Morphology For English Language Teaching
Morphology For English Language Teaching
Abstract
Morphology is one of linguistics branches that must be learnt by the English Department since it
plays an important part in teaching and learning English language. It supports the language
elements (vocabulary and grammar) as well as language skills (reading, speaking, and writing).
Morphology with its rules application is appropriate to improve the students’ linguistic
competence. However, there is an opinion that Morphology has nothing to do with teaching
English, so that there are students ignoring Morphology. Morphology is the study of word and
its internal structure (affixes) as well as word formation. Morphological awareness is one of
linguistic awareness that enable human being to comprehend the word structure and imitate as
well as manipulate that word structure. It is important to develop the morphological awareness
of the learners. Morphological awareness is helpful to increase the learners’ vocabulary and to
recognize the meaning easily by viewing affixes attaching in words. Good vocabulary mastery
is helpful to increase learners’ reading and writing ability. There are some alternatives way to
teach English morphology like: using lecturing video about English Morphology from You
Tube instead of books, using games for English Morphology, and giving real examples of
English morphology application in the environment.
1. INTRODUCTION
English Morphology is one of the subjects given to the students of English Department
since it is one of linguistics branches. Morphology is one of the linguistics branches studying
about words. However, several students in the writer’s class seem uninterested and have less
enthusiasm in studying English Morphology. They have an opinion that English Morphology is
difficult because there are many theories they have to memorize. Unluckily, several students
think that English Morphology plays insignificant roles when they have to teach English in
school such as Kindergarten, Elementary School, or High School. They only think that they will
teach about four language skills that have nothing to do with English Morphology. So they think
that English Morphology is not that significant for them at all. In short, they study English
Morphology just because of a curriculum compulsory. It seems that they do not have any idea
that English Morphology actually plays an important role in teaching English as a second
language in the class.
Broadly speaking, morphology is usually defined as the study of the internal structure of words
and the rules governing the formulation of words in a language. Words are important parts in
our linguistic knowledge. People use and need words every day to communicate with others. It
is difficult for human being to speak without words in the process of communication. Words are
creative and dynamic. New words are born every day. The need of new words nowadays is
unavoidable. New technology triggers the appearing of new words. It is obviously known that
words as a part of language is very significant in the society.
Word is a small unit of linguistic form limited by spaces. No matter how complex
sentences in the paragraphs are, those sentences need a word to start with. In this case, a word
can be said as the ingredient of sentences. Words are numerous and various. They can be
simple, complex, and even compound words. Complex and compound words are closely related
with morphology. We can create complex and compound words by applying some theories of
word formation in Morphology such as affixation and compounding. This is absolutely good
way to improve the vocabulary. Then we can speak or write with those words as well.
In other case, we can guess the meaning of words especially those of belong to complex
and compound words. It still is done by applying some theories from Morphology. We can
recognize the meaning of the words by viewing the prefixes and affixes attached to them. This
method is helpful in reading comprehension.
Those are several obvious role of Morphology in learning a language especially
English. There are still some other roles of Morphology for instance in spelling, grammar. Some
affixation process can result on changing on spelling such as explain+ -ation become
explanation, reveal+ -ation becomes revelation. It can be helpful especially for the adult learners
to memorize the spelling of certain words. Morphology is also known as grammar of words
while syntax is grammar of sentences. Morphology studies about affixation by which we can
recognize the word class of certain words on the affixes that attach to them. Even, we can study
how to pluralize a noun in English grammar by studying English Morphology, especially in
English inflection.
To sum up, studying English morphology for an English teacher to be is as important as
studying how to teach English. By having a better understanding on English morphological
concepts, hopefully the English teacher to be will be able to apply it when they are teaching
English to their students in the class. The English teachers also can help their students to
develop their morphological awareness while they are learning foreign language. Morphological
awareness is one of linguistic awareness ability belongs to human being. Carlisle in Tong et.al
(2011,4) state that morphological awareness is an individual attentive knowledge of the
morphemic structure of certain words and the ability to reproduce and employ that structure. It
includes the understanding of small unit of meaning, the understanding of affixes and the
understanding of how affixes combined to roots. Apel (2014) suggests that morphological
awareness is an important linguistic awareness ability that deserves of much attention in
learning language because it plays important role in reading and spelling development. From the
description above we can recognize that English Morphology plays an important role in learning
and teaching English as a second and foreign language.
This paper explains about English Morphology, Morphological Awareness,
Morphology in ESL/EFL, and some alternatives way for teaching Morphology in the class
especially for English Department.
2. DISCUSSION
In the English language the word Morphology has been used since 1828. This word
firstly refers to the branch of biology that deals with the form of living organism and their parts,
and their relationship between their structure (Tokar, pp. 1). However, in this paper, we will
discuss morphology from the linguistics perspective. The term of Morphology did not emerge
as a branch of linguistics until the nineteenth century (Katamba,1993, pp.3).
Morphology comes from Greek word; Morph means form or shape and –ology means
the study of something. Bauer (1988, pp. 248) mentions that morphology is the study of the
forms of words. In other words, Morphology is the study on how words are created from smaller
elements, and the changes made to those smaller elements in the process of building lexemes
and word-forms. In linguistics point of view, many experts define morphology as the study of
the internal structure of words. McCharty (2002, pp.16) states that the area of grammar
concerned with the structure of words and with relationships between words involving the
morphemes that compose them is technically called morphology. Katamba (1993, pp. 19)
morphology is the study of word structure.
Morphology also deals with the study of word formation. It includes the way the new
words are created in the languages. Meanwhile, Aronoff (2011, pp. 2) mentions that
morphology refers to the mental system involved in word formation or to the branch of
linguistics that deals with words, their internal structure, and how they are formed. In addition,
Lieber (2009, pp. 2), says that morphology is the study of word formation, including the ways
new words are coined in the language of the world, and the way forms of words are varied
depending on how they’re used in sentences.
From the definition, there is an important point that we can take. Morpheme (the
smallest meaningful units in language) and words become the central points in studying
Morphology. Morphology studies both their internal structure and their word formation. Many
words are morphologically simple since they are indivisible units of meaning. It means that the
words cannot be segmented into smaller units with their own meaning such as the, fierce, desk,
eat, boot, etc. Meanwhile, other words are morphologically complex. It means those words can
be broken down into smaller parts with their own meaning. For example, the word waithood
(the stage in a young age college graduate’s life when activities such as marrying and finding a
place to live are postponed until a job is found or enough money is saved). Waithood is like
neighborhood so it can be segmented into its smaller components (wait + -hood). Wait is verb
and –hood is noun indicator. The existence of such patterns proves that word may have internal
constituent structure. Meanwhile, the process of adding suffix –hood into wait (waithood) deals
with how the word are formed.
meaning. Carlisle in Alsaeedi (2017, pp. 9) finds that having received instruction in
morphological analysis, the students are able to deduce the meaning of unknown words. It can
help the students to learn new vocabularies and even increase their vocabulary mastery. Farzi
(2018, pp. 1) states that vocabulary size plays a significance role in determining how well the
performance of the second language learners in learning language skills such as reading,
listening, and writing. Morphological awareness’s role in vocabulary comprehension occurs
when language learners are able to break down certain complex word into its root and affix
(prefix or suffix) to guess its meaning.
Meanwhile, in reading skill, morphological awareness has a crucial part as well. Tong et
al (2011, pp. 5) writes that morphological has been closely related to word reading as well as
reading comprehension. Nagy et all, Kieffer and Lesaux in Tong et.al (2011, pp. 5) show that
knowledge of both inflectional and derivational has a unique beneficence in reading
comprehension. Morphological awareness exposes the students on identifying words structure
(affixes), derivation, inflection forms and identifying their meaning based on the morphological
analysis. These activities are very helpful for the students when they are engaging with reading
text.
It is obvious that morphological awareness plays significant roles and implication in
English language teaching and learning. So that’s why language teachers should pay attention
on it since at the early level. Language teachers can expose their students on morphological
awareness in the class as a part of definite language instruction based on age group (Oz, 2014,
pp. 103)
Perhaps, first of all, we have to define what English as Second Language (ESL) and
English as Foreign Language (EFL) are. ESL is English taught to people whose main language
is not English and they live in a country where English is an official or main language such as
English in Singapore and India. On the other hand, EFL is English taught to people whose main
language is not English and they live in a country where English is not the official or main
language such as English in Indonesia. English is the main foreign language taught in Indonesia.
The objectives of teaching learning English in Indonesia are developing communicative
competence and language skills mastery (listening, speaking, reading, and writing).
In the case of the students of English Department in Indonesia, they can be classified into EFL
learners. They are mostly prepared to teach English for the students of elementary school, high
school (junior and senior) students which are also EFL learners. The English Department
students learn both linguistics knowledge (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics
pragmatics, etc.) and teaching knowledge (Teaching English as Foreign Language, teaching
English for young learners, curriculum material development, etc.) because they need all to
teach their students when they become teachers.
As mentioned previously morphology includes one of linguistics given to the English
Department students. For any language learners, it is a must for studying morphology because it
needs to fulfil sufficient skills of target language and to be able to communicate well (Perez,
2014). Morphology is one of linguistics branches studying about word structure and word
formation. Morphology with its rules application is appropriate to improve the students’
linguistic competence. In addition, teachers hope that morphology can be an appropriate way to
find more strategies to increase the students’ lexical capacity (Domingez, 1991, pp. 39).
Students of English Department are necessary to substantiate a sound knowledge base in
understanding the word structure and word formation process with the help of language teachers
through developing English Morphological awareness (Oz, 2014, pp. 83)
Perez (2014) clarifies several purposes and benefits of studying morphology. As quoted
from Fasold (2006), one of the purposes of studying morphology is the innovation of words and
the remaking of the existing ones. Obviously, the knowledge of morphology can be applied to
improve their vocabulary. They can derive the new word from the existing ones by using
affixes (prefixes and suffixes). Besides, they can apply some word formations such as
compounding, blending, clipping to coin the new words. Learning morphology can help the
learners to identify and predict the meaning of the words when they have recognizable parts
such as prefixes or affixes. Suffixes can lead the learners to comprehend the meaning of words,
such as un- in unhappy, uncomfortable, undo means the opposite of the root. Numerous
vocabulary size and ability of predicting meaning give significant contribution in English
language skill such as reading, speaking, and writing. Biemiller and Slonim in Akbulut (2017,
pp. 10) emphasize that learners’ solid vocabulary knowledge affects their ability in reading
comprehension.
Morphology also helps the learners on better writing skill especially dealing with
vocabulary. Good vocabulary mastery can help the learners to write easily dealing with the
dictions. Besides, morphology is also useful for the learners when they deal with sentence
structures or grammar. Inflectional and derivational morphology introduces the learners with the
parts of speech. Inflectional morphology deals with affixes that do not change the part of speech
they are attached to. It is shown in English plurality (-s/-es, -(r)en, vowel changes for plurality),
tense makers (-s/-es for simple present tense maker, -d/-ed for simple past tense maker, -ing for
continuous tense maker), comparative degree (-er, -est). Meanwhile, derivational morphology
deals with affixes that changes part of speech such as –ment is used to derive verb into noun, -
able is used to derive verb into adjective.
Morphological competence becomes one of important parts in determining a higher
level of proficiency in ESL or EFL so that’s why derivational and inflectional morphology are
very used in advanced level in English international tests such as FCE, CAE, and Cambridge
ESOL’s TOEFL (Perez, 2014). The study of English morphology can help us notify the
connection between English and other languages such as the relation of English and Greek.
their listening ability too. Here are some links of videos that have can be used in the English
Morphology class; An Introduction to Morphology
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syjbhT45J14), Free and Bound Morphemes, Affixes
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMfS4jLyTnE), Derivational and Inflectional Morphemes,
and Morphological Changes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiYPVP9Hb7M)
Games have an important role in EFL class. Games refer to a particular activity having
rules, goal as well as entertainment. Games can reduce the students to become bored.
Apparently, game can be used to teach English Morphology. There are several games that can
be applied in English Morphology such as;
a. Identifying Affixes
This game aims at identifying root and affixes. This game can be played individually or
in group. To play this game we have to prepare several package of 10 cards with
complex words on it such as playful, revelation, nationality, reaction, establishment,
unbelievable, etc. The students or the group have to identify the affixes and root of the
complex words on their cards by breaking them down into the smaller parts with
scissors.
b. Affix Card
This game can be applied individually or in group. To play this game the teacher has to
prepare two boxes. The first box is called root box containing some cards of root words
and the second one is affix box containing some cards of prefixes and suffixes. Each
group takes five root word cards and five affixes cards. They have to create complex
words as many as possible by using the root words and affixes.
c. Affix Board Game
This game can be applied individually or in group. The teacher prepares a board game
containing of affixes (prefixes or affixes) in each square in the boards. Besides, the
teacher prepares dice and game pieces. To play this game, the students have to roll the
dice then move the game pieces to the square number in the board game then read the
affix written in square number, the identify the affix ass prefix or suffix, then give
example of word with the affix, and the last step is the students have to make a sentence
using the a. For example, the student gets four and there is a (–less). The student should
read the affix first, then say it as suffix, then give examples word with affix (–less) such
as careless, and the last is the sentence: He is a bit careless when driving his
motorbike.
The teacher brings real examples of cases in the environment using English
Morphology rules. The teacher ever bring some examples of brand names of several Indonesian
products such as food (richeese, blueband, bismart, beng beng, etc), beverage (yogice, frestea,
mountea, etc), medicine (fatigone, stop cold,etc), body treatment (sunsilk), health care (fatigone,
stefit,etc), house care (porstex, windex, sunlight, etc). Those brand name can be used to teach
English word formation. The examples of the brand names are made by applying some English
word formation found in English morphology.
Besides, the teacher also brings some words which still apply English word formation
from other sources such as internet and social media such as netizen, tweetheart, insta story,
propic, twipic, folback, delcont, etc. Those words mostly are blends.
Furthermore, the teacher can show some classified advertisement from English newspaper.
There are many clipped form in the classified advertisement such as airco (air condition), w/AC
(with AC), Condo (condominium), Pls (please), 15 yrs exp (15 years’ experience), Ind Area
(Industrial Area), bdr (bedroom), s’pool (swimming pool).
The students, hopefully, will have more concern to English Morphology after they
know about the real examples of morphology application in the society. They will open their
mind that
3. CONCLUSION
4. REFERENCES
Dominguez, J.A.(1991). The Role of Morphology in the Process of Language Acquisition and
Learning. Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingelese 4
Katamba, F. (1993). Morphology. The MacMillan Press LTD: London
Leiber, R. (2009). Introducing Morphology. Cambridge University Press: New York
McCharty, .A.C. (2002). An Introduction to English Morphology: Words and Their Structure.
Edinburgh University Press: Edinburgh
Oz, H. (2014). Morphology and Implications for English Language Teaching. Procedia-Social
and Behaviour Science 136, pp 98-108
Petrovska, I.V. (2011). Linguistic Awareness and Environmental Factors in Reading
Development: Preventing Reading Problems Starts in Early Childhood. University of
Oslo: Departement of Special Need Education
Perez, O.G. (2014). The Importance of Morphology in Language Learning in
http://notesatlei.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-importance-of-morphology-in.html
Spenser, A. (1997). Morphological Theory: An Introduction to Word Structure in Generative
Grammar. Blackwell Publisher: Massachusetts.
Tokar, A. (2012). Textbook in English Language and Linguistics. Peter Lang; Frankfurt.
Tong, X., Deacon, S. H., Kirby, J., Cain, K., & Parrila, R. (2011). Morphological awareness: A
key to understanding poor reading comprehension in English. Journal of
EducationalPsychology, 103, pp.523-534. Doi: 10.1037/a0023495
Zeh, N Teaching Morphology to Improve Literacy in
https://www.uwo.ca/fhs/lwm/teaching/dld2_2017_18/Zeh_Morphological-
Awareness.pdf