1 focal illogical logical

Morphology interventions and their impact on
children’s spelling and vocabulary
Terezinha Nunes
Peter Bryant
Jane Hurry
Ursula Pretzlik
Aim
• To assess the impact of an intervention to
increase awareness of morphemes on
vocabulary and spelling
• Pre-test measures
– a vocabulary measure designed for a whole
class presentation with individual responses
– pseudo-word definition test
– spelling of suffixes in words
– spelling of suffixes in pseudo-words
Vocabulary Test: Pre- and Post-test
• 40 items
• Multiple choice
• Alpha reliability above .8
• Children do not read or write but tick answers
• Items are presented on the screen, tester reads
everything, children have a booklet which is
identical to the display on the screen.
• Freyja Birgisdottir
• Daniel Bell
• Joe Burbank
• Julia Carraher
• Deborah Evans
• Selly Gardner
• Joanna Wade
The team
Design
• Pre-test
• Intervention delivered by teachers in the classroom
• Post-test
• Delayed post-test (about 8-10 weeks later)
• Waiting list model: schools that comprised the comparison
group in the first year are intervention schools in the
second year
• Two types of intervention: Intervention 1 without
emphasis on spelling and Intervention 2 with emphasis on
spelling
• Year groups: 3 (mean age 8yr4m) to 6 (mean age 11y4m)
in primary school
• 388 pupils, 121 in comparison group, 206 in Intervention 1
and 61 in Intervention 2
logical
illogical
focal
To solve maths problems you need to be very ___________________.
1

electrics
mechanics
electricians
The people who were rewiring the house were ___________________.
• The pseudo-word definition task (real stems
and affixes in non-existing combinations)
– chickener; shoutist; unwet
• Spelling suffixes (words presented in
sentences)
– magician; emotion; statement
• Spelling stems and suffixes in pseudowords
(pseudo-words presented in
sentences which contained the base form)
– lagician; saugthiness
Example: making agents
er ist
A person who cleans is a _______. cleaner
painless
painful
pointless
The doctor told Georgia not to worry because the injection would be _________________.
The intervention
• Focused on talking about morphemes and their
meaning in I1; in I2, added focus on spelling
• Children learned some technical words (prefix,
stem, suffix, noun, verb, adjective, abstract noun,
agent).
• Tasks were presented on the screen. Children
answered in pairs and discussed their answers.
Some tasks asked for justifications and
generalisations. Worksheets were provided.
er ist
A person who works in science is a ________.
scientist
2

Can you think of some more people
words that end with:
?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
…er …ist
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
er ist ian
library
Session 2
Task 2 – Abstract nouns
er ist ian
er ist ian
ness ion
magician magician
librar ian
He can’t lift the weight
because of his
weak
ness
3

ness ion
The evil villain was planning
to dominat
e the world
Morphemes change
the meaning of words
Count the
morphemes and compare
your answer with your
neighbour’s
ness ion
The evil villain was planning
world dominat
eion ion
untied
un tied tied
dishonest
4

dis
honest
unfortunate
fortunate fortunate
un fortun
ate
Well done!
end of Session 4
Identify the prefix and stems.
What number is in the
prefix?
What do you think the made up
word means?
5

Bicycle
What is it about the word
that gives you a clue about
this difference?
What is the most important
difference between a bicycle
and a tricycle?
Tricycle
Today in town I saw a
biheaded martian. Draw a
biheaded martian.
The horse was______.
bitailed
Binoculars Triangle
Yesterday I came across
a ________monster.
trilegged
Scores
Effects on vocabulary (max score=40)
23
22.5
22
21.5
21
20.5
20
19.5
19
18.5
18
Time 1 Time 2 Time 3
Testing occasion
Intervention effects are significant
Comparison
group
Internvention
1
Intervention
2
6

Effects for low (left) and high (right) achievers on vocabulary
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Time
1
Time2 Time
3
Comparison
Intervention 1
Intervention 2
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Time 1 Time2 Time 3
Effect sizes
Low achievers: 0.48 for I1 and 0.72 for I2
High achievers: 0.2 for I1 0.65 for I2
Intervention effects on pseudo-word definition
Percent correct
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Time 1 Time 2 Time 3
Testing occasion
Comparison
group
Internvention
1
Intervention
2
Intervention effects are significant; interaction between type of intervention and
level of progress (p=.06).
Intervention effects on spelling (max = 26)
Score
20
19
18
17
16
15
14
Time 1 Time 2 Time 3
Testing occasion
Comparison
group
Intervention 1
Intervention 2
Intervention effects are significant; significant interaction between type of intervention
and progress
Conclusion
• Children’s literacy development can benefit from
boosting their awareness of morphemes
• A focus on meaning improves vocabulary, word
attack strategies, and spelling
• An added focus on spelling has a more marked
effect on spelling
• However, low achievers may benefit more by
starting with a focus on meaning, turning to
spelling later when they have made progress in
awareness of morphemes
Effects for low (left) and high (right) achievers on pseudo-word definition
24
22
20
18
16
14
12
10
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
Time
1
Time
1
Time2 Time
3
Comparison
Intervention 1
Intervention 2
Time2 Time
3
Comparison
Intervention 1
Intervention 2
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
Time 1 Time2 Time 3
Effect size=.38 for I1 for low achievers and .46 for
high achievers
Effects for low (left) and high (right) achievers on spelling
24
23
22
21
20
19
18
17
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
Time 1 Time2 Time 3
Intervention not significant for high achievers
For low achievers, effect size = 0.36 for I1 and .41
for I2.
7

Intervention effects on pseudo-word suffix spelling (max = 10)
Score
10
9.5
9
8.5
8
7.5
7
6.5
6
5.5
5
Time 1 Time 2 Time 3
Testing occasion
Comparison
group
Intervention 1
Intervention 2
Intervention effects are significant but improvement is not sustained at delayed posttest.
Intervention effect was not significant for low achievers; for high achievers,
effects were only significant at immediate post-test. Measure might be too demanding
Conclusions
• Boosting children’s awareness of morphemes has
a positive effect on their vocabulary, word attack
strategies and spelling
• Low achievers may profit more from teaching that
initially does not focus on spelling but the focus
on spelling adds to children’s spelling progress
• High achievers may learn significantly more than
low achievers implicitly but still show clear
benefits from becoming aware of morphemes
• It is possible to implement a teaching programme
with modest investment on teacher training
8