English language is made up of 3 systems: phonology, morphology and etymology. Morphology is about morphemes, which are prefixes, suffixes and roots. These are units of meaning in words which are such an integral part of our language, and which by their very nature help us to understand words.
Did you know that 80% of our words are made up of more than one morpheme (prefixes, suffixes and roots)? In this podcast, Dale and I break down word examples and highlight that phonic rules don’t always help:
Shouted
Phonic = sh + ou + t + i + d
Morphological = shout + -ed
We look at what the research says about the effectiveness of a meaning-based approach in intervention and literacy development, and we discuss vocabulary and subject based terminology in science and maths. I really enjoyed discussing with Dale the impact of this way of thinking about words from the very beginning of literacy learning to higher education and beyond. I learned a lot as well!
If you’re listening closely, you’ll also hear about ducking to avoid sweetcorn as it is lobbed across the room. What has this got to do with morphology? Listen and find out!
