Morphemic Awareness

The key to larger vocabulary and improved comprehension *

Lizette Rincón H
Grammatical morphology is
an area of difficulty for EL.
(Pandey2012)
 Nagy (2007) proposed that
teaching morphological
awareness and decoding in
school may be the way to
narrow the achievement gap for
children whose families differ in
education and income levels,
and ethnic or racial
backgrounds.
 An explicit understanding of the smallest units of
meaning in language, including free and bound
morphemes and inflectional and derivational
Morphemic markers.
Awareness The conscious awareness of the morphemic
structure of words and the ability to reflect on and
manipulate that structure.
 Bound Free
Affix Open Class
• Derivational • Nouns

Elements • Prefix
• suffix
• Inflectional
• Suffix
•
•
•
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs

Closed Class
• Conjunctions
• Prepositions
Root
• Pronouns
• Auxiliary Verbs
 Compounding Affixation
• Girlfriend • Derivation
• textbook • quickly
• Inflection
• walked

Morphemic
Processes in Alternation Suppletion
English • Goose/geese
• Ring/rang/rung
• Give/gave/given*
• Is/was
• go/went
• good/better/best
• bad/worse/worst
Students who understand how words
are formed by combining prefixes,
suffixes, and roots tend to have larger
vocabularies and better reading
comprehension than peers without
such knowledge and skills
(Prince, 2009).
  Prince (2009) suggested four main
instructional strategies from Lesaux’s
work with morphology:
Instructional
Recognize Recognize Based upon Check

Consider Meaning

Context
Analysis
Awareness
Strategies they don't
know the
morphemes
(roots and
parts of the
word
meaning

word affixes)
Morphology should be taught
as a distinct component of a
vocabulary improvement
program.

Prince 2009
Engaging the learner
 Demonstrate the meaning of a
word in a sentence.
 Read words with the target affix
and define.
 Student can identify if the affix is
being said or not.
 Word sorting
Introducing a
 Generate words with the affix
 How can I say Target Affix
 Identify new words in a story
context, (also in print)
 Use visuals to illustrate how to
add or take off affixes from base
or root words.
 INFORMATIONAL
Derivatives  The prefix re- can change the meaning of a word.
Rebuild means "build again."
Replay means "play again."
Reread means "read again."

INTERACTIVE
 Remember--If you know the word clear, you also know
all these words:
clears clearer unclear
cleared clearest
clearing clearly
Phonics
Vocabulary
 Curricular resources/printables from Florida Center
for Reading Research
https://www.fcrr.org/resources/resources_sca.html

 Examples of exercises from the Univesity of Michigan:

dyslexiahelp.umich.edu/professionals/dyslexia-
school/morphological-awareness

 List of Common Prefixes, Suffixes and Roots

Center for Develoment and Learning:
https://www.cdl.org/wp-
Teaching
content/uploads/2016/08/Common-Prefixes-Suffixes-and-
Roots-8.16.pdf
Resources
 Other Activities and Resources from Apple Tree
Institute.org
https://sites.google.com/a/appletreeinstitute.org/lan
guage-supports/home/morphological-
awareness/activities-and-resources
 Research and Reference
 Wasowicz J., Apel K., Masterson J. J., Whitney A. (2004). SPELL-links to reading and writing. Evanston, IL: Learning by Design.

 Mountain, Lee. “ROOTing Out Meaning: More Morphemic Analysis for Primary Pupils: In a Professional Development Program
at an Elementary School, Teachers Explored Ways to Expand Instruction in Morphemic Analysis to Give Their Students an Early
Start on Prefixes, Suffixes, and Roots. They Modified Some Middle-Grade Methods to Help Their Students Learn to Construct
Meaning from Word Parts.” The Reading Teacher 58.8 (2005): 742–749. Web.
 Teaching Morphology: Enhancing Vocabulary Development and Reading Comprehension
 By Mary Stowe, M.Ed.
https://education.wm.edu/centers/ttac/resources/articles/teachtechnique/teachingmorphology/index.php
 Pandey, Anita. Language Building Blocks : Essential Linguistics for Early Childhood Educators, Teachers College Press, 2012.
ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/southernmethodist/detail.action?docID=3545046.
 Nagy, W. (2007). Metalinguistic awareness and the vocabulary-comprehension connection. In R. K. Wager, A. E. Muse, & K. R.
Tannenbaum (Eds.), Vocabulary acquisition: Implications for reading comprehension (pp. 52-77). New York: Guilford.
 Elleseff, Tatyana. (2015) Have you worked on Morphological awareness ltely. Smart Speech
Therapy https://www.smartspeechtherapy.com/have-you-worked-on-morphological-awareness-lately/

 Thomas, Alice ( 2012) Center for Development and Learning (2012) Building Vocabulary Through
Morphemes https://www.cdl.org/articles/building-vocabulary-through-morphemes/
 Green, L., & Wolter, J.A. (2011, November). Morphological Awareness Intervention: Techniques for Promoting Language and
Literacy Success. A symposium presentation at the annual American Speech Language Hearing Association, San Diego, CA