I reviewed three research articles and the one that I found the most useful for my draft Driving Question was "Minding morphology: How morphological awareness relates to reading for English language learners".
Study Conclusion: Phonological vs. Morphological (as it relates to Vocabulary acquisition
"Our study suggests phonological decoding supports word reading, which is an area of strength for ELLs, but not reading vocabulary, which is an area of challenge. Therefore, it is not surprising that phonological decoding did not support reading comprehension because it did not relate to reading vocabulary, a main area of difficulty faced by ELLs who are attempting to comprehend text. Morphological awareness, which involves analysis and manipulation of units of meaning, specifically addresses the problem space of vocabulary, and therefore, better explained variance in reading comprehension compared to phonological decoding, or letter-by-letter processing of words. "
The piece that is key for ELLs is that vocabulary development. If they have the word-attack skills they can break-down a word decoding wise, but also understand it's morphological meaning. This will support the vocabulary understanding, which leads to stronger reading comprehension. ELLs have to do this at a faster rate to "catch-up" with English only students.
Study Conclusion: Phonological vs. Morphological (as it relates to Vocabulary acquisition
"Our study suggests phonological decoding supports word reading, which is an area of strength for ELLs, but not reading vocabulary, which is an area of challenge. Therefore, it is not surprising that phonological decoding did not support reading comprehension because it did not relate to reading vocabulary, a main area of difficulty faced by ELLs who are attempting to comprehend text. Morphological awareness, which involves analysis and manipulation of units of meaning, specifically addresses the problem space of vocabulary, and therefore, better explained variance in reading comprehension compared to phonological decoding, or letter-by-letter processing of words. "
The piece that is key for ELLs is that vocabulary development. If they have the word-attack skills they can break-down a word decoding wise, but also understand it's morphological meaning. This will support the vocabulary understanding, which leads to stronger reading comprehension. ELLs have to do this at a faster rate to "catch-up" with English only students.
