The Relationship between Students’ Knowledge of Word Formation and Their Reading Comprehension...

Hamidreza Fatemipour,

Reza Vahdani Sanavi

The Relationship between Students' Knowledge of Word Formation and their

Reading Comprehension Skill in EFL Contexts

Hamidreza Fatemipour, Reza Vahdani Sanavi

(pp. 460-465)

The Asian Conference on Education

Official Conference Proceedings 2011

ISSN: 2186-5892

Proceedings URL: http://iafor.org/ace_proceedings.html

iafor

The International Academic Forum

www.iafor.org

Title of the Paper:

The Relationship between Students’ Knowledge of Word Formation and Their Reading Comprehension Skill in EFL Contexts

Authors:

Hamidreza Fatemipour Ph.D. 1

Reza Vahdani Sanavi 2

Affiliation: 1Assisstant Prof., ELT Deptartment, Islamic Azad University, Roudehen Branch, Roudehen,Iran

([email protected]) 2Faculty Member, ELT Department, Islamic Azad University, Roudehen Branch, Roudehen,Iran

([email protected])

Topic of Submission:

Language Education and Applied Linguistics (ESL/ TEFL/ TEFL)

Submission Reference Number:

0195

The Third Asian Conference on Education 2011 Official Proceedings Osaka, Japan

460

The Relationship between Students’ Knowledge of Word Formation and Their Reading Comprehension Skill in EFL Contexts

Hamidreza Fatemipour Ph.D. 1

Reza Vahdani Sanavi 2

1Assisstant Prof., ELT Deptartment, Islamic Azad University, Roudehen Branch, Roudehen,Iran ([email protected])

2Faculty Member, ELT Department, Islamic Azad University, Roudehen Branch, Roudehen,Iran ([email protected])

Abstract

The main goal of teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in universities is to improve the students’ reading comprehension skill. The books that are designed for this purpose mainly include a section which provides students with an opportunity to get familiar with the basic stems, prefixes and suffixes of English language. Students are supposed to memorize the meaning of the given stems and affixes and do the related exercises in order to make general language competence over the appearance of items and guess the meaning of the new combinations of the familiar components, (i.e., taught stems and affixes) in particular contexts. The purpose of the study was to find the relationship between the students’ knowledge of word formation and their ability to comprehend the unseen texts. The subjects of the study were 300 undergraduate university students who had passed a course entitled “Study Skills” including a comprehensive chapter of word-formation knowledge. Two researcher-made tests of word-formation knowledge and reading comprehension, standardized by experts and acceptable index of reliability, were administered to the research subjects. The high correlation coefficient between the scores obtained from the administration of the two tests and their feedback concerning the use of their knowledge of word formation suggest that if students learn how to use the knowledge of word formation when they encounter a new word in a passage, they will become independent readers.

Key Words: Reading comprehension, Word formation, EFL, Affixes, Derivational suffexes, Prefixes

Introduction

Among different language skills to be taught in language courses in Iran, where English is considered as a foreign language, reading skill has usually been in the center of attention. In the introduction of their book entitled: “Reading through Reading”, Varzegar et al. (1994) refer to the Foreign Languages Committee on Curriculum Development and its ratified decisions in 1980, and mention that the goal of foreign languages in Iran is to strengthen the reading comprehension skill. This idea is not limited to Iranian educators as Gentry and Graham (2010) cite Barzun who believes that, “no subject of study is more important than reading … all other intellectual powers depend on it” (P. 2). It is believed that the basic need of university students is to read and obtain information from different sources available in their field of study. Aside


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from the reading skill, the language component which is normally in the limelight is vocabulary. The books intended to provide students with an opportunity to practice reading skill include various vocabulary exercises. This is also backed by experts like Broughton et al. (1980) who believe that reading skill involves correlating elements of language with meaning. Words are the most familiar elements among others. It is clear that to understand a text, one should understand the meaning of individual words which form the text.

Bowen et al. (1985) also mention that the study of vocabulary is valuable in making general language competence over the appearance of items in particular contexts in the readings. The analysis approaches which help describe word formation in English language is particularly useful. To build vocabulary, one suitable way is understanding and application of word formation process.

While some experts in the field of reading skill believe that knowledge of morphological rules help learners with understanding the meaning of words, and in turn, of sentences (Varzgar et al, 1994; Paulston and Bruder, 1976; Yorkey, 1970; Bowen et al., 1985), some other experts doubt the significant effect of word formation on language learning. Broughton et al. (1980) mention that understanding the meaning of words is not the readers final goal. He should be able to understand the semantic patterns of lexical items as well as grammatical relationship between them. Identifying the problems and principles of syllabus designing, Widdowson (1990) asserts that studies in second language learning have defined linguistic knowledge in terms of learning morpho-syntactic rules of the language system. But Widdoson doubts whether it is true. He adds “what is not clear, though, is how freely available such rules are in respect to different lexical realization and contextual function” (P. 142). A learner may know a rule, but only in a limited range of usage. The learner may know the rules as they are related to certain words, but not be able to generalize the rules to other lexical items. He may also know the rules as he uses them to understand a few communication functions, but not be able to use them to realize other functions. Therefore, Widdowson doubts the significance of internalizing morphological rules in second language acquisition. The dilemma of devoting or not devoting a part of any reading course to the knowledge of word formation has led the researcher to investigate the relationship between students’ knowledge of word formation and their reading comprehension skill in EFL contexts.

Regarding the aforementioned problem, the following research question would arise:

Is there any significant relationship between students’ ability of analyzing words and their reading comprehension?

Methodology

Participants

The population of the study consisted of all students (i.e., around 2100) in the English department of Islamic Azad University, Roudehen Branch, in the academic year of 2010-2011. The method of selecting the research sample as Best and Khan (2006) refer to was non-probability sampling. The technique of sampling applied in this study was “convenience” which, according to Best and Khan, suits the educational researches where there are administrative limitations. In other words, the available classes are chosen as the research sample and the


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results can be generalized to the similar classes. Following this sampling technique, that is, “convenience” technique, the subjects of the study consisted of 306 freshman students (8 classes) who took the courses of Study Skills and Reading Comprehension One. The subjects were both boys and girls and from different age ranges.

Instruments

There were no standardized tests appropriate for the purpose of the study. So, the researcher set down to design two tests; in order to assess the knowledge of word formation, and to evaluate the application of this knowledge in the students' reading comprehension. Each test comprised 35 multiple-choice items which were standardized through different phases. The word-formation test was developed on the basis of different affixes which subjects had been taught during the semester. The level of the passages used in the reading comprehension test was as difficult as the subjects' text book. The readability of the reading passages was estimated through using Edward Fry's readability graph (qtd. in Farhadi, 1994).

Since the reading test was to be given as an unseen test, the researcher decided to choose passages with readability lower than the students' textbook reading material which was from 8 to 11. The readability grade level of the test passages was between 6 and 9.

In addition to the readability of the material, the other criterion for selecting the reading passages was the number of words which had been formed through affixation and could be decomposed and analyzed by the subjects. The subjects were to guess at the meaning of the unfamiliar words using the knowledge of word formation and contextual clues.

In order to examine the content validity of the tests, a group of experts in the field of English Language Teaching reviewed the items and the weak items were modified according to their comments.

Design

Regarding research design, this research falls into the category of descriptive (non-experimental and correlational) studies. Descriptive research is a kind of research which refers to “investigation which utilizes already existing data or non experimental research with a preconceived hypothesis” (Seliger and Shohamy, 1980, P. 117).

Piloting

Before an instrument can be administered to the subjects, it should be tried out. The goal is to assess the quality of the instrument while it can revised and improved before it is used with the research subjects. To follow the process of piloting, the tests were given to 40 students at the same level. Then, the scores of the pretests were obtained. In order to improve the quality of the two tests, the indexes of item facility, item discrimination, and choice distribution were taken into consideration, and the weak items as well as their options were modified, or totally discarded from the body of the tests.

The reliability of the tests also was examined by KR-21 formula, and the obtained indexes of reliability appeared to be 0.78 and 0.65 for reading comprehension and word-formation tests respectively.


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The next step was to administer the two newly constructed standardized tests to research subjects. First, the word-formation test was administered to research subjects. The time allotted was 35 minutes. Second, the reading-comprehension test was given to the subjects. The time for this test was 55 minutes.

Results

When the raw scores were obtained, the researcher set down to analyze the research data. In order to compute the coefficient correlation between two sets of scores obtained from the administration of the two tests, the Pearson product-moment coefficient method was applied.

The result of applying the Pearson formula was that on a two-tailed test at the 0.01 level with 304 degrees of freedom, the null hypothesis was rejected. The t-observed valued of 10.98 exceeded the t-critical value of 2.58. The rejection of the null hypothesis proved that the ability to analyze words played a role in reading comprehension skill.

The results of the study were also justified by the similar studies done by Toosi (1995) and Emadin and Yazdani Moghadam (2008).

Discussion and Conclusions

Although a single research, like this, is not able to provide enough proofs for establishing a new teaching technique or rejecting the existing one, it may show that which one is more effective than the others and deserves to be exactly taken into account.

The first implication of this study corresponds to language teaching. While some teachers ask students to memorize all the words provided in pre-reading part of the textbooks, the results of the present study suggest that instead of this, students had better be taught to analyze the unfamiliar words and learn them through their parts.

Another implication of the study corresponds to syllabus designers. As the results of the research emphasize on the importance of word-analysis knowledge in reading comprehension skill, this may provide directions for preparing textbooks which satisfy the students’ needs, and include the exercises that make students independent and autonomous in their readings.

In order for students to practically use their knowledge of word formation, the final exams should include unseen tests which provide students with opportunities to analyze the unfamiliar words in order to get the main idea. The passages that consist of essential information or are taught in the class seize students the chance of applying their knowledge. The kind of exam that does not reflect the students’ practices in the class makes the whole process fruitless and lead to negative backwash effect.

References

Best, J. W., Khan J. V. (2003). Research in Education (9th ed.). India: Prentice Hall of India Private Limited.


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Bowen, J. D., Madson, H., Hilfery, A. (1985). TESOL, techniques and procedures. USA: Newbury House Publishers, Inc.

Broughton, G, Brumfit, C., Flavell, R., Hill, P., Pincas, A. (1980). Teaching English as a foreign language (2nd ed.). UK: T. J. Press (Padstow) Ltd.

Emadin, A., Yazdani Moghadam, M. (2008). The effect of teaching word formation knowledge on sentence restatement and inferencing. Paper presented at the Conference of English Language Teaching and Literature, IAU, Roudehen Branch, Iran.

Farhadi, H., Jafarpoor, A., Birjandi, P. (1994). Language skills testing: from theory to practice. Tehran, Iran: SAMT.

Gentry, J. R., Graham, S. (2010). Creating better readers and writers: The importance of direct, systematic spelling and handwriting instruction in improving academic performance. White Paper, Saperstein Association. Retrieved on August 6, 2011 from http://www.sapersteinassociates.com/default.asp?contentID=626

Paulston, C. B., Bruder, M. N. (1976). Teaching English as a second language. USA: Winthrop Publishers, Inc>

Seliger, H. W., Shohamy, E. (1989). Second language research methods. UK: Oxford University Press.

Toosi, A. (1995). The impact of word-formation knoeledge on reading comprehension. Unpublished master’s thesis, IAU, Tehran Central Branch, Iran.

Varzgar, M. Farhadi, H., Maftoon, P. (1994). Reading through reading. (5th ed.) Tehran, Iran: SAMT.

Widdowson. H. G. (1990). Aspects of language teaching. UK: Oxford University Press.

Yorkey, R. C. (1970). Study skills. USA: McGraw-Hill, Inc.


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