JESSA MAE A.

ALBARACIN
MAED-I STRUCTURES OF ENGLISH

Morphological Awareness And Some Implications For English Language Teaching

In linguistics, morphology is the study of words, how they are formed, and their
relationship to other words in the same language. In other word, morphology is the study of the
internal structure of words and forms a core part of linguistic study today. Research says that
knowing the strategies in word formation such as determining the different morphological forms
of words in text is better than just understanding the meanings of words alone. As English
teachers, it is our duty to help our students learn more about morphological awareness (MA) and
how to use it in their daily lives, for it will be of a great help in their future success. English
educators should also know the insights into morphology, morphemes and morphological
awareness, and then presents some pedagogical implications for English language teaching.

Morphological awareness refers to “… children’s conscious awareness of the morphemic

structure of words and their ability to reflect on and manipulate that structure” (Carlisle, 1995, p.
194). MA includes your knowledge about derivational (e.g., -er/-or, -tion, un-, re-) morphemes
(i.e., suffixes
and prefixes) and inflectional (e.g., -ed, -s, -ing, -est) markers (i.e., suffixes). It is believed that
reading comprehension translates into better writing skills. Therefore, MA is constantly
associated with the development of reading and writing skills.

It is important to possess knowledge of MA is that it gives students the chance to be more

familiar with the writing system present within a language and not only the meaning of words. In
this way, students are at advantage for they know how to decode spelling as well as sound
irregularities. According to the article, it can also be asserted that students will be more at ease in
learning English if they have knowledge of the more common root word and are therefore able to
break down the word to a more understandable form.

English morphology includes knowledge of both derivational and inflectional

morphemes. While an awareness of inflectional morphology develops grammatical accuracy, an
awareness of derivational morphology plays a significant role in promoting students’ vocabulary
knowledge. According to Nagy and Anderson (1984), there is an estimation of 60% unknown
words which English readers encounter in texts have meanings that may be predicted on the
basis of their component morphemes. With the given statement, we can see how important
teaching morphology is to our students to acquire morphological awareness. Based on our
observations, we can say that a person or student has a wide range of vocabulary if he knows
how words are created by joining suffixes, prefixes, and roots. This aspect of MA is linked
directly to students’ ability to build up their vocabulary.

Knowledge in morphology does not only limit their comprehension in better reading and
writing skills but also their listening and speaking skills. Indeed, there is a relationship between
learners’ knowledge of the base form of the word and their ability to recognize words efficiently
enough to be able to speak in a coherent manner (Kieffer & Lesaux, 2009). As we are
morphologically aware of the words and its meaning, we can now comprehend it deeper and as a
result it can significantly improve our speaking and listening skills as well.

Living in a generation where most of the people used English language as a parameter of
intelligence (given that English is a universal language), it is fair to say that as a teacher, we
should teach our students with the basic word formation. People tend to be more amazed when
we use deep vocabularies and sentences rather than a much common or simple one. But as a
teacher, always remember that your teaching strategies must be adjusted to suit each age group.