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order make them fail to construct the correct words. Studies by Cameron 2001 and also Wu and Zumbo 2008 put emphasize of the importance of part of speech
in word formation. The students should be able to determine the kind of words to be used correctly.
3. The Correlation between Morpheme Identification Awareness
and Morphological Structure Awareness
The correlation is based on the assumption that a learner who has good knowledge in breaking down complex word will have good knowledge of words
structure. Thus, a learner may be able to construct new words from the known knowledge. However, the correlation between morpheme identification and
morphological structure is low. So there is only a weak low correlation between morpheme identification and morphological structure. There are some factors
which may influence the findings. From the table there is p-value 0.023 0,05. That is Ho is rejected and Ha is accepted. Thus the hypothesis “There
is significant relationship between vocabulary size and morpheme identification” is accepted. By looking at the table r = 0.279 show us that the degree of the
correlation is low. In addition, the correlation of the variable is positive meaning that the increase of the morpheme identification is in line with the increase of the
morphological structure. It is questionable to see that the correlation between morpheme
identification and morphological structure is low. We may easily assume that the ability to breakdown the complex words will be in line with the ability to
construct the morphemes into new words. However the result showed us that the
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correlation is low. The increase of the morpheme identification score is not significantly followed by the increase of morphological structure score. It
confirms the study by Farsi in 2008 which found that there was a low correlation between morpheme identification awareness
and morphological structure awareness of the Omani EFL students. It may be because of several reasons. The
first factor can be about the nature of the test. The test of morpheme identification consists of several types of questions. Meanwhile the test of morphological
structure consists of relatively different types of question. The second factor can be about the knowledge the learners have. If the learners only master the
knowledge of certain kinds of morphemes, it may cause that they only perform well in certain test. Morphological awareness is complex and the learners need
adequate knowledge of morphemes to achieve its awareness. Bertram, Laine and Virkkala 2000 suggested that the learner should have sufficient period of time to
develop morphological awareness during the time they learn the language. It will be improved significantly if they have the prior intention for every possible
morphological awareness learning. However, this current study has limited scope of discussion. The
vocabulary size in this research only covers the rough number of word families used in receptive written use. It does not cover the total word families in English
language. The ideal vocabulary size should cover all word families in English language.
In addition, the study employed an instrument as
morpheme identification awareness test which did not cover all forms of word formations.
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The instrument is only limited on the affixation and compounding as the way of word formation. To get the complete re
sult of the students’ ability of the morpheme identification, the ideal instrument should have the whole types of
word formation such as affixation, compounding, acronym, abbreviation, etc. Thus, the current study only gives result on some word formations.
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CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusions
Chapter one to chapter four present us how the current study was conducted from the first chapter that comprised the background of the problem to the fifth
chapter that comprised the research process, findings, and discussions. Now, in the chapter five, the research findings will be summarized and the conclusions will be
withdrawn. This current study examined the first semester students of English Department
of Muhammadiyah University of Yogyakarta. The study aims at finding out the correlation between vocabulary size and morpheme identification; vocabulary size
and morphological structure; and morpheme identification and morphological structure.
The results illustrate that, for the first result, there is a significant correlation between vocabulary size and morpheme identification. The second result shows that
there is a significant correlation between vocabulary size and morphological structure awareness. The third result shows that there is a significant correlation between
morpheme identification awareness and morphological structure awareness. However, this stud
y doesn’t show strong correlation among the variables. The level or degree of the correlation between vocabulary size and morpheme
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identification awareness is low. Meanwhile, the level or degree of the correlation between vocabulary size and morphological structure awareness is moderate. The
last, the degree or level of the correlation between morpheme identification awareness and morphological structure awareness is low.
B. Implications
The results of the study imply several aspects in language learning. However the implication will be limited on the area of vocabulary learning. In chapter two, it
is explained that the current study is in the area of vocabulary learning. There are the implications of the result of the research which has been conducted.
The first implication is related to the vocabulary learning. The number of vocabulary size the students have in this current research implies that there should be
some strategies that enable the students to develop their vocabulary size. The teachers have to find learning strategies to improve the vocabulary size of the
students. Vocabulary size is essential especially for the reading comprehension. By having adequate number of vocabulary, more specifically in morphemes, the
learners may have good ability to perform several strategies in language acquisition such as guessing meaning from context. Moreover, they can also produce new words
for writing or speaking. Since the focus is on reading, the vocabulary learnt should be considered as the appropriate vocabulary useful for reading.
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The second implication will be related to the morphological awareness. In general, the s
tudents’ ability to break down the complex words and construct the morphemes is not adequate. There should be a morpheme-focused learning which
enables the students to learn the morphemes as one focused-learning. The students should be taught the morphemes intentionally and consciously to ensure that they
know the meaning of morphemes, more specifically derivations and inflections. The problem for the students who have good vocabulary size is that they haven’t been
able to comprehend the concept of inflectional and derivational endings sufficiently. It makes them unable to predict the meaning of words after suffixes are added.
The third implication is related to word changes in term of part of speech. There are a lot of mistakes done by the students related to derivations. They are
unable to change the part of speech of certain words because of its part of speech changes. Part of speech focused learning is urgent to be taught to the students. It is
beneficial as part of speech is the key to determine the meaning of the words.
C. Suggestions
This current study has found that there is correlation between vocabulary size and morpheme identification awareness. In addition, there is also a significant
correlation between vocabulary size and morphological structure awareness. The study also finds that there is a significant correlation between morpheme
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identification awareness and morphological structure awareness. The results of this current study give suggestions to the students, English teacher and other researchers.
1. The students The students need to learn language especially the vocabulary in a more
comprehensive way. In one hand they need to enrich their vocabulary. In other hand, they have to consciously learn the vocabulary together with the affixes. Affixes are
useful when the construct a new words or break down complicated words. 2. The English teacher
The English teachers should be aware that the vocabulary size and morphological awareness is correlated. It will be beneficial if the English teachers can
teach the students the vocabulary enrichment and morphemes. In one hand that students can develop the number of vocabulary especially high frequency words used
in reading. In other hand, the knowledge of suffixes will equip them with the ability to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words found in reading text. The vocabulary can
be taught through direct or indirect learning. However, the teachers should teach the affixes intentionally. It is because the students should consciously know the use of the
morphemes and give full focus on the affixes learning. 3. Other researchers
It is important to keep in mind that this current study is limited on specific aspect. It only studies the vocabulary size in term of word family. In addition, the
total word families are only those used in written receptive use. Moreover, the objects
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of the study are limited only the first semester students. There should be further research which study broader area of vocabulary learning and also cope broader
scope of study. It will be useful to contribute and give bigger picture of the research in vocabulary and morphological awareness.
