Teaching and Learning Morphology: A Reflection on Generative Vocabulary Instruction

Abstract

Students' knowledge of morphology can play a critical role in vocabulary development, and by extension, reading comprehension and student writing. This reflection describes the nature of this knowledge and how it may be developed through the examination of generative vocabulary knowledge and the role of the spelling system in developing this knowledge. In addition, it explores morphological development and the significant insights and understandings that students should attain: the basic nature of word formation processes, the spelling-meaning connection, the generativity of morphology: roots and affixes, etymology and morphology, and the role of morphological knowledge in learning other languages.