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Applied Linguistics 1990 11(3):238-252; doi:10.1093/applin/11.3.238
© 1990 by Oxford University Press
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Morphology via Orthography: A Visual Approach to Oral Decisions

WAYNE B. DICKERSON

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Can a language rule impede learners' oral accuracy? The standard ESL/EFL presentation of the {Z} and {D} morphemes of English requires the distribution of allomorphs according to the phonological characteristics of stem-final sounds. Examined from the learner's point of view, the standard approach is heavily biased against beginning students. This study offers an alternative approach that is heavily biased in favor of beginning students but is no less precise in its predictions. It requires the distribution of allomorphs according to orthographic criteria. Learners from different language backgrounds and different proficiency levels who used the orthography-based approach improved their oral accuracy to such an extent that performance differences originally attributable to their dissimilar language backgrounds and proficiency levels disappeared. The significant progress of students who learned the orthography-based rules suggests that the morpheme errors of those who learned only the standard rules may be the result of instruction, not the result of difficult content.


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