lexical decomposition awareness and its effect on delayed receptive and productive recognition and recall of vocabulary knowledge of morphologically complex english words: an iranian efl context

abstract lexical knowledge of complex english words is an important part of language skills and crucial for fluent language use (nation, 2001). the present study, thus, was an attempt to assess the role of morphological decomposition awareness as a vocabulary learning strategy on learners’ productive and receptive recall and recognition of complex english words. so 90 sophomores (female and male, and within the age range of 18 to 22) majoring in english translation at the english department of kerman university were randomly assigned to three groups: form-focused group, which learned the words via being exposed to morphologically decomposed items; meaning-focused group, to which the glosses were presented via definitions as well as examples in sentence level, and a control group, namely rote memory, the members of which were asked to only memorize the glosses. two pre-tests, i.e. toefl pbt and vocabulary level test (vlt) were administered to the three groups one week before the commencement of the main study to make sure the three groups were homogenous. in order to investigate the difference between methods of teaching (form-focused vs. meaning-focused), the types of skills (receptive vs. productive) and information processing (recall vs. recognition)one-way anova and repeated measures anova were conducted. the results of toefl and vlt pretests showed comparable results among the three groups. however, after the treatment which consisted of 10 sessions of instruction of complex words by different methods and two post-tests, one-week and a one-month delayed, the experimental groups achieved higher scores in all four aspects of lexical knowledge than the control group. as predicted, regarding information processing recognition was found to be easier than recall and reception easier than production. yet no significant difference was discovered between the two methods of teaching.