The purpose of this investigation was to determine if morphological awareness training affects the spelling skills of second grade students who struggle with reading. This fourweek investigation used a single-subject A-B-A case design to determine if improved awareness of affixes and the relations between base words and their derived forms would increase word-level spelling accuracy. It was hypothesized that improving the morphological awareness skills of young struggling readers would improve spelling accuracy. Results revealed improved word level spelling accuracy in three of the four participants. However, spelling accuracy of the isolated affixes showed greater improvements in spelling accuracy and there was an immediate and significant decrease in word-level spelling accuracy once the morphological knowledge was eliminated with the introduction of new affixes. Findings suggest that instruction of morphological awareness improves the spelling skills of students who struggle with reading.
Keywords: morphology, morphological awareness, morphological intervention, literacy, spelling
