Morphological Awareness Intervention

Abstract

We investigated the effect of a morphological awareness intervention on the morphological awareness and reading skills of a 6-year-old student who was struggling with early reading skills and had a history of speech and language impairment. We conducted a 7-week intervention designed to increase the student’s awareness of affixes and the meaning relations between base words and their inflected and derived forms. The student received twenty-five, 35-min sessions, typically receiving three to four sessions per week. Results revealed clinically relevant gains in morphological awareness abilities and word-level (sight word) reading skills. Gains were noted in pseudoword reading and reading comprehension, but they did not reach clinically relevant levels. The results of our case study suggest that our relatively short, but somewhat intensive, morphological awareness intervention led to clinically relevant gains in morphological awareness skills and word-level reading abilities for our 6-year-old student with a history of speech and language impairment. Initial clinical implications, limitations of the study, and research suggestions are discussed.

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

“…Regarding morphology instruction, researchers have emphasized the need for morphological instruction in language literacy (McLeod & Apel, 2015;Fracasso, Bangs, & Binder, 2016). Explicit instruction of morphology is viewed by Wilson, (2005) as an effective means to enhance applying word structure for decoding, spelling, and vocabulary study.…”

Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Morphological Awareness Intervention

“…Many intervention studies do not include detailed diagnostic information of the students included in experimental and control groups (e.g., Arnbak & Elbro, 2000). It is important to provide detailed diagnostic information because students with reading disorders have varying levels of strengths and weaknesses, and severity of impairment affects the learning outcomes of students (Abbott & Berninger, 1999; Cain & Oakhill, 2006; Goodwin & Ahn, 2010; McLeod & Apel, 2015; Werfel, 2012; Wolter & Apel, 2010; Young et al, 2002). Understanding the specific strengths and weaknesses of students will help guide treatment decisions and determine why some students respond to the intervention better than other students (Al Otaiba & Fuchs, 2006).…”

Making Sense of Word Reading Difficulties: Principles of Clinical Assessment

“…A report by the Florida Center for Reading Research (2007, p. 4) stated that REWARDS Intermediate and REWARDS Secondary programs are "teacher-friendly" and that "student progress is easily monitored, charted, and rewarded, thus increasing motivation." (For additional strategies for improving morphological analysis and multisyllabic word reading, see Blevins, 2001;Kearns & Whaley, 2019;Knight-McKenna, 2008;McLeod & Apel, 2015;Wolter & Collins, 2017. ) Table 1 lists word reading skills, test formats, and rationales for the salient design features of these formats.…”

“…Intermediate (Grades 4–6) and Secondary (Grades 6–12) programs are available, as well as REWARDS PLUS: Social Studies and Science versions. A report by the Florida Center for Reading Research (2007, p. 4) stated that REWARDS Intermediate and REWARDS Secondary programs are “teacher-friendly” and that “student progress is easily monitored, charted, and rewarded, thus increasing motivation.” (For additional strategies for improving morphological analysis and multisyllabic word reading, see Blevins, 2001; Kearns & Whaley, 2019; Knight-McKenna, 2008; McLeod & Apel, 2015; Wolter & Collins, 2017. )…”