Morphological Awareness
Vocabulary is the term for the words of a language and morphology is the term for the study of the parts of words. Students’ vocabularies expand through the study of word parts, specifically root or base words (e.g., connect), affixes (e.g., reconnect, connection), and inflectional morphemes (e.g., connects, connecting, connected).
The study of word parts increases awareness of the links between words, including the origins of words in other languages. The term cognate means to have “the same ancestry.” Many English words are close cognates to German words (e.g., apple/Apfel). Other English words are easily traced to French words (e.g., communicate/communiquer). French and Spanish both originated from Latin which means that cognates also exist between English and Spanish words (e.g., communicate/comunicar). TextProject provides valuable resources for teachers to support students in developing morphological awareness and knowledge across languages.
Visit our Pinterest board on Morphological Awareness for an overview of our resources.
Using Spanish Cognates to Teach Morphological Awareness
- Exceptional Expressions for Everyday Events (Teacher Resources)
- Spanish-English Cognates (Lists & Guides)
Morphological Awareness & English Learners
- Text Complexity & English Learners: Building Vocabulary (Text Matters)
- Teaching English Learners: Vocabulary (Parts 1 & 2) (YouTube)
- Hiebert, E.H., & Bravo, M., (2010). Morphological knowledge and learning to read in English. (TextProject Articles)
Morphological Awareness & Academic Language
- Lubliner, S., & Hiebert, E.H. (2011). An analysis of English-Spanish cognates as a source of general academic language. (TextProject Articles)
- Bravo, M.A., Hiebert, E.H., & Pearson, P.D. (2007). Tapping the linguistic resources of Spanish/English bilinguals: The role of cognates in science. (TextProject Articles)