Abstract
Children learning literacy in plurilingual contexts must learn a considerable amount about letter-sound correspondences, although this is not all they have to learn. Morphological awareness is arguably relevant to reading comprehension and spelling as morphemes are units of meaning. While there is considerable support for the contribution of morphological awareness to reading and spelling in different orthographies, few studies at present have examined the role of morphological awareness in plurilingual contexts. The aim of this paper is to discuss the factors contributing to language and literacy learning of public school students taught under a national biliteracy programme considering two perspectives: theoretical perspectives on second/foreign language learning and teachers/parents (N-163) perspectives gathered through self-administered questionnaires. Given that educational settings worldwide are more varied than ever, with respect to language background, and given that current educational policies base literacy instruction largely on phonology and to a much lesser extent on morphology, this paper discusses plurilingual and intercultural practices that teachers may apply in order to meet second/foreign language learners needs. Overall, instead of allowing second/foreign language learners to struggle by themselves in order to discover the role of morphology in literacy, and in order for plurilingual classrooms to be made inclusive, teachers are encouraged to make the connection between morphemes and literacy explicit.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Second/foreign language learning, Biliteracy programme, Morphological awareness, Explicit teaching
