Morphological Awareness on Literacy Achievement
Jennifer Tayler
ENGL 5171: Language Theory
University of Colorado, Denver
Dr. Hongguang Ying
March 17, 2017 Morphological awareness is an important aspect of literacy instruction. In a standardized testing academic environment, the one thing that consistently demonstrates improved test scores across various standardized tests is vocabulary instruction. English Language Arts teachers know that literacy instruction is the most important, lifelong skill that students acquire in school. Although agencies from the National Reading Panel to the Common Core Standards clearly identify vocabulary instruction as a foundational skill in reading and literacy instruction. …show more content…
This natural command of language means that even young children can understand that if “talk” is to talk now, and “talked” is to talk in the past. Young children will then correctly deduce that “walk” is to walk now and “walked” is to walk in the past. Babies have learned and internalized these rules; it cannot be as simple as children repeating what they have heard. Anyone working with toddlers just beginning to string together words and phrases has heard a child incorrectly conclude that the “ed” from “talked” and “walked” can also be applied to “singed” and “eated.” Akmajian, Demer, Farmer, and Harnish, (2001) explain this language acquisition process in that “Chomsky argues that language acquisition cannot be accounted for without positing a linguistically specific system of principles and parameters that every healthy (in the relevant sense) child is genetically endowed with, a system he refers to as Universal Gram- mar (UG) or as the Language Acquisition Device (LAD)” (p. 479). Capitalizing on this innate linguistic ability makes it possible for educators to use a metacognitive approach to teach vocabulary and literacy: morphological …show more content…
Once our young scholars know the secret behind linguistic construction, they will be stronger readers and develop a depth and breath lexicon that will serve them their classes, past standardized tests, and forward into the real world.
References
Akmajian, A., Demer, R. A., Farmer, A. K., & Harnish, R. M. (2001). Linguistics: An introduction to language and communication. 6th Ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Carlisle, J. F. (2003). Morphology matters in learning to read: A commentary. Reading Psychology, 24(3-4), 291-322. doi:10.1080/02702710390227369
Padak, N., Newton, E., Rasinski, T., & Newton, R. M. (2008). Getting to the root of word study: Teaching Latin and Greek word roots in elementary and middle grades. In A. E. Farstrup & S. J. Samuels (Eds.), What research has to say about vocabulary instruction (pp. 6–31). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Pinker, Steve. (1994.) The language Instinct. How the mind creates language. New York, NY: HarperPerennial.
Rasinski, T., Padak, N., & Newton, J. (2017). The roots of comprehension. Journal of Educational Leadership 74(5),
Jennifer Tayler
ENGL 5171: Language Theory
University of Colorado, Denver
Dr. Hongguang Ying
March 17, 2017 Morphological awareness is an important aspect of literacy instruction. In a standardized testing academic environment, the one thing that consistently demonstrates improved test scores across various standardized tests is vocabulary instruction. English Language Arts teachers know that literacy instruction is the most important, lifelong skill that students acquire in school. Although agencies from the National Reading Panel to the Common Core Standards clearly identify vocabulary instruction as a foundational skill in reading and literacy instruction. …show more content…
This natural command of language means that even young children can understand that if “talk” is to talk now, and “talked” is to talk in the past. Young children will then correctly deduce that “walk” is to walk now and “walked” is to walk in the past. Babies have learned and internalized these rules; it cannot be as simple as children repeating what they have heard. Anyone working with toddlers just beginning to string together words and phrases has heard a child incorrectly conclude that the “ed” from “talked” and “walked” can also be applied to “singed” and “eated.” Akmajian, Demer, Farmer, and Harnish, (2001) explain this language acquisition process in that “Chomsky argues that language acquisition cannot be accounted for without positing a linguistically specific system of principles and parameters that every healthy (in the relevant sense) child is genetically endowed with, a system he refers to as Universal Gram- mar (UG) or as the Language Acquisition Device (LAD)” (p. 479). Capitalizing on this innate linguistic ability makes it possible for educators to use a metacognitive approach to teach vocabulary and literacy: morphological …show more content…
Once our young scholars know the secret behind linguistic construction, they will be stronger readers and develop a depth and breath lexicon that will serve them their classes, past standardized tests, and forward into the real world.
References
Akmajian, A., Demer, R. A., Farmer, A. K., & Harnish, R. M. (2001). Linguistics: An introduction to language and communication. 6th Ed. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Carlisle, J. F. (2003). Morphology matters in learning to read: A commentary. Reading Psychology, 24(3-4), 291-322. doi:10.1080/02702710390227369
Padak, N., Newton, E., Rasinski, T., & Newton, R. M. (2008). Getting to the root of word study: Teaching Latin and Greek word roots in elementary and middle grades. In A. E. Farstrup & S. J. Samuels (Eds.), What research has to say about vocabulary instruction (pp. 6–31). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.
Pinker, Steve. (1994.) The language Instinct. How the mind creates language. New York, NY: HarperPerennial.
Rasinski, T., Padak, N., & Newton, J. (2017). The roots of comprehension. Journal of Educational Leadership 74(5),