Articles on: Literacy

Morphology and How it Operates Within PLD.

Morphemes, such as prefixes, suffixes and base words are the smallest meaningful units of meaning in a word. Morphemes are important for phonics in: reading, spelling, vocabulary and comprehension.


PLD’s Scope and Sequence Overview (below) outlines at which points phonic concepts and morphemes are typically taught.

Morphology in Stages 1, 2 & 3

Moprphology in Stages 4, 5 & 6 (the phonic concepts are also meaning units)

  • Words tend to have fewer morphemes than syllables, so in the upper primary years as words become more complex, focusing on morphemes rather than just syllables can not only make decoding easier, but allow for a greater understanding of meaning and therefore aid comprehension.
  • For example, the word encouragement (below) has 4 syllables en-cour-age-ment, however there are only 3 morphemes. In this example students would underline any known affixes. Then find the base word.

How should Morphology be taught within the SSP?
  • On the reverse of The Word Study Lists found in the Structured Synthetic Phonic Time Savers resources, there are word study activities. It is recommended that these are added to the weekly routines to enhance consolidation of concepts taught.


Updated on: 30/03/2023

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