How effective is morphological awareness instruction on early literacy skills?

Abstract

The present study examined whether morphological awareness instruction in Kindergarten classrooms contributes to the improvement of young children’s early literacy skills (e.g., morphological and phonological awareness, print knowledge, vocabulary). Two quasi-experimental studies were implemented. Study 1 consisted of a treatment and a control group of young children and Study 2 consisted of two treatment groups and a control group. In both studies, the treatment groups received a 5 week intervention scheme with several morphological awareness activities. In Study 2, a second treatment group received an intervention scheme with activities which combined morphological and phonological awareness. Both studies’ findings showed that the treatment groups which received morphological awareness instruction or a blended instruction on morphological and phonological awareness improved the morphological awareness abilities more than the control group. There were small or no transfer effects on the improvement of print knowledge and vocabulary. However, Study 2 showed that phonological awareness abilities improved only in the treatment group which received the blended instruction. According to the present findings, the teaching of morphemes in Kindergarten is beneficial for morphological awareness improvement, but it has to be combined with other early literacy activities in order to have broader effects on young children’s literacy development.