The Effects of Morphological Awareness Training on the Reading and Spelling Skills of Young Dyslexics |
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| Authors: | Elisabeth Arnbak Carsten Elbro |
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| Institution: | 1. University of Helsinki , Johanna.mikkonen@helsinki.fi;3. University of Helsinki , |
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| Abstract: | This article reports data from a training study of morphological awareness involving 33 dyslexic students in grades 4 - 5. The dyslexic students received 36 lessons of morphological awareness training each of about a quarter of an hour. The training was oral and focused on semantic aspects of morphemes. During the training period, the experimental group gained significantly more than a similar group of untrained controls (n = 27) on one of three measures of morphological awareness. Both groups, however, made equal gains on measures of phonological awareness, phoneme discimination and picture naming. The experimental group progressed significantly more than the controls in reading comprehension and in spelling of morphologically complex words. The results of the study suggest that it is possible to develop dyslexic students' morphological awareness. Furthermore, awareness of morphemes, the smallest meaningful units of language, may support the development of meaning - oriented decoding strategies in reading and spelling. |
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| Keywords: | interest university students disciplinary choices |
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