Learning Social Studies Vocabulary via Morphological Instruction in the Itinerant Model

Students who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) are predominately educated in inclusive settings, sometimes with support from itinerant teachers of the DHH. Often, these teachers provide vocabulary instruction to support students with content-area coursework (e.g., social studies). Morphological word analysis is a recommended strategy for increasing students' social studies vocabulary knowledge. Using a multiple probe across behaviors single-case experiment design, the author investigated the effects of morphological instruction patterned after Word Detectives strategies for acquiring targeted morpheme meanings from a secondary reader's assigned social studies vocabulary list in an itinerant setting. A functional relation was documented between the morphological instruction and the student's acquisition of targeted morphemes from his social studies vocabulary list. The findings indicate that secondary readers who are DHH may benefit from morphological instruction to build their social studies vocabulary knowledge.