Arkansas Foundations of Reading Test (FORT)

Morphological skills refer to the ability to understand:

1. Meanings of word parts

2. Grammatical rules

3. Social rules of language

4. Sound patterns in spoken language

The correct answer is: Meanings of word parts

Morphological skills focus on the understanding of the structure of words, particularly the meanings of their parts. This includes recognizing how prefixes, suffixes, and root words contribute to the overall meaning of a word. For example, knowing that "un-" means not helps a student understand that "unhappy" means not happy. This skill is crucial for vocabulary development and reading comprehension, as it allows learners to decode unfamiliar words by breaking them down into their component parts. In contrast, grammatical rules involve the conventions of sentence structure and language usage, which is a different aspect of language understanding. The social rules of language pertain to pragmatics and how language is used in social contexts, which does not directly relate to morphological understanding. Lastly, sound patterns in spoken language refer to phonological awareness, focusing on the auditory aspects of language rather than the structural and meaning-oriented aspects of word formation.