The effects of teaching word roots on the long term retention of English vocabulary

Background: Vocabulary learning experience seems to be the most time consuming aspect of language learning. Learners exert considerable energy on words trying to memorize isolate words and sets of exam words which are, in most cases, bound to be forgotten. There are various learning strategies adopted by learners of English to memorize and retain words. Dissecting words into word parts is among these although there are few studies dwelling on the benefits of teaching word roots (Bellomo, 2005, 2009; Karlıova, 2009; Akarslan, 2013). Those few studies highlight the effectiveness of teaching and learning vocabulary through Latin and Greek roots. However, they lack any answers as to how much this strategy works in terms of retention in the long run. Aim: The aim of this study is to show the impact of teaching word roots both on learners' attitudes and the long term retention of newly learnt lexical items. Method: A quantitatively supported descriptive study was administered throughout the thesis. A group of university foundation year students (N=16) were selected in the study. The group, first, selected words they did not know from a list of advanced vocabulary items. The completely unknown words were then shortlisted to be taught in the study. In order to ensure that the students do not know the shortlisted words, they were also required to write down the meaning of these words instead of choosing from alternatives. These new lexical items were introduced to the group with word roots, as well as the English definitions, Turkish equivalents and example sentences. A post-test was administered to observe the short term effects of this method. A post-post test was applied after one month to see if there was any difference in the amount of retention of these words in the long run as well as the learners' attitudes towards the method. For triangulation, the instructor and students were asked to keep diaries. They were provided with open-ended questions to evaluate the learning process of words through word roots. They were also interviewed to see why and how they could or could not retain the words. Key Words: Teaching Latin and Greek Word Roots, Retention of Words, Teaching English Vocabulary