MORPHOLOGICAL AWARENESS AND ITS CORRELATION WITH EFL READING COMPREHENSION OF SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

This study investigates the correlation between morphological awareness and reading comprehension. It was conducted with a sample of 55 second-grade students from SMA (Senior High School) Laboratorium Unsyiah, Banda Aceh. The data measuring morphological awareness and reading comprehension were collected through a test of morphological awareness and the Florida comprehensive assessment test (FCAT) respectively. The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient was determined using SPSS 20 software to explore the relationship between these variables. Based on the findings, the result from morphological awareness test showed that 85% of the students managed to answer the test satisfactorily. It was also revealed that the students were on reading Achievement Level 4. This indicates that the students answered many questions correctly, but they seemed to be troubled by questions with more challenging contents. The results also show that there was a significant relationship between morphological awareness and reading comprehension. The correlation was found to be 0.527, with a significance level of 0.01, which is classified as a moderate-level correlation. Finally, the findings of this study suggest the inclusion of morphological awareness while learning reading comprehension at schools.