Building depth of Spanish L2 vocabulary by building and using word families

Research on the mastery of L1 and L2 derivational morphology as a tool for vocabulary acquisition is reviewed, along with empirical studies on learners' knowledge of L2 derivational morphology, and on the use of morphological analysis as a useful tool for aiding L2 vocabulary acquisition. The concepts of breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge are explored, as well as vocabulary-learning strategies and the rationale for teaching learners to use them. A Sight Vocabulary test, a Productive Knowledge test, and a Receptive Knowledge test are used here to explore the effectiveness of derivational morphological analysis as a tool to expand breadth and depth of Spanish L2 vocabulary. The results discussed indicate that explicit strategy instruction of this sort may yield immediate benefits in the areas of receptive and productive knowledge of Spanish derivational morphology (depth of knowledge), but not in vocabulary size (breadth of knowledge). Implications of the results for the L2 classroom are addressed.