Literacy improvement starts with teacher knowledge.

The Linguistic Lenses Framework © is a peer-reviewed and published framework that empowers teachers and school leaders with the knowledge, shared language and practical classroom tools to improve vocabulary, spelling and reading through a deeper understanding of words.

Shop - The ToolkitDr Katharyn CullenOnline Professional Learning

Phonology

The Acoustic Lens: Tuning into the Symphony of Speech

Phonological Sensitivity
Phoneme Awareness
Phonetics

The study of the phonemes (sounds) in heard/ spoken words including phonological awareness, phonemic awareness and phonetics.

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Orthography

The Scribal Lens: Mapping the Cityscape of Written Language

Orthographic Knowledge Alphabetic Principle
Orthographic Patterns

The study of graphemes (letters), letter positions, combinations and sequences that are possible and plausible within read/ written words including grapheme- phoneme correspondences (phonics), orthographic knowledge, letter patterns and conventions.

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Morphology

The Structural Lens: Assembling the Building Blocks of Words

Word Morphology Word Class/ Grammatical Form & Function Word/ Semantic Relationships

The study of the meaningful parts of words (morphemes) including, word morphology, word/ semantic relationships and word class and grammatical form and function.

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Etymology

The Historical Lens: Unearthing the Roots of Language

History
Word Origin
Etymological Root

The study of the history and origins of words and how they relate to other words which share the same roots.

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A structured approach to studying words metalinguistically, supporting all learners, promoting classroom discussion and building strong vocabulary to boost reading comprehension, writing proficiency and spelling accuracy

Publications

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Journal of Pedagogical Research Volume 8, Issue 3, 2024
August 2024

Inside the teachers’ toolbox: How experienced primary school teachers are equipped to teach vocabulary and word knowledge

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School News Australia and New Zealand
June 2024

Making critical literacy decisions: What comes first? Letter names, not just sounds!

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Australian Journal of English Education, 2025, v. 60, n. 1. P. 37
Dec 2025

Linguistic Lenses: A framework for the study of words in the secondary curriculum.

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Testimonials

I really loved your session yesterday, and I am already brimming with ideas about how I can incorporate etymology and morphology in my high school English classroom. As a beginning teacher, I remember being shocked at students' poor spelling - it was always assumed knowledge by the time they reached high school - and I felt really ill-equipped to really 'teach' them. Even as a lover of words myself, I was never taught, and am not overly confident with, etymology and morphology. However, after your session yesterday, I can finally see that this is the way forward and I would really love to improve my own skills in order to help my students.
History/ English Teacher
Macintyre High School, NSW
I attended your session on spelling today and appreciated the specific strategies you provided. I'm working as part of a team to address the issues with reading that have emerged out of the PISA data and hadn't considering the essential role of spelling as closely as I should have.
English Teacher
Dulwich High School of Visual Arts and Design
Thank you for your wonderful presentation last week. I teach VCE ENL and I have long felt if we taught the metalanguage of linguistics earlier in their learning it would be so helpful. It seems you are doing exactly this. I was so impressed with the problem solving skills demonstrated by one of your students using the IPA. I also teach Y8 ENG and I have begun to explore with them bases and affixes. Unfortunately, it has been a bit hit and miss.
English Teacher
St Joseph's School, Victoria
If I was having my time over again, I wished I had knowledge of the Etymological, Phonological, Morphological Lenses, I think that would have been of great benefit for me, for students beginning their teaching career, it would be extremely beneficial.
Primary School Teacher
Primary School, Adelaide
Linguistic Lenses are top of my list. I think the tactile Lenses are a powerful way to show students (the truth of the English Spelling System). When you go through teacher training, you learn the theory, but you actually need the practical ways of understanding the knowledge and tools to teach morphology, etymology, phonology.
Primary School Teacher
Primary School, Adelaide
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