Journal of English Language Teaching Volume 3 Nomor 2, Agustus 2016 ISSN: 2548-5865 109 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MORPHOLOGICAL AWARENESS AND ENGLISH VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE OF SIXTH SEMESTER STUDENTS IN IKIP MATARAM Baiq Sumarni (1) (meniq84@yahoo.co.id (1) ) Faculty of Education for Language and Art Mataram Institute of Teacher Training And Education (IKIP Mataram) ABSTRACT This study focuses on finding the relationship between morphological awareness and English vocabulary knowledge of Sixth semester students in IKIP Mataram. Many researchers have conducted a number of studies to find out the most effective strategies in learning vocabulary. One of them which is discussed in this study is applying morphological awareness. The first research problem is talking about the English vocabulary size of the students. The second problem is talking about the level of the students’ morphological awareness. and the third problem is talking about the relationship between morphological awareness and the English vocabulary size of sixth semester students in IKIP Mataram. In turn, in conducting this research, the researcher uses a mixed methods. Not only quantitative analysis, descriptive statistics and other statistical tests, but also qualitative analysis are used. The data presents the students’ vocabulary size in the form of level which is adapted from the theory by Nation and Beglar (2007) and also their morphological awareness in form of level which is adapted from the theory by McBride-Chang et al (2005). This data also presents the relationship between morphological awareness and English vocabulary knowledge in form of correlation based on Pearson product-moment formula. This analysis shows that the sixth semester students in IKIP Mataram are in level 6,000 means that their results is good enough based on Beglar and nation (2007). And the results of the morphological awareness are variant. Thence, this study also found that there is relationship between the students’ vocabulary size and their morphological awareness. Keywords: The Relationship, Morphological Awareness, English Vocabulary Size INTRODUCTION Acquiring a good-sized vocabulary is an important part of successful language learning. It is essential for assessing background knowledge, expressing ideas, and learning about new concepts. “Without some knowledge of that vocabulary, neither language production nor language comprehension would be possible” (Anglin, 1993: 2). Many researchers have conducted a number of studies to find out the most effective strategies in learning vocabulary. One of them which is discussed in Journal of English Language Teaching Volume 3 Nomor 2, Agustus 2016 ISSN: 2548-5865 110 this study is applying morphological awareness. In this method, students apply morphological analysis when they read or hear a complex word that they have never been encountered before. the findings suggest that various aspects of morphological awareness may be particularly useful for vocabulary building. The statement of the problem in this research are, What is the English vocabulary size of sixth semester students in IKIP Mataram?, What is the level of morphological awareness in English that sixth semester students in IKIP Mataram possess?, Is there a relationship between morphological awareness in English and the English vocabulary size of sixth semester students in IKIP Mataram? To answer those questions, this research is going to use descriptive statistics and other statistical tests. In order to answer the first question, this study uses the vocabulary level test which is adapted from Nation and Beglar (2007). In order to answer the second question, this study uses the Morphological awareness test which is adapted from McBride-Chang, Wagner, Muse, Chow, and Shu (2005). Thence, in order to answer the third question, this study uses Pearson product- moment correlation in finding the relationship between those two problems. Purpose of this research is obviously to answer what are questioned in statement of problems.To measure the English vocabulary size of sixth semester students in IKIP Mataram.To measure the level of English morphological awareness that sixth semester students in IKIP Mataram possess.To perform the correlations between Vocabulary Level Test and Morphological Awareness Test with Pearson product-moment correlation tests, with possible implications for morphological awareness as a predictor of vocabulary learning. METHOD After explaining the theory which is going to be used, this research is going to show how the theory is applied. In conducting this research, the researcher uses a mixed methods. Not only quantitative analysis, descriptive statistics and other statistical tests, but also qualitative analysis has used. This approach due to the fact that besides the data of this research is in form of numbers, the researcher also use a questionnare to support the results of the data. It is according to Sandelowski (2003, as cited in Dornyei, 2007: 164) who stated that there are two main and somewhat conflicting purposes for combining methods. One of them is the traditional goals of triangulation, namely to validate one’s conclusion by presenting converging results obtained through different methods. There are three steps in this study, first, giving a questionnare by the Journal of English Language Teaching Volume 3 Nomor 2, Agustus 2016 ISSN: 2548-5865 111 researcher to find out background information about the participating students. Second, giving the two kinds of test, then the results has been calculated by the researcher. The next is performing Pearson product-moment correlations. Three test instruments has been used. A questionnare consisted of four questions which was designed to investigate background information about the participating students. In order to answer the first research question, a shorter version of the Vocabulary Size Test (Nation &Beglar, 2007) is used. In order the second reserach question, the Morphological Awareness Test with its two parts: the Morphological Structure Test and the Morpheme Identification Test (McBride-Chang, Wagner, Muse, Chow, & Shu, 2005). Vocabulary Level Test (VLT) and Morphological Awareness Test has been used because they perform consistently and reliably and the results are easy to score and interpret. Thence, in order to answer the third research question, Pearson product-moment correlations tests is performed in knowing the correlations between student’s morphological awareness and their English vocabulary knowledge. FINDING (1) What is the English vocabulary size of sixth semester students in IKIP Mataram? In this analysis, the Vocabulary Level Test which adapted from Nation and Beglar (2007) is used. There is a 14,000 version containing 70 multiple-choice items, with 5 items from each 1000 word family level. Because there are five items at each 1,000 word level, each items in the test is representatives of the knowledge of 200 word-families. It means that, the students’s score needs to be multiplied by 200. For example, if a student’s score in this tests was 21 out of 70, his vocabulary knowledge is 4,200 word-families (21 x 200), which means he is in the fourth 1,000 word-family level. The students' mean score is 33. This mean score was multiplied by 200. The vocabulary size of the students is thus estimated to be 6,600 word-families. And it means that the students are in 6,000 word-families level. It means that the students’ vocabulary size were good. It is based on other studies that used this test, the results revealed that undergraduate non-native speakers studying at an English-speaking university have a vocabulary of 5,000-6,000 word-families. Similarly, competent non-native speaking doctoral students have around a vocabulary of 9,000 word- families (Beglar & Nation, 2007). This means that a certain size of vocabulary has to be known to the learners before the students can approach a text comfortably. Thus, a theory; by Subekti & Michael (2007) stated that having a limited vocabulary is also a barrier that prevents students from learning Journal of English Language Teaching Volume 3 Nomor 2, Agustus 2016 ISSN: 2548-5865 112 a foreign language; is accepted. 43 sixth semester students in IKIP Mataram as participants in this research have got a good level in vocabulary level test. It makes them easier in learning and understanding about EFL (English as a Foreign Language) as a their program in IKIP Mataram. Furthermore, in order to comprehend a text, readers should be familiar with 98% of the words in the text at any level (Hu & Nation, 2000). (2) What is What is the level of morphological awareness in English that sixth semester students in IKIP Mataram possess? In this analysis, To answer the second research question concerning the English level morphological awareness of EFL students in IKIP Mataram, descriptive statistics was used. The scores from the Morphological Structure Test and the Morpheme Identification Test were calculated and analyzed. Then the mean or arithmetic average of all scores in both tests was found. Based on the result of the mean, the percentage of those two kinds of Morphological Awareness Test were performed. However, the estimate level of morphological awareness of the students was known. For the Morphological Structure Test, the mean is 4.28. For the Morpheme Identification Test, the mean is 19.79. Based on the result of the mean score, it suggest that the morpheme identification test performed better than morphological structure test. Then, from the mean result, the percentages of the students’ scores in two kinds of the Morphological Awareness Test were calculated. The students had a percentage of 42.8% in the Morphological Structure Test. In the Morpheme Identification Test, the students had 65.97%. From the results above, the morphological structure test of the students was limit while the morpheme identification test of the students was good. There was a difference percentage between the two tests. These percentages show that the morphological structure test of the students was relatively limited while the morpheme identification test of the students was relatively good. The findings demonstrate that the students’ performance in the the Morpheme Identification Test was slightly better than in the Morphological Structure Test. Students’ better performance on the Morpheme identification Test shows that they have the ability to analyze the morphologically complex words and give the meaning of the different morphemes forming the words. Thus, a theory by Arnoff and Fudeman (2005, as cited in Al Farsi, 2008) is accepted. They stated that the study of morphology is a combination of two approaches: analytic and synthetic. A good learner needs to acquire both. The analytic approach focuses on morpheme identification or breaking words down into meaningful parts. The syntactic approach involves the Journal of English Language Teaching Volume 3 Nomor 2, Agustus 2016 ISSN: 2548-5865 113 process of producing new word by using defferent morpheme. They also argued that the analytic approach paves the way for the syntactic approach. (3) What is the relationship between morphological awareness in English and the English vocabulary size of sixth semester students in IKIP Mataram? In this analysis, in order to answer the third research question concerning the possible relationship between morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge of EFL students in IKIP Mataram, Pearson product-moment correlation tests was performed, then correlations between Vocabulary Size Test and Morphological Structure Test and between the Vocabulary Size Test and the Morpheme Identification Test were performed. The results of the third reserach question could be presented in the following table table 4.8 Correlations between Scores on the Vocabulary Size Test, the Morphological Structure Test, and the Morpheme Identification Test Vocabulary Size Test Morphological SructureTest Morpheme Identification Test Vocabulary Size Test Pearson correlation 1 .124 .423 N 43 43 43 The data in table 4.8 shows that there was a correlation between the Vocabulary Size Test and Morphological Structure Test (r = .124). Moreover, there was also a correlation between the Vocabulary Size Test and the Morpheme Identification Test (r = .423). As we remembered that, the value of r will always be between 0 and 1. This means that there was a relationship between vocabulary size and morphological awareness. Table 4.9 The Significance Correlation Results between the Vocabulary Level Test (VLT) and the Morphological Awareness Test r (pearson) Math symbols Sig.value (r table) The results VLT&MST .124 < .304 No significance VLT& MIT .423 > .304 Significance Table 4.9 showed that between the Vocabulary Level Test (VLT) and the Morphological Structure Test (MST), there was no significance found. Morever, for the Vocabulary Level Test (VLT) and the Morpheme Identification Test (MIT), there was a significance found. It based on r table (Probability significance/p. sig) stated that the observed value of r must be greater than or equal to the value in the intersection of the column and line (see appendix 5, p. 102). Based on two tables above, the researcher concluded that between Journal of English Language Teaching Volume 3 Nomor 2, Agustus 2016 ISSN: 2548-5865 114 the Vocabulary Level Test and the Morphological Structure Test there was a relationship found, but not significance according to the r table of Pearson product-moment correlation. The Vocabulary Size Test was designed to measure the students’ vocabulary size. The test included 14 levels, representing 14,000 word- families. The increasing difficulty of the words in the test as the levels increased might have had a negative effect on the scores, may have, in turn, affected the relationship between vocabulary size and morphological awareness. Each level of vocabulary knowledge is not an equal interval. As the levels become higher (that is, as the word-families decrease in frequency), it becomes increasingly difficult for students to be exposed to vocabulary associated with that level of word families. But even so, the student’s vocabulary size in this study were good enough. It may be because their grade. Another factor that might have affected the relationship between vocabulary size and morphological awareness is the modification of the Morphological Awareness Test. The original test was designed for kindergartners and second graders. The modifications were made by the researcher to make the test appropriate for university students. The original test contained thirteen items, and for each item there were two pictures presented to the child. The pictures were labeled orally for the child by the experimenter. Such modifications may have affected the performance of the students. As the university students, such modifications becomes more suitable for them. Although the results of morphological awareness test were variant, but the student’s performance in this study was good overall. Thus, theories; by Anglin (as cited in Nurhemida, 2007) stated that the type of morphological knowledge, namely derivations and inflections, will also have an effect on vocabulary learning and by Wagner, Muse, & Tannenbaum (2006) stated that when encountering morphologically complex word in the text, students apply their morphological knowledge to break down the complex words into meaningful morphemes as a way to better understand the word meaning; are accepted. even a few students were motivated to learn the vocabulary presented in the testing instruments and showed a real interest in expanding their vocabulary size. CONLUSION The current study investigated the relationship between the English vocabulary size and the morphological awareness of sixth semester students in IKIP Mataram. The Vocabulary Size Test was used to measure the student’s vocabulary size. The results indicated that the vocabulary size was just over 6,000 Journal of English Language Teaching Volume 3 Nomor 2, Agustus 2016 ISSN: 2548-5865 115 word-families. The Morphological Awareness Test with its subtests (the Morphological Structure Test and the Morpheme Identification Test) was used to measure the students’ level of morphological awareness. The findings showed that the students had a percentage around 43% on the Morphological Structure Test. On the Morpheme Identification Test, the students had a percentage around 66%. The second that may have had an effect on the study was the student’s attitude. Before starting the test, the students were informed that the test would not affect their scores. This may have caused the students to be less motivated to do their best on the tests. The university chosen for this study may not have been representative of all universities in Indonesia. The data obtained from the test presented in this study may have been different if the participants were chosen from several universities. For example, if the students were chosen from different universities, their background information, English program, and syllabus may be different, which may have led to significant changes in data. Moreover, the current study only included college students from English Department in IKIP Mataram. It would be desirable to have students from different colleges in order to determine how generalizable the findings are. There is a lack of studies that have investigated the relationship between vocabulary size and morphological awareness of English language learners, especially Indonesian-speaking students. Much more study is needed before we can understand this kind of relationship. SUGGESTION Studies investigating the relationship between Indonesian morphology and the acquisition of English vocabulary are needed. Future studies could help facilitate an understanding of the factors that influence the growth of English vocabulary and shed some light on the relationship between Indonesian morphology and English morphology. Future studies could focus on how the knowledge of Indonesian morphology affects the process of learning the English language. Knowing the relationship between them will have a significant influence on designing better English language syllabi that integrate vocabulary instruction for Indonesian-speaking ELLs more effectively. Journal of English Language Teaching Volume 3 Nomor 2, Agustus 2016 ISSN: 2548-5865 116 REFERENCES Anglin, J. M., Miller, G.A., & Wakefield, P.C. (1993). Vocabulary Development: A Morphological Analysis. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, Vocabulary Development: A Morphological Analysis, 58(10), 1-186. Cahyono & Widiati. (2009). “The Teaching of EFL Vocabulary in Indonesian Context: The State of the Art”. TEFLIN Journal. 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