![Picture](/uploads/2/6/5/2/26525594/539105825.jpg)
Morphology: More Ways to Think About Words
As ELL teachers, we will need to be prepared to show our students how a word can be described "morphologically." What does that mean? Think of these examples: An -s at the end of a word indicates plural; an -al at the end of a word probably indicates description; -ship at the end of a word is indicative of a concept; a word like across signals location. Different languages may express these ideas differently. We must be prepared for that AND, as English language educators, be knowledgeable about distinct component parts of English words. As mentioned in the Introduction , we may not even know that we have this morphological knowledge - it just comes "naturally" to us - but this may not be the case for ELLS, so we have to be able to break the language down in many ways.
As ELL teachers, we will need to be prepared to show our students how a word can be described "morphologically." What does that mean? Think of these examples: An -s at the end of a word indicates plural; an -al at the end of a word probably indicates description; -ship at the end of a word is indicative of a concept; a word like across signals location. Different languages may express these ideas differently. We must be prepared for that AND, as English language educators, be knowledgeable about distinct component parts of English words. As mentioned in the Introduction , we may not even know that we have this morphological knowledge - it just comes "naturally" to us - but this may not be the case for ELLS, so we have to be able to break the language down in many ways.