The Effect of Nouns and Verbs of the Same Word on Lexical and Structural Development in the Writings of Iraqi EFL Secondary School Students

Introduction

In any language, there is a close connection between grammatical categories and lexical knowledge stored in a learner’s brain. Based on this relationship, the organization of lexical knowledge depends fully on grammatical category information. Thus, language enables the “infinite use of finite means” (Von Humboldt, 1999) by relating certain known words in a sequence of sentences. Words are not restricted to particular linguistic contexts in which they have been previously employed, nor can they be used freely in any context. Throughout this process, the syntactic contexts in which words may occur are governed by their grammatical categories: noun, verb, adjective, or adverb.

Perceiving and using the different grammatical categories (parts of speech) seems to be more difficult for EFL learners than for native speaker students or even ESL learners. This difficulty in students’ perception and use of grammatical categories becomes clearer when related to nouns and verbs of the same word, since students have not previously been exposed to these types of words or trained to use them in their writing. EFL students are primarily taught how to recognize a noun or a verb by identifying its position in a sentence. For example, a noun usually occupies the beginning or the end of a sentence. A verb, on the other hand, comes in the second position in a sentence. In English, nouns tend to be acquired earlier than verbs and accessed more easily (Goldfield, 2000, De Bleser & Kauschke, 2003).

Significance of Using Nouns and Verbs of the Same Word in Writing

The utilization of a grammatical category in language refers to the way a word behaves syntactically. For example, nouns can be subjects of verbs, objects of verbs, objects of prepositions, indirect objects, and so forth. Conwell and Morgan (2011) state that knowledge of category membership allows speakers to employ words productively in various contexts that differ from those in which particular words have been heard.

A main task for language learners is to decide which words in the language belong to which categories. Therefore, the present paper aims to provide an insight into how Iraqi EFL secondary school students perceive and use nouns and verbs of the same word in their writing. This poses a challenge to EFL learners in general and Iraqi students specifically.

A number of past studies have attempted to deal with this problem from different perspectives and provide solutions to it. According to Hohle, Weissenborn, Keifer, Schulz & Schmitz, 2004; Monaghan, Chater, & Christiansen, 2005, this problem can be solved when learners use local co-occurrence cues to learn the categories of words. Other researchers have suggested that grammatical categories are better explained through a connection to distributional cues in corpora of child-directed speech (Redington, Charter, & Finch, 1998; Mintz, Newport, & Bever, 2002; Mintz, 2003; Mintz). However, these cues could only provide an accurate output of grammatical categories. The connection between lexical items and their grammatical categories is still not considered in the above solutions (Cartwright & Brent, 1997).

Effect of the Perception of Nouns and Verbs of the Same Word on Lexical and Structural Development

Although nouns and verbs are two grammatical categories that are both syntactically and semantically important in language, the process of storing them in the learner’s mind does not occur at the same time. In this regard, Kauschke and Stennken (2008) provide new experimental evidence from online processing supporting earlier findings from numerous studies revealing that nouns are processed faster than verbs.

The noun–verb distinction can also be psychologically real and relevant at the lexical level, based on a priming study by Melinger and Koening (2007). In their study, they investigated whether grammatical information influences the lexical selection of single words or whether such information is determined while inserting single words into larger syntactic units. In this regard, phonological, semantic and syntactic information about words is not stored as a single whole within the mental lexicon. Instead, it is represented in different aspects. Each type of information can be accessed independently. The influence of phonological and semantic information on the lexical selection of single words is evident (Shelton and Martin, 1992; Kroll and Stewart, 1994; McRae and Boisvert, 1998). The process is explained by referring to the idea that words are organized in the mental lexicon in the form of a network including phonologically and semantically related nodes. The relationship between the mental lexicon and syntactic features was also clarified further by numerous studies which suggested that syntactic information, in fact, exerts an influence on lexical selection when an accessed word is integrated into an unfolding syntactic representation (Ferreira and Humphreys, 2001; Vigliocco et al., 2004). This indicates that speech errors are subject to grammatical category constraints. For instance, in word substitutions, the interacting words are derived from the same syntactic category: nouns exchange with nouns, verbs exchange with verbs. However, this influence of grammatical category on lexical selection is only seen when a given lexical candidate is to saturate some slot in the unfolding syntactic derivation. From a different perspective, Melinger and Koenig (2007) argue that grammatical category information is available whenever needed irrespective of whether a single word, a phrase or a whole sentence is produced. This provides evidence that the effect of syntactic information should be observed even if there are combinatory processes involved. Accordingly, the perception of nouns and verbs of the same word in the minds of learners as syntactic information will add to lexical selection and contribute to both lexical and syntactic development in speech and writing.

Purpose of the Study

Since nouns and verbs of the same word can affect EFL learners’ written texts, this study aims to achieve the following objective:

To examine the extent to which Iraqi EFL secondary school students can perceive and use nouns and verbs of the same word in their writing.

Methodology

Participants

The participants in this study were 15 secondary school students (8 female and 7 male). The sample of the study, according to Creswell (2005) and Maxwell (1998), was purposive. Maxwell asserts that in a purposive sample, “particular setting, persons, or events are deliberately selected for important information they can provide that cannot be gotten as well from other choices” (87). Secondary school students were expected to be suitable for the study to attain its objective, since they deal with different types of grammatical categories (parts of speech) in their syllabus. Moreover, students at this level of their study encounter serious problems in distinguishing between the various kinds of parts of speech, particularly in the case of nouns and verbs of the same words. All participants shared the same linguistic, cultural, and educational background. For instance, they were all Iraqi EFL secondary school students with Arabic as their L1.

Instrument and Procedure

A writing test was used in this study. The test included two parts (questions) and aimed to examine the students’ ability to perceive and use different types of nouns and verbs having the same word in different sentence positions. The first part consisted of 10 items, which aimed to elicit information about the students’ ability to use different kinds of nouns and verbs with a cross-category usage of the same word. In this part, the students were asked to form a verb from an underlined noun and vice versa. Each item included two sentences; each one had one grammatical category (a noun or a verb). The underlined words in the ten sentences occupied various sentence positions (e.g., a subject, a verb, or an object). The second part was intended to test the students’ perception of nouns and verbs having the same word employed in writing. It also consisted of ten items; each item included only one sentence. The students were asked to identify whether a given bold word was a noun or a verb. The bold words in the ten sentences also occupied different sentence positions.

Before conducting the main study, the researcher carried out a pilot study of both parts of the writing test with 5 students. In both parts (questions), the students raised some questions about how to change the underlined word into a noun or a verb. In response to the questions raised by the students, they were told to follow the instructions supplied to them by their teachers and as specified in the syllabus. The subjects assured the researcher that the two parts of the test given to them were not difficult to understand. Responses to the test depended on the prior knowledge that the students had acquired through their school studies.

A week later, the test was administered to the 15 subjects, who were given one hour to answer the two parts of the test. In fact, they were informed that this test was of great benefit to them since it would help them improve their writing skills. They were also told to write their answers on the question sheets and pay more attention to making their answers clear.

To make the test easier for students to complete, a number of issues were considered in the process of choosing the sentences for the writing test. The researcher aimed to select sentences from their textbook that might be familiar to them. In addition, one of the important considerations in the process of selecting the words and sentences was the extent to which they could induce the participants to use different words with cross-category usage.

Model of Analysis

English has many words that can be employed in more than one grammatical category. As stated earlier, these words pose real problems for EFL learners, and particularly for Iraqi EFL secondary school students. Below are samples of words that are both nouns and verbs, arranged alphabetically. These words could act as a base on which the students’ writing is analyzed with reference to the use of nouns and verbs having cross-category usage.

[access, act, aim, answer, attack, ache, address, alert, arrest, auction] [back, bare, benefit, board, break, bail, balance, blame] [cake, chant, cloud, cook, call, change, clue, care, color, copy, chip, comfort, cover, claim, crack, cut, change] [dam, delay, dislike, doubt, drink, damage, delight, die, drill, dye]

[echo, escape, estimate, excuse, experience, email, eye] [face, fight, fix, flow, form, fall, file, flap, flower, flash, fly, fish, floss, force] [garden, glue, grill, guess, gaze, grate, guide, gel, guard]

[hammer, harness, heat, hit, hug, hand, hate, hold, head, hop, hope, hurry, hike, hose] [ice, inch, influence, itch, impact, insult, iron] [jail, jam, joke, judge, jump] [keep, kiss, knock, kick, knit, knot] [label, license, limit, lock, land, lead, lock, last, light]

[mail, march, matter, moor, mark, move, man, match, mug, mate, milk, mistake] [nail, need, notch, notice, name, nest, note, number] [object, offer, oil, order]

[pack, pat, pick, plug, process, paddle, pay, produce, plant, post, part, permit, pump, pass, phone, play, punch, present] [question, quilt, quiz] [race, rate, rent, rain, repair, ring, reason, reply, riot, ruin, record, report, rock, run]

[sail, shop, smell, smile, struggle, study, season, skate, storm, swap, share, slide, stress, shelter, slip, shock] [tack, thunder, tire, trade, taste, tick, tug, telephone, tip, treat, type, test, trick]

[upstage, use] [vacuum, value, visit, voice, vote] [walk, water, worry, waltz, wave, wish, wrap, wear, wick, work, watch, wink] [yawn, yield] [zone]

The above-mentioned words are different in use. In some cases, as in (1), the word is considered an inherent member of one category and the other use is derived (Clark & Clark, 1979). In other cases, the two words used are merely synchronic homophones, as in (2).

(1) We will walk to the store.

We take a walk tonight.

(2) We will fly to London tomorrow.

We swatted the fly.

This kind of category ambiguity has been taken as evidence against the logical possibility of learning grammatical categories from distinction (Pinker, 1987). The difficulty encountered with these words is attributed to the fact that their ambiguous status may cause native learners in general and ESL/EFL learners in particular to conflate co-occurrence information across categories.

Data Analysis

The data collected in this study were analyzed quantitatively. The results are explained in detail below.

Table 3. 1 Participants’ Use of Nouns and Verbs of the Same Word

No. Of

Correct

Incorrect

%

%

Item

Responses

Responses

1 8 53. 3 7 46. 7

2 3 20 12 80

3 4 26. 7 11 73. 3

4 7 46. 7 8 53. 3

5 10 66. 7 5 33. 3

6 5 33. 3 10 66. 7

7 6 40 9 60

8 4 26. 7 11 73. 3

9 4 26. 7 11 73. 3

10 9 60 6 40

Total 60 40 90 60

Table 3. 1 shows that Iraqi EFL secondary school students encounter serious problems in using nouns and verbs of the same word in their writing, as the total number of their correct responses to the first part of the test (40 %) is lower than that of their incorrect ones (60 %). Consequently, the hypothesis that most of the Iraqi secondary school students do not use words that are both nouns and verbs in their writing is verified.

Table 3. 2 Participants’ Perception of Nouns and Verbs of the Same Word

No. Of

Correct

Incorrect

%

%

Item

Responses

Responses

1 6 40 9 60

2 11 73. 3 4 26. 7

3 5 33. 3 10 66. 7

4 9 60 6 40

5 3 20 12 80

6 5 33. 3 10 66. 7

7 4 26. 7 11 73. 3

8 10 66. 7 5 33. 3

9 8 53. 3 7 46. 7

No. Of

Correct

Incorrect

%

%

Item

Responses

Responses

10 12 80 3 20

Total 73 48. 7 77 51. 3

From the table above, it can be concluded that most of the participants’ responses to the second part of the test are incorrect. This means that the students’ writing has failed to employ words that are both nouns and verbs. It is clear that they have difficulty understanding and identifying those words with cross-category usage, since their syllabus and teachers have not presented them in detail previously. This is quite apparent since the incorrect responses (51. 3 %) are higher than the correct ones (48. 7 %).

The findings of the study also show that the words that the students manage to use more are the nouns face, address, and fly, with (66. 7 %, 53. 3 % and 46. 7 %) respectively. It can be concluded that these nouns are used frequently in their syllabus. Therefore, they use them more than others. On the other hand, the students use the verbs hope and mark more than other verbs, with (60 % and 40 %). In reference to the participants’ perception of the given words in the second part of the test, the words presented, influence, and report are the highest in the students’ perception, with (80 %, 73. 3 % and 66. 7 %) respectively.

Discussion of the Results

The quantitative analysis has revealed that the correct responses in the two parts of the written test are lower than the incorrect ones. The students fail to perceive and employ most of the words (nouns and verbs) given to them in the test. Words like care, smell, insult, water and break seem very strange and unfamiliar to them. Only three or four students could perceive and use these words. This may mean that such words have not been supplied to them and have not been explained by their teachers. On the other hand, the students have difficulty using the different words provided to them in the test. They fail to form nouns from the verbs mentioned in the first five sentences, and they also fail to form verbs from the nouns given in the other five sentences in the first part of the test. Only words like hope, address, and face are familiar to most of the students. This is attributed to the fact that these words have been focused on by their teachers and in the syllabus as well.

Final Remarks

1. The analysis of the data has shown how problematic inconsistent knowledge is. In many cases, the students have failed to identify the words given to them in the test as being nouns and verbs of the same word that are frequently used in English writing.

2. Iraqi EFL secondary school students are not sufficiently able to use words of cross-category usage. They manage to use only those words which are familiar to

them in their syllabus. As a result, it seems that their writing lacks lexical and structural development.

3. It is observed by the researcher that pedagogically clear instructional design for words of cross-category usage can help secondary school EFL learners perceive and use these words. This is because these students seem to have limited experience with words that are both nouns and verbs and therefore tend to rely on a small number of these words. Thus, the students’ weakness in their perception and use of words that are both nouns and verbs could be addressed seriously by both the syllabus and teachers by means of supplying the students with different words of cross-category usage illustrated by a sufficient number of examples. These words are better taught in the early stages of secondary school.

References

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