Morph Mastery: A Morphological Intervention for Reading, Spelling and Vocabulary

Louise Selby

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000400540
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Lernschwierigkeiten

Morph Mastery is an accessible, practical guide designed to support learners with specific learning difficulties (SpLD) who are struggling with spelling, reading and vocabulary. It is an effective, research-based and fun solution for when phonics-based teaching has run its course.

Understanding the morphological regularities in English helps to support both spelling and reading comprehension, yet there are few practical interventions that take a morphological approach. Morph Mastery combines this exciting new approach with tried-and-tested teaching methods that work. The activities in this book follow three engaging ninja-like characters, Prefa, Root and Sufa, who represent the three core components of morphology (prefixes, root words and suffixes) and use their sceptres to craft words.

Key features include:

• Exciting and engaging activities and games, designed to be used by individuals or small groups

• Detailed, curriculum-linked assessments, enabling specific target setting

• Photocopiable and downloadable activity sheets and resources

Written in a user-friendly tone, for teaching assistants, teachers and other professionals with little or no specialist knowledge, this book is a must for any school with struggling readers and writers aged 9–13.

1. Morphology and the mastery of language

An introduction

DOI: 10.4324/9780367817220-1

Morphology is a key component of how English words are made up, but there are still many of us in education who have little understanding of what it is. It certainly has neither been a strong feature of mainstream literacy education nor a main feature of popular intervention programmes. However, research is increasingly showing us how important morphology is for learners of all abilities in reading and writing. More specifically, we learn through research that a morphological approach is particularly effective for struggling readers and spellers. It follows that there is a need among educators, especially those who teach students with spelling and reading difficulties, to understand and implement a morphological approach more systematically. Morph Mastery: A Morphological Intervention for Reading, Spelling and Vocabulary addresses this need, whilst also adopting the well-established principles of effective intervention: it is multi-sensory, cumulative, personalised and structured. Though designed as an intervention for individuals or small groups, many of its resources and games can also be used within a class for all learners.

Developed with the newcomer to morphology in mind, this manual is a step by step guide to teaching Morph Mastery. The good news to “morph newbies” is that morphology is neither difficult to understand, nor a new concept. To access and use this resource manual, you need neither prior knowledge of morphology nor a specialist qualification. In fact, all you need is access to a photocopier, children to work with, time and a willingness to learn. We’ll start with the basics.

What is morphology?

A morpheme is the term for any single unit of meaning. It is therefore by definition a root, prefix or suffix. A root is the purest unit of meaning within a word, once prefixes and suffixes are removed. It is the most basic form of a word. Roots can be words that we know and use in their own right (Figure 1.1). They can also derive from Greek or Latin (Figure 1.2). Due to the evolution of language, these Greek and Latin roots are not often used in our language today as words in their own right.

Figure 1.1

Figure 1.2

Prefixes are the units of meaning (morphemes) which are placed in front of a root. For example, the prefix re-can be added to the root take to create the word retake. Prefixes are not words in themselves (Figure 1.3).

Figure 1.3

Suffixes, like prefixes, are not words in their own right, but units of meaning (morphemes) which are placed at the end of the word (Figure 1.4).

Figure 1.4

Let’s piece all this together with some examples. The word mistaking has been formed from the root take, with the prefix -mis and the suffix -ing. Unkind has been formed from two morphemes: the prefix -un and the root kind. Stayed, also formed from two morphemes, is formed with the root stay and the suffix -ed. This is morphology.

We have already mentioned Greek and Latin. This can be the point in a conversation about morphology where people become scared and feel disempowered. Don’t! There are simple ways to crack these codes which can add immense value and breadth to your teaching of language and vocabulary, as well as spelling. Exciting connections between words can be made and layers of meaning added, as well as some very interesting conversations.

In general, the most basic and frequently used words in our language derive from Old English; for example say, when, come, that, play, look, grow, child; the list goes on. These are often words we use all the time, but they are also often tricky to spell and can be huge stumbling blocks for children with spelling difficulties. This is because the rules they follow are not phonetic and they sometimes appear bizarre to the phonetic speller.

The next layer of language usually derives from Latin; words we use regularly and with familiarity but words whose origin may not be fully understood by their users. For example, cent comes from the Latin word for hundred and is the root for many words; centipede, century, centimetre. Rupt means to tear and leads to rupture, interrupt, erupt, bankrupt. Knowing a few of these Latin origins can make all the difference when making sense of language and making exciting connections. Speaking as a parent, I often love being reminded that pare means make ready, so parent simply means getting someone ready for the world. Many more examples of these can be found in Appendix 15.

The third layer of language is Greek, which involves more sophisticated language, often words at the highest level of vocabulary, linked to education, science, maths, and culture. For example pneu means air and leads to words like pneumatic and pneumonia. Micr means small and leads to words like microscope and microphone. Again, this can be interesting when studying vocabulary. Telling a child that tele in television means afar can be a great way to ask him to move further back from the TV!

Greek and Latin morphemes usually come later on in the language curriculums, but ironically they are sometimes easier to learn to spell for learners with specific learning difficulties. They have fewer irregularities, there are fewer exceptions and they often follow phonetic rules. You don’t need to know any Greek or Latin in order to teach morphology, but you will need to have an enquiring mind and know where to look for the origins of words. Appendix 15 in this book is a useful start. It is also useful to have access to a good dictionary (online or a hard copy).

Phonology and morphology, two different systems of language

It might be useful at this point to compare morphology with phonology, a system of language which is more familiar to many. Currently, phonology is much better understood than morphology by educational practitioners. Phonology underpins the teaching of phonics. In response to research, it is embedded in English curriculums in the UK, US, New Zealand and Australia, where it is a foundational methodology for teaching early reading.

While morphology is the system of language by which words are created from units of meaning, phonology is the system of language by which words are broken up into units of sound. According to morphology, words are constructed from units of meaning called morphemes, while phonology separates words into units of sound called phonemes.

Why is morphology important?

Both systems of language are involved in mastering the written English word, but morphology helps us to make sense of language in ways that phonology cannot. Sometimes phonic rules just do not apply. If they did, and words were always spelled as they sound, people would be spelled peeple or peaple, onion would be unyun or unyoon, Christmas would be crismous, heard would be herd, and two would be too. Yet these words are not spelled as they sound and do not therefore follow phonic rules; they are therefore classed as “exception words”. But are they really exceptions? Not if the rules are based on morphology.

Often, morphological principles can be applied to make sense of these “exceptions”. Let’s look at the word onion to illustrate this. Morphological rules explain its spelling. They tell us that the root of the word onion is one, because an onion has one stem,...