Fil-baħar mad-denfil : studju morfoloġiku dwar il-ktieb il-Denfil taż-żgħar

Abstract

The main purpose of this work, which is part of a whole project about a series of Maltese reading text books, set for Primary School children, entitled Id-Denfil is an analysis of the morphological element present in the very first book of the series Id-Denfil taz-Zghar. This book which could be considered as the milestone for the other books which come after, is intended to set children between the ages of five and six on the way to acquire literacy. As a background to this study I included some general information about the nature of the morpheme in a Maltese context with illustrations taken, when possible, from the first two books of the id-Denfil series, i.e. taz-Zghar and Denfil 1. This short work comprises as well suggestions to teachers how they could help children overcome difficulties in reading and writing certain words found in the id-Denfil taz-Zghar. My study includes also other suggestions on how teachers could make a more flexible use of the verbal content and pictures found in the same book. In the Appendix I have included children's work in which one could notice several common mistakes committed by children when writing unseen words from Id- Denfil and from their own vocabulary.