Level of morphological awareness of selected fourth year students from Gulang-Gulang National High School

The aim of this study is to determine the level of morphological awareness and the vocabulary of the selected fourth year students from Gulang-Gulang National High School. This study is also intended to know the effect of the respondents’ performance on morphological awareness tasks to their status in vocabulary tests. 60 respondents (25 males and 35 females) were given two morphological awareness tasks: a 5-item Inflectional Suffix Task and a 15-item Derivational Suffix Task. A three-step vocabulary test was also undertaken. Results revealed that in Inflectional Suffix Task, the respondents are in the Beginning level (B) with an average of 60.66%. In Derivational Suffix Task, the respondents are also in the Beginning level (B) with an average of 21%. In selecting the correct word basis for 10 words, the respondents are in the Developing level (D) with an average of 77.17%. In selecting the definition of words, the respondents are in the Beginning level with an average of 60.33%. Based on the results, the respondents perform better in the Inflectional Suffix Task than the Derivational Suffix Task than the Derivational Suffix Task on individuals items although in general, the respondents get a B ( Beginning) in both tests. Results of the vocabulary tests prove that it has a direct relationship with the respondents’ performance in the morphological awareness tasks. A relatively low results were obtained in both tests. Additionally, the respondents’ best and least choices in the first two tests of vocabulary are almost the same, only differing in raks. But comparing the first two with third test, a significant amount of difference in the percentage per word is reported. From this, it can be inferred that not in all cases, the respondent’s knowledge of the word determines his/her knowledge of its basis and definition.