The Importance Of Morphosyntax In The Classroom

Lcda. Andrea Chérrez.
University of Cuenca

TTHE IMPORTANCE OF MORPHOSYNTAX IN THE CLASSROOM
INTRODUCTION

Nowadays, our society is demanding well prepared citizens in many aspects of life, and Knowledge has become little by little an equivalent to power. In this context, English Knowledge is considered a requirement in many fields, for this reason English as a Foreign Language is taught asone of the most important subjects in the scholar curriculum in many places, and it is even considered a policy in our society and all over the world.
That is why, it is important to have well prepared English teachers who are able to combine not only methodology but also knowledge. And all this English knowledge that teachers have acquired is linked with the study of Morphology and Syntax alsoknown as Morphosyntax. This innovating term is used instead of the separate ones with the purpose of recognize and show that both of these sciences complement each other and share a great link. It is not possible to address Morphology without knowing or acknowledge Syntax too as part of it.
English learning requires certain skills such as having good vocabulary awareness, and being competent atreading, writing, listening and speaking, and all of these skills are connected one to the other. IF we own an extend vocabulary we will be able to understand what we read and listen, and of course produce the language in the same way: speak and write. But, have you ever wondered where our vocabulary comes from? Well, most of our vocabulary knowledge has been made possible thanks our awareness ofMorphology; it is true that the more morphological rules and tips you know, the better vocabulary you will acquire. In addition, the skill of reading involves decoding morphological material such as word roots, syntactic inflections derivational relations among others that constitute crucial in order to construct sentences and messages semantically and grammatically correct. Thus, the moreknowledge you have about these subjects the more competent speaker and user of the language you will be.
After having this in mind, even though it is not very obvious, it is important to realize that English teachers are continuously using the morphology and syntax of the language in order to teach. Some of us may even use certain morphological tips to help our students improve their English learningprocess. That is the purpose of this essay, to recognize the value and importance that Morphosyntax has in an EFL classroom.
As teachers we must be a guide and provide as many ways as possible to facilitate our students understanding and improving of the language, so some illustrations and examples on how Morphosyntax can help in our classes will be described below.
APPLICATION OF MORPHOSYTAX TIPSIN TEFL IN THE CLASSROOM

As a teacher, I have been aware of how helpful and useful the knowledge of Morphology and Syntax has been. In fact I have used many tips or general rules to teach vocabulary and structures which my students have found really useful.
The workplace where I apply what has just been mentioned above is “Politecnica Salesiana” University. I work with two groups of youngadults students belonging to the beginner level. As adults, most of my students use more their reasoning and demand more sophisticated explanations so in this context is when Morphosyntax starts its role. I will give some examples of the application of the most common tips I use in class below.
* Prefixes:
In simple words I usually tell my students that a prefix is placed at the beginning of aword, and that it modifies or change its meaning.
For example: unacceptable: un- is the prefix in the word and changes its meaning into a negative one.
If students are aware of the most common prefixes in English they can easily understand an recognize new words without the necessity of the teacher or a dictionary.
Here there is a very useful list of the most common prefixes in English with...