If students have the task of learning tens of thousands of words and we can only teach them a few hundred words a year, then they have to do a lot of word learning on their own (Graves, 2000). Given the size of vocabularies they need, readers can and must improve their vocabularies independently. Directly teaching word learning strategies, coupled with explicit instruction in specific words, can help students not only to increase their vocabularies but also to become independent word readers (Baumann et al, 2003).
Dictionary use is not as simple as it seems, students frequently have difficulty using the dictionary to define unfamiliar words (Miller and Gildea, 1987). Instruction related to dictionary definitions should be simple and direct and involve children in analyzing dictionary definitions in the course of vocabulary instruction (Stahl, 2005). The crucial point is that students should receive instruction in how to use what they find in a dictionary entry. Teachers should model how to look up the meaning of an unfamiliar word and how to choose the appropriate definition from an entry to make sure it fits a particular context.
The key instructional elements of morphemic analysis are morphemes which include root or base words and Greek and Latin roots and affixes. There are two basic types of morphemes - free and bound. Free morphemes can stand alone as words, they do not have to be combined with other morphemes to make words. Bound morphemes cannot stand alone, they must be attached to or “bound” to other morphemes to make words (Diamond and Gutlohn, 2006).
A root or base word is a single word that cannot be broken into smaller words or word parts. Knowing the meaning of one root word can provide a bridge to the meaning of other words related in meaning or words belonging to a word family (Diamond and Gutlohn, 2006).
An Anglo - Saxon compound word contains two free morphemes or word parts (Diamond and Gutlohn, 2006).
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