What is morphology?
Morphology refers to units of meaning within words, called morphemes. A morpheme is the term for any single unit of meaning. It is therefore by definition a root, prefix or suffix. Morphological awareness refers to the ability to identify, compare and manipulate morphemes within words, and morphological processing is the act of doing this. For example, I know that teacher is someone who teaches, helper someone who helps, painter someone who paints, and so on. I deduce that -er means “someone who”. I can therefore confidently guess that provider is someone who provides, and can even create a new, plausible word Forniter as someone who plays Fortnite, all using my morphological processing skills.
Why morphology?
Our language is morphophonemic; in other words it is based on both morphological and phonological structure (units of sound). Approximately 80% of English words contain more than one morpheme. These morphemes are used across a number of words, and therefore can be generalised. They have been described by Rastle (2018) as “islands of regularity in the mapping between printed words and their meaning”. Morphology is not a whole word approach, nor is it an alternative to phonics. Morphemes literally make sense of language and they are entirely necessary as part of cracking the code of English spelling.
It has been suggested that English spelling is riddled with inaccuracies. It has even been proposed that the spelling system is reworked to comply with phonetic rules in order to simplify. We could then spell really as rearly, like clearly and dearly. We could write conduct as conducked, so it looked like like ducked.
In fact, President Roosevelt tried to do just this in 1906. He decreed that all documents issued by the White House should follow the simplified, phonetic spellings that were advocated by the Simplified Spelling Board, set up the previous year. The board wanted to create a clean and modern version of the American language for the 20th century.
The trouble was, and is, that the English language is not just a muddling set of confusing rules full of phonetic errors that need correcting, but a set of beautifully crafted words which not only tell the story of a language, but which hold meaning in each unit. Really means in a real way, not in a rear way, as rearly would imply! The -ed in plucked tells us that an action (pluck) has been done, while duct in conduct carries the meaning “lead”, from our Latin roots.
Research is telling us loudly and clearly that morphological analysis supports reading comprehension as well as decoding and spelling.
As soon as known morphemes in words convey meaning, analogies can be made for new words to support understanding, and this can be done at considerably more speed than phonetic decoding alone. So, I am more likely to successfully read the word pseudonational if I not only recognise familiar syllables (tion, al, for example), but units of meaning as well: pseudo and nation. I infer meaning rapidly because of my morphological analysis.
What about dyslexia?
Dyslexia relates to fluent and accurate difficulties with word reading and spelling. Often it’s accompanied by weak phonological skills (the ability to discriminate and manipulate speech sounds), which underpin the acquisition of phonics. Research is beginning to show us that morphological processing is independent from phonological processing, and that dyslexics compensate for phonological weakness by using morphological processing skills (Law, Ghesquiere, 2021).
This is exciting for teachers and learners! It means that a morphological approach to teaching dyslexic learners (or those with difficulties in reading and spelling), who have struggled repeatedly with phonics approaches, is a robust option. It means that research supports what many educators know and observe day in, day out, that dyslexic learners struggle to acquire fluency when they rely on phonic strategies alone, and that morphology works!
I’m convinced: where do I start?
Morph Mastery was written deliberately for educators to pick and choose what to teach, and how to teach it. It’s an intervention for learners with very persistent difficulties, but there are also plenty of activities to try out in your groups or class.
Here’s some ideas:
- Morph Mastery assessments are based on the English National Curriculum for spelling, so these is a great place to start if you are concerned with pupil progress in reading or spelling
- Conduct word mastery: in other words, ask each other questions about multi-morphemic words. For example, how many morphemes does it have? What are they? What does the prefix/suffix mean/do? Can you change the root? Has the root changed at all when you added a suffix? Can you think of another word containing on of these morphemes?
- Conduct word espionage. Use the Morph colour code (prefix = green, root = yellow, suffix = blue) to find and highlight morphemes in texts, and in pupils’ own writing, and talk about what you have found
- Play games to practise manipulating morphemes within words, for example Happy Families, Stealth (Battleships with ninjas!), connecting morphemes from cards, and using spinners and spinner bases to play with different morphemes.
- Create portals for words, and invite pupils to create their own. Here are some examples:
- And, if you’re bonkers enough and your learners are game, do The Morph. This is a handshake which separates words into their morphemes with a series of actions.
Time and time again, I meet adults with dyslexia or spelling difficulties who, when they learn about Morph Mastery and the morphological approach, tell me they WISH they had had this opportunity at school. It’s evidence-based, it’s engaging, it’s creative, it’s hugely dyslexia friendly, it’s refreshing, and most importantly, it WORKS.
Try a FREE Chapter of An Introduction to Morph Mastery
This free guide provides teachers with an introduction to morphology, as well as an understanding of why it is so important. It includes a step by step guide to teaching Morph Mastery and shows how it can support struggling readers and writers aged 9-13.
For further Morph Mastery training opportunities:
I have some courses available in my training portal for those who want to get stuck into some more learning straight away here are two OnDemand courses available:
Or, if you happen to be in the Manchester area in March I will be hosting some live in-person training at Acacias Community Primary School. For more details click here
References:
Rastle et. al (2018) Ending the Reading Wars: Reading Acquisition From Novice to Expert
Kathleen Rastle (2019) The place of morphology in learning to read in English
Levesque, Breadmore & Deaconย How morphology impacts reading and spelling: Advancing the role of morphology in models of literacy development: Advancing the Role of Morphology in Literacy Development
The-Morphological-Pathways-Framework
Law J. M. and Ghesquiรจre Morphological processing in children with developmental dyslexia: a visual masked priming study
