Morphology & Syntax
Morphemes are the smallest units of meaning in a language and morphology is the study of the structure of words, or how those morphemes combine to create words. Morphemes can be classified as open-class (including nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs) or closed-class (including conjunctions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, determiners, prepositions and inflectional suffixes). Morphemes can also be bound or free. Bound morphemes are parts of words (like suffixes and prefixes) that cannot stand alone independently as words, while free morphemes can act alone as a word or combine with others to create meaning.
Syntax refers to how words work grammatically. It includes the parts of speech (open-class categories: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs; and closed-class prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns, determiners, and auxiliary verbs). Syntax also refers to rules of how words combine to form phrases, clauses and sentences. The English language depends of the structure of how words are ordered to make meaning.
Learning the structure of the English language and how words behave in connection to other words is an important skill for ELLs. Teaching students about how words are placed in sentences will help them acquire English skills, especially since the structure of English may differ from their first language. For example, English generally places adjectives before a noun, while in Spanish descriptors follow nouns. Teaching these differences will help ELLs as they learn to speak and write in English. For ideas on teaching grammar effectively to ELLs, click here.
A great resource for teaching sight words, or words that appear frequently in text, is provided here.