Copyright © The Author(s) Proceedings International Education Webinar of IAIN Palopo (PROCEEDINGS IEWIP) I - 2021 Morphophonemic Awareness and Word Recognition Skill of Second Year BS-Criminology Students Genesis G. Genelza University of Mindanao Tagum College, Philippines genesis.genelza@umindanao.edu.ph Abstract This study utilized a quantitative, non-experimental design to have a deeper understanding of the respondents' morphophonemic awareness and word recognition skills. Moreover, it aimed to recognize the significant relationship between the two variables and their significant difference when analyzed according to the moderator variable. To verify, tests were being employed to gather the necessary data. These were: Morphophonetic transcription test, spelling test, and listening test. After the data had been collected, it was interpreted that the students have high morphophonemic awareness. Also, their word recognition skill resulted in a high level. As being correlated, it is being found that there is a great significant relationship between the two variables. When it comes to determining if there is a significant difference in the two variables, the result prompted the acceptance of the null hypothesis. With these results being gathered and analyzed, the researcher encourages the school to provide training and activities in improving the students' morphophonemic awareness by primarily encouraging students and teachers to use the English language in other subject areas as an effective strategy for retention and recognition of the words. Keywords: morphophonemic awareness, word recognition skill Introduction Unlike spoken language, which typically develops without formal instruction, written language requires extensive instruction to achieve proficient literacy. Written language must be explicitly taught as it involves deciphering a complex linguistic code that maps spoken language structures onto their orthographic representations. Therefore, proficient literacy requires general linguistic awareness of how spoken language is represented in written form and specific awareness of words' phonological and morphological and even in semantic, syntactic, prosodic, and orthographic structures if there are no proper guidance feedbacks to the teachers. In other words, the at-risk second language learners also have weak morphophonemic skills (Edweek, 2013). Morphophonemic teaching for adults with poor literacy skills is also theoretically grounded in connectionist theories of word learning like the Lexical Quality Hypothesis, which posits that poor reading results from poor word knowledge (Perfetti & Hart, 2001, 2002). Unskilled readers do not make complete connections between words' phonological, morphological, and orthographic structures, resulting in underdeveloped mental representations of words, which compromise efficient reading and spelling. In turn, poor word reading and spelling obstructs access to higher-level skills, including reading vocabulary and reading comprehension. Conversely, explicit teaching of the connections between complex words' sound, meaning, and spelling structures increases readers' word knowledge, facilitating literacy. Thus, teaching academic vocabulary, complex words taken from content area curricula is one bridge to increasing word knowledge and literacy. https://proceeding.ftik-iainpalopo.ac.id 56 Proceedings International Education Webinar of IAIN Palopo (PROCEEDINGS IEWIP) I - 2021 In the United States of America, a randomized control trial compared the effects of two kinds of vocabulary instruction on component reading skills of adult struggling readers. Participants seeking alternative high school diplomas received eighth scripted tutoring to learn forty academic vocabulary words embedded within a civics curriculum. They were matched for language background and reading levels, then randomly assigned to either morpho-phonemic analysis teaching word origins, morpheme, and syllable structures, or traditional whole word study teaching multiple sentence contexts, meaningful connections, and spellings. Both groups made comparable gains in learning the target words, but the morpho-phonemic group showed greater gains in reading unfamiliar words on standardized word reading tests, including word attack and word recognition. Findings support word learning and literacy theories that promote explicit instruction in word analysis to increase poor readers' linguistic awareness by revealing connections between morphological, phonological, and orthographic structures within words (Fracasso, Bangs & Binder, 2014). Additionally, in the Philippines, the common perception that English has been deteriorating can be seen as a case of indigenization, resulting in a language variety that qualifies as a dialect even if the process that gave rise to it differs from the traditional account of dialectalization. It has particular linguistic features that arose out of a gradual drift in language learning away from the native language speaker such that generations of Filipino learners of English have picked up the forms and rules of English from Filipino secondlanguage learners trained by other Filipino second language learners. Due to it, many versions of pronunciation may confuse the Filipino speaker when this different sound introduces to them, and that they find it difficult to decode the word and thereby recognize the word incorrectly. Thus, emerging different pronunciations will lead the learner to poor decoding ability (Malicsi, 2015). Besides, Ballesteros (2002) exemplified some critical sounds in English, which some adult Filipinos trip on. These are /f/, /v/, and /th/ sounds. Filipinos are confused about how to sound out those critical sounds. Thus, Filipinos have difficulty in recognizing the said critical sounds of English. Furthermore, in the study conducted in the University of Southeastern Philippines Tagum Campus entitled Critical Sounds in English and Decoding Skills of the Second year BSED-English students, it was quantified that there were still sounds considered least recognized. It implied that the respondents of the said study have a low level of detecting critical sounds, which eventually hampered them in identifying other critical sounds. Significantly, there is a clear existing weakness in identifying critical sounds (Durango, Egina, & Falcon, 2013). In addition, another study conducted by Babiano, Genelza, et al. (2015) on "Phonological awareness and Word Decoding ability among second-year BSED English students" in the University of Southeastern Philippines stated that the students have a moderate Phonological awareness while their Word Decoding ability resulted to a high level. Thus, as being correlated, it is being found that there is a great significant relationship between the two variables. With these marks, the researchers encourage the schools to enhance the students' sound-word relationship knowledge by primarily utilizing speech laboratory and establishing a speech club in the school to extend their exposure to these concepts. Moreover, based on the researcher's observation in a class, some students find it difficult to articulate their thoughts in words. In some activities (in writing and speaking) and in an essay test on the examination that requires them to explain their thoughts, some students do not have awareness in morphophonemic and still commit the same mistakes in pronunciation, spelling, grammar, tenses, word order, and mechanics even if the teacher continually give feedbacks and regularly consulting them by giving comments to their mistakes verbally or in their written outputs itself. Hence, the problems in morphophonemic and recognizing words are still noticeable. Additionally, the researcher has not come across any study that looked into the students' awareness of morphophonemic and word recognition skills. Thus, the researcher ISSN 2808-8646 57 Proceedings International Education Webinar of IAIN Palopo (PROCEEDINGS IEWIP) I - 2021 is interested in how these students deal with repeated mistakes as their new and additional learning.. Method The study used a quantitative, non-experimental design. Further, a descriptivecorrelational method is utilized in describing the level of Morphophonemic Awareness in terms of Morphophonetic Structure and Spelling and the level of Word Recognition Skills in terms of Critical Sounds. Moreover, this method also determines the significant difference in the level of morphophonemic awareness and word recognition skill when analyzed according to the moderator variable. Also, this method determines the significant relationship between Morphophonemic Awareness and Word Recognition Skills of Second-year students at the University of Mindanao Tagum College. This research work involves gathering data to test hypotheses or answer questions about the current issue of the research problem. The respondents of this study involved 160 Second Year students of BS-Criminology in the University of Mindanao Tagum College in Arellano Street, Tagum City. This study used total enumeration technique that involves students who are enrolled in English 202 with the description of Communicative English (40 students from code 0472 – 10:00-11:00; 40 students from code 0813 – 2:30-3:30; 40 students from code 2831 – 3:30-4:30 and 40 students from code 1058 – 6:30-7:30). Table 1 Distribution of respondents according to age and gender Profile Age Gender 16-20 years old 21-25 years old 26-30 years old Male Female Total Frequency 134 22 4 103 57 160 Percentage 83.75% 13.75% 2.50% 64.38% 35.62% 100% Furthermore, this study utilized adapted tests. These tests are the Morphophonetic Transcription test, spelling test, and Listening test. The purpose of these instruments is to test the indicators of each variable. The Morphophonemic Awareness utilized Morphophonetic Transcription Test for the indicator, Morphophonetic Structure and Spelling Test for the indicator, Spelling. On the other side, the Word Recognition Skills utilized Listening Test for the indicator, Critical Sounds. All items of all tests were based on the observed seven critical sounds from the research study of Hon and Nerrière (2009), which are /ʌ/, /æ/, /ɪə/, /θ/, /oʊ/, / aʊ /, and /eɪ/ and another two critical sounds which are /f/, /b/ and /v/ according to Ballesteros (2008) as cited by Durango, Egina, and Falcon (2013), Babiano, Genelza, et al. (2015) and Siok Hua Lee (1997). Each test for each indicator is composed of 30 items. For example, the Morphophonetic Transcription test involves 30-item words identifying the correct transcription of it. Also, 30 items for the Spelling test intend to make out the ability of the students to translate the given transcribed words into their Standard English spelling. While Listening test involves audio materials of 30-item words with critical sounds to be identified. For Listening Test, the researcher used Standard English Dictionary Software to ensure that the pronunciation is fair, valid, and reliable. 58 ISSN 2808-8646 Proceedings International Education Webinar of IAIN Palopo (PROCEEDINGS IEWIP) I - 2021 Results Subheadings – Level 2 Morphophonemic Awareness of Second Year BS – Criminology Students Morphophonemic Structure. The level of morphophonemic awareness in terms of Morphophonetic Structure is stated in Table 2.1. Specifically, this shows high level of awareness of the Second Year BS – Criminology students on Morphophonetic structure which are /eɪ/, /æ/, /aʊ/, /θ/, /v/, /b/ and /f/ through Morphophonetic transcription test. Results show that the most correctly determined sound is /θ/ with a mean of 4.15 followed by the /f/, /aʊ/, /b/, /æ/, /v/ and /eɪ/ sounds, which also belong to the high level of awareness on these sounds. Lastly, /ʌ/ sound is considered the least determined with the mean of 2.83, which entails a moderate level of awareness of this sound. Thus, it means that respondents find the said sound least to be recognized. Table 2.1. Level of Morphophonemic Awareness in terms of Morphophonetic Structure as responded by Second Year Criminology Students Morphophonemic Structure N SD Mean Description /ʌ/ 160 1.67 2.83 Moderate /ɪə/ 160 1.86 3.47 /oʊ/ 160 1.84 3.41 Moderate Moderate /eɪ/ 160 1.92 3.73 High /æ/ 160 1.96 3.91 High /aʊ/ 160 1.98 3.94 High /θ/ 160 2.03 4.15 High /v/ 160 1.95 3.84 High /b/ 160 1.98 3.93 High /f/ 160 2.02 4.10 High Overall 160 2.00 3.72 High Legend Range of Means 4.5-5.00 3.5-4.49 2.5-3.49 1.5-2.49 1-1.49 Descriptive Equivalent Very High High Moderate Low Very Low Also, sounds /ɪə/ and /oʊ/ have a moderate level of awareness. Regardless of this, still, the total calculated mean presented is 3.72, described as high. The findings may be explicated from the knowledge of students in Morphophonetic Transcription. However, it can be primarily credited to the way the students learn and are taught from English 202, Communicative English class since this is part of the topics in this subject. Thus, the curriculum has aligned its subject contents to its description and essentially ISSN 2808-8646 59 Proceedings International Education Webinar of IAIN Palopo (PROCEEDINGS IEWIP) I - 2021 to its goal. Furthermore, implicitly, the teacher succeeded in imparting the expected content of this subject. In addition, it is interpreted that the Morphophonetic awareness in terms of Morphophonetic structure of second-year Criminology students is manifested in the majority of the cases. Therefore, it would mean that the respondents have a high awareness of morphophonemic structure in English. Also, the respondents seem to be familiar and exposed to it in their previous English subjects. Thus, students have high awareness and can identify most sounds when they are formed and amalgamated into words. This finding may be credited to the students' exposure to the amalgamation of words and sounds as these are used and analytically determined at some point of academic or typical spoken discourse. Particularly on their English subjects (English 101, 102, 201, and 202), the respondents seemed to learn about these morphophonemic structures and tried their best to recall that knowledge to help daily communication, especially inside the classroom. Knowing what is being stated is crucial, especially for most Filipinos who are non-native of the language. Townsend and Nagy (2012) support the study by emphasizing that effective teaching of academic vocabulary requires learners' full engagement with words within content area instruction. As the portal to communication on disciplinary content, academic vocabulary is "abstract, technical, and nuanced" in ways that tailor it to its disciplinary setting. Therefore, to effectively teach complex words, they must be taught within the disciplines in which they reside, not simply in isolated vocabulary exercises. In other words, the most effective teaching strategies for academic vocabulary include the study of those particular words themselves and the study of the disciplinary content from which those words are taken. On the other hand, the least among the group is the /ʌ/, /ɪə/ and /oʊ/ sounds with a moderate level of morphophonemic awareness in terms of morphophonetic structure. Among these least determined critical sounds, /ɪə/ is the highest because it is perceived to be somehow recognized by the respondents in pronunciation and the word's structure while /ʌ/ is the lowest because it is difficult for them to identify what they hear or see with the transcription from the English word over their dialect. It implies that the 2nd year students are profoundly affected by the mother tongue of the native Filipinos that they mostly mistakenly interchange some similar sounds in words. Also, there will be no substitution of that sound similar in their native language. Furthermore, this zone of difficulty is much possible because of the students' dialects, which mismatch from the new sounds in English. It could also be attributed to the mother tongue of the native Filipinos that mostly mistakenly interchange some similar sounds in words. Okada (2013) supports the findings that morphophonemic structure analysis may have been more effective than whole word study in improving word reading skills because it addressed a wider range of component literacy skills. In addition to addressing vocabulary, it concurrently provided instruction in word analysis to address the decoding deficits seen in those with severe reading disabilities. Furthermore, the morpho-phonemic analysis appears to have been a more efficient use of teaching time due to greater word learning transfer. Effectiveness and efficiency of instruction are crucial factors when teaching adults with immense gaps in sounds, vocabulary, and literacy. They require high-impact instruction to become proficient readers, pursue post-secondary education, find meaningful employment, and participate fully in civic life. Additionally, in support of the findings, Berko-Gleason and Bernstein Ratner (2012) found that sometimes students meet difficulty in decoding the sounds they hear based on how it is pronounced and how it is structured. Hence, many researchers have put forth their versions of a Standard English Pronunciation. They usually demand that students from many mother tongues learn many unusual sounds, such as differences between English pronunciation and American pronunciation and other dialects that make it much more difficult. It explains why 60 ISSN 2808-8646 Proceedings International Education Webinar of IAIN Palopo (PROCEEDINGS IEWIP) I - 2021 the task is even more difficult when students match those many new sounds and words to English spelling. Sabatini, Sawaki, Shore, and Scarborough (2010) support this test by saying that morphophonemic transcription is somewhat troublesome, time-consuming, and certainly complicated. It is because some letters, when produced in sounds, become different and as part only of the subject English, the whole course is not intended for that particular sound only. Some rules have to be strictly observed in order to overcome these problems. Hence, the first thing any aspiring transcriber has to understand is that the human ear is not a microphone which may contribute to misinterpretation. People should not automatically judge and interpret incoming acoustic signals based on their experience with those signals but should also always receive them. Spelling. The level of morphophonemic awareness in spelling through spelling tests among Second Year BS-Criminology students is specified in Table 2.2. The table displays the level of awareness of the second-year BS-Criminology students in terms of spelling. The results of the conducted Spelling Test showed that the respondents' most correctly spelled sound is /aʊ/ with the mean of 4.73 and followed by /æ/ with the mean of 4.51, which indicates a very high level of awareness in spelling. Next is the/f/ sound, with a mean of 4.28. Then, the sound /eɪ/ with the mean of 4.25. After that, are the sounds /θ/ with the mean of 3.93, /b/ with the mean of 3.90, /oʊ/ with the mean of 3.83, /ɪə/ with the mean of 3.76, and /v/ with the mean of 3.69. On the other hand, /ʌ/ is considered the most misspelled sound of respondents with a mean of 3.54. In general, it signifies that the respondents have a high level of awareness in spelling. Moreover, it can be interpreted that this awareness is manifested in the majority of the cases. This result infers that Second Year BS-Criminology students are considered to have a high level of morphophonemic awareness in spelling with a total calculated mean of 4.04. The critical sounds with the high level of phonological awareness in terms of spelling are the /aʊ/, /æ/, /f/, /eɪ/, /θ/, /b/ and /oʊ/ which the students found the easiest to remember. Among these critical sounds, the highest in the /aʊ/ sound is possibly the most clearly recognized sound to spell by the respondents rather than the lowest sound, which is the /ʌ/ sound that is not so common. However, still, this would say that students can highly spell these sounds. Table 2.2. Level of Morphophonemic Awareness in terms of spelling as responded by Second Year Criminology Students Spelling N SD Mean Description /ʌ/ 160 1.87 3.54 High /ɪə/ 160 1.94 3.76 /oʊ/ 160 1.95 3.83 High High /eɪ/ 160 2.05 4.25 High /æ/ 160 2.12 4.51 Very High /aʊ/ 160 2.17 4.73 Very High /θ/ 160 1.98 3.93 High /v/ 160 1.92 3.69 High /b/ 160 1.97 3.90 High /f/ 160 2.06 4.28 High ISSN 2808-8646 61 Proceedings International Education Webinar of IAIN Palopo (PROCEEDINGS IEWIP) I - 2021 Spelling N SD Mean Description Overall 160 1.91 4.04 High Gagen (2013) stated that the letters of the word follow the process of spelling where students base their orthographic structure on converting the sounds from spoken word into print is an approach of spelling phonemically. He also emphasizes that if learners learn to 'spell' words based on phonemic processing, there is a gentle improvement in their spelling ability. However, there are English words that are spelled in such a way that is different from how they sound. Second language learners find these words critical and confusing, hence, difficult to spell. Moreover, some English words have an established inconsistent symbolsound relationship. He also confirmed that spelling is one of the fundamental sub-skills of effective written communication in the English language system. It is critical to both the reading and writing processes. He also revealed that how-to-spell is students correct written representation of his or their language. Hence, the elicited results can be featured to the students' knowledge about sounds-words. The students can easily relate the combinations of sounds down to words. Primarily, they have reached and maintained the expected level for them to be aware of the representation of sounds. Thus, they are good spellers affected by their writing activities that enhanced their knowledge about it. On the other hand, the lowest among the indicators is the /ʌ/. Though by interpretation, the level of awareness in spelling is high with the mean of 3.54, it is close to moderate. It just signifies that the students have more struggles in identifying this sound among the other critical sounds. This factor implies that there might be a lack of strategy or techniques used to enhance student's awareness of this particular sound. It can be interpreted further that this sound needed to be discussed systematically to enhance the level of achievement on the perception of this sound when it will be amalgamated into words. With this, students should absorb and learn vocabulary strategies among their lesson instructions in the classroom setting. It is required that all teachers handling the English subjects, particularly English 202, should categorize the relevant vocabulary that students need to learn and use in essential communication. Moreover, the teacher should boost students' interest to maintain a record of up-to-date words and a glossary of vocabulary. Summary. Table 2.3 shows the overall data from the variable, Morphophonemic Awareness. Particularly, the result on the summary in the level of morphophonemic awareness is presented in this table. From the given data, the indicator Spelling has the highest mean with 4.04 compared to Morphophonetic Structure with the mean of 3.72. Primarily, the overall result on this variable attained a mean of 3.88 which means that respondents in general and regarding their Morphophonemic awareness have a high level of awareness. Further, respondents manifested this awareness in the majority of the cases. Table 2.3. Summary on the Level of Morphophonemic Awareness as responded by Second Year Criminology Students 62 Morphophonemic Awareness N SD Mean Description Morphophonetic Structure 160 2.00 3.72 High Spelling 160 1.91 4.04 High Overall 160 1.88 3.88 High ISSN 2808-8646 Proceedings International Education Webinar of IAIN Palopo (PROCEEDINGS IEWIP) I - 2021 The finding may be credited to the expected morphophonemic awareness of the secondyear BS-Criminology students. The institution and instructors have done their best to provide meaningful experiences, ultimately establishing students' competence. It is of great judgment that critical sounds are somehow of the knowledge of these aspiring Police Officers taking the language as a communication tool in their future endeavors and a vital skill in writing technical documents in their field of work. Increased spelling knowledge helps students make sense of the words read, making it easier to remember, as it allows them to make more complete connections between spelling and pronunciations of words in memory. It was also associated with improvements in word recognition skills. Overall, spelling is an instructional tool that can help students understand the alphabetic writing system and its' relationship to spoken language (Graham, Harris, & Fink-Chorzempa, 2002). Thus, in spelling, the learner needs to understand the internal structure of words. Specifically, the learner needs to understand that words have a morphophonemic structure; phonemic elements combine to form morphemes, which combine to form inflected and derived versions of words. Although an implicit understanding of the morphophonemic structure of words may be sufficient for spoken language proficiency, written language proficiency demands both an implicit and an explicit understanding of the morphophonemic structure (Moats & Tolman, 2009). Word Recognition Skill of Second Year BS – Criminology Students Critical Sounds. The level of word recognition skill in terms of Critical Sounds is specified in Table 3. Specifically, this illustrates the very high skill level among the Second Year BSCriminology students on critical sounds, which are /f/, /eɪ/, and /θ/ through the Listening test. While /aʊ/, /b/, /oʊ/, /æ/, /ɪə/, /ʌ/ and /v/ elucidate high level of skill on critical sounds. Results show that the most correctly determined sound is /f/ with a mean of 4.71 followed by the /eɪ/ with the mean of 4.50 and /θ/ with the mean of 4.50, which belong to a very high level of skill on these sounds. However, /v/ sound is considered the least determined among the high level of skill with the mean of 3.68, which entails a moderate level of awareness of this sound. Nevertheless, still, the total calculated mean presented is 4.21, described as high. It can be interpreted that the Word Recognition Skill in terms of critical sounds of secondyear BS – Criminology students is manifested in the majority of the cases. Therefore, it would mean that the respondents have a high skill level in critical sounds in English. Furthermore thus, the finding may be explained due to the student's exposure to the critical sounds since the students encountered this lesson in their English 202 subject. Table 3. Level of Word Recognition Skill in terms of Critical Sounds as responded by Second Year Criminology Students Critical Sounds N SD Mean Description /ʌ/ 160 1.93 3.73 High /ɪə/ 160 1.96 3.89 High /oʊ/ 160 2.06 4.27 High /eɪ/ 160 2.13 4.53 Very High /æ/ 160 2.01 4.05 High /aʊ/ 160 2.10 4.45 High ISSN 2808-8646 63 Proceedings International Education Webinar of IAIN Palopo (PROCEEDINGS IEWIP) I - 2021 Critical Sounds N SD Mean Description /θ/ 160 2.13 4.50 Very High /v/ 160 1.92 3.68 High /b/ 160 2.08 4.33 High /f/ 160 2.17 4.71 Very High Overall 160 1.82 4.21 High The findings are supported by Goodwin and Ahn (2010) in which they stated that students progress in their analysis of printed words by applying increasingly more sophisticated phonetic decoding strategies aimed at generating a pronunciation of a word that is not automatically recognized with the background knowledge they have in school or through learning. Initially, this may take the form of a sounding out strategy; wherein there is a sequential recoding of letters into sounds. The child must easily tap the relationship between letters and sounds to sound out or phonetically decode unfamiliar print sequences into a spoken word. With repeated exposure to printed words, children expand their knowledge of orthographic spelling patterns, which facilitates their ability to quickly generate an approximate pronunciation of a word to retrieve its meaning. Skilled readers access the meaning of an unfamiliar word through the successful phonological recoding of a printed spelling pattern to its pronunciation, giving direction to critical sounds that a learner might have difficulty recognizing (Bowers, Kirby & Deacon, 2010). On the other hand, the school and teachers are always trying to create academic interventions to help children succeed. Helping a learner develop these skills will give them tools to be successful readers and even speakers. Nunes (2006) supports the study by stressing that letters represent the sounds of the English language. Therefore, students need to access sounds in order to know what letters stand for. Therefore, it implies that high awareness and skill on critical sound would mean that they may have a high perceptive on the sounds of spoken language, which will work together to make words. The difference in the Level of Morphophonemic Awareness when Grouped according to profile The data on the test for the significant difference in the level of morphophonemic awareness of Second Year BS-Criminology students when grouped according to demographic profile is presented in Table 4. Results are obtained through a t-test. Table 4. Significant Difference in the Level of Morphophonemic Awareness among Second Year Criminology Students 95% CI Variable Standard Error Mean Lower Upper t-value df p-value Decision Age 1.62394 -7.33032 2.25456 -1.247 56 0.325 1.35183 0.139 56 0.890 Ho accepted Ho accepted Gender 0.63103 -1.17639 *Significant at 0.05 level of significance 64 ISSN 2808-8646 Proceedings International Education Webinar of IAIN Palopo (PROCEEDINGS IEWIP) I - 2021 Computations revealed the significant difference between the level of morphophonemic awareness of respondents when grouped according to age with a computed p-value of 0.325. Therefore, the researcher accepts the null hypothesis with the absolute computed p-value, which is insignificant at 0.05 level. It means that the level of morphophonemic awareness of the respondents, when analyzed according to their age, does not vary significantly. On the other hand, as shown in the table, results revealed that finding the significant difference between the level of morphophonemic awareness when analyzed according to gender has a computed p-value of 0.890. Thus, it shows that the result accepts the null hypothesis, which is not significant at the 0.05 level. Therefore, it means that the level of morphophonemic awareness of the respondents, when analyzed according to their gender, does not vary significantly. The difference in the Level of Word Recognition Skill when Grouped according to profile Table 5 shows the t-test result in finding the significant difference between the level of word recognition skill among the Second Year BS-Criminology students when analyzed according to their demographic profile. Again, results are obtained through a t-test. Table 5. Significant Difference in the Level of Word Recognition Skill among Second Year Criminology Students 95% CI of the Difference Lower Upper Variable Standard Error Mean Age 1.52582 -6.60383 Gender 0.59749 -0.81094 t-value df p-value Decision 0.386298 -0.84233 56 0.230 1.58287 0.6460 56 0.521 Ho accepted Ho accepted *Significant at 0.05 level of significance With the absolute computed p-value of 0.230, the result accepts the null hypothesis that there is no significant difference in the level of word recognition skill when analyzed according to age which is not significant at 0.05 level. Therefore, it signifies that it does not vary significantly. Moreover, as the table shows, results revealed that finding the significant difference between the level of word recognition skill when analyzed according to gender has a computed p-value of 0.521. It shows that the result accepts the null hypothesis, which is not significant at the 0.05 level. It means that the respondents' level of word recognition skills, when analyzed according to their gender, does not vary significantly. In support of the results from Tables 6 and 7, Voyles (2011) stated that students' age and gender do not impact scores and examinations, more specifically for the assessment. However, implications from any results may suggest a need to include exposure to the students about a certain topic that may require testing their ability. Thus, age and gender do not matter in taking a test, but it matters to the skill and awareness about that certain topic. This research study refutes the study by Oshima and Domaleski (2006) on student age, gender, and academic success. In that study, gender and age were significant for predicting success in reading in elementary and middle school (Sabtu, 2013). While results from this study indicate that student age and gender were not a factor in student awareness and skill in either morphophonemic or word recognition, this finding is contrary to much of the literature ISSN 2808-8646 65 Proceedings International Education Webinar of IAIN Palopo (PROCEEDINGS IEWIP) I - 2021 in the field, which states that age and gender is a factor in student academic success, either in reading, speaking, writing mathematics, and more. Significant Relationship between Morphophonemic Awareness and Word Recognition Skill Table 6 shows the relationship between the variables, Morphophonemic Awareness and Word Recognition Skill of Second Year BS-Criminology students at the University of Mindanao Tagum College. Based on the given data, it has a relationship value of 0.52 while its significance has a value of 0.000 which means that Morphophonemic Awareness has a significant relationship to Word Recognition skills. With that, the null hypothesis that claims no significant relationship between the said variables is rejected. Results can be simplified that the Morphophonemic Awareness does count as a major contributing factor to the Word Recognition Skill of the students The r-value of 0.52 links a positive correlation between Morphophonemic Awareness and Word Recognition Skills. It further explains that 52% of the Morphophonemic Awareness affects Word Recognition Skills of the Second Year BS-Criminology students. The remaining 48% can be explained by other factors not covered explicitly in the study. With the instructions integrated on most English subjects, particularly the English 202, it can be interpreted that those information have led them to improve their performance in recognizing words. Indeed, in one way or two, the learning they have gained from English classes developed their knowledge in recognizing and recalling the words. Besides, this is a significant skill as a communicator, as individual learning and using the language. Table 6. Significant Relationship between Morphophonemic Awareness and Word Recognition Skill among Second Year Criminology Students Morphophonemic Awareness Word Recognition Skill Morphophonemic Structure Spelling Critical Sounds r-value r-squared 0.528* 0.278784 0.514* 0.264196 0.52 p-value Decision 𝜶 = 0.05 0.000 Ho rejected *p<0.05 In connection with the result, Alhussaini (2018) stated that teachers should raise the students' attention to the morphophonemic changes and how the pronunciation of the word is changed in the amalgamation of words, and this can be achieved by giving the students extensive training or exercises in this regard by listening to native speakers pronouncing morphophonemic changed words. Moreover, morphophonemic properties of English or any other language are of great importance in analyzing other linguistic properties of that language. Thus, it should be taught well and not be taken for granted so that students can recognize the words correctly according to their sounds, structures, and spelling. One of the reasons behind the students' failure to recognize and pronounce the Morphophonemic may be the lack of entries in most English language dictionaries. Previous 66 ISSN 2808-8646 Proceedings International Education Webinar of IAIN Palopo (PROCEEDINGS IEWIP) I - 2021 studies that surveyed the area of morphophonemics and morphophonology (or morphonology) ignore the learners' role in this regard. Thus, it should be taught according to their awareness in pronunciation, structure, and spelling. (Hayes, 2011). Besides, with repeated exposure to printed words, students expand their knowledge of orthographic spelling patterns, which facilitates their ability to quickly generate an approximate pronunciation of a word to retrieve its meaning. Skilled speakers or readers access the meaning of an unfamiliar word through the successful phonological recoding of a printed spelling pattern to its pronunciation to the sounds giving direction to critical sounds that a learner might have difficulty recognizing (Bowers, Kirby & Deacon, 2010). Furthermore, the morphophonemic analysis appears to have been a more efficient use of teaching time due to greater word learning transfer. Effectiveness and efficiency of instruction are crucial factors when teaching adults who have immense gaps in vocabulary and literacy. They require high-impact instruction to become proficient readers, pursue post-secondary education, find meaningful employment, and participate fully in civic life (Gray, 2017). Regression Analysis on the Influence of the Domains of the two variables Table 7 shows the regression analysis on the influence of the domain among the variables. It infers causal relationships between the independent and dependent variables. Regression analysis is a reliable method of identifying which variables have an impact on a topic of interest. The process of performing a regression allows the researcher to confidently determine which factors matter most, which factors can be ignored, and how these factors influence each other. As shown in the table, it can be observed that the value of the calculated r² is 0.320 for the variance generated by the regression. It simply means that the level of morphophonemic awareness by Second Year BS-Criminology students relates significantly to the level of word recognition skill. Thus, there is a linear relationship between the two variables. Table 7. Regression Analysis on the Influence of the Domains of Morphophonemic Awareness Morphophonemic Awareness Unstandardized coefficients B SE (B) Standardized Beta coefficients t-value pvalue Decision 8.726* 0.000 Ho rejected Ho rejected Ho rejected (Constant) 11.897 1.363 Morphophonetic Structure Spelling 0.271 0.076 0.329 3.583* 0.000 0.257 0.063 0.285 3.098* 0.002 Dependent Variable: Word Recognition Skill *p<0.05 r=0.566 r²=0.320 F=36.954 p-value=0.000 Unskilled readers and speakers do not make complete connections between words' phonological, morphological and orthographic structures, resulting in underdeveloped mental representations of words, which compromise efficient reading and spelling. In turn, poor word reading and spelling obstructs access to higher-level skills, including reading vocabulary and reading comprehension. On the other hand, explicit teaching of the ISSN 2808-8646 67 Proceedings International Education Webinar of IAIN Palopo (PROCEEDINGS IEWIP) I - 2021 connections between complex words' sound, meaning, and spelling structures increases readers' word knowledge, facilitating literacy. Thus, teaching academic vocabulary, complex words taken from content area curricula is one bridge to increasing word knowledge and literacy (Perfetti & Hart, 2002). Future studies are needed to pinpoint which instructional elements of morphophonemic instruction are most effective for struggling learners. Although it appeared that the instruction in word origins, word sums, morphologically related words, flexible syllable segmentation, and assignment of primary stress was highly effective, no attempt was made to isolate the separate elements of the teaching to determine which ones were most effective. One of the most effective elements of the treatment may have been the assignment of primary syllable stress, leading to greater accuracy in the pronunciation of complex words (Jarmulowicz, Hay, & Taran, 2008). Further studies are needed to investigate how to teach struggling learners to read complex words whose relationships to derived forms are less transparent, such as words whose pronunciations or spellings change from base words to derived forms. Conclusion Based on the cited findings, the following conclusions are drawn: 1. Most college students taking up the subject, English 202, are between 16-20 years old because this subject was offered in their Second year in the institution. While some of the respondents came from the 3rd year and 4th year because this is their behind subject. Further, the respondents are dominated by a male because of the statistics of the school. 2. The level of morphophonemic awareness of Second Year BS-Criminology students is of a great extent in terms of Morphophonetic Structure and Spelling. 3. The level of word recognition skill of Second Year BS-Criminology students is to a great extent. 4. There is no significant difference in the level of morphophonemic awareness of secondyear Criminology students when analyzed according to the moderator variable. 5. There is no significant difference in the level of word recognition skills of second-year Criminology students when analyzed according to the moderator variable. The null hypothesis, which states no significant relationship between morphophonemic awareness and word recognition skills of Second Year BS-Criminology students, is rejected. It is indeed of high potentials to claim that they have very high significance with each other. It would generally mean that indeed Morphophonemic Awareness of students affect their Word Recognition Skill. Recommendation As per the result of the study and based on the conclusions drawn, the researcher submits specific and general recommendations. 1. Institution. The school should emphasize the process of Morphophonemic in their curriculum, which should be determined in the language teaching program. This subject can be introduced in the early years of the teaching program. In essence, this topic should be taught more extensively at the university level extending from the first year of study onwards. Moreover, more emphasis and practice on the pronunciation of Morphophonemic should be exposed to the students in different stages. Furthermore, the school should also provide speech and oral communication training, particularly Morphophonemic Awareness and Teaching English as Second Language Trainings, Workshop, and Seminar. Furthermore, establishing the usage of Speech Laboratory more often given proper and fixed schedule to every language teacher focusing with spelling and speech and writing enhancement with the realization of interactive activities like a 68 ISSN 2808-8646 Proceedings International Education Webinar of IAIN Palopo (PROCEEDINGS IEWIP) I - 2021 2. 3. 4. 5. spelling bee, debate, oration, and other speaking activities inside the campus or the classroom. Teachers. Language teachers should utilize the use of Speech Laboratory well where students can enhance their awareness, particularly on those critical sounds that they least recognized. The students' unfamiliarity with Morphophonemic is that the material of this topic is presented to the students only once during their second stage, and only in one textbook that is limited to some kinds of Morphophonemic. So, this study area should be recycled continuously so that second language material should be presented only once. The topics should re-appear again and again in a different context but with increasing depth. Additionally, the result of the study can be of use to teachers and syllabus designers since they can provide the necessary information for the preparation of the material of teaching program that can enhance the students to encounter the difficulties in Morphophonemic and, most importantly, revisit the syllabus for a few modifications of the topics. Furthermore, lastly, language teachers should raise the students' attention to the morphophonemic changes and how the word's pronunciation is changed after amalgamation. It can be achieved by giving the students extensive training or exercises by listening to native speakers pronouncing morphophonemic changed words. Students. With the results given, students must actively involve themselves in the classroom discussion and participate in a speech club or organization that will expand their knowledge. In addition, students should use their knowledge and awareness of morphophonemic, letter knowledge and patterns (orthographic pattern awareness), and meaning (semantic and morphological awareness) to recognize, read and spell. The greatest impact on literacy skills will likely result from instruction that includes all of these linguistic components. Moreover, students must actively engage themselves in the communicative activities designed to enhance their speaking, listening, reading, and writing performance because they are using the English Language in the class. They are also encouraged to use the English language in other subject areas as an effective strategy for retaining and recognizing the words. Future Researchers. They are encouraged to search for other indicators that might affect the word recognition skill of the BS-Criminology Students. Critical sounds in English in consonants, vowels (Front, Central, and Back), and diphthongs are the suggested topics for further studies. In addition, other tests may be administered to further determine the variables in this study, such as Syllable Segmentation Test; Phonetic Transcription Test; Sight Word Test; Onsets and Rimes Blending Segmenting Test; Phoneme-grapheme test; Phonemic Test and Vocabulary test. Further, they can also conduct a survey questionnaire to students and language teachers to address those specific problems that hinder recognizing words if a student has no proper awareness of morphophonemic. Acknowledgment I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to the following people who have greatly imparted effort as I go through this endeavor: To my adviser and panel of examiners, thank you for the help and guidance to make this thing possible. Thank you for the words of encouragement that encouraged me to continue my journey in this graduate school program. Thank you for the imparted knowledge that is very much helpful in this task. Thank you for inspiring me when I looked for support and when I needed a shoulder to lean on in these trying times that we face nowadays. Also, I appreciate the worries and concerns that you showed to me along the way. ISSN 2808-8646 69 Proceedings International Education Webinar of IAIN Palopo (PROCEEDINGS IEWIP) I - 2021 To my family, thank you for the undying support that I needed to stay firm in facing the challenge of this course and for believing that I can finish this task proficiently. Thank you for the infinite understanding you gave to me when I needed something in emotional and spiritual aspects. Finally, this expression will not be completed without acknowledging my Almighty for His guidance and providence. He is the source of everything. Without Him, everything will be useless.. References Alhussaini, H. (2018). Iraqi EFL students' awareness of the pronunciation of morphophonemic changed words at a college level. International Journal GRANTHAALAYAH. Volume 6. 69-83. 10.5281/zenodo.1403807. of Research - Babiano, S., Genelza, S., Corpus, D., et. al. (2015). Phonological Awareness and Word Decoding Ability of Second Year BSED-English Students in USeP – Tagum Campus Durango, M., Egina, E.M. and Falcon A. (2013). Critical sounds in English and decoding skills of Second year BSED-English students in University of Southeastern Philippines Tagum Campus Edweek E. (2013). As graduation rates rise, focus shifts to dropouts. Education Week. Vol. 32, Issue 34, p. 1. Fracasso, L., Bangs, K., & Binder, K. (2014). The contributions of phonological and morphological awareness to literacy skills in the adult basic education population. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 49(2). Gagen, M. (2013). Effective spelling instruction. Right track reading. (pp. 4-6.). Malicsi, J. (2015). Philppine English: A case of language drift. Retrieved August 10, 2020, from http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/acd/re/k-rsc/lcs/kiyou/pdf_22Mariscal Rios, A.M. (2013). Use of Error Analysis for the Diagnosis of Spelling Differences Among Illogical Speakers. Spanishin Gibratar. In revista Nubriya de Linguistics Aplicada: 13. Okada, A. (2013). Phonological Features of in-, un-and non. International Proceedings of Economics Development and Research, 68, 123. Townsend, D., & Nagy, W. E. (2012). Words as tools: Learning academic vocabulary as language acquisition. doi:10.1002/RRQ.011. 70 Reading Research Quarterly, 47(1), 91–108. ISSN 2808-8646