Morphological Awareness and Vocabulary Size among Chinese Tertiary ESL Learners in English-Speaking Countries

Abstract

Morphological awareness is one of the determinant factors in language development, which can facilitate word reading and then facilitate later vocabulary knowledge. This study investigates morphological awareness and vocabulary size of Chinese ESL learners studying in universities in English-speaking countries and seeks to explore the relationship between these two factors. This study contributes to the existing literature on vocabulary development and enhances the understanding of English proficiency of ESL tertiary learners. Two morphological awareness tasks and a three-level Vocabulary Test are given to Chinese students studying in universities in English-speaking countries. The purpose of this study is to answer the following research questions: (1) To what extent international students in the higher education sector are aware of the morphemes?; (2) What is the average English vocabulary size of them ESL students studying in English-speaking countries?; (3)Is there any correlation between morphological awareness and vocabulary level? The result reveals that students have a good understanding of both the Morpheme Identification Test and the Morphological Structure Test. All the students have mastery of academic vocabulary, and some students reach a 5,000-word level vocabulary size. No significant correlation was found between students morphological awareness and their vocabulary level, which might be due to L1 influence, learner differences, and the lack of morphology teaching in the curriculum.