Using Derivational Morphology to Improve Students' Word Attack Skills

Abstract

Students were given training in using derivational morphology to help them work out the meanings of new words. Three approaches were used: giving the meaning of the word, identifying its part of speech and guessing the meaning from context. Overall it was found that the effect of the training was beneficial and that the best improvements were made in the area of guessing meanings from context. Analysis of the sub-tasks involved showed that students displayed a superior level of skill in analytical tasks (breaking up a word into its consti tuent parts) compared to tasks requiring synthetic skills (putting the parts together to create meanings) .