Research Summary by Linda McElroy Morphological Instruction: A Support for Developing Reading Comprehension Editor’s Note: The International Literacy Association’s website has archived a series of podcasts with authors of articles that have been published in Reading Research Quarterly (RRQ). One of those featured articles is reviewed in this column, along with a related article from The Reading Teacher. The podcasts can be found at this site: https://ila.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/19362722/homepage/rrqauthorinterviews
The following articles are included in this research summary: Levesque, K.C., Kieffer, M.J., & Deacon, S.H. (2018). Inferring meaning from meaningful parts: The contributions of morphological skills to the development of children’s reading comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly, 54, 63-80. doi:10.1002.rrq/219 Manyak, P.C., Baumann, J.F., & Manyak, A-M. (2018). Morphological analysis instruction in the elementary grades: Which morphemes to teach and how to teach them. The Reading Teacher, 72, 289-300. doi:10.1002/trtr.1713 Teachers are committed to helping students become successful, engaged readers. We understand that there are many components that contribute to the developmental process, including those famous “five elements” identified in the Report of the National Reading Panel (phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension) (2000). Beyond those five elements, many other factors are part of the process. My own experience as a reading specialist working with children in upper elementary and middle school makes me very conscious of challenges as children move beyond simple phonics patterns to trying to decode multiple-syllable words. Therefore, I was intrigued by a recent study in RRQ. Inferring meaning from meaningful parts helps children notice and use morphemes, the smallest units of meaning in the words they encounter in their reading. The research study from RRQ analyzed two related concepts and the ways that they impact reading comprehension. Morphological awareness refers to the awareness of, and ability to, manipulate morphemes. Morphological analysis refers to the use of morphemes to understand the meanings of unfamiliar multiple-syllable words. The research study analyzed these two types of using morphemes, as well as their relation to reading comprehension. This research study was a longitudinal study conducted over two years with children while they were in third and fourth grades. Two research questions were addressed. First, researchers tested morphological awareness and morphological analysis as possible unique predictors of gains in reading comprehension from grade 3 to grade 4. The second question analyzed the relation between morphological awareness and morphological analysis. In addition, the researchers assessed students’ reading comprehension, with controls for word reading, vocabulary, phonological awareness, nonverbal ability, and age.
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