Explores the development of students' knowledge of the meanings of 10 common English suffixes. Finds that knowledge of the meanings of the common English suffixes underwent significant development between fourth grade and high school. Notes that the test can be used to identify students who have particular difficulties with English suffixes. (RS)

Because students encounter a steady stream of new words in their reading, structural analysis--the ability to gain information about the meaning, pronunciation, and part of speech of new words from their prefixes, roots, and suffixes--is an important component of skilled reading. It follows, then, that effective reading instruction should include…

Knowledge of derivational morphology can aid readers in the analysis and acquisition of new vocabulary, in lexical access, and in establishing the syntactic structure of sentences. A study investigated good and poor readers' knowledge and use of derivational suffixes in establishing sentence level syntax. Subjects, 123 10th and 11th grade…

Knowledge of morphology--the ability to gain information about the meaning, pronunciation, and part of speech of new words from their prefixes, roots, and suffixes--is an important component of skilled reading. As part of a larger program of research on morphology, a study explored the development of students' knowledge of common English suffixes.…