Investigating Problems Encountered by Sudanese EFL learners in Using Affixes at Tertiary level from Teachers’ Perspectives

Abstract

This study is designed to investigate the problems encountered by Sudanese EFL learners in using affixes. It focuses on the area of affixes ( Prefixes and Suffixes ) and their importance in expanding students’ vocabulary. The sample of the study includes fifty students of second year and fifty students of first year. The study aims at figuring out some problematic areas affecting students when they use affixes as well as finding out how to overcome these difficulties. The researcher has adopted the descriptive analytical approach to accomplish this research. The results of the study reveal that the morphological problems of the students which include spelling and, the difference between simple words and complex words are due to lack of proper practice and students’ ignorance of derivational and inflectional morphemes. The students have weak background about the situation in which some derivational and inflectional morphemes are used. It is also revealed that the method of teaching derivational and inflectional morphemes needs competent teachers who know more about the use of affixes and the differences of inflectional and derivational morphemes. The study recommends that the techniques of teaching English affixes need to be stressed by the teachers at tertiary level. At the same time students should be taught explicitly that derivational morphemes change the meaning or part of speech while inflectional morphemes change the tense or the aspect. In addition, the researcher suggests that the students should be given more practices so as to master usage of affixation.