The effectiveness of using morphological analysis as a vocabulary learning strategy

This study attempts to investigate the effectiveness of explicit instruction of morphological analysis on developing EFL high school learners' capacity to learn new vocabulary and the relationship between the morphological analysis and their learning styles. The study was a quasi-experimental research and a pre-posttest experimental and control group design was used. Prior to the implementation of the study, the participants (N=38) were administered Oxford's Quick Placement Test and Nation's Vocabulary Size Test in order to evaluate and compare their level of proficiency and readiness. To collect the data, Morphological Analysis Test was designed and implemented in order to test participants' existing morphological knowledge before the intervention and their acquired morphological knowledge at the end of the intervention. During the intervention, the experimental group was instructed fifteen prefixes and roots via morphological analysis while the control group only received a word list of the same target words and learned them through the traditional ways of vocabulary learning such as memorizing or using a dictionary. Following the instruction process, the experimental group was given a questionnaire about learning styles. Results revealed that the mean scores of the experimental group surpassed those of the control group in the post test condition. Thus, it can be suggested that morphological analysis is more effective in vocabulary learning than the memorization of the target words. According to the results of the questionnaire, experimental group has right-brain dominance and global learning style while morphological analysis is often related to analytical thinking and left-brain dominance. Considering all of these, this research study sheds light on the role of morphological analysis as an alternative vocabulary learning strategy in EFL high school curriculum.