Teaching the

Structural or
Morphemic
Analysis Skills

W hat is M orphem ic Analysis or

StructuralAnalysis?
A strategy in which the meanings of
words can
be determined or inferred by
examining their
meaningful parts (i.e., prefixes,
suffixes,
roots, etc.)

Recom m endations
in teaching the
structural or
m orphem ic skills

1.Provide students w ith

skills/opportunities to learn w ords
independently
Primary focus of instruction in

grades K-3 should be on developing

critical reading skills
Read storybooks to younger children
to develop vocabulary
Teach older students strategies for
contextual analysis and morphemic
analysis

2.Teach students the m eanings of

specifi
c w ords
For younger children
Choose 2-5 words to teach

directly from storybooks

Choose words that are
important for the story or
important for students to know

 Give simple definitions (i.e.,

examples, synonyms, or
definitions) & discuss them
in the context of the story
Provide students with the
opportunity to process the
words "deeply"
Discuss the words multiple
times

For older children

Choose words that will enhance the

meaning of what students are

reading or important for students to
know
Use both context and definitions
Teach word meanings by using
examples, synonyms, and definitions
Provide students with the
opportunity to process the words
"deeply"

3.N urture a love and appreciation

ofw ords and their use
Choose quality storybooks that
children enjoy listening to
Model "word awareness" and
show students that words are
important, interesting, and fun
Provide students with rich oral
language experiences

U nderstanding
Structural A nalysis

 Unfamiliar words are a lot like puzzles.

When we come across a word we don't

know or understand, it helps if we can
look at it like it's a puzzle that can be
broken apart into puzzle
pieces.Structural analysisis
dividing words into parts to discover
what an unknown word means. Word
parts contribute to the overall
meaning of a word. Many words in the
English language are composed of a
root, a prefix, and/or a suffix.

 Aroot wordis a word that does not

have a prefix or a suffix and is the

base or core that can't be reduced
into a smaller word form. Aprefixis a
letter or group of letters that is placed
at the beginning of a word to change
its meaning. For example, let's say
you have the root word agree. Then,
you add the prefix 'dis' (which means
not or opposite of) to the word agree.
That gives you the word disagrees,
which means to not agree.

 Asuffixis a letter or group of letters that

come at the end of a word and change its

meaning. Suffixes can indicate how a word is
being used grammatically and what tense is
being used. For instance, the word close
becomes closed when you add the suffix 'd'
to show that the action already took place
and is over. The verb manage can change to
a noun by adding the suffix 'ment' (which
means a product or resulting state) to form
the word 'management.' Although both
prefixes and suffixes change the meaning of
the word, the key to not getting the two
confused is to remember that 'pre' means
before and 'suf' means after.

Structural A nalysis

A word recognition skills in which

knowledge of the meaningful parts of
words aids in the identification of an
unknown written word.
aids with the pronunciation of unknown
words.
aids with the understanding of an
unknown word.
the student looks for meaningful parts
of an unfamiliar word in order to
decode it or to determine what the
word means.

Syllable

A vowel or a group of letters containing

a vowel sound which together form a
pronounceable unit that usually does
not have meaning on its own.
Ex. pa-per, pen-cil, com-mon, stumble
Syllabication
The ability to break words into
syllables, aids in reading by:
Helps to pronounce words not
recognized as sight words.
Assisting in spelling of words

Root W ords & B ase

W ords

Root words come from another

language or language structure
and can not stand alone in English
as words (Bound morphemes)
Examples: the root tain in the
following:
Maintain
sustain
pertain
Refer
confer
prefer

Base words are English words

and can stand alone as
words(free morphemes)
assist/assistance
under/undergo

A dding to B ase or
Root W ords

Affixes
Letter combinations or
syllables added at the
beginning or end of a word to
change its meaning or part of
speech.
There are two kinds of affixes:
Prefixes
Suffixes

Prefixes
Prefixes are attached to the
beginning of base words or root
words to change their meaning.

 Examples:
Unpleasant disorganized enable
Misspell preview resend
Meanings of common prefixes
Dis- not disregard
En In Un Re Pre Mis Ir-

within within
not inactive
opposite of unlock
again redo
before preview
wrong misrepresent
not irresponsible

Suffixes
Suffixes are attached to the end of base
words or root words that can change the
words part of speech or its meaning.
Two types of suffixes:
Inflectional endings the formation of
grammatical variants of the same word
Determine determined
Derivational suffix the process of
forming a new word on the basis of an
existing word
happy

Common inflectional endings are:

-s dogs
-es matches
-ess hostess
-ing skating
-ed helped
-er shorter
-est tallest
-ly softly
Inflectional ending ed:
Can be pronounced as /t/ as inbaked
Can be pronounced as /ed/ as in branded
Can be pronounced as /d/ as in warmed

Common suffixes
-y
consisting of or tends to behairy
-ful full ofbeautiful
-er, -or resident of or one who does-teacher
-able, -ible capable, worth adaptable
-less condition of being or without
hatless
-tion, -ion, -ation action --contribution
-ness condition of beingdirectness

C om pound W ords
Compound words are a combination

of two words.
The new word must keep the
pronunciation of the two original
words in order to be considered a
compound word.
The new word contains some sense
of meaning connection with one or
both of the original words.
Examples: roadway, classroom,

Syllabication
The primary reason for teaching or learning

how to divide words into syllables for reading or

decoding purposes is to give the reader clues to
the possible pronunciation of vowel sounds in
unknown words.
By breaking words in syllables or smaller parts,
students are better able to pronounce the parts
and then blend them back into a word that is
familiar to them.
When teaching syllabication, students should be
taught to first look for meaningful chunks of the
unknown word.

Syllabication
G eneralizations
The number of syllables in a word is

closely related to the number of

vowels in the word.
Cat
alphabet
pencil
tiger
Exceptions exist: rate, sweet
Think about the final e as always
silent.

The Im portance of
Structural A nalysis

Studying roots, prefixes, and

suffixes helps students:
Learn to break apart unfamiliar
words in order to understand their
overall meanings
Understand how prefixes and
suffixes can change a word's
meaning and how much of our
language is constructed
Increase vocabulary and reading
comprehension