Morphology instruction: the missing piece of the reading pie

Morphemes are the smallest part of a word that still has a meaning.There are two categories of morphemes: free and bound.Free morphemes can stand alone as a word or sign and have meaning such as the morpheme "work."On the other hand, bound morphemes cannot be used alone as a word or sign and have meaning.For example, "-ing" in English is a bound morpheme.It must be connected to a word such as "working" to have meaning.Bound morphemes are more commonly known as prefixes and suffixes.Prefixes and suffixes can be separated into two categories: inf lectional and derivational.Inf lectional morphemes change the grammar category of the word as well as gives the reader information about the grammar of a sentence.For example, the "-ly" in English is an inf lectional morpheme.It changes the word "kind" to "kindly."Kind is a verb.Kindly is an adverb.Derivational morphemes are combined to make a new word, such as combining un-and kind to make the new word unkind.In the United States, morpheme or morphology instruction has not gotten the attention that phonology instruction has received.Phonology instruction is accepted widely as a critical part of reading instruction.At the same time, morphology instruction may be similarly critical and beneficial particularly to older deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) readers.