The effect of teaching the etymology of words to learn and reinforce vocabulary by Iranian children
Subject Areas : Journal of Teaching English Language StudiesRamin Rahmany 1 , Houtan Golzarnia 2
1 - Islamic Azad University, Takestan Branch
2 - English Department, Islamic Azad University, Takestan, Iran
Keywords: vocabulary learning, Etymology, Young language learners Introduction,
Abstract :
This study was an attempt to investigate the effect of teaching morphemes on young EFLlearners. To this end, 23 young EFL learners in two different classes who studied at intermediatelevel were selected to participate in the present study. The participants were divided into twogroups. One of the groups was treated as experimental and the other one was considered as thecontrol group. Furthermore, the pre-test of word parts was administered to both groups. Theresearcher chose 27 prefixes, suffixes, and roots and taught the selected morphemes to theexperimental group in 9 sessions. At last, the researcher administered post-test to both groups. Theresults showed that experimental group outperformed the control group regarding their knowledgeof word parts. It should be noted that the present study has some implications for teachers, materialdevelopers, and EFL learners.
Alqahtani, M. The Importance of Vocabulary in Language Learning and How to be Taught.
International Journal of Teaching and Education. 3, 3. pp. 21-34.
Anglin, J.M. (1993). Vocabulary development: a morphological analysis. Monograph of the
Society for Research in Child Development. Cambridge University Press.
Ansarin, A.A., Zohrabi, M. &Zeynali, S. (2012). Language Learning Strategies andVocabulary
Size of Iranian EFL Learners. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, 2, 9, pp. 1841-
1848.
Bailey, N., Madden, C., &Krashen, S. (1974). Is there a "natural sequence" in adult second
language learning? Language Learning, 24(2), 234-243.
JOURNAL OF TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES, Vol. 6, NO. 4, Spring 2018
191
Bauer, L., & Nation, I. S. P. (1993). Word families. International Journal of Lexicography,6(4),
253-279.Erlbaum.
Birch, B. (2007). English L2 reading: Getting to the bottom (2nd ed.). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence
Cameron, L. (2001). Teaching languages to young learners. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Clahsen, H., Felser, C., Neubauer, K., Sato, M., & Silva, R. (2010). Morphologicalstructure in
native and nonnative language processing. Language Learning,60(1), 21-43.
Cohen, A. D., & E. Aphek. (1980). Retention of Second Language Vocabulary Over Time:
Investigating the Role of Mnemonic Associations. System. 8:221-235.
Deacon, B &Murphey, T. 2001. Deep Impact Storytelling. Forum, Vol. 39, No.4. Retrieved 16
April 2008 from http://exchanges.state.gov/forum/vols/vol39/no4/bio.
Farid, A. (1985). A Vocabulary Course Book: Prefixes, Roots, And Suffixes for ESL Students. NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Felser, C., &Clahsen, H. (2009). Grammatical processing of spoken language inchild and adult
language learners. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research,38(3), 305-319.
Fekri, A. (2011). The Effect of Teaching Etymology Strategy on Learning Vocabulary by Iranian
Intermediate EFL Learners. Canadian Social Science, Academic Journal. 7(6): 1.
Gu, Y. (2003). Vocabulary learning in second language: person, task, context and strategies.
Electronic Journal. TESL-EJ, 7, 2, 1-26.
JOURNAL OF TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES, Vol. 6, NO. 4, Spring 2018
192
Guo, Y., Roehrig, A.D. &Williams,R.S. (2011). The Relation of Morphological Awareness and
Syntactic Awareness to Adults’ Reading Comprehension: Is Vocabulary Knowledge a
Mediating Variable? Journal of Literacy Research, 43(2) 159–183.
Hasani, M. T., Mousavi, S. &Zarei, A. A. (2014). The Effect of the Number of Affixes on
Vocabulary Learning of Iranian Intermediate EFL Students. International Journal of
Language Learning and Applied Linguistics World, 5, PP. 84-96.
Hamzah, M. S. G., Kafipour, R., & Abdullah, S. K. (2009). Vocabulary learning strategies of
Iranian undergraduate EFL students and its relation to their vocabulary size. European
Journal of Social Sciences, 11(1), 39-50.
Hasselgreen, A., & Drew, I. (2012). Introduction. In A. Hasselgreen, I. Drew & B. Sørheim (Eds.),
The young language learner: Research-based insights into teaching and learning (pp. 5-8).
Bergen: Fagbokforlaget.
Hayashi, Y., & Murphy, V. (2010). An investigation of morphological awareness
in Japanese learners of English. The Language Learning Journal, 39(1), 105-120.
Jiang, N. (2004). Morphological insensitivity in second language processing. Applied
Psycholinguistics, 25(4), 603-634.
Lardiere, D. (1998). Case and tense in the ‘fossilized’ steady state. Second Language
Research, 14(1), 1-26.
Katamba, F. (1993). Modern Linguistics Morphology. London. Hemisphere. Macmillan Press
LTD.
Kuo, L.J. & Anderson, R.C. (2006). Morphological awareness and learning to read: A crosslanguage
perspective. Educational Psychology, 41(3). 161-180.
JOURNAL OF TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES, Vol. 6, NO. 4, Spring 2018
193
Lu, F. L. (2010). English learners’ incidental vocabulary acquisition in the Video-based CALL
program. Asian EFL Journal, 12(4).pp. 51-66.
Meara, P. (1980). Vocabulary acquisition: A neglected aspect of language learning. Language
Teaching andLinguistics, 13, 221-246.
Nation, I.S.P. (2001). Learning Vocabulary in Another Language. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Nagy, W. E., & Anderson, R. C. (1984). How many words are there in printed school English?
Reading Research Quarterly, 19 (3), 304-330.
O’Mally, J. M., &Chamot, A. (1990). Learning strategies in second language acquisition (The
Cambridge Applied Linguistics Series). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Oxford, R. (1990). Language Learning Strategies. Boston: Heinle&Heinle Publishers.
Pienemann, M. (1998). Language processing and second language development:Processability
theory. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Rashtchi,M.&Rezvani, F. (2011), Vocabulary Learning Strategies: Do They Help Iranian EFL
Learners to Overcome Vocabulary Learning Difficulties? Journal of English Studies,
1(1), 65-79.
Riazi, A. M. (1999). A Dictionary of Research Methods: Quantitative and Qualitative. Iran: Rahnama
Publications.
Richards, J.C. (1976). The role of vocabulary teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 10, 77-89.
Schmitt, N. (1997). Vocabulary learning strategies, In N. Schmitt and McCarthy (ED).
Vocabulary: Description, acquisition and pedagogy (pp.199-227). Cambridge: CUP.
Schmitt, N. (2000). Vocabulary in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Schmitt, N., &Meara, P. (1997). Researching vocabulary through a word knowledge framework:
JOURNAL OF TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES, Vol. 6, NO. 4, Spring 2018
194
Word associations and verbal suffixes. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 19(1),
150-170.
Schmitt, N., and M. J. McCarthy (Eds.) (1997).Vocabulary: Description, Acquisition and
Pedagogy. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.
Schmitt, N., & Zimmermann, C. B. (2002). Derivative word forms: What do learnersknow?
TESOL Quarterly, 36(2), 145-171.
Singleton, D. (1999). Exploring the Second Language Mental Lexicon. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Sirmandi, E. &AbasnasabSardareh, S. (2016). Improving Iranian Intermediate EFL Learners’
Vocabulary Knowledge through Watching Video Clips with English Subtitles. Journal of
Applied Linguistics and Language Research, 3,6, pp. 175-187.
Tahaineh, Y. (2012). Jordanian EFL undergraduates’ syntactic pitfalls: With particular reference
to prepositions. International Journal of Applied Linguistics & English Literature, 1(6),
297-314.
Tyler, A. & Nagy, W. (1989). The acquisition of English derivational morphology. Journal of
Memory & Language 28, 649–667.
Pierson, D. H. (1989). Using etymology in the classroom. ELT Journal, 43, 57-63.
Pongweni1, A. & Alimi1, M.M. (2013). Etymology and the Development of L2 Vocabulary:
The Case of ESL Students at the University of Botswana. International Journal of
English Linguistics; 3, 4.
Yule, J. (2006). The study of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.