Freeman 7 & 8 Read and Retell

These two chapters in Freeman both deal with morphology and its implications in teaching reading and teaching a second language. Although I have never taken a class in which I remember discussing morphology per se, I found the information in these two chapters fascinating. I love words and grammar, and reading about both topics was an enjoyable experience.

The Freemans have a knack for explaining concepts and ideas more simply than Finegan. They also emphasize different aspects of the topic. Although chapter 7 covered similar topics to our last Finegan reading (bound and free morphemes, types of languages, word etymology), some different topics included:
1) the differences between analytic (English) vs. synthetic (Latin) languages
2) traditional vs. current approaches to classifying words (I loved reading about the no preposition at the end of a sentence rule and its origin.)

Having entire chapters devoted to implications for teaching reading and second languages is a strength of this book. The Freemans obviously espouse a sociopyscholinguistic view of reading and the bias against the Put Reading First and word recognition view of reading surfaces throughout the chapter. I tend to be an eclectic practicioner when it comes to teaching philosophies. I think both views can offer teachers and students ideas to approaching reading and second language learning. I think some of this has to do with what type of learner a student is and the personal backgrounds of the students. I agree with the Freemans that words can't all be learned, they have to be acquired; but I do think words can and should be learned in context rich settings.

The info on Krashen's Natural Order hypothesis was new and interesting. His research and others show that morphemes are acquired in a fixed order depending on the language being learned rather than the native language of the learner. This can be helpful info for a teacher as he/she approaches teaching a second language.

Academic language and the difficulty in teaching and learning finished out chapter 8. I have first hand experience with this. Having lived in Germany for a year, my everyday German became quite proficient. After a year, however, I still had issues with reading higher level newspapers and journals; the vocabulary was beyond my grasp. That it takes at least 5 years to acquire academic language is important for all teachers to remember when dealing with ELLs.