A Brief Examination of Morphological Awareness in Education

Kaylee Etters

Were you ever the student who did not understand a word that everyone else seemed to understand? Or, have you seen a friend not understand a word in the same way as others? Many people struggle with understanding commonly-used words and expressing their misunderstanding, especially students with learning disabilities. Phonological awareness is the simple “sounding-out” method that multiple teachers and students use to understand a definition or meaning. However, morphological awareness reaches beyond the sound of a word. Morphological awareness breaks down a word to the its internal construction. This allows students to learn how a word was built and created, which can lead to understanding and comprehending a multitude of other words. This study explores morphological awareness and the strategies to implement the process into a classroom, with an emphasis on helping students with learning disabilities.

• Kaylee Etters graduated from Chester High School and is completing her degree at Lander University as a secondary education English major in May 2022. For the last three years, Kaylee has experienced five different classrooms and four different schools. In the last year, Kaylee has also worked as a Lander Peer LINK Leader and presented at the SCCTE conference and the UWC conference on topics regarding different teaching approaches and processes.