Morphology and Phonology

Morphology and Phonology for ELL learners

1. Morphology & Phonology By Joshua S. Donaldson

2. Morphology in Instruction Morphology is the study of words and how morphemes combine to create words. Morphemes are the smallest units of bases and affixes that combine to form words. Teaching morphemes help teach more vocabulary because students can relate words based on common morphemes. To know a language one must know the morphemes of that language.

3. Morphemes Morphemes are grouped into Two Classes Closed Classes – Morphemes keep the same form every time used and cannot be changed such as conjunctions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, determiners, prepositions, and inflectional suffixes. Open Classes – Morphemes change according to the grammar and meaning of a sentence such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and derivational affixes. Free and Bound Morphemes Free – One morpheme and can stand alone Bound – One morpheme cannot stand alone and must be attached to a free morpheme Inflectional Bound – Can change meaning Derivational bound – Often changes part of speech (From Linguistics for Teachers of ELLs)

4. Morphology Meets Communication Needs Learning morphemes helps students learn vocabulary which in turn helps them communicate more effectively. Written and verbal communication will improve. Helps students cross languages and transfer knowledge for communication purposes.

5. Phonology in Instruction Phonology is the study of how speech sounds form patterns. Phonology lets one know which sounds are from one’s language and which are foreign. It lets you know the combinations of sounds that comprise possible words in one’s language. Allows one to adjust pronunciation of morphemes. Helps one learn the different ways plurals are pronounced. May compare and contrast the way sounds are used in English to other languages.

6. Explanation of Phonological Rules Assimilation – Sounds in words become more similar to surrounding sounds Deletion - Sounds are left out of words Insertion - Sounds are put in words Metathesis – Sounds are reversed in order (From Linguistics for Teachers of ELLs)

7. Phonology Meets Communication Needs Learning the correct way to pronounce words will help students communicate effectively. They will understand others’ languages and others will understand their languages. Phonology can also help the teacher effectively meet the needs of ELL students. The following link has great activities to use to help with phonological skills https :// pals.virginia.edu /tools- activities.html

8. References Fromkin , V., Rodman, R., & Hyams , N. (2014). An introduction to language ( 10th ed.). Boston MA: Cengage Wadsworth.  Pals activities. (2007). Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening . Retrieved from https :// pals.virginia.edu/tools-activities.html . What is morphology? Linguistics for Teachers of ELLS . Retrieved from http:// linguisticsforteachersofells.weebly.com/morphology-in-the- classroom.html . What is phonology? Linguistics for Teachers of ELLS . Retrieved from http :// linguisticsforteachersofells.weebly.com/phonology-in-the- classroom.html .