A New Approach to Reading Instruction

Do you know what morphemes are? Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in a language. Even though you may not know that term, I am sure you know morphemes if you are fluent in a language. In English, common morphemes such as <er>, <ed>, and <ing> are used frequently. Some morphemes, also known as suffixes, can change the tense of the word. For example <jump> turns into <jumped> or <jumping> and the tense of the verb is changed. Those are called inflectional suffixes. Other suffixes such as <er> change the grammatical category of the word such as <teach> (which is the verb) changes to <teacher> (which is a noun) when you add <er>. So why are morphemes important for reading instruction? Well, unlike phonics patterns, morphemes are both extremely consistent and always convey meaning. Now, this is not to say that phonics is not important, because it very much is but it has been used in isolation instead of in conjunction with morphology as it should be. English is a morphophonemic language which means that it uses both morphemes and phonemes.

Morphology is extremely important for understanding what we are reading, decoding multisyllabic words, and building complex words. We wonder why many of our students appear to be fluent readers yet have awful comprehension. Well, maybe because we are only teaching students to read using sounds and not meaning! What is the use of reading if you don't understand what you are reading?

As I mentioned in the beginning, morphemes are extremely consistent and can be more easily accessed by a wide variety of learners. Morphemes can appear at the beginning of words, also called prefixes, and they can also appear at the end of words, called suffixes. Morphemes are any word part that carries meaning. Morphological word families are build by sharing a base, either a free or a bound base, and adding prefixes and suffixes. Take the <play> family for example. A player is someone who plays. If you like to play a lot, you are playful. If you play in the past, you played. If you play something again, you replay it. Do you see the consistency here? You can also use these morphemes to teach phonics. What sound do you hear in <re>? That's phonics! The list goes on and on. The method of teaching reading and spelling through morphology is engaging and intriguing for both students and teachers!

Morphology is a fantastic way to help students learn to read for meaning and for teaching students how to decode multisyllabic words. Pete Bowers developed a wonderful approach to spelling and teaching orthography called Structured Word Inquiry. This approach encourages students to learn about the etymology of English and to develop and true curiosity about words and language in general. Students are taught how to spell words by investigating the base and all the attached affixes (prefixes and suffixes). English spelling actually makes perfect sense when you understand the etymology of the words! The consistency of affixes make decoding much easier as well. Syllables are fine but most multisyllabic words are built of prefixes and affixes so it is greatly beneficial for students to know and be comfortable reading and spelling common affixes.

Students in elementary, middle, and high school can benefit from learning about morphology. Morphology is one of the most underutilized reading strategies for both decoding and comprehension. Teachers can use morphology to enhance vocabulary as well. Since words are connected in meaning, you can greatly expand a child's vocabulary.

Interested in learning more about morphology and reading instruction? Stay tuned!

Leave answers in the comments for these questions: What are all the morphemes in the word <reactivate>? How about <designated>?