An analysis of students' english morphological knowledge and word pronunciation acuracy

Morphology is related to the pronunciation as word formations change those phonological forms and how those words are pronounced. This qualitative research aims to describe the students’ morphological knowledge and word pronunciation accuracy using two kinds of tests, written and spoken test focusing on suffixes in word formation, as well as their experiences and opinions towards these areas through focus group interviews. The subject of the study was 68 active students of the 4th semester English Language Education Department UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya who have taken the Linguistics course. The analysis reveals that students were familiar with basic morphological rules, especially in noun form derivation. However they struggled with complex forms like adverbial suffixes and verb roots, needing targeted instruction. Additionally, the data suggests that the students were familiar with suffixes but had difficulties to put the proper suffixes in particular word classes as well as difficulties to pronounce the homophonic words. However, the experience of changing the word formation improves their pronunciation skill as they anticipate stress and intonation changes caused by suffixes. Familiarity with suffixes also enables students to predict pronunciation rules, ensuring consistent and confident pronunciation. They were suggesting that the areas of morphology learning should be improved as it could improve the students’ English proficiency. Hence focusing on enhancing morphological knowledge, particularly on challenging areas such as adverbial and verb-form suffixes, can significantly contribute to students’ word pronunciation accuracy.