The Impact of Morphological Awareness on Vocabulary Knowledge of Advanced Chinese EFL Learners

Abstract

The study explored the inter- and intra-relationship between two multi-dimensional constructs, morphology and vocabulary. Fifty five senior students from a Chinese university majoring in English were assessed on five variables: compounding knowledge, real-word derivational knowledge, pseudoword derivational knowledge, reading vocabulary knowledge and listening vocabulary knowledge. Using t-test, correlation and hierarchical regression, the study found that aural and written vocabulary knowledge was distinctive but related; real-word derivational knowledge correlated with both two facets of vocabulary knowledge; compounding knowledge and real-word derivational knowledge made unique contributions to performance on the listening vocabulary test.