The role of morphology and knowledge of word formation on the learning and expansion of potential German vocabulary

 The learning of German language vocabulary can be investigated from two points of view: "meaning and morphological structure". There are different ways to expand the vocabulary, most of the new words are created by word building method. Since the German language is rich in derivational and compound words, One of the suggested strategies for better learning German vocabulary is teaching vocabulary based on the word-formation knowledge. The two main forms of word formation in the German language are "compounds and derivatives" which make up a wide range of German words, Therefore, the importance of learning German vocabulary based on identifying the root of the word and using morphology becomes more visible. The research problem is that  whether there is a relationship between the teachings of morphology and etymology in learning and expanding potential German vocabulary for the learner of this language? This research aims to measure the effect of using morphological and etymological teachings in increasing the learning of potential German vocabulary. The hypotheses  of  this  research  are  that  etymological  and  morphological  teachings  help  the learner  to  analyze  and  understand  the  meaning  of  new  words  and  also  help  the  learner  to effectively store  and expand new German words in memory.  

Background of the Study: 

There are various theories in vocabulary acquisition according to experts such as Rainer Bohn, Bernd-Dietrich Müller  and others, which  Wolfgang Hallet and Frank G. Königs collected in their vocabulary acquisition chapter, including learning words in the text, classifying words in different situations,  and synonymous and opposite categories, etc, but what this research deals with is the potential vocabulary and the  importance of teaching the rules of word formation in vocabulary lessons. According to Rainer Bohn, it is one of the vocabulary acquisition strategies.  because if the learner is familiar with the rules of word formation, It will also have the ability to infer the meaning of many unknown words. And this  means  that  when  faced  with  many  new  words,  he  tries  to  guess  the  meaning  of those words and less needs to refer to the dictionary.                                                     

Methodologie:  

For this purpose, an experimental method was used, And it is analytical-field type, during which two identical groups of German translation students were tested.To compare the two groups, their class scores were calculated using the Mann-Whitney test. The result of the Mann-Whitney test showed that there is no significant difference between the scores of the two groups at the five percent level, which means that the two groups were equal and at the same level before the test. Then the vocabulary test was held for two groups. Data analysis in this method  is for applying the right statistical or logical technique so that the raw data makes sense.                                              

Vocabulary test results of both groups showed that the vocabulary of the students who learned vocabulary By identifying the root of the word, morphology and word formation rules was wider than the control group.Thus the test results based on statistical analysis and the T-test were checked. In the T-test, the comparison of the average scores of the two groups is significant at the significant level of one percent, and this itself shows a significant difference between the results of the two groups. The result of the statistical analysis on the experiments as well as the hypotheses of the research evaluates the answers to the research questions positively. Therefore, the results of the research show the positive effect of vocabulary analysis in learning and expanding potential German vocabulary.