Looking Beyond English: Linguistic Inquiry for English Language Learners

Abstract

This paper reports on a pilot project that explored the potential of linguistic inquiry in a high school English as a Second Language (ESL) class. In class meetings across the school year, students worked collaboratively to investigate noun phrase pluralization, language acquisition, writing systems, and translation in their own and other languages. Classroom observations and students’ oral and written work provide evidence that: Examining the structures of the spoken and written languages represented in the ESL classroom captures students’ interest and engages them in critical inquiry about the nature of linguistic knowledge and their beliefs about language. The cross‐linguistic analysis of students’ home languages validates their languages in the school context, defining them as a rich resource worthy of study, rather than as a hindrance to education. These findings are of particular significance in this time of English‐only education in the United States, when students’ home languages are often rejected in schools.

The Effect of Explicit English Morphology Instruction on EFL Secondary School Students’ Morphological Awareness and Reading Comprehension

“…For Kieffer and Lesaux (2007) and Karimi (2012), in many instances, students with the ability to break words into their meaningful parts not only build up their vocabulary but also have a better comprehension of reading and therefore build up their skills in language literacy. Furthermore, morphological awareness enables students to describe complex words and infer meaning from reading comprehension texts (Ginsberg et al, 2011).…”

Morphological Awareness as a Potential Catalyst for Jordanian EFL Students' Reading Comprehension

“…Morphological awareness may be especially essential for learners who suffer from difficulties in reading and vocabulary (Kieffer & DiFelice Box, 2013) due to differences in the phonological and morphological structures in their native language from those in the target language (Birch, 2007;Comrie, 1989). As most English words have meanings which can be deciphered from their constituent elements (Kieffer & DiFelice Box, 2013), not only can morphological awareness enable learners to better decode word meaning, but it can also catalyze their comprehension (Anglin, 1993;Ginsberg, Honda, & O'Neil, 2011;Kieffer & Lesaux, 2012b).…”

The Influence of Derivational and Inflectional Morphological Awareness on the Writing of Undergraduate EFL Students: An Empirical Study

“…Next, Kieffer and Lesaux's (2012) investigation on Spanish, Filipino, and Vietnamese speaking learners, as well as native English speakers, reveal that derivational morphological awareness boosts students' cognition to guess word meanings; consequently, derivational morphology guides in developing a better knowledge of understanding words and texts via reading vocabulary. One more study (Ginsberg, Honda, & O'Neil, 2011) also assures that morphological knowledge acts for Arab World English Journal www.awej.org ISSN: 2229-9327 246 building up the comprehension of complex words and the ability of reading and writing competence. Some other studies like Kielar and Joanisse (2010) distinguish several responses to inflectional morphology: regular, irregular and internal change/suppletion.…”