8th Teaching & Education Conference, Vienna

IMPROVING READING SKILLS BY CULTIVATING MORPHOLOGICAL AWARENESS IN FIFTH GRADE HEBREW SPEAKERS

MICHAL RAVEH, VERED VAKNIN-NUSBAUM

Abstract:

The aim of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of a morphological awareness program in Hebrew delivered to poor readers at fifth grade. The intervention group received 15 weeks of instruction in small groups focusing on morphological structure of words by identifying, decomposing and constructing morphologically complex words. The control group participated in parallel in the school reading support program focused on reading comprehension strategies. Results showed that the intervention group improved its morphological awareness to a greater extent than the control groups and also showed a clear advantage in their reading accuracy and reading comprehension. The results suggest that morphological instruction develops the awareness to the morphemic structure of words that contributes to meaning extraction form texts.

Keywords: Reading, Morphological awareness, intervention

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