Morphological Analysis on the Level of Vocabulary Production of L2 Learners in Their Composition Writing

The study ventured on the level of vocabulary production of L2 learners. Ten essays became the source of data which content words used were subjected to morphological analysis (corpus-based approach). Results showed that the students used affixation in producing their vocabulary with almost half of their composition. They used bound morphemes (prefixes and suffixes). The learners could only attach one bound morpheme to a root, few on two morphemes, and very rare on three. The most common bound morpheme used was the suffix –s and morphemes be-, -cy, -est, extra-, fore-, -fy, -ic, -ish, -ity, -ive, -le, -ne, over-, re-, and –th being the least. Confined with one morpheme attachment, the learners had basic level of vocabulary production. They used mostly inflectional morphological skills. In conclusion, morphological awareness has a key role in vocabulary production of learners and findings may help English teachers strategize activities to increase learners’ morphological awareness.