MA program: knowing the problems of readers in pre-school and while intering

1. Zabihullah Alimyar
Roll No. H- 1187
Morphology matters in learning to read
J. F. Carlisle
1. Name three characteristics of morphologically complex words that affect
learner’s awareness of the structure of words.
a. Frequency
b. Productivity
c. Transparency
2. How does the ability to decompose morphologically complex words help in
reading?
a. Decomposing morphologically complex words make up a large proportion of
unfamiliar words and provide students a very useful strategy for decoding and
analyzing the meaning of the words that contain familiar morpheme.
3. Why does the author say that morphological processing involves interactive
linguistic processing at different levels?
a. Because interactive linguistic processing at word level and beyond is an essential
aspect of morphological processing. The need to process words on several linguistic
dimensions interactively characterizes morphological processing (i.e. phonological,
syntactic, and semantic).
4. Are inflections acquired and mastered before derivations? Substantiate with
an example.
a. Yes, they are. One obvious reason why inflections are learned before derivational is that
inflections are more rule-based and consistent. Children do not wait to learn derivation
until after the inflections are fully mastered. For instance: the suffix in talks (inflection) is
easy for child to learn comparing the suffix in talkative (derivation). for a child it is easy
to acquire grammatical function of a word as in(inflection), but it might be difficult for
them to learn the class change and the meaning of the base word as in (derivation).
5. What are the views expressed in the paper vis-à-vis explicit morphological
awareness instruction? In your opinion, should explicit instruction in
morphological awareness be a part of classroom instruction? Why?
a. Rubin et al. (1991) suggested that the explicit awareness of morphology is often
particularly delayed in children and adult with language learning problems because
these individuals are not effective at monitoring their own language production.

2. b. 1: in explicit instruction, students should be provided with lots of guided practice so
that strategies of morphological and contextual analysis are well-engrained as familiar
“trick of the trade.”
2: in explicit instruction, students in the early years benefit from instruction that guides
the development of their morphological awareness and that provides explanations
about word parts they encounter in their reading and their writing (e.g. the relation of
the sound and spelling of the last tense marker).
3: at all grade level much can be done by teacher to promote implicit awareness of
morphological structure such as relations of sound, spelling, grammar, and meaning.
c. Yes, it should. Because children need explicit instruction in morphological awareness
and may find meaningful units (e.g., prefixes, suffixes, base words) easier to recall than
orthographic units (e.g., syllables) that do not function as morphemes.
6. Why are inflections difficult to acquire for some learners?
Because:
a. Studies show that implicit morphological awareness does not develop solely as a result
of maturation or exposure to the language.
b. Researchers have reported that older students and adults with language difficulties or
dyslexia have prolonged problems learning to use inflectional endings appropriately
(Liberman, el al.1985)
7. What is meant by implicit and explicit morphological awareness? When do
these stages manifest in children’s language ability? How do children access
the meaning of suffixes or stems to arrive at the meaning of words in the
initial stages?
a. At an implicit level, critical to children’s learning, than is awareness that many
English words are combination of morpheme, such awareness is evident in the
language use of preschoolers.
b. At an explicit level children are asked to analyze the morphological structure of words
in isolation or in specific sentence context, the first signs of awareness come in the
elementary years.
c. Children in the initial stage are laying the foundation for analytical reasoning about
words including those that are morphologically complex. As studies have shown that
students do in fact use morphemic analysis to figure out the meanings of word. (e.g.
first grader decompose words with familiar base forms, such as riverlet=small river
8. How does morphological awareness help in the learning of “shift” or
“opaque” words?
a. When children mastered morphological awareness along with orthographical form they
are able to understand the spelling and pronunciation change in shift words.

3. Orthographic representation provides important clues to morphological relations.
Furthermore orthographical regularities are believed to help students learn the correct
spelling of morphologically complex word that vary in phonological form (e.g., muscle
and muscular, able and ability.)
9. How can teachers integrate morphological instruction into the curriculum
right from the elementary years?
a. Teachers can integrate morphological instruction by raising questions
about structure of words, using of puzzle and riddle about meaning, word
play and help the student invent games that involve analysis of word
structure. such as:
Question about strictures
Suffixes Prefixes
help + ful = helpful re+ make= remake
harm +less = harmless un + happy = unhappy
Suffix meaning prefix meaning
ful = full of re = again
less = without un = not
As exercise:
full of help = helpful make again= _________
with out harm__________ not happy =__________
Using puzzles and riddles about meanings e.g. the meaning of
unkind is: the one is kind or the one is not kind.
Using a game to analyze words such as wondering what do we
mean by humorless, is a man or a thing without humor.