The Influence of Morphological Awareness and Vocabulary Depth on Academic English Writing Skills of Undergraduates

Developing academic English writing skills in undergraduates is a challenging task for teachers and students, as it is a complex process. Morphological awareness and vocabulary depth may influence academic English writing skills in tertiary-level students. Therefore, this study investigated the effect of morphological awareness and vocabulary depth on academic English writing skills in English as second language undergraduates. The study was conducted with 110 undergraduates from a public university in Sri Lanka. The instruments used for data collection were a demographic questionnaire, standardised measures of morphological awareness and vocabulary depth, and academic English essays. The essays were evaluated using standardised rubrics. The data were analysed using several statistical techniques, including hierarchical regression analysis, to explore the extent of influence of the independent variables on academic writing skills. The findings showed that morphological awareness had a greater independent effect on academic writing skills than vocabulary depth. Students with higher morphological awareness had better grammatical accuracy and coherence in their writing. Findings also showed that while vocabulary depth contributed to revisiting the lexical resources, its strength was less than that of morphological awareness. The findings indicated that morphological awareness is a more promising area for enhancing English academic writing skills in tertiary-level students. Morphological awareness should be incorporated into academic English language programs to improve students' academic writing skills.