The Effect of Morphological Awareness Training on L2 Postgraduates’ Productive Vocabulary Knowledge and Academic Writing

Abstract

Postgraduates who use English as a second language (L2) have been found in previous studies (e.g. Abdulkareem, 2013; Al-Khasawneh, 2010) to experience vocabulary deficiencies and difficulty with academic writing. Training in morphological awareness (MA) has contributed to developing learners’ phonological awareness, word reading abilities, reading, spelling, and receptive vocabulary. However, research on its role and effect on productive vocabulary knowledge and academic writing is lacking. The current study examines the effect of MA training on productive vocabulary knowledge and academic writing. Two groups of postgraduates participated in the quasi-experimental study. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 26 and two writing scoring criteria (IELTS and ESL Composition Profile). The results reveal that MA training is effective and significantly improves L2 postgraduates’ academic writing with a large effect size. Furthermore, the results show that the experiment significantly assists the students in enhancing their vocabulary production. The results demonstrate that MA training emerged to significantly affect the participants in becoming better writers and improving their vocabulary production.