Abstract

This study seeks to investigate cross-language transfer of morphological awareness among young Malay learners who are learning English as their L2 and have Malay as their L1. The study examines the relationship between morphological awareness and performance on English and Malay spelling tests. The data for the study was drawn from a sample of Malay learners aged nine and twelve from two Malaysian urban schools. A quantitative study was undertaken. The quantitative study investigated if morphological awareness in Malay can predict English Spelling Accuracy. Correlations were used to analyse the data in the study. The findings suggest that there is cross-language transfer from the L1 to the L2. Strict consistency of English roots correlated strongly with Malay word analogy (p<.001). Malay word analogy also correlated with Lenient consistency of English roots (p<.01). The correlations show that Malay word analogy does predict the spelling of English roots. This indicates that transfer is taking place across the two languages.