Morpho-Phonemic Analysis Boosts Orthographic and Semantic Learning of Academic Words for Spanish-English Bilinguals (Poster 1)

• In Event: AERA Virtual Poster Session 2
  In Poster Session: Morpho-Phonemic Analysis Boosts Orthographic and Semantic Learning of Academic Words for Spanish-English Bilinguals

Abstract

The present study investigated the effect of morpho-phonemic analysis instruction on the acquisition of meanings and spellings of morphologically complex academic words. Employing a within-subject design, 30 fourth- and fifth-grade Spanish-English bilingual students were taught two sets of derivational words of various orthographic and phonological opaqueness under morpho-phonemic analysis (treatment) and whole word (control) conditions. Positive treatment effects were observed for both meaning and spelling outcomes. Further analyses on spelling performance revealed larger treatment benefits on affix and word-level spelling compared to base spelling. Findings from our study show the promise of morpho-phonemic analysis instruction for teaching complex academic words among upper-elementary bilingual students.

Authors

• Jie Zhang, University of Houston

• Zhenjie Hou, University of Houston

• Lana Kharabi-Yamato, University of Houston - Clear Lake

• Stephen Winton

• Azizah Curry Iluore, University of Houston

• Grace Lee, University of Houston

• Huan Zhang, Nanjing Normal University

• Rosa Nam, Colorado State University