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ABSTRACT
This study investigates word blending as a language simplification trend in contemporary English, focusing on senior students at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, Saigon University. Despite the increasing prevalence of blended words in digital communication, limited research has examined how Vietnamese English-major students recognize, interpret, and use such forms. The study aims to explore students’ morphological awareness of common English blends and to examine their usage patterns and attitudes toward word blending in daily and online communication. A sequential explanatory mixed-methods design was employed. Quantitative data were collected from 100 senior students through a structured questionnaire measuring recognition accuracy, perceived difficulty, usage frequency, and attitudes. Subsequently, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 purposively selected participants based on their survey responses to explain and elaborate on the survey findings. The results indicate that most students demonstrate moderate to high levels of morphological awareness, particularly in identifying familiar blends such as brunch and motel, although less conventional blends pose greater challenges. Blends are frequently encountered in social media and informal contexts but are generally avoided in academic writing due to concerns about appropriateness and formality. Interview findings further reveal that students rely on structural segmentation and contextual inference to interpret blends and display strong awareness of register differences. The study contributes to research on morphological awareness in L2 contexts and provides pedagogical implications for integrating contemporary lexical trends into English language teaching.
Keywords: word blending, morphological awareness, language simplification, sociolinguistic competence, English-major students
