Improving Literacy by Teaching Morphemes

Terezinha Nunes is Professor of Educational Studies at the University of Oxford and Fellow of Harris-Manchester College, Oxford.Peter Bryant is Visiting Professor of Psychology at Oxford Brookes University, UK and Emeritus Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford.

• Part 1: What is the Issue? 1. Morphemes and Literacy: A Starting Point 2. What Knowledge of Morphemes Do Children and Adults Show in the Way That They Spell Words Part 2: What Does the Research Tell Us? 3. From the Laboratory to the Classroom 4. An Interview Program for Teaching Children about Morphemes in the Classroom: Effects on Spelling 5. An Intervention Program for Classroom Teaching About Morphemes: Effects on the Children’s Vocabulary 6. Can We Increase Teacher’s Awareness of Morphology and Have an Impact on Their Pupils’ Spelling? Part 3: What are the Overall Implications? 7. Morphemes and Literacy: Context and Conclusions

'Although primary teachers are the main target audience for this book, I think that teachers and trainers of adult literacy would also find it instructive in terms of broadening their understanding of how we learn to spell.' - Kerry Doyle, Northbrook College of Further and Higher Education 'The book is a challenge to advocates of predominantly phonetic approaches to spelling and to those who think good spelling is simply a matter of effective memorisation. Convincing research evidence is presented from a number of schools in London and Oxford suggesting that teaching morphemes will help to overcome some of the problems associated with the lack of spelling-sound correspondence in the English language.' - escalate.ac.uk