Morphology
Morphology is the study of word forms and how words are formed (Curzan & Adams, 2012). Now some may ask the importance of morphology to a teacher who already had more than enough on his or her plate. This aspect of language is a crucial for a teacher to know. If we are able to understand how words are formed, we are better equipped to help student pick apart and understand language. Consider this:
The average 17 year old English speaker with a strong English background is equipped knowing 80,000 words (that is 14 per day from age 1).
How can we help ELLs catch up to their peers? By being able to teach word formation processes we will help give our students a leg up.
The average 17 year old English speaker with a strong English background is equipped knowing 80,000 words (that is 14 per day from age 1).
How can we help ELLs catch up to their peers? By being able to teach word formation processes we will help give our students a leg up.
|
Teaching these processes does not have to be boring either! Try to make the targeted process contextualized and/or engaging! Here is a fun video on the prefix un.
|
Semantics
Semantics is meaning, whether it is the meaning of an individual word, or how words are put together. Words can have referential or connotative meaning, thus we are not only teaching students one single definition. Knowing a dictionary definition of a word is not enough. According to Dr. Wolfram at North Carolina State University, there are four things one may need to know about just one word: where to use a word in a sentence, what the possible meanings are, how they can be used socially, what else may be used in its place.