Structured Word Inquiry – Conference session

Liisa Freure presented a session “Literacy Instruction using Structured Word Inquiry” for the Centre for Diverse Learners 13th Annual Solutions for Learning Conference on Saturday, March 2, 2024.

Structured Word Inquiry is a scientific approach to understanding language, based on linguistics. It emphasizes the logic of English orthography (the English spelling system) by attending to the interrelationships between morphology (the meaningful units), etymology (the origins of words) and phonology (the “sounds” in English). We need to go beyond basic phonics instruction if we want to equip students to be proficient readers and writers since English is a morphophonemic language. Spellings have evolved to represent both phonemes (units of speech “sounds”) and morphemes (units of meaning), and the pronunciations of morphemes can change while the spellings remain consistent. In an English word we may even have letters that have no role in pronunciation! Come and explore how this understanding can transform how you look at words and why this knowledge is critical for even our youngest learners.