Chapter One
Preliminaries
Introduction .1.1
For many years vocabulary has been the poor relation of language teaching.
Its neglect is in part due to a specialisation in linguistic research on syntax and
phonology, which may have fostered a climate, in which vocabulary was felt to
be a less important element in learning a foreign language. Vocabulary is not
explicitly taught in most language classes, and students are expected to pick up
vocabulary on their own without any guidance (Carter, 1987:3). Courses on
listening, speaking, reading and writing are common in L2 programmes, but very
few vocabulary courses exist. Though teaching vocabulary should be given
much consideration and attention, the majority of EFL learners encounter many
difficulties in vocabulary learning, such as identifying the grammatical category
of a lexical item. With regard to grammatical category, Rodgers (1969:343)
suggests that students apparently learn nouns and adjectives more easily than
verbs and adverbs and this might be related to the morphological complexity of
verbs and to the confusability of certain adverbials.
However, over recent years there has been a revival of interest in the role of
vocabulary in language teaching, and it has been widely accepted that activities
which aim at the learning of vocabulary have a central part to play in any
language syllabus, whether for general or for specific purposes (Carter,
1981:41).
While L2 vocabulary learning research is no longer`` a neglected area``
(Meara, 1980:221), a lack of progress remains on some basic questions. One
concerns the simple facts about word-formation and its role in changing the
meaning of words resulting from the addition of prefixes and suffixes. Another
question concerns the number of times a word must be encountered to be
learned (Zahar and Cobb, 2001:1).
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Chapter One
Interest in second language vocabulary learning has grown steadily in the
last ten years. It has produced several excellent books (e.g., Nation, 1990;
Huckin, Haynes & Coady, 1993; Singleton, 1999; Schmitt, 2000), special issues
of journals, and a growing number of research articles investigating ever finer
details of word learning and processing. Vocabulary in a second language is not
just a source of great difficulty for many learners; it is also one of the most
important aspects of second language learning (Meara, 1984:229). The size of a
learner’s vocabulary in a given language has been found to be highly predictive
of overall language ability. Since complete vocabulary knowledge is often
dependent on repeated exposure to words in various contexts (Schmitt & Carter,
2000:5), the process of learning new words can be complex. As learners strive to
build their vocabulary in the target language, they may confuse or distort the
basic meanings of words (Gu, 1994:378).
Problem of the Study .1.2
It has been observed that most EFL learners at the university level
encounter difficulties in determining the part of speech of a lexical item. Those
learners may know and select one part of speech at the expense of the other
parts. This is due to the apparent lack of sufficient learning of word roots and
affixes. Some parts of speech are easier to be memorized than others, for
example, with regard to foreign language learning, nouns may predominate in
the very early lexicon of adult learners, and verbs may constitute a frequent
source of lexical error.
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Chapter One
Significance of the Study .1.3
The present study attempts to place a great deal of emphasis on L 2
vocabulary learning as related to parts of speech since L2 vocabulary is
considered central to L2 learning in general and constitutes, like grammar and
phonology, one critical and important aspect of Language. The study is also
intended to investigate the principal causes of difficulties that students encounter
in determining and selecting the appropriate part of speech of a lexical item.
Hypotheses of the Study .1.4
The difficulty students have in learning lexical items may stem from their
having problems differentiating between various parts of speech of a lexical
item. It is hypothesized that EFL learners in Iraqi universities are untrained or
inefficient in selecting the proper part of speech which can reveal the structure
of a sentence. This may be attributed to the fact that often, students are not given
guidelines for multiplying the vocabulary they already know through
recognition of related forms. Many are not familiar with simple facts about
word-formation which would help them to work out the meanings of apparently
new words. They should become familiar with the changes of meaning resulting
from the addition of prefixes and suffixes and from compounding, and with
differences in syntactic function of identical or similar forms.
Therefore, it is observed that the majority of learners resort to almost one
part of speech of a word, ignoring the others due to their total lack of knowledge
of word roots and suffixes.
Word roots and affixes are largely significant to make learners distinguish,
learn and understand the parts of speech of a lexical item. There is value in
explicitly drawing learner’s attention to word parts of speech, because an
important vocabulary learning strategy is using and knowing the word parts of
speech so as help learners to remember the meaning of a vocabulary item. This
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Chapter One
strategy requires learners to know the most frequent and regular affixes to be
able to recognize them in words, and to be able to re-express the meaning of the
word using the meaning of its word parts of speech.
Procedures of the Study .1.5
The current study has followed certain procedures to fulfil its objectives.
They are as follows:
a. A theoretical study of the term vocabulary and vocabulary learning
strategies.
b. A theoretical study of the English parts of speech word roots and affixes
and their significance in learning a fair amount of lexical items.
c. Testing university students in the College of Arts of Basrah University,
examining their ability and readiness to differentiate various parts of
speech. This test will cover the Third-Year students in the Department of
English of the same college.
d. Finally, the results of the test are discussed and statically analysed out of
which the findings of the study are drawn.