivations that are pronounced differently, such as magic and magician, differ and different, anxious and anxiety. Clearly here, morphology can be a helpful tool for English teachers to facilitate the acquisition and use of words. Secondly, when we as a teacher are equipped with the knowledge of morphology, it somehow allows us to integrate the components of language arts instruction in our teaching. Here, as a teacher, we can integrate word study with meaningful reading and writing of text. In other words, explicit instruction in teaching of reading and spelling manage to be implemented when the teacher knows enough about language and how to exploit teaching opportunities. Obviously, having morphology knowledge gives an ample space for a teacher to explore more on their teaching strategies and adapt to the learning plus teaching process. All in all, it can be summarized that the knowledge of morphology is necessary for us as a teacher in order to know the way the human brain works and processes language. It will help to produce new alternatives to learn languages, which are more economical in time and effort than those we are using now and it will permit a more practical application of English language learning. References Aronoff, M. & Fudeman, K.A. (2005). What is morphology. Australia: Blackwell publishing. Domínguez, J.A. (1991). The Role of Morphology in the Process of Language Acquisition and Learning. Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses, 4, 37-47 Ehri, L. C. (1986). Sources of difficulty in learning to spell and read. Advances in developmental and behavioral pediatrics, 7, 121-195. Fromkin, V., Blair, D., & Collins, P. (1999). An Introduction to Language (4th Ed.). Sydney: Harcourt Australia. Griva, E., & Anastasiou, D. (2009). Morphological strategies training: The effectiveness and feasibility of morphological strategies training for students of English as a foreign language with and without spelling difficulties. Journal of Writing Research, 1(3), 199-223. Henderson, E. H. (1985). Teaching spelling. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin. Kuo, L.J. & Anderson, R. C. (2006). Morphological awareness and learning to read: A crosslanguage perspective. Educational Psychologist, 41, 161-180.