COURSEWORK 1 Topic 4: Morphology Question 2: The knowledge of morphology can contribute to our understanding of English vocabulary and grammar

better and help us in our future role as an English teacher. Morphology is the study of the system of rules underlying our knowledge of the structure of words (Kristin Denham, Anne Lobeck, 2013). It is also known as the branch of linguistics that studies the structure of words and different patterns of word formation. In this essay, I will discuss how the knowledge of morphology can contribute to our understanding of English vocabulary and grammar better and how this knowledge can help us in our future role as an English teacher. The knowledge of morphology can be applied among the teachers to enhance the vocabulary, identify the changes of word classes, know the word origins, construct sentences correctly and enhance the teachers mind to think creatively. Morphology can help us as a future English teacher to widen our vocabulary list. English teachers should have better vocabulary knowledge so that it will help us to deliver our teaching effectively. Once we have a wide vocabulary list especially the bombastic words with reference to the thesaurus and dictionary, therefore, it will make us more confident in the classroom teaching. In morphology, morpheme can be combined to other morphemes to form a new word. Morpheme refers to the smallest unit grammatical unit in a language. For example, the word cats have two morphemes. Cat is a morpheme and s is also a morpheme. The word cat is a singular form meaning one cat whereas the word cats are a plural form representing many cats. Thus, two different words are formed. Word formation rules in morphology help us to discover new words. Compounding process is one of other examples of word formation rules. Compounding is a word formation process that involves combining two free morphemes to form a new word. For example, a free morpheme word butter is combined with another free morpheme cup will form a new single word buttercup. So, a new word formed will be our new vocabulary. Vocabulary is very important

especially for us as a future English teacher in order to help the students to enrich their vocabulary in their writing and speaking skills through our teaching. Apart from that, as we studied morphology, it can also help English teachers to identify the changes of word classes including nouns, pronouns, adjectives, prepositions, verbs, adverbs and conjunctions which are popularly known as the seven parts of speech. In morphology, some of these word classes are involved in word formation rules. There are two types of word formation processes that are derivation and conversion. Derivation process is referred to the process of word formation with the use of affixes to derive a new word from the old one. For example, reader is derived by adding suffix er to the verb read. When the suffix er is added to the verb read, a new noun reader is formed. Another example is we can form the noun sadness from the adjective sad. The noun sadness is formed by adding suffix ness to the adjective sad. Thus, we can identify clearly the changes of word classes that occur from noun to verb and adjective to noun. Derivation process commonly applies to nouns, verbs and adjectives that allow us to change the category of words. The second word formation process is conversion. Conversion is a process of shifting a word into a different word class without adding an affix. This process can turn a noun to become a verb and vice versa. The spelling and pronunciation of the word do not change as the process occurs. For example, the word party can be used as a noun in the sentence we will be at the party. It can also be used as a verb in the sentence they like to party. The original noun party undergoes conversion process that resulting in the new verb party. Usually, in conversion process, nouns that are converted into verbs will give a meaning as an action. Thus, by using all these knowledge of morphology, we as English teachers should be able to differentiate and identify a word accordingly to its own word classes. Morphology also helps us a lot in understanding the origin of a word or we can also say it as etymology. Etymology is the study of origins of words. For example, etymology can tell us that the noun muscle is actually derived from the Latin word musculus. As we study the etymology in morphology, we can know where the word comes from and help us to look into the history of the word itself. Borrowing is the most common process in order to identify the origin of a word which refers to the

process of taking words from other languages and making them part of English words. In English, there are so many words that are borrowed from other languages such as French, Latin, Greek and Arabic language. English take words from certain languages and formed their own permanent words. Words like candy and coffee are originated from Arabic words and become English words. Other than that, some examples of English words borrowed from French words are ballet, entrepreneur and also fianc. Morphology can help us to improve our knowledge in English as well as other languages when we encounter the word in our teaching. Sometimes we usually have heard about the word in other language, but due to our lack of information and knowledge, we just keep it to ourselves. So by learning morphology, it can help us as a future English teacher to be able to understand and know certain words in both languages, the origin language and the English language. As a future English teacher, morphology can help us to think creatively and make the classroom teaching more enjoyable. Therefore we need to know the blending process where only parts of the words, not the whole words are combined. For example the word breakfast is combined with the word lunch to produce a new word brunch which are popularly used by the students nowadays or even teachers . Another example is students are familiar with Milo and Nescafe. In blending process, these two words can produce a new drink Neslo. This word formation can create excitement in language learning or even in our daily conversations. Another skill the English teachers should have is the clipping process where a longer word is being shortened. This is a very useful skill whenever we are attending seminars or meetings. Clipping is similar to the idea of shorthand. For example the word professional can be presented with pro, the word mathematics can be presented with maths and the word laboratory can be presented with lab. Students can benefit from this clipping process to write their own short notes and mind mapping which is easier to memorise. Many students are not familiar with acronyms. For example the word ITALY can mean I Truly Always Love You. The word FRANCE means Friendship Remains And Never Comes End. These two acronyms are usually written at the end of an informal letter during the time where correspondence is one of the popular

hobbies among the teenagers. So this acronym process is used by the teachers and students nowadays in their teaching and learning process. For example, the teacher can use the acronym of FANBOYS which stands for For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So in helping the students to understand more and memorise better the coordinating conjunction in English grammar. Last but not least, morphology can also help us to construct sentences correctly. As a future English teacher, firstly we have to make sure that we are able to construct sentences with correct grammatical and sentence structures. As we study morphology, we can gain a lot of new vocabulary and improve our grammar to a higher level. Morphology enables us to get to know and learn more about the importance of prefixes and suffixes in creating a new word. Prefixes and suffixes are two major components of a morpheme. They can also be included as a bound morpheme. A bound morpheme is a unit of meaning which can only exist alongside a free morpheme such as child, butter and flower. They cannot stand alone by itself as an independent word but must be attached to another free morpheme. According to Vocabulary.com, prefix can be defined as an affix that is added in front of a word and often changes the meaning of it. The prefixes im, in, by, non, dis are some examples of the prefixes that give a meaning not except for bi which means two. For instance, prefixes such as un must be added to a free morpheme grateful to produce a new word ungrateful which gives a meaning of not be thankful for something whereas the use of prefixes bi as in the word bipolar, bisexual and bivalve gives a meaning of two. According to the Longman English Dictionary Online, suffix can be defined as an affix that is added to the end of a word to form a new word. Suffixes such as ish must be attached to a free morpheme child to produce a meaningful word which is childish. Another example of suffixes are ist as in novelist, pianist, linguist, environmentalist, -er as in teacher, reader, singer, and ly as in friendly, kindly and softly. By learning prefixes and suffixes in morphology, it can help the teacher to understand English grammar better and be taught to the students thoroughly. The knowledge of prefixes and suffixes meanings in morphology can also help the students to make a smart guesses about the meaning of unfamiliar words and able to identify the word classes of the words.

As a conclusion, we cannot deny the importance of morphology in the teaching and learning of English. It is morphology that contributes a better understanding of the English vocabulary and grammar. It is truly believed that with such a skill being mastered by English teachers will make the classroom teaching more interesting and for sure the students will enjoy the learning process.

REFERENCES

Lobeck, K. D. (2013). Linguistics for everyone: An Introduction. United States: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Murray, T. E. (1995). The Structure of English. United States: a Division of Paramount Publishing. Grammar. (n.d.). Retrieved March 24, 2013, from Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English: http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/suffix Ismail, N. b. (2012, November 18). Topic 4 Morphology: The Words of Language. Retrieved March 20, 2013, from Scribd: http://www.scribd.com/doc/113680669/19/TOPIC-4-MORPHOLOGY-THEWORDS-OF-LANGUAGE Puschmann, C. (n.d.). Introduction to English Linguistics Part 1: Morphology. Retrieved March 20, 2013, from Introduction to English Linguistics: http://files.ynada.com/teaching/introling/session_7/Introling_7__Morphology_2.pdf The Dictionary. (n.d.). Retrieved March 20, 2013, from Vocabulary.com: https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/prefix