Word formation literacy assessment of advanced Persian learners of Alzahra University: A case study of derivational affixes

Document Type : Research

Authors

1 Professor and the Head of the Applied Research Group in Teaching Persian to Speakers of Other Languages, Department of Linguistics, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran

2 PhD candidate in Teaching Persian to non-Persian speakers, Department of Linguistics, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Knowledge of word and its building is of a great importance for language production either from a derivational or an inflectional point of view. The ability to use an appropriate form of a word in a specific grammatical context is essential for developing the language efficiently. Otherwise, language learners may only use the forms of the words which are already known to them or replace them with other grammatically appropriate words. Knowing a word is knowing affixes along with the stem which can be also used in other words. Despite the importance of inflectional affixes, different studies indicate great importance for derivational knowledge of words in language processing. So, this research concentrates on Persian derivative words and studies Persian learners' word formation literacy; including both suffixes and prefixes. Considering this, the main question of this study is to what extent the derivational morphemes are represented in the learners' written documents, using the "general Persian Parsa3 course book".

Keywords

References

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