| Nearly 50% of American students are ethnic minorities (U. S. Census Bureau, 2006) and this population grows approximately 1% annually (NCES, 2006). Students from families that primarily speak languages other than English are classified as English language learners (ELLs) and are at risk for lower reading achievement as well as health and economic disparities later in life (COE, 2009). Currently, 17 states have no teacher standards for ELL instruction (Quality Counts Report, 2009) and the question of how to best meet these learners' needs continues to increase in complexity. As researchers struggle to identify successful ways of promoting ELLs' literacy rates, many reading teachers may be unaware of the linguistic benefits of morphological analysis (Moats & Smith, 1992). The contributions morphology makes to native English speakers' reading abilities are well documented in research (Kuo & Anderson, 2006; Reed, 2008) and are thought to develop similarly in ELLs (Jean & Geva, 2009). Because explicit instruction of English's morphological structure is highly recommended for native speakers (Carlisle, 2003; Kuo & Anderson, 2006; Moats & Smith, 1992; Nagy et al., 2003), the purpose of this research was to qualitatively explore and quantitatively gauge the affective and instructional effects of raising adult English language learners' morphological awareness. Through a mixed-methods design, volunteers in the Intensive English Program at a southeastern university were offered eight weeks of free morphological instruction. In the study, quantitative data gathered included participants' pretest and posttest vocabulary scores on the English Placement Test while qualitative data were collected in five forms: entrance and exit interviews, student journals, student feedback, researcher observations, and researcher journals. Students' feedback played the largest role in data collection and dictated instructional changes necessary for meeting participants' pedagogical needs throughout the course. EPT pre- and posttest scores revealed no changes in vocabulary knowledge while qualitative results indicated that students learned new vocabulary, learned how to analyze words morphologically, and perceived this strategy as useful for studying English vocabulary. Suggestions for future research include offering alternative types of feedback and summative assessments. |
