Effects of the Morphological Instruction of English as a Foreign Language: Performance, Decoding Process and Attitude

• Main Authors: Ya-Yu Chen, 陳雅瑜
• Other Authors: Pei-Lin Liu
• Format: Others
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/25286636816306093615

碩士 === 國立嘉義大學 === 外國語言學系研究所 === 101 === Vocabulary is the basic element of English reading. Instructors of English as a foreign language (EFL) seek effective ways to help learners remember vocabulary, and morphological instruction is a common pedagogy; however, this method of instruction lacks scientific evidence of its effectiveness. Therefore, the researcher will use morphological instruction to help learners decode and remember words, investigating its effectiveness by using an eye tracker. This study examines the effect of morphological instruction on the vocabulary memorization of EFL learners by studying eye movements. Three research questions were explored: (a) How does morphological instruction influence the vocabulary learning performance of English learners? (b) What is the eye movement process when morphological instruction is applied to learn English vocabulary? (c) What are the attitudes of learners toward morphological instruction? The 31 participants in this study were EFL learners from a university in Taiwan, who were randomly divided into experimental (N = 16) and control (N = 15) groups. The experimental group was taught using morphological instruction and the control group was taught using a traditional form of instruction. The results indicated that morphological instruction was the more beneficial method for the short-term memorization of prefixes, enhancing the long-term retention of memorized vocabulary. Regarding the eye movements of learners, morphological instruction increased the duration of fixation on the areas of interest (AOI), decreasing the number of regressions, and then effectively predicting the chosen option. The learners affirmed the application of morphological instruction; it helped them understand the structure of English vocabulary, enhancing their learning interest. The method also facilitated the memory and inference of the meanings of vocabulary.