Enhancing Chinese Learners of English Vocabulary Growth through Morphological Instruction

Abstract

The present longitudinal study was designed to investigate the relationship between morphological instruction and vocabulary growth of Chinese learners of English in L2 contexts. The empirical data were collected and analyzed on the basis of 76 participants' instances. Two research questions were answered through discussing the results discovered in the experiment. The findings showed that focusing on delivering morphological processes of derivation including conversion, which is regarded as zero derivation, inflection and compounding played a significant role for students in accumulating new words efficiently. Explicit morphological instruction had a direct link for the learners to increase their vocabulary size and meet the lexical requirement to further their study in English. Pedagogical implications suggested that teachers could apply the beneficial outcomes of the study in curriculum design and teaching. Although the research gained some fruitful outcomes, the scope of the study was still limited, and further research should be necessary.