Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Morphological Scaffolding in Learning to Spell: A Cross-Linguistic Review

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Spelling Morphology

Part of the book series: Literacy Studies ((LITS,volume 3))

Abstract

Morphology is a linguistic domain that participates prominently in learning to spell in two ways: early and extensive exposure to a morphology-rich language such as Hebrew would create morphology-based representations in a child’s cognition. This attention to internal word structure would be enhanced and compounded by the representations of morphological constructs in written language. The task of the learning speller would then be to discover and identify morphological categories in the orthography and link them up to spoken categories. Morphologically motivated orthographic representations can be assumed to exist in the linguistic cognition of mature spellers, and they can serve to facilitate spelling in cases of disrupted phoneme-to-grapheme mapping. This chapter presents a review of the current psychological, psycholinguistic and educational literature on spelling in non-Semitic languages with alphabetical orthographies, showing how children, once past the establishment of the grapho-phonemic code, eventually come to rely on morphological cues as props in learning to spell.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 84.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Aro, M. (2005). Learning to read: The effect of orthography. In R. M. Joshi & P. G. Aaron (Eds.), Handbook of orthography and literacy (pp. 531–550). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berman, R. A. (1986). The acquisition of morphology/syntax: A crosslinguistic perspective. In P. Fletcher & M. Garman (Eds.), Language acquisition (2nd ed., pp. 429–477). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berman, R. A. (1999). Relevant features of spoken and written English. In R. Aisenman (Ed.), Working papers in “developing literacy across genres, modalities, and languages” (pp. 4–19). Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berman, R. A. (Ed.). (2004). Language development across childhood and adolescence: Psycholinguistic and crosslinguistic perspectives. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bleses, D., & Thomsen, P. (2004). The acquisition of spoken forms and written words: An empirical study of opacity in the speech/reading/writing interface in Danish. In R. Schreuder & L. Verhoeven (Eds.), Process and acquisition of written language (pp. 79–99). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bourassa, D. C., & Treiman, R. (2008). Morphological constancy in spelling: A comparison of children with dyslexia and typically developing children. Dyslexia, 14, 155–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bourassa, D. C., Treiman, R., & Kessler, B. (2006). Use of morphology in spelling by children with dyslexia and typically developing children. Memory and Cognition, 34, 703–714.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowers, P. N., & Kirby, J. R. (2010). Effects of morphological instruction on vocabulary acquisition. Reading and Writing, 23, 515–537.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bryant, P., Devine, M., Ledward, A., & Nunes, T. (1997). Spelling with apostrophes and understanding possession. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 67, 93–112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burt, J. S. (2006). Spelling in adults: The combined influences of language skills and reading experience. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 35, 447–470.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bybee, J. L. (1995). Diachronic and typological properties of morphology and their implications for representation. In L. Feldman (Ed.), Morphological aspects of language processing (pp. 225–246). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carlisle, J. F. (1988). Knowledge of derivational morphology and spelling ability in fourth, sixth and eighth grades. Applied Psycholinguistics, 9, 247–266.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carlisle, J. F. (1996). An exploratory study of morphological errors in children’s written stories. Reading and Writing, 8, 61–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cassar, M., & Treiman, R. (2004). Developmental variations in spelling: Comparing typical and poor spellers. In C. A. Stone, E. R. Silliman, B. Ehren, & K. Apel (Eds.), Handbook of language and literacy: Development and disorders (pp. 627–643). New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chliounaki, K., & P. Bryant. (2002). Construction and learning to spell. Cognitive Development, 17, 1489–1499.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cho, J.-R., McBride-Chang, C., & Park, S.-G. (2008). Phonological awareness and morphological awareness: Differential associations to regular and irregular word recognition in early Korean Hangul readers. Reading and Writing, 21, 255–274.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deacon, H. S., & Bryant, P. (2005). The strength of children's knowledge of the role of root morphemes in the spelling of derived words. Journal of Child Language, 32, 375–389.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deacon, H. S., & Dhooge, S. (2010). Developmental stability and changes in the impact of root consistency on children’s spelling. Reading and Writing, 23, 1055–1069.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deacon, S. H. (2008). The metric matters: Determining the extent of children's knowledge of morphological spelling regularities. Developmental Science, 11, 396–406.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deacon, S. H., Conrad, N., & Pacton, S. (2008). A statistical learning perspective on children’s learning about graphotactic and morphological regularities in spelling. Canadian Psychology, 49, 118–124.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deacon, S. H., Parrila, R., & Kirby, J. (2006). Processing of derived forms in high-functioning dyslexics. Annals of Dyslexia, 56, 103–128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Defior, D., Alegrıa, J., Titos, R., & Martos, F. (2008). Using morphology when spelling in a shallow orthographic system: The case of Spanish. Cognitive Development, 23, 204–215.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Egan, J., & Pring, L. (2004). The processing of inflectional morphology: A comparison of children with and without dyslexia. Reading and Writing, 17, 567–591.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gillis, S., & Ravid, D. (2006). Typological effects on spelling development: A crosslinguistic study of Hebrew and Dutch. Journal of Child Language, 33, 621–659.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hauerwas, L. B., & Walker, J. (2003). Spelling of inflected very morphology in children with spelling deficits. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 18, 25–35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayes, H., Treiman, R., & Kessler, B. (2006). Children use vowels to help them spell consonants. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 94, 27–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jarmulowicz, L., Hay, S. E., Taran, V. L., & Ethington, C. A. (2007). Fitting derivational morphophonology into a developmental model of reading. Reading and Writing, 21, 275–297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Juul, H. (2005). Grammatical awareness and the spelling of inflectional morphemes in Danish. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 15, 87–112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Juul, H., & Elbro, C. (2004). The links between grammar and spelling: A cognitive hurdle in deep orthographies? Reading and Writing, 17, 915–942.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kemp, N. (2006). Children’s spelling of base, inflected, and derived words: Links with morphological awareness. Reading and Writing, 19, 737–765.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kemp, N., & Bryant, P. (2003). Do beez buzz? Rule-based and frequency-based knowledge in learning to spell plural –s. Child Development, 74, 63–74.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kemp, N., Nilsson, J., & Arciuli, J. (2009). Noun or verb? Adult readers’ sensitivity to spelling cues to grammatical category in word endings. Reading and Writing, 22, 661–685.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kieffer, M. J., & Lesaux, N. K. (2008). The role of derivational morphology in the reading comprehension of Spanish-speaking English language learners. Reading and Writing, 21, 783–804.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, Y.-S. (2010). Componential skills in early spelling development in Korean. Scientific Studies of Reading, 14, 137–158.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kiparsky, P. (1982). Explanation in phonology. Dordrecht: Foris.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Landauer, T. K., & Dumais, S. T. (1997). A solution to Plato's problem: The latent semantic analysis theory of acquisition, induction and representation of knowledge. Psychological Review, 104, 211–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Largy, P., Cousin, M.-P., Bryant, P., & Fayol, M. (2007). When memorized instances compete with rules: The case of number–noun agreement in written French. Journal of Child Language, 34, 425–437.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lehtonen, A., & Bryant, P. (2005). Active players or just passive bystanders? The role of morphemes in spelling development in a transparent orthography. Applied Psycholinguistics, 26, 137–155.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nippold, M. A. (2007). Later language development: School-age children, adolescents, and young adults. Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.

    Google Scholar 

  • Notenboom, A., & Reitsma, P. (2007). Spelling Dutch doublets: Children's learning of a phonological and morphological spelling rule. Scientific Studies of Reading, 11, 133–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nunes, T., & Bryant, P. (2006). Improving literacy by teaching morphemes. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nunes, T., Bryant, P., & Bindman, M. (1997a). Learning to spell regular and irregular verbs. Reading and Writing, 9, 427–449.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nunes, T., Bryant, P., & Bindman, M. (1997b). Morphological spelling strategies: Developmental stages and processes. Developmental Psychology, 33, 637–649.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nunes, T., Bryant, P., & Bindman, M. (2006). The effects of learning to spell on children’s awareness of morphology. Reading and Writing, 19, 767–787.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pacton, S., & Deacon, S. H. (2008). The timing and mechanisms of children's use of morphological information in spelling: A review of evidence from English and French. Cognitive Development, 23, 339–359.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pacton, S., & Fayol, M. (2003). How do French children use morphosyntactic information when they spell adverbs and present participles? Scientific Studies of Reading, 23, 273–287.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pacton, S., & Fayol, M. (2004). Learning to spell in a deep orthography: The case of French. In R. Berman (Ed.), Language development across childhood and adolescence: Psycholinguistic and crosslinguistic perspectives (pp. 164–176). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perry, C., Ziegler, J. C., & Coltheart, M. (2002). A dissociation between orthographic awareness and spelling production. Applied Psycholinguistics, 23, 43–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pollo, T. C., Treiman, R., & Kessler, B. (2008). Three perspectives on spelling development. In E. L. Grigorenko & A. J. Naples (Eds.), Single-word reading: Behavioral and biological perspectives (pp. 175–189). New York: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pollo, T. C., Kessler, B., & Treiman, R. (2009). Statistical patterns in children’s early writing. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 104, 410–426.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ravid, D., & Hora, A. (2009). From implicit to explicit language knowledge in intervention: Introduction to the special issue on Intervention and Meta-language. First Language, 29, 5–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rispens, J. E., McBride-Chang, C., & Reitsma, P. (2008). Morphological awareness and early and advanced word recognition and spelling in Dutch. Reading and Writing, 21, 587–607.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosa, J. M., & Nunes, T. (2008). Morphological priming effects on children’s spelling. Reading and Writing, 21, 763–781.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rusakova, M., & Ceytlin, S. (1999). On strategies of Russian spelling processing and acquisition. Paper presented at the 11th European conference on reading, Stavanger, Norway.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandra, D. (2007). Skills and representations in learning to spell and in experienced spellers. In G. Jarema (ed.) The mental lexicon: Core perspectives (pp. 207–227). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandra, D., & van Abbenyen, L. (2009). Frequency and analogical effects in the spelling of full-form and sublexical homophonous patterns by 12 year-old children. The Mental Lexicon, 4, 239–274.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shay, S. (2008). The history of English: A linguistic introduction. Washington, DC: Wardja Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shortis, T., & Blake, J. (2008). Improving literacy by teaching morphemes. English in Education, 42, 202–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Templeton, S., & Morris, D. (2000). Spelling. In M. L. Kamil, P. B. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading research: Volume III (pp. 525–543). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Terry, N. T. (2006). Relations between dialect variation, grammar, and early spelling skills. Reading and Writing, 19, 907–931.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ThĂ©venin, M. G, Totereau, C., Fayol, M., & Jarousse, J. P. (1999). L'apprentissage/enseignement de la morphologie Ă©crite du nombre en français. Revue Française de PĂ©dagogie, 126, 39–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tolchinsky, L. (2004). The nature and scope of later language development. In R. A. Berman (Ed.), Language development across childhood and adolescence (pp. 233–247). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tong, X., McBride-Chang, C., Shu, H., & Wong, A. M-Y. (2009). Morphological awareness, orthographic knowledge, and spelling errors: Keys to understanding early Chinese literacy acquisition. Scientific Studies of Reading, 13, 426–452.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Totereau, C., ThĂ©venin, M. G., & Fayol, M. (1997). Acquisition de la morphologie du nombre a` l’écrit en français. In L. Rieben, M. Fayol, & C. Perfetti (Eds.), Des orthographes et leur acquisition (pp. 147–165). Lausanne: Delachaux & NiestlĂ©.

    Google Scholar 

  • Treiman, R. (1993). Beginning to spell. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Treiman, R., & Cassar, M. (1996). Effects of morphology on children’s spelling of final consonant clusters. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 63, 141–170.

    Google Scholar 

  • Treiman, R., & Cassar, M. (1997). Can children and adults focus on sound as opposed to spelling in a phoneme counting task? Developmental Psychology, 33, 771–780.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Treiman, R., Cassar, M., & Zukowski, A. (1994). What types of linguistic information do children use in spelling? The case of flaps. Child Development, 65, 1310–1329.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Treiman, R., & Kessler, B. (2005). Writing systems and spelling development. In M. Snowling & C. Hulme (Eds.), The Science of reading: A handbook (pp. 120–134). Oxford: Blackwell.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Treiman, R., & Kessler, B. (2006). Spelling as statistical learning: Using consonantal context to spell vowels. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 642–652.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsesmeli, S. N., & Seymour, P. H. K. (2006). Derivational morphology and spelling in dyslexia. Reading and Writing, 19, 587–625.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turnbull, K., Deacon, S. H., & Kay-Raining Bird, E. (2011). Mastering inflectional suffixes: A longitudinal study of beginning writers’ spellings. Journal of Child Language, 38, 533–553.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker, J., & Boynton Hauerwas, L. (2006). Development of phonological, morphological, and orthographic knowledge in young spellers: The case of inflected verbs. Reading and Writing, 19, 819–843.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weiss, S., Grabner, R. H., Kargl, R., Purgstaller, C., & Fink, A. (2010). Behavioral and neurophysiological effects of morphological awareness training on spelling and reading. Reading and Writing, 23, 645–671.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Constantiner School of Education, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, 69978, Israel

    Dorit Diskin Ravid

Authors
  1. Dorit Diskin Ravid
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dorit Diskin Ravid .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer US

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Ravid, D.D. (2012). Morphological Scaffolding in Learning to Spell: A Cross-Linguistic Review. In: Spelling Morphology. Literacy Studies, vol 3. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0588-8_3

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation