Teachers’ acquisition of knowledge about English word structure
Abstract
Previous research suggests that teachers’ knowledge about English word structure (e.g., the phonological structure of words and common orthographic patterns in English) may be limited, although this knowledge is important for effective teaching of word decoding. This study examined teacher education students’ knowledge about word structure, and improvements in their knowledge as a result of instruction, using three tasks: graphophonemic segmentation, classification of pseudowords by syllable type, and classification of real words as phonetically regular or irregular. Participants came from a special education certification program and included both preservice and inservice teachers. Results indicated that prior preparation to teach reading influenced participants’ initial performance on two of the three word-structure tasks (all but graphophonemic segmentation); however, prior experience in teaching reading did not influence word-structure knowledge. A subset of participants who received specific instruction about word structure improved their knowledge relative to a comparison group of teacher education students who did not receive word-structure instruction. Prior preparation did not influence participants’ responsiveness to instruction. Conclusions support the viewpoint that teacher education must include information about English word structure for educators who will teach reading and suggest that sufficiently intensive instruction may be important in developing word-structure knowledge.
Reference
Spear-Swerling, L., & Brucker, P. O. (2003). Teachers’ acquisition of knowledge about English word structure. Annals of Dyslexia, 53, 72-103.
Journal
Annals of Dyslexia
Analysis
Is this article part of a larger project or series of studies?
yes
Does this study draw on a large, preexisting data set?
no
Research Approach
- Experimental
- Positivist/Post Positivist (quantitative)
- Quantitative
Geographic Setting
Institutional Context
Certification Level
Programatic Focus
Research Location Context
Preservice Participants
- Masters
- Undergraduates (university based program)
Preservice Sample Size
147
Other Participant Data
Duration of Data Collection
Data Sources
- post-test
- pre-/post-assessment
Data Analysis Tools
- ANOVA
- Correlation
- MANOVA
- Multivariate, multilevel, cross-classification logit model
- Pearson product-moment correlation analysis
- Statistical analysis
Researcher Positionality
Research Questions
Do individual differences in teacher-education students' component reading abilities relate to their knowledge about word structure?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Yes
If so, does the pattern of relationships vary by component reading ability or by word-structure task?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Yes
To what extent do component reading abilities influence students' acquisition of word-structure knowledge after course instruction?
Is this research question explicit from the manuscript? Yes