Morphological awareness and reading : theory, research and practice

Morphological awareness refers to the ability to reflect on and manipulate morphemes and word formation rules in language ( Kuo & Anderson,2006 ). This paper presents both a theoretical framework and current research on the relevance of morphological awareness to reading achievement as well as to reading instruction. Additionally, it provides a synthesis of empirical studies on the topic of morphological awareness and reading from a crosslinguistic perspective. Educational practices and implications to the classroom, based on the aforementioned theory and research findings, are also explored suggesting a need for explicit instruction of derivational morphology in the second language classroom to assist students in breaking down single word meaning as well as to promote reading comprehension.Education, Faculty ofLanguage and Literacy Education (LLED), Department ofUnreviewedGraduat