Investigating the Role of Affixation in Learning and Understanding English Lexis

The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of the learners knowledge of lexeme formation processes in EFL lexis learning and understanding. The focus is mainly on the role of affixation in enhancing EFL learners lexical learning and understanding. The study adopted a descriptive and analytical approach in the analysis of the qualitative data collected. The study samples were randomly selected from a pool of around 300 students, majoring in English language at the English department of the Faculty of Education, University of Dalanj. The subjects were 20 students from both genders. For the collection of the primary data, two tests (pretest and posttest) were used. The data then were processed and the percentages of the students performances in the tests were calculated and compared. The attained results have shown that learning and getting acquainted with affixation process helps EFL learners learn better. The results also indicated that the use of the suggested leaning strategies was effective and efficient as it helped the learners to understand the affixation process and the English lexemes produced by the process. The study recommends exposing learners to affixation process as an effective learning strategy for learning English lexis instead of hammering on the use dictionaries, no matter how important they are.