Word Detectives: Examining the Effectiveness of an Integrated Morphological Vocabulary Intervention

• In Event: Innovative Approaches to Integrating Morphology Within Adolescent Literacy Instruction

Abstract

Objectives and Purpose

This study explores the effectiveness of a middle school intervention that includes morphological problem-solving within comprehension strategy instruction in supporting vocabulary, word reading fluency, reading comprehension, and morphological awareness. Meta-analyses indicate morphological instruction supports different literacy areas (Bowers, Kirby, & Deacon, 2010; Carlisle, 2010; Goodwin & Ahn, 2010, 2013), suggesting possible effectiveness within a larger language and literacy program.

Theoretical Framework

Retrieving a word’s identity to support comprehension depends on knowledge of that word’s features (Perfetti, 2007), with some information being morphological (Schreuder & Baayen, 1995). Therefore, when encountering commander, sources of knowledge related to commander and its morphological constituents (command, er) are coded and accessed for current and future comprehension.

Methods and Data Sources

Participants were 203 urban middle school students (N=117 fifth-grade; 86 sixth-grade) from four schools learning from 29 teachers. Students were randomly assigned within classroom to the intervention (N=110; morphological problem-solving within comprehension strategy instruction) and comparison condition (N=90; comprehension strategy instruction). All students received four thirty-minute guided reading instructional sessions with 2-7 students. Instruction either lasted two weeks or four weeks with pretests and posttests administered the week prior and after instruction.

Sessions were taught by researchers and included strategy instruction within two content texts. Intervention and comparison conditions were identical except the intervention condition included morphological ‘word-solving’ as an additional comprehension strategy. Researchers were observed for fidelity and scores were high.

Students were pre-tested and post-tested on measures of vocabulary, word reading fluency, reading comprehension, and morphological awareness. Differences in pretest values were explored via independent samples t-tests. Overall effectiveness of instruction regardless of condition was explored via paired-samples t-tests. Interclass correlations were calculated, revealing greater than 10% of variance above the student level. Therefore, data was analyzed using a two-level hierarchical linear model with identical models run in SPSS 20.0 for each outcome with the related pretest scores, intervention status, and intensity status entered as fixed effects. The unconditional effect size Hedges g was also calculated.

Results

No significant differences at pretest were observed. For all students, significant gains were found for each outcome (vocabulary: t(202)=11.08, p<.001; reading comprehension MAZE: t(202)=16.30, p<.001; word reading fluency: t(196)=11.7; morphological word reading fluency: t(185)=17.17, p<.001; and morphological awareness: t(202)=5.04 p<.001) except for a measure of reading comprehension (TOSREC t(202)=1.55, p=.123). Related to the intervention’s effectiveness beyond the comparison instruction, results indicated the intervention had a moderate significant effect on vocabulary scores (b=1.21, SE=0.28, p<.001, g=0.44), with intervention students knowing an average of 1.21 words more than control students controlling for intensity and pretest vocabulary scores. No significant effects were found for word reading fluency, reading comprehension, nor morphological awareness controlling for intensity and the related pretest score.

Scholarly Significance

Teaching morphological problem-solving as part of comprehension instruction seems more effective in supporting vocabulary and equally effective in supporting word reading fluency, reading comprehension, and morphological awareness than comprehension strategy instruction alone. This suggests morphological instruction can support language development when taught in the service of comprehension instruction rather than separately.

Author

• Amanda P. Goodwin, Vanderbilt University