Influence of Morphological Awareness on the Reading Comprehension of Students at the Tertiary Education Level in Ebonyi State

Abstract

This paper examined the influence of morphological awareness on the reading comprehension of students at the tertiary education level in Ebonyi State. The study utilized the descriptive survey research design. Three objectives and three research questions were posed to guide the study. The target population comprised 22000 undergraduates from the south east part of Nigeria. A sample size of 220 respondents was selected using the simple random sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was the instrument for data collection. Data were analyzed using the statistical tools of mean and standard deviation. Findings showed that morphological awareness had a positive impact on student' reading comprehension. Result of the study also revealed that students’ knowledge of inflectional morphemes improved their reading comprehension. Result also showed that awareness of the differences between inflectional and derivational morphemes enhanced students' reading comprehension. Based on these findings, one of the recommendations was that curriculum planners should make Morphology a compulsory course to be taught at all levels of education in the university to enhance morphological awareness among undergraduate students and improve their ability to spell words, read words and understand sentences.