This research investigates the role of morphological awareness in second language acquisition. The study focuses on affixation as a vocabulary learning strategy and examines whether instruction on affixation helps in vocabulary retention in learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). A total of 25 high school students in Serbia (aged 17–18), distributed across proficiency levels A1, A2, and B1 (based on a general English proficiency test), participated in a pre-/post-test intervention. The pre-test consisted of 60 words grouped by shared derivational affixes (e.g., un-, dis-, -less), while the post-test contained the same words randomly arranged, without affix cues. Instruction was delivered in the learners’ mother tongue (Serbian) as a scaffolding strategy to support comprehension; multilingualism or cross-linguistic transfer was not explicitly analyzed. The instruction consisted of three sessions, each introducing approximately 20 new words through contextualized examples, morphological analysis, and guided word-formation tasks. The results of the study indicate that brief, targeted lessons on prefixes and suffixes can significantly improve vocabulary acquisition, especially for lower-proficiency learners. The use of the learners’ mother tongue as a support, combined with tasks requiring active word formation, can effectively enhance morphological awareness and provide practical guidance for planning an EFL curriculum.

Authors:
Ivana Zivkovic, University of Belgrade, Serbia

About the Presenter(s)
Ivana is an English instructor at a manufacturing company in Serbia. Current project focuses on the role of prefixes and suffixes in foreign language acquisition (morphology).

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivana-bogicevic-94994a27a

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