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Morphological awareness and reading comprehension: Examining mediating factors
Abstract
The relation between morphological awareness-defined as the awareness of and ability to manipulate the smallest units of meaning in language-and reading comprehension remains in need of specification. In this study, we evaluated four potential intervening variables through which morphological awareness may contribute indirectly to reading comprehension. We assessed word reading and vocabulary as well as children's ability to read and analyze the meaning of morphologically complex words (morphological decoding and morphological analysis, respectively). Controls of phonological awareness and nonverbal ability were included in the model. Participants were 221 English-speaking children in Grade 3. Multivariate path analyses revealed evidence of two indirect relations and one direct relation between morphological awareness and reading comprehension. In the first indirect path, morphological awareness contributed to morphological decoding, which then influenced word reading and finally reading comprehension. In a second indirect path, morphological awareness contributed to morphological analysis, which contributed to reading comprehension. Finally, in a direct path, morphological awareness contributed to reading comprehension beyond all other variables. These findings inform as to the potential mechanisms underlying the relation between morphological awareness and reading comprehension in children.
... Azt a metanyelvi képességet, amelynek a segítségével a morfémákat felismerjük, a használatukat megértjük és a szóképzési szabályokat alkalmazzuk, morfológiai tudatosságnak nevezzük (Apel et al. 2013;Kuo-Anderson 2006;Levesque et al. 2017). A morfológiai tudatosság megalapozza a szavak felismerését, amely hozzájárul a mondatértéshez és a szövegértéshez. ...
... Az olvasástanítás modelljei többnyire nem hangsúlyozzák a morfológiai tudatosság fejlesztésének fontosságát. Ugyanakkor empirikus kutatások azt mutatják, hogy a morfológiai tudás mind a dekódolásnál (morfológiailag komplex szavak kiolvasása), mind a megértésben (szavak felismerése) szerepet játszik (Levesque et al. 2017;Zhang 2017). ...
... A morfológiai ké-pességeket három dimenzión keresztül vizsgálta: ragozás, képzés, összetett szavak. A témában készült számos kutatás hasonló alapon vizsgálta a képességeket (Apel et al. 2013;Carlisle 2000;Kuo-Anderson 2006;Levesque et al. 2017). Berko (1958) azt találta, hogy már az óvodás gyermekek rendelkeznek morfológiai ismeretekkel, az első osztályos gyermekek eljutnak arra a szintre, hogy az alapvető grammatikai markereket álszavakon is azonosítsák. ...
Az elmúlt évtizedek kutatásainak eredményei az olvasás, szövegértés képességét egyre komplexebb, hierarchikus rendszerként értelmezik. Tanulmányunk ennek egyik fontos, hazai környezetben, magyar nyelven még alig feltárt részképesség, a szövegértés az olvasási képesség fejlődése szempontjából azonban fontos tényező, a morfológiai tudatosság vizsgálatára fókuszál. A kutatás elsődleges célja az volt, hogy online mérőeszközt hozzunk létre, amely a morfológiai tudatosságot méri az általános iskola 2–4. évfolyamán. A nagy mintás mérés (N = 4134) során a morfológiai tudatosság, és a szövegértés lehetséges kapcsolataira is igyekeztünk rávilágítani. Az öt résztesztből álló mérőeszköz szövegértési tesztet is tartalmazott. Kutatásunk főbb eredményeit három pontban foglalhatjuk össze: (1) létrehoztunk egy online mérőeszközt, amely a morfológiai tudatosságot megbízhatóan méri az általános iskola 2–4. évfolyamán; (2) a morfológiai tudatosság és a szövegértési képességek összefüggéseit bizonyítottuk, és jellemzőit elemeztük; (3) kimutattuk és elemeztük a részképesség fejlődését a 2–4. évfolyamon. Kutatásunk újszerű, mert a hazánkban empirikusan kevéssé vizsgált részképesség jellemzőit innovatív módszerekkel, online mérőeszközzel tárja fel. Eredményeink több későbbi kutatás számára nyújthatnak támpontot, valamint az osztálytermi gyakorlatban is alkalmazhatók. Mostani tanulmányunkban a magyar nyelvi jellemzőit helyezzük középpontba.
... MA refers to learners' ability to manipulate the morphological structures of words (Levesque et al., 2017). MA highlights the knowledge of partial word form, word meaning and syntax (Nagy et al., 2014). ...
... Extensive studies have indicated that MA could be an explicit indicator of L1 reading development among monolingual students (e.g., Kotzer et al., 2021;Levesque et al., 2017Levesque et al., , 2021Metsala et al., 2019). Levesque et al. (2021) proposed the morphological pathways framework (MPF), highlighting that MA impacts children's reading comprehension in both direct and indirect ways. ...
... In addition, consistent with previous research (e.g., Kotzer et al., 2021;Levesque et al., 2017;Nagy, 2007;Shen & Crosson, 2022;Zhang & Koda, 2018), our findings indicated that MA emerged as a significant predicator of EFL reading comprehension, even though it is not as important as VK. The relationship we detected could be interpreted through the lens of the MPF (Levesque et al., 2021). ...
Background
Vocabulary knowledge (VK) and morphological awareness (MA) are crucial linguistic variables for reading comprehension. However, the extent to which MA subskills are intertwined with different facets of VK in their contributions to reading comprehensions, and how MA influences the reading abilities of English as a foreign language (EFL) readers, remains largely underspecified. The main purpose of the current study was to examine the relative significance of VK and MA in foreign language reading ability and to identify the direct and indirect pathways from various facets of MA to EFL reading comprehension.
Methods
A total of 396 EFL learners took a standardised reading test (TOEIC), along with a battery of three MA tests and two VK tests, which assessed both the breadth and depth of VK.
Results
(1) Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that both VK and MA had significant effects on EFL reading comprehension, with VK contributing more to reading comprehension than MA. (2) Path analysis showed that MA had both direct and indirect effects on EFL reading comprehension via the breadth and depth of VK.
Conclusions
Our results established that VK was a stronger predictor of reading comprehension than MA and elucidated the direct and indirect pathways within the morphological pathways framework through which MA contributes to reading comprehension. Relevant implications were discussed based on the results.
... Considerable research claims that MA makes contribution to L1 reading comprehension (e.g., Levesque et al., 2017;Nagy, 2007) when other established variables are controlled for, such as phonological awareness, orthographic processing, and reading speed (Kotzer et al., 2021). For example, Maag (2007) suggested that compared to less adept readers, university students with higher reading comprehension scores had greater MA. ...
... Less-adept readers were reported to frequently miss such syntactic signals (Tyler & Nagy, 1990). Finally, since MA is related to the ability to manipulate the morphological structures of words, it is not surprising that MA is connected with readers' speed of decoding words (morphologically complex words in particular), as argued by Levesque et al. (2017). ...
... However, we are not arguing that MA is not important for reading comprehension in a foreign language context. Our findings align well with previous research highlighting MA as an essential indicator of foreign language reading ability (e.g., Kotzer et al., 2021;Levesque et al., 2017;Nagy, 2007;Zhang & Koda, 2018). It is noteworthy that MA, operationalized as the sensitivity to word structures and partial word meanings, is an important skill to activate the form-meaning link of words and contributes to meaning-based comprehension skills. ...
... Morphology is linked to phonology by helping to specify the pronunciation of certain graphemes (e.g., the < ea > of read and react) and the effects on lexical stress of adding certain suffixes (e.g., eLECtric to elecTRICity), and it provides the reader with a smaller number of units to decode. This last effect is part of morphological decoding (Levesque & Deacon, 2022;Levesque et al., 2017). ...
... Naming speed predicted change in both timed measures, word and text reading speed; naming speed has a well-established involvement in timed measures (Georgiou et al., 2021;Kirby et al., 2010). Morphological awareness predicted improvement in passage comprehension, with both having a clear relation to meaning; morphological awareness often has the strongest predictive effect on reading comprehension (e.g., Deacon, et al., 2014;Kirby et al., 2012;Levesque et al., 2017Levesque et al., , 2018Levesque et al., , 2021Manolitsis et al., 2019). Passage comprehension change was also predicted by naming speed, suggesting that comprehension depends on efficient lower-level processing (e.g., Arnell et al., 2009;Johnston & Kirby, 2006). ...
... Even if naming speed is difficult to improve through instruction , some of the consequences of slow naming or low fluency may be compensated by focusing on larger units of text (i.e., orthographic chunks rather than individual letters) and by instruction targeting fluency (e.g., Huemer et al., 2010). Instruction in morphology may be particularly effective in that it targets the intersection of phonology, orthography, and meaning (Kirby & Bowers, 2017 and should assist both word identification (through morphological decoding) and comprehension (through morphological analysis of word meaning) (Deacon et al., 2014;Georgiou et al., 2021;Levesque et al., 2017Levesque et al., , 2018Levesque et al., , 2021. ...
This study examined the effects of phonological awareness, naming speed, and morphological awareness on reading achievement in 126 English-speaking Canadian children followed from Grade 3 to Grade 5. Reading measures included word reading accuracy, word reading speed, and passage comprehension in both grades as well as multi-morphemic word reading and text reading speed in Grade 5. After controlling for verbal and nonverbal ability, hierarchical regression analyses indicated that (a) all predictors contributed significantly to most reading measures in Grades 3 and 5 and longitudinally from Grade 3 to Grade 5; (b) changes in the trajectories of the three predictors across time contributed significantly to each of the reading outcomes; and (c) the three predictors contributed significantly to change in the trajectories of each of the reading measures. These results indicate continuing and pervasive roles for phonological awareness, naming speed, and morphological awareness over the later elementary school years, especially for morphological awareness in reading comprehension. We suggest that assessment and instruction include these underlying journal hom epage: www.elsevier.com/lo cate/jecp skills in the upper elementary grades to support students' further reading development.
... Morphological awareness is the awareness of and ability to manipulate the smallest meaningful units in language (Carlisle, 1995). Morphological awareness is now well established as relevant to skilled reading, particularly of reading comprehension, or the understanding of text (Deacon et al., 2014;Goodwin et al., 2022;James et al., 2021;Levesque et al., 2017Levesque et al., , 2019. Its effects on reading comprehension remain after controls for a number of reading-related variables, such as non-verbal ability, vocabulary, phonological awareness and word reading (e.g., Levesque et al., 2017;Lyster et al., 2021). ...
... Morphological awareness is now well established as relevant to skilled reading, particularly of reading comprehension, or the understanding of text (Deacon et al., 2014;Goodwin et al., 2022;James et al., 2021;Levesque et al., 2017Levesque et al., , 2019. Its effects on reading comprehension remain after controls for a number of reading-related variables, such as non-verbal ability, vocabulary, phonological awareness and word reading (e.g., Levesque et al., 2017;Lyster et al., 2021). Interestingly, a recent meta-analysis confirmed the association between morphological awareness and reading comprehension (r = .57) ...
... Specifically, children who know the meanings of the words warm and warmth are likely to be more accurate at completing this sentence with the appropriate target (see also Hudson Kam et al., 2024). This concern is one value of evidence that the contribution of morphological awareness, as assessed with this task, to reading comprehension remains after controlling for vocabulary (e.g., Goodwin et al., 2022;Levesque et al., 2017Levesque et al., , 2019. And yet, demonstrating this relation beyond vocabulary does not indicate the extent to which children draw on semantic relations in the sentence completion task itself, an effect that could influence its demonstrated relation to reading comprehension. ...
It is well-established that morphological awareness is related to reading comprehension. Morphological awareness is often assessed with a sentence completion task, in which children are asked to complete a sentence with a related word (e.g., “warm. He chose the jacket for its __”). As evident from this classic example, semantic relations could influence performance because warmth is related in meaning to jacket. We examine whether the degree of semantic relations in the sentence completion task influences the association between morphological awareness and reading comprehension. In grade 3, English-speaking children did a sentence completion task in two conditions: one with sentences designed to have high semantic relations with the target and another with low. Children also completed control measures of non-verbal reasoning, vocabulary, phonological awareness, working memory, and word reading fluency. At grade 4, children completed reading comprehension. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that performance on both conditions of the sentence completion task (i.e., high and low semantic relations) significantly predicted reading comprehension, after all controls. Intriguingly, when both tasks were in the same regression, only performance on the high semantic relations task made a unique contribution to reading comprehension. The findings confirm the contribution to reading comprehension of morphological awareness, assessed with the sentence completion task, and show the relevance of semantic dimensions to these relations. As such, findings appear to validate the use of sentence completion to assess morphological awareness and highlight its capture of the multidimensional nature of morphological awareness, including its semantic dimensions.
... Empirical studies support that accurate word reading which lays the foundation for successful reading comprehension (Singson et al., 2000), but word reading only partially accounts for the relationship between morphological awareness to reading comprehension (Perfetti et al., 2005). For example, Levesque et al. (2017) reported that morphological awareness contributed unique variance to reading comprehension beyond its indirect influence via word reading. Second, morphological awareness allows children to access the meanings of morphologically complex words based on roots and affixes (Nagy et al., 2014). ...
... Morphological knowledge contributes to accurate and fluent reading, which may release more cognitive resources to higher-order functions such as working memory required for reading comprehension (Kieffer & Box, 2013). Our findings provide support to the several studies of the theoretical links between morphological awareness and reading comprehension, showing that general measures of morphological awareness predict reading comprehension in different orthographies (Carlisle, 2003;Deacon & Kirby, 2004;Desrochers et al., 2018;Kieffer & Box, 2013;Kirby et al., 2012;Levesque et al., 2017;Nagy et al., 2006;Pittas & Nunes, 2014). ...
... A significant contribution of morphological awareness to reading comprehension would be expected because words carry morphological information, and morphemes disclose the meaning of words (Levesque et al., 2017). According to the Lexical Quality Hypothesis (Perfetti, 2007), reading comprehension can benefit mainly from the knowledge of the components of words. ...
This study examined the independent contribution of morphological awareness and orthographic awareness in reading comprehension, controlling for working memory and reading fluency in Arabic-speaking children. Participants (N = 244) from grades four and five, were classified into typical comprehenders (n = 207) and poor comprehenders (n = 37). All the participants underwent reading comprehension tasks (sentence comprehension and reading maze), orthographic awareness tasks (word choice and parsing), morphological awareness test (root morpheme awareness), working memory test (listening sentence span), word reading fluency, and word reading accuracy and fluency (reading in one minute). The results indicated that morphological awareness and orthographic awareness contributed significantly to reading comprehension (composite scores) only in the typical comprehenders group. Although morphological awareness showed significant predictive relation with reading comprehension, orthographic awareness was a stronger predictor of reading comprehension while controlling for working memory and reading fluency. The findings are discussed, and future directions for research are suggested.
... There is growing evidence that morphological awareness has distinct parts (Goodwin et al., 2022). For example, Deacon et al. (2017) and Levesque et al. (2017Levesque et al. ( , 2019 argued that in addition to general morphological awareness, two specific components exist: morphological decoding and morphological analysis. They showed that morphological decoding, the sounding out of words morpheme by morpheme (rather than grapheme by grapheme), contributes to word reading, whereas morphological analysis (being able to infer the meaning of multimorphemic words by examining their morphemes) contributes to comprehension. ...
... Morphological Decoding. Participants were asked to read 24 morphologically complex words (e.g., powerful, musician) presented in order of difficulty, based on the items of Levesque et al. (2017). Levesque et al. selected them using the Zeno Word Frequency Guide (Zeno et al., 1995); words had high or low-frequency base morphemes and one of the 20 most common suffixes (Blevins, 2001). ...
... Morphological Analysis. This test was based on a multiplechoice measure used by Levesque et al. (2017) and provided by K. Levesque (personal communication, October 9, 2019). To reduce guessing, open-ended questions were used instead. ...
This paper examines the effects of a morphological awareness intervention on the word reading and spelling skills of Grade 4 to 6 children with dyslexia. Sixteen children received 20 hours of morphologically oriented instruction spread over 6 weeks and eight served as controls, and all received a battery of reading and spelling tests before and after the intervention. Students were taught the nature of morphology and the types of morphemes, how words could be assembled from morphemes or deconstructed into morphemes to make meaning from print and access the correct pronunciation, and how to use morphology in reading and spelling words. Repeated measures analyses of variance and analyses of covariance indicated that the experimental group showed significantly larger gains than the control group on measures of morphological awareness, morphological decoding, morphological analysis, and morphological spelling. There were no significant effects on word reading (fluency and accuracy) or on standardized spelling measures.
... These two possibilities are founded in part in the fact that morphemes have consistent spellings in the written domain (Diependaele et al., 2012;Rastle, 2019) and they are also units of meaning in the oral domain (e.g., Carlisle & Stone, 2005; see also Duke & Cartwright, 2022). These two related but separable functions have been recently described as morphological decoding and analysis, respectively (e.g., Levesque et al., 2017). Take the word dishonest as an example. ...
... In these ways, morphological decoding and analysis are candidate mechanisms by which morphological awareness could help children with complex words which MORPHOLOGICAL MECHANISMS IN READING COMPREHENSION 6 could in turn support them in understanding texts. There is growing empirical support of their distinctiveness (e.g., Kristensen et al., 2023;Levesque et al., 2017) and educational recommendations aligning with these functions (e.g., Common Core Standards, 2010). Here we report on a longitudinal study testing morphological decoding and analysis as two mechanisms by which morphological awareness supports the development of reading comprehension. ...
... As a part of the linguistic system, morphological awareness is hypothesised to connect directly to reading comprehension (e.g., Carlisle & Goodwin, 2013;Kieffer et al., 2016;Levesque et al., 2017;Perfetti et al., 2005). Two specialized morphological functions are detailed as the morphological decoding and morphological analysis pathways. ...
It is well established that children’s reading comprehension is driven, at least in part, by their awareness of morphemes, or the smallest units of meaning in language. The question of how it does so is largely open; this mechanistic knowledge would specify theories of reading comprehension and guide effective classroom instruction. We report here on a longitudinal study designed to test two candidate mechanisms by which morphological awareness might support the development of reading comprehension: use of morphemes to read words and to understand words, known as morphological decoding and analysis, respectively. We tracked the development of 221 children on key measures from Grades 3 to 5. These three-wave longitudinal data enabled us to test morphological decoding and analysis as mediators connecting morphological awareness to gains in reading comprehension over time. Structural equation modeling showed that morphological awareness contributed to gains in both morphological decoding and analysis. Critically, only morphological analysis mediated the contribution of morphological awareness to gains in reading comprehension between Grades 3 and 5. These findings elaborate predictions of the morphological pathways framework. Specifically, longitudinal modeling shows how morphological awareness supports children’s developing reading comprehension: by enabling the use of morphemes to read and understand words, with effects on the understanding of words supporting children’s growing skill in understanding texts. Evidence supporting these two specific mechanisms inspires the design of targeted teaching on morphemes toward the development of strong reading comprehension.
... Such studies often measure a construct referred to as morphological awareness (MA), defined by Tighe and Binder (2015, p. 246) as 'a conscious understanding of how words can be broken down into smaller units of meaning', so those were the assessments we set out to evaluate. MA has been shown to be related to reading comprehension above and beyond phonological awareness and direct vocabulary measures (James et al., 2021;Levesque et al., 2017). At the same time, studies suggest a complex relationship between MA and reading comprehension. ...
... For instance, MA is correlated with readers' decoding ability for multimorphemic words containing derivational affixes (reflecting the morphophonological nature of English orthography), which is itself predictive of reading comprehension . MA is also related to children's ability to comprehend multimorphemic words, which then impacts reading comprehension (Levesque et al., 2017). Nevertheless, MA is predictive of reading comprehension over and above any mediated relationships (Levesque et al., 2017). ...
... MA is also related to children's ability to comprehend multimorphemic words, which then impacts reading comprehension (Levesque et al., 2017). Nevertheless, MA is predictive of reading comprehension over and above any mediated relationships (Levesque et al., 2017). ...
Many studies have shown that morphological knowledge has effects on reading comprehension separate from other aspects of language knowledge. This has implications for reading instruction and assessment: it suggests that children could have reading comprehension difficulties that are due to a lack of morphological knowledge, and thus, that explicit instruction of morphology might be helpful for them, indeed for all children. To find children who might especially benefit from specific instruction in morphology, we would need good tests of morphological knowledge. We evaluated a set of morphological awareness assessments to determine whether they conclusively
... An increasing body of empirical evidence indicates that vocabulary knowledge mediates the association between MA and reading comprehension (Choi, 2015;James et al., 2020;Kieffer & Box, 2013;Levesque et al., 2017;Zhang, 2016;Zhou, 2022). According to Kieffer and Lesaux (2012), there was an indirect relationship between MA and reading comprehension in English language learners, mediated by vocabulary knowledge. ...
... Reading comprehension was studied concerning MA by Levesque et al. (2017). The researchers also looked at how other factors mediated the connection between MA and comprehension. ...
... The finding showed similar results to the results of previous studies in which MA was correlated with several language skills (eg Apel & Diehm, 2014;Carlisle, 2000;Choi, 2015;Deacon & Bryant, 2006;Deacon et al., 2018;Fracasso et al., 2016;Levesque et al., 2017;Li & Chen, 2016;McCutchen & Stull, 2015;Shoeib, 2017;Xue & Jiang, 2017;Zhang, 2016). ...
This research explores the relationship between morphological awareness (MA) and linguistic aspects by examining how MA affects postgraduates’ academic writing, particularly in English as a second language (L2), dealing with writing challenges and vocabulary issues. This study investigates the relationship between MA and academic writing and the potential benefits of a morphological awareness intervention for improving writing ability. The study also investigates whether the relationship between MA and writing performance is mediated by vocabulary knowledge. The study included thirty postgraduate students whose writing was evaluated before and after receiving morphological awareness instruction. The findings indicate that vocabulary knowledge acts as a mediator between MA and writing, implying that increases in vocabulary proficiency significantly impacted students’ writing skills. As a result of the intervention, the participants’ writing abilities significantly improved. These findings highlight the importance of morphological awareness in academic writing, as well as the importance of incorporating focused morphological instruction into writing curricula. The study also calls for more research into the complex relationship between MA, vocabulary proficiency, and writing skills in various populations and contexts. Understanding this interplay can aid in developing more efficient techniques for improving academic writing abilities, particularly for L2 learners who struggle in this area.
... The literature has increasingly examined direct and indirect pathways from morphological knowledge to reading comprehension, but the results are mixed. In L1 research, [43] studied English-speaking children in grade 3. The direct path and indirect path via word reading were significant, but the indirect path via vocabulary was insignificant. Many L2 studies have found the direct path to be significant as well [15,[43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50], but [51] and [52] did not. ...
... In L1 research, [43] studied English-speaking children in grade 3. The direct path and indirect path via word reading were significant, but the indirect path via vocabulary was insignificant. Many L2 studies have found the direct path to be significant as well [15,[43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50], but [51] and [52] did not. Furthermore, many found a significant indirect path via vocabulary [15,44,[46][47][48][49]51,52], but [45,50] did not. ...
... On the other hand, the morphological spelling factor (spelling a dictated derived word) made a negative contribution; Goodwin et al. [5] speculated that too much attention to spelling might hinder comprehension. Levesque et al. [43] tested direct and indirect contributions of morphological awareness to reading comprehension by postulating four mediators (morphological decoding, morphological analysis, vocabulary, and word reading) with L1 English children in grade 3. Three paths from morphological awareness to reading Educ. Sci. ...
Growing attention has been devoted to the contribution of morphological knowledge to reading comprehension. Because of the complex nature of morphological knowledge, more fine-grained approaches are sought on this topic by exploring multiple aspects of morphological knowledge and multiple pathways through which each aspect contributes to reading comprehension. This study measured three aspects of affix knowledge (form, meaning, and use) and vocabulary breadth and examined how each aspect contributes to EFL (English as a foreign language) reading comprehension by modeling direct and indirect effects with vocabulary as a mediator. The participants were 211 Japanese university students. All variables were measured using standardized tests. Direct effects of meaning, use, and vocabulary and indirect effects of meaning and use via vocabulary were significant. However, form displayed no significant effect. The lack of significant effects for form may be due to the design of this study, which did not include word reading (a variable that may mediate form’s effect). In sum, although the form aspect did not show any effect, semantic and syntactic aspects demonstrated direct and indirect contributions. Overall, this study endorsed the criticality of a more fine-grained approach, shedding light on what and how morphological knowledge supports L2 reading comprehension.
... A second gap is that although theoretical models such as DIER (Kim, 2020a(Kim, , b, 2023 hypothesizes direct and indirect relations of morphological awareness to reading comprehension, the vast majority of empirical studies examined direct relations (see above). However, a growing number of recent studies examined direct and indirect relations and found support for the two hypothesized pathways: indirect relations of morphological awareness to reading comprehension via vocabulary (e.g., Kieffer & Box, 2013;Kim et al., 2020;Gottardo et al., 2018) and word reading (e.g., Deacon et al., 2014;Kieffer & Box, 2013;Kim et al., 2020;Levesque et al., 2017). For example, Kieffer and Box (2013) found from Spanishspeaking language minority students and native English-speaking students that morphological awareness predicted reading comprehension both directly and indirectly via vocabulary and word reading in English, and the magnitude of the indirect effect was larger for native-speaker students of English than language minority peers. ...
... The direct relation of morphological awareness to reading comprehension is similar to previous studies with English-speaking students. For example, Kieffer and colleagues (2013) found that morphological awareness was directly related to reading comprehension over and above vocabulary, word reading, text reading fluency, and listening comprehension for Spanish-speaking English bilinguals in Grades 6, 7, and 8. Levesque and colleagues (2017) also found that morphological awareness was directly related to reading comprehension and indirectly via morphological decoding, word reading, and morphological analysis for English-speaking students in Grade 3. The nonsignificant relation of vocabulary to reading comprehension once morphological awareness was included was also reported in Levesque et al. (2017). ...
... A third possibility is that students' morphological processing of words through morphological decoding and morphological analysis may have been a more prominent skill that mediated the association of morphological awareness to reading comprehension instead of their knowledge of vocabulary (Levesque et al., 2017(Levesque et al., , 2021. This is because one's morphological processing is a substantial mechanism through which students process words of which they are not familiar with the meaning. ...
The aim of this study is to explore the relation of morphological awareness to vocabulary, word reading, and reading comprehension for middle school students in Korea. A total of 121 students (73 boys and 48 girls) in Grade 7 from two middle schools in a metropolitan city in South Korea participated in the study. The students were assessed on the following skills in Korean: morphological awareness in three dimensions (inflectional, derivational, and compound morphological awareness), vocabulary, word reading, and reading comprehension. Using structural equation modeling, we found that students’ morphological awareness predicted vocabulary, word reading, and reading comprehension directly. In addition, morphological awareness was also indirectly related to reading comprehension mediated by word reading. Interestingly, once morphological awareness was accounted for, vocabulary did not make an independent contribution to reading comprehension. Our findings illustrate the direct and indirect relations of morphological awareness to vocabulary, word reading, and reading comprehension for Korean adolescents.
... Indeed, MAn is found to be important for learning new vocabulary (Zhang, 2015). However, it is distinct from vocabulary knowledge because it involves decomposing unfamiliar words for meaning analysis rather than simply accessing stored meaning in the lexicon (Levesque et al., 2017). ...
... Additionally, morphology, as part of lexical representations, may contribute indirectly to reading comprehension through word decoding and morphological analysis during the reading process. For example, Levesque et al. (2017) found that morphology contributes both directly and indirectly to reading comprehension among 221 Englishspeaking children in Grade 3. In the first indirect pathway, morphology influences reading comprehension through MDe and word reading in sequence; in other words, MDe likely underpins the indirect word reading pathway connecting morphology and reading comprehension. In the second indirect pathway, MAn fully mediates the relationship between morphology and reading comprehension. ...
Previous studies have demonstrated the overall effectiveness of morphological interventions in enhancing word reading and reading comprehension. However, the specific practices within these morphological interventions vary significantly and few intervention studies have investigated how targeted instruction in distinct aspects of morphological awareness can best support word reading and reading comprehension. This research presents the first empirical evidence regarding the relative effectiveness of morphological skills (i.e., morphological analysis and morphological decoding) and affix knowledge in developing English reading-related skills, word reading and reading comprehension among Chinese EFL students. A total of 156 Grade-8 students were randomly assigned to one of three groups: morphological analysis group (experimental group 1), morphological decoding group (experimental group 2) or affix knowledge group (active control group). Both experimental groups received direct instruction on affix knowledge alongside their respective morphological skills. Each intervention consisted of two 50 min sessions per week over a five-week period. The results indicated that all three morphological interventions led to improvements in affix knowledge, inflectional and derivational morphological structure awareness, word reading and reading comprehension. However, no significant differences in improvement were observed among the groups. The findings suggest that the morphological interventions, irrespective of the specific dimensions of morphological awareness taught, were effective for EFL learners. The implications for future research and practice are discussed.
... Research has consistently shown that morphological awareness can not only promote decoding of words, but also promote vocabulary development, and have a direct or indirect effect on reading comprehension, ( Cheng, Li, & Wu (2015, 2017, Xie, Zang, Wu & Nguyem 2019. According to Kyle, Michael & Deacon (2017) morphological decoding may play a prominent role in facilitating reading comprehension because it represents an online process of decoding unfamiliar morphological complex words encountered during reading. They also define morphological analysis as inferring the meaning of an unfamiliar morphologically complex word based on its morpheme constituents. ...
... Similarly, Kyle, Michael & Deacon(2017) carried out a study on morphological awareness and reading comprehension: Examining mediating factors. Multivariate path analyses revealed evidence of two indirect relations and one direct relation between morphological awareness and reading comprehension. ...
This paper examined the influence of morphological awareness on the reading comprehension of students at the tertiary education level in Ebonyi State. The study utilized the descriptive survey research design. Three objectives and three research questions were posed to guide the study. The target population comprised 22000 undergraduates from the south east part of Nigeria. A sample size of 220 respondents was selected using the simple random sampling technique. A structured questionnaire was the instrument for data collection. Data were analyzed using the statistical tools of mean and standard deviation. Findings showed that morphological awareness had a positive impact on student' reading comprehension. Result of the study also revealed that students’ knowledge of inflectional morphemes improved their reading comprehension. Result also showed that awareness of the differences between inflectional and derivational morphemes enhanced students' reading comprehension. Based on these findings, one of the recommendations was that curriculum planners should make Morphology a compulsory course to be taught at all levels of education in the university to enhance morphological awareness among undergraduate students and improve their ability to spell words, read words and understand sentences.
... A component of metalinguistics is morphological awareness, which is the conscious understanding of prefixes, roots, and suffixes Levesque et al., 2017). One would specifically go through its theoretical foundation to understand the concept of morphological awareness and its consequences in language learning. ...
... Morphology is a branch of linguistics that focuses on the internal structuring and change of words (Mathews, 1991). Therefore, morphological awareness, which is a part of metalinguistics, is defined as conscious awareness of prefixes, roots, and suffixes Levesque et al., 2017). The capacity to change one's understanding of the inherent morphemic structure of words is referred to as morphological awareness, according to Carlisle (1995). ...
The study examined the relationship between morphological knowledge and writing proficiency of Pakistani IELTS test candidates. The sample consisted of 131 (86 males and 45 females) Pakistani IELTS candidates. Two instruments (A test for morphological awareness and Prompt from IELTS writing task 2) were used to collect data. Pearson product-moment correlation was used to examine the correlation between morphological awareness and writing proficiency and the T-test to find the gender difference in both morphological awareness test scores and argumentative essay band scores. Further, the IELTS writing task 2 module was used to score argumentative essay writing. Findings revealed no statistically significant gender difference in argumentative essay writing band scores and a minor but statistically significant gender difference on the morphological awareness test. The results revealed females' superiority over males in morphological awareness. Likewise, Pearson product-moment correlation analysis showed no correlation between morphological understanding and writing proficiency.
... Morphological Decoding is the ability to rely on word structure in order to pronounce a written word accurately (Levesque et al., 2017). The advantage given by Morphology Decoding is linked to the fact that morphologically complex words are inherently longer than simple words; therefore, parsing them in shorter sublexical components reduces the decoding difficulty. ...
... It has been shown that Morphological Decoding training may play a key role in facilitating reading fluency of unfamiliar and unknown morphologically complex words, especially in languages with opaque orthographies (Levesque et al., 2017). Furthermore, it also International Virtual Conference on Language and Literature Proceeding IVICOLL 2023 E-ISSN 2746-8402 Vol 3 seems that Morphological Decoding strengthens learners' word reading skills, thereby facilitating reading comprehension: data from Casalis and colleagues (2011)study show that the spelling of French words for which there were several alternatives was more accurate when readers used morphological information; Marcolini and colleagues (2011) research support Casalis and colleagues' evidence, also suggesting that morpheme-based reading helps learners in obtaining reading fluency in transparent orthographies. ...
The aim of the paper is to examine, through a literature review, how explicit morphological instruction can benefit the learning of morphologically complex words in L2 Italian. In the work, the mental lexicon of learners is presented as a network of words based on morphological links. From this premises, it discusses the benefits of explicit morphological instruction on vocabulary acquisition for L2 learners, such as improving reading comprehension, increasing motivation to investigate words, and developing vocabulary knowledge in depth and size. Furthermore, this paper proposes teaching activities for L2 Italian learners to tap into Morphological Structure Awareness and analysis, focusing on the suffix-ino, which adds a range of connotative and pragmatic meanings. The authors suggest that explicit morphological instruction should engage students in problem-solving and inquiry-based activities to produce novel complex words. By teaching students how to recognise and analyse the structure of morphologically complex words, students can increase their vocabulary knowledge and autonomy, resulting in the ability to independently learn new words and reflect on their structure.
... Research with children in the mid-to late-elementary grades has demonstrated that morphological awareness is a predictor of reading comprehension (e.g., Carlisle, 2000;Deacon and Kirby, 2004;Cunningham and Carroll, 2015). This relationship persists after accounting for the effects of word reading (e.g., Deacon et al., 2014;Levesque et al., 2017;James et al., 2021), vocabulary (e.g., Kirby et al., 2012), and/or a general language measure (e.g., Kieffer et al., 2016;Metsala et al., 2021). Yet research examining morphological awareness and reading comprehension with younger students is sparse by comparison (and as reviewed below, some inconsistent findings have emerged; Carlisle, 1995;Carlisle and Fleming, 2003;Muter et al., 2004;Kirby et al., 2012;Kruk and Bergman, 2013;Apel and Henbest, 2016;James et al., 2021). ...
... The relationship between morphological awareness and reading comprehension has been widely explored among children in the mid-elementary grades and beyond (e.g., Deacon et al., 2014;Kieffer et al., 2016;Levesque et al., 2017), but research with younger readers is less prevalent. Our study adds to this sparse literature by evaluating morphological awareness as a predictor of Grade 1 students' concurrent reading comprehension, and prospective reading comprehension one year later, after controlling for decoding and two important oral language skills-vocabulary and syntactic awareness. ...
Research examining a role for morphological awareness in first grade students’ reading comprehension is scarce, although it is a well-established predictor for students in mid-to-late elementary school. One question that remains is whether morphological awareness explains unique variance in these young readers’ comprehension after accounting for other oral language skills. In this longitudinal study, we assessed Grade 1 students’ inflectional morphological awareness as a predictor of their concurrent (n = 58) and Grade 2 (n = 55) reading comprehension. When controlling for decoding and vocabulary, Grade 1 morphological awareness explained unique variance in concurrent and subsequent reading comprehension (4% and 5%, respectively). In novel analyses that controlled for decoding, vocabulary, and syntactic awareness, morphological awareness explained unique variance in Grade 2 reading comprehension (5%), but not in concurrent reading comprehension. This unique contribution only in second grade may be because decoding skills accounted for less of the overall variance in second than in first grade comprehension or due to the expectation that polymorphemic words are more frequent in second grade texts. Overall, morphological awareness emerged as the strongest oral language predictor in all models. These results support morphological awareness’ relevance to reading comprehension from early in children’s reading development and highlight the need for research to further explore the effects of targeting English morphological awareness with young students.
... Despite this theoretical separability, the majority of studies have examined awareness of inflection and derivation together as a single construct, rather than independently (e.g., Apel & Henbest, 2016;Levesque et al., 2017;Tong et al., 2014). A notable exception is a one-year longitudinal study of Greek beginner readers (Manolitsis et al., 2019), which found that morphological awareness of inflection and derivation at 5 and 6 years and of compounding at 6 years accounted for unique variance in reading comprehension at 6 and 7 years. ...
... Taking input modality as an example, these frameworks included a direct route from aural input to morphological units, whilst visual input additionally involves orthography to morphology mappings. Taking "misheard" as an example, for spoken presentation participants will hear the morphemes "mis + heard" directly and understand the word more easily; visual presentation, allows for incorrect decomposition into "mish + eard" (Levesque et al., 2017). These differences might explain the stronger correlations we found between aurally presented morphological awareness tests and reading comprehension than visually presented tests. ...
... In this research, both standard tests and researcher-made tests were used to measure the level of vocabulary knowledge and morphological awareness. The data analysis showed the relationship between the growth of vocabulary knowledge and the growth of morphological awareness (13). Guimaraes (2014) evaluated the performance of 72 Portuguese-speaking students in the third, fourth, and fifth grades and concluded that morphological awareness affects the ability to read and spell. ...
... In other words, morphological awareness exercises can be used both to increase the speed and accuracy of reading and to increase the understanding of the reading material. This unique role of morphological awareness in reading comprehension is also supported by Bauman (2003) (10)(11)(12)(13). Consistent with the research results and based on the correlation matrix calculations between variables, in the third grade, the relationship between reading speed, accuracy, and morphological awareness, decomposition, and production was stronger than the relationship between comprehension and morphological awareness, decomposition, and production. ...
Background: Reading comprehension is a complex skill rooted in language, and significant research has concentrated on identifying metalinguistic abilities that can predict children's comprehension skills. Morphological awareness is one such skill. Within the theoretical framework of reading comprehension, Perfetti, Landi, and Oakhill (2005) proposed that morphology serves a dual function in the text. In the first capacity, morphology is regarded as an integral part of the vocabulary system, indirectly enhancing text comprehension by aiding in the reading of intricate words. In the second capacity, morphology is viewed as a component of the linguistic system, directly impacting reading comprehension by influencing general comprehension processes. Objectives: This study aimed to examine the interconnection among vocabulary proficiency, morphological awareness, and reading comprehension in elementary school students in the Persian language, utilizing the theoretical framework proposed by Perfetti and Landi in their reading comprehension model. Additionally, it sought to construct a structural model of reading comprehension tailored to third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students in Persian, drawing inspiration from the model introduced by Levesque et al. (2017). Methods: This research adopted a quantitative approach and was carried out using a cross-sectional methodology in Tehran in 2023. The population consisted of 180 students aged between 9 and 11 years. Data collection encompassed a questionnaire that gathered personal information from the students, along with their scores on assessments related to vocabulary knowledge, morphological awareness (comprising production and decomposition subtests), and reading comprehension tests. Results: Among the Persian-speaking students across all three grades, a significant positive correlation was identified between vocabulary knowledge and morphological awareness, vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension, and morphological awareness and reading comprehension (P < 0.01). Conclusions: This study revealed that morphological awareness has varying effects on reading skills among Persian-speaking students. In the third grade, it notably influences fluent reading, while in the fourth and fifth grades, it plays a significant role in enhancing text comprehension. As a result, it is imperative to incorporate instruction on morphological awareness, encompassing both decomposition and production aspects, into Persian language textbooks, with particular emphasis on grades 3 through 6.
... Here, we demonstrated that underlying brain mechanisms for affix processing are more strongly linked to developmental trajectories for reading. Notably, prior work has typically examined derivational morphological awareness in the context of reading comprehension (Deacon et al., 2014Kieffer & Lesaux, 2012;Levesque et al., 2017;Tong et al., 2011). The current study provides new insight into the role of affix processing and its relation to single word reading skills rather than comprehension. ...
... When monomorphemic and polymorphemic word reading abilities are measured separately, findings typically support a stronger association between morphological awareness and morphological decoding than broader word reading skill. For instance, a study of third and fourth graders found no direct effect of morphological awareness on broad word reading but found that morphological decoding mediated the association (Levesque et al., 2017). Longitudinally, morphological awareness significantly predicted growth in morphological decoding from third grade to fourth grade but found no unique contribution of morphological awareness to broader word reading skill (Levesque & Deacon, 2022). ...
... Here, we demonstrated that underlying brain mechanisms for affix processing are more strongly linked to developmental trajectories for reading. Notably, prior work has typically examined derivational morphological awareness in the context of reading comprehension (Deacon et al., 2014Kieffer & Lesaux, 2012;Levesque et al., 2017;Tong et al., 2011). The current study provides new insight into the role of affix processing and its relation to single word reading skills rather than comprehension. ...
... When monomorphemic and polymorphemic word reading abilities are measured separately, findings typically support a stronger association between morphological awareness and morphological decoding than broader word reading skill. For instance, a study of third and fourth graders found no direct effect of morphological awareness on broad word reading but found that morphological decoding mediated the association (Levesque et al., 2017). Longitudinally, morphological awareness significantly predicted growth in morphological decoding from third grade to fourth grade but found no unique contribution of morphological awareness to broader word reading skill (Levesque & Deacon, 2022). ...
Children’s spoken language skills are essential to the development of the “reading brain,” or the neurocognitive systems that underlie successful literacy. Morphological awareness, or sensitivity to the smallest units of meaning, is a language skill that facilitates fluent recognition of meaning in print. Yet despite the growing evidence that morphology is integral to literacy success, associations between morphological awareness, literacy acquisition, and brain development remain largely unexplored. To address this gap, we conducted a longitudinal investigation with seventy-five elementary school children, ages 5-11, who completed an auditory morphological awareness neuroimaging task at Time 1 as well as literacy assessments at both Time 1 and Time 2 (1.5 years later). Findings reveal longitudinal brain-behavior associations between morphological processing at Time 1 and reading outcomes at Time 2. First, activation in superior temporal brain regions involved in word segmentation was associated with both future reading skill and steeper reading gains over time. Second, a wider array of brain regions across the language network were associated with polymorphemic word reading as compared to broader word reading skill (reading simple and complex words). Together, these findings reinforce the importance of word segmentation skills in learning to read and highlight the importance of considering complex word reading skills in building comprehensive neurocognitive models of literacy. This study fills a gap in our knowledge of how processing meaningful units in speech may help to explain differences in children’s reading development over time and informs ongoing theoretical questions about the role of morphology in learning to read.
... Specifically, McCutchen et al. (2008) demonstrated either no independent contribution of MA to reading comprehension, after vocabulary was entered in the regression analysis (McCutchen et al., 2008) or a two-way contribution to reading comprehension (a direct contribution along with an indirect contribution via vocabulary) (Nagy et al., 2006). Although these findings are not verified by recent studies (Levesque et al., 2017;Manolitsis et al., 2019), there is a possibility for a shared effect of MA and vocabulary, either full or partial, on reading comprehension. Overall, based on the existing literature the precise nature of the relation between MA and vocabulary still needs to be specified. ...
... In addition, our findings support prior ones that emerged from Spanish-speaking children (Gray et al., 2018), highlighting language morphology as a distinguishing linguistic ability. Our results are also consistent with the results reported in recent studies, which have shown that MA plays an independent role in learning to read in different orthographies, independently from PA (Cohen-Mimran et al., 2022;Desrochers et al., 2018;Freitas et al., 2017;Manolitsis et al., 2019) and vocabulary (Levesque et al., 2017;Kieffer & Lesaux, 2012). ...
Although relations between morphological awareness, phonological awareness, and vocabulary have been widely observed, questions remain about their precise associations. The purpose of the present study was to explore the relations of morphological awareness with two highly related linguistic skills (phonological awareness and vocabulary) in a transparent orthography with rich morphology. The study sample consisted of 121 (58 males, Mean age = 93.94 months, SD = 3.32) 2nd grade Greek-speaking children. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the three-factor model provided the best fit to data, indicating that although morphological awareness, phonological awareness, and vocabulary are highly correlated constructs, they represent distinct linguistic skills. In addition, hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the potential bidirectional effects among the three linguistic skills. The results indicated that both phonological awareness and vocabulary significantly contributed to morphological awareness, with phonological awareness having a stronger effect on it. Conversely, morphological awareness significantly affected both phonological awareness and vocabulary. The effect size from phonological awareness and vocabulary to morphological awareness was similar to the effect size reported from morphological awareness to phonological awareness and vocabulary. These results imply that morphological awareness is highly associated with phonological awareness and vocabulary, being though a distinct skill and these linguistic skills have bidirectional effects with each other in first grades.
... No início dos primeiros anos de aprendizagem escolar, a capacidade das crianças em segmentar e manipular constituintes morfológicos dentro das palavras complexas relaciona-se com as capacidades de leitura e com a compreensão da mesma (cf. Bowers et al., 2010;Carlisle, 2010;Goodwin & Ahn, 2010Kuo & Anderson, 2006;Nagy et al., 2014;Levesque et al., 2017, Silva & Martins-Reis, 2017, o que nos indica claramente que a morfologia desempenha um papel crucial na leitura e compreensão de textos. ...
The cochlear implant revolutionized the experience of developing spoken language in children with profound hearing loss, providing at least some proficiency in spoken language. The communicative option, total (combines aural, manual, and oral modalities) or oral (combines only aural and oral modalities), adopted by pediatric cochlear implant recipients, has been identified by literature as influencing the achievements of their spoken language. Moreover, spoken language development may diverge across language subsystems (i.e., lexical and morphosyntactic). Objectives: The present study aims to verify the influence of the communicative option on the development of spoken language in children using cochlear implants and to understand the lexical and morphosyntactic trajectory in this atypical population, comparing the results with their normal hearing peers. Methods: This longitudinal study involves three groups: 12 cochlear-implanted children encompass the Experimental Group, and 24 normal-hearing children constitute the two Control Groups. Control Group 1 comprises 12 typical development children paired by hearing age with children of the Experimental Group. Control Group 2 includes 12 typical development children matched by chronological age with children with cochlear implants from the Experimental Group. All children were assessed twice through a formal language test that comprised lexical and morphosyntactic tasks. Results: The results revealed that the communicative option did not influence the results in spoken language. Furthermore, lexical development tends to follow their normal-hearing peers, but morphosyntactic development differs significantly from the results of their normal-hearing peers. Discussion: This study does not confirm that one communicative option is more valid than the other when the aim is to enhance spoken language, at least in the first years of cochlear implant use. Additionally, the discrepancy across lexical and morphosyntactic development revealed differences possibly heightened by the auditory deprivation they were subjected to in the first year(s) of life before cochlear implant activation.
... (Carlisle, 1995, p. 194). Evidence for the predicting role of morphological awareness on reading achievement in English does not only come from mother-tongue speakers at primary level (Apel et al., 2012;Desrochers et al., 2018;Levesque et al., 2017) but also at university level (Mahony, 1994;Metsala et al., 2019;Wilson-Fowler & Apel, 2015). Studies among English second-language (ESL) learners show findings similar to monolingual research at primary level (Kieffer & Lesaux, 2007) and secondary level (Al-Haydan, 2020;Badawi, 2019). ...
... Later work on storage and computation in the mental lexicon also includes whole-form representations of complex words, which might be activated simultaneously, in parallel or interactively with representations of their component morphemes (Kuperman et al., 2009;Pollatsek et al., 2008). The dictionary metaphor is also apparent in literacy education and learning sciences, with morphemes conceptualized as "units" (Carlisle, 2010;Deacon & Levesque, 2024) or "building blocks" (Levesque et al., 2017(Levesque et al., , 2021 to be learned. While these componential views have been useful for understanding the mental lexicon and designing literacy interventions, this focus on a dictionarylike repository of representations is also limiting, because it suggests that words and their structures are objects existing a priori outside the mind (Libben, 2014). ...
Many English words contain historical roots that do not occur as free morphemes (e.g., nov in innovate, dict in verdict ). These words often retain an appearance of compositionality and are associated with effects on lexical processing ( Pastizzo & Feldman, 2004 ; Taft & Forster, 1975 ), but frequently their roots are difficult to identify without recourse to historical etymologies, and they are semantically opaque and unproductive. More practically, although such words are prominent in academic vocabulary, they are often difficult to learn, and instruction inspired by their apparent morphological structure has yielded mixed results ( McKeown et al., 2018 ). We explore these psycholinguistic and educational challenges through a dynamic view of the mental lexicon ( Libben, 2022 ), understanding morphological resources as gradient, emergent, and contextually adaptable for meaning making. We quantified bound roots’ morphological families by training an unsupervised parser on a lexicon approximating that of an educated English user, and then assessing polysemy and coherence of roots’ meanings, using vector semantic representations. Testing against behavioral data supported the validity of these measures, suggesting new ways of measuring the properties of bound roots independent from etymological data and demonstrating sensitivity even to unproductive morphological structure, that can support academic vocabulary development and meaning-making.
... Similarly, if a particular ability requires multiple cognitive skills and there is a normal distribution of a balance of skills, then alternate would be a better term to characterize strengths. Finally, most of the studies suggesting children with dyslexia use semantics to compensate for difficulties with phonology are specifically based on reading (Levesque et al., 2017). Our semantic fluency results demonstrate that within dyslexia there is a distribution of semantic ability that is independent of phonology. ...
Introduction
Most studies of dyslexia focus on domains of impairment (e.g., reading and phonology, among others), but few examine possible strengths. In the present study, we investigated semantic fluency as a cognitive strength in English-speaking children with dyslexia aged 8–13.
Methods
Ninety-seven children with dyslexia completed tests of letter and semantic verbal fluency, standardized measures of reading and cognitive functions, and task-free resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). First, we adjusted performance on semantic fluency by letter fluency and created a residual score that was used to separate participants into high (residual >0) or average (residual <0) semantic performance groups. We then employed a psycholinguistic clustering and switching approach to the semantic fluency task and performed dynamic task-free rs-fMRI connectivity analysis to reveal group differences in brain dynamics.
Results
High and average semantic fluency groups were well-matched on demographics and letter fluency but differed on their psycholinguistic patterns on the semantic fluency task. The high semantic fluency group, compared to the average semantic fluency group, produced a higher number of words within each cluster, a higher max cluster size, and a higher number of switches. Differential dynamic rs-fMRI connectivity (shorter average dwell time and greater brain state switches) was observed between the high and average groups in a large-scale bilateral frontal-temporal-occipital network.
Discussion
These data demonstrate that a subgroup of children with dyslexia perform above average on semantic fluency tasks and their performance is strongly linked to distinct psycholinguistic patterns and differences in a task-free resting-state brain network, which includes regions previously implicated in semantic processing. This work highlights that inter-individual differences should be taken into account in dyslexia and reveals a cognitive area of strength for some children with dyslexia that could be leveraged for reading interventions.
... Morphological awareness refers to speakers' "conscious awareness of the morphemic structure of words and their ability to reflect on and manipulate that structure" [19], p. 194. Morphological awareness can be delineated into three dimensions (for other aspects of morphological awareness, see [19], among others): (a) morphological structure awareness, i.e., learners' conscious awareness of the morphemic structure of words; (b) morphological analysis, i.e., learners' ability to reflect on, analyze, and manipulate the morphemic elements in words to build word meaning; and (c) morphological decoding, i.e., learners' ability to rely on word structure to pronounce a written word accurately [20,21]. Derivational morphology was chosen for two reasons. ...
Pedagogical translanguaging (PTL) refers to the use of educational techniques that incorporate learners’ entire linguistic repertoire. Recent studies indicate that PTL is efficient in the teaching of morphological awareness to bilingual children. The question remains whether it can be successfully applied in the highly specific context of adult forced migrants’ classrooms. This study describes a new protocol developed within the framework of PTL to teach derivational morphology to L2 French and Greek adults. We used questionnaires to quantitatively and qualitatively assess the feasibility of the protocol, teachers’ and learners’ attitudes, and learners’ emotions in the PTL lesson. A total of 141 migrant learners (79 forced migrants) and 13 teachers were involved in 23 2 h lessons. Teachers and learners gave high overall evaluations of the feasibility of the PTL protocol and of their pleasure from teaching and learning using PTL tools. Learners’ ease of learning and learning benefits were positively influenced by their perception of the proximity between their L1 and L2. Learners reported higher positive emotions and lower negative emotions during the PTL lesson, while forced migrants showed more hope and shame overall than voluntary migrants, as well as gained more benefits from PTL due to enjoyment. These findings suggest that the use of pedagogical translanguaging in migrants’ classrooms is feasible and develops positive attitudes and emotions, which are more pronounced in forced migrants.
... Research has shown that morphological awareness plays a key role in reading, spelling, and reading comprehension achievement beyond other known predictors such as phonological awareness and vocabulary (e.g., Apel et al., 2013;Berninger et al., 2010;Tong et al., 2011). For nonautistic elementary school-age children, researchers have found moderate-to-strong relations between performances on morphological awareness measures and word-level reading, spelling, and reading comprehension (Apel et al., 2012;Kirby et al., 2012;Levesque et al., 2017). As such, morphological awareness is becoming well established as an important predictor of literacy success for non-autistic individuals. ...
Purpose
For non-autistic children, it is well established that linguistic awareness skills support their success with reading and spelling. Few investigations have examined whether these same linguistic awareness skills play a role in literacy development for autistic elementary school–age children. This study serves as a first step in quantifying the phonological, prosodic, orthographic, and morphological awareness skills of autistic children; how these skills compare to those of non-autistic children; and their relation to literacy performance.
Method
We measured and compared the phonological, prosodic, orthographic, and morphological awareness skills of 18 autistic (with average nonverbal IQs) and 18 non-autistic elementary school–age children, matched in age, nonverbal IQ, and real-word reading. The relations between linguistic awareness and the children's word-level literacy and reading comprehension skills were examined, and we explored whether the magnitude of these relations was different for the two groups. Regression analyses indicated the relative contribution of linguistic awareness variables to performance on the literacy measures for the autistic children.
Results
The non-autistic children outperformed the autistic children on most linguistic awareness measures. There were moderate-to-strong relations between performances on the linguistic awareness and literacy measures for the non-autistic children, and most associations were not reliably different from those for the autistic children. Regression analyses indicate that the performance on specific linguistic awareness variables explains unique variance in autistic children's literacy performance.
Conclusion
Although less developed than those of their non-autistic peers, the linguistic awareness skills of autistic elementary school–age children are important for successful reading and spelling.
... They suggested that morphological awareness contributes to children's understanding of text both directly and through support of reading individual words, which in turn benefits reading comprehension. A variety of direct and indirect effects across languages have also been reported by additional studies of concurrent associations (e.g., Kargiotidis et al., 2022;Levesque et al., 2017); however, these are limited in their potential to illustrate the developmental importance of the reported relationships. ...
Purpose.
This longitudinal study examined the contribution of preschool morphological awareness to word reading skills and reading comprehension, as well as to the developmental change of reading ability beyond other well-established oral language and cognitive predictors. A distinction was made between the domains of inflectional and derivational morphology.
Method.
Two hundred and fifty-nine Norwegian-speaking children (46% female) with a mean age of 5.5 years were assessed in preschool on language measures and again in Grades 1 and 3 on measures of word reading accuracy and fluency and in Grades 3 and 4 on reading comprehension. We fit latent change score models with preschool predictors using parceling to control for measurement error.
Results.
We found a unique contribution of preschool morphological awareness to reading comprehension in Grade 3, but no unique contribution to Grade 1 decoding. Neither awareness of inflections nor awareness of derivations predicted developmental change in word reading fluency between Grades 1 and 3 or change in reading comprehension between Grades 3 and 4 beyond the effect of control variables.
Conclusion.
Our findings confirm the relevance of morphological awareness only for early attainment in reading comprehension and highlight the importance of accounting for measurement error in studying associations among variables aiming to discover specific contributions.
... Affixes can provide additional information about word class, tense, aspect, or even other grammatical relations between words. An understanding of affixation is essential in morphological analysis in linguistics, as it provides insight into how language utilizes the internal structure of words to convey richer meaning (Harefa et al., 2022;Levesque et al., 2017). ...
In the development of language, there are many variations of language in society, this is because language is changing continuously, and it is changing in different places. One aspect of language that is interesting to research is affixation. Affixation is a morphological process in linguistics where affixes are added to the root of a word to form a new word. The study aimed at describing prefixes and suffixes that are exist in Kelayu dialect. This is research was descriptive qualitative research. It concerned in the uses of affixation found in Sasak language used by Kelayu villagers. There were three domains chosen. The first was family, second was friendship and third was neighborhood. The data were collected based on five instruments, namely: observation, recording, documentation study/documentation, word list, and note taking. The result of the study showed that there are 7 kinds of prefixes and 4 kinds of suffixes that are exist in Kelayu dialect. The prefixes are {be-}, {ke-}, {me-}, {ng-}, {nge-}, {pe-}, and {te-}. The suffixes were found are {-an}, {-ang}, {-in}, and {-ye}. There was also no indication of infix, it happened because there are no words influenced by infix.
... Our modeling of three wave data is designed to directly test these predictions. Questions of mediation, in effect of mechanisms, are often tested with data collected at a single timepoint (e.g., Kim et al., 2020;Levesque et al., 2017). And yet, in its truest sense, mediation is meant to implicate causal relationships that unfold over time (Selig & Preacher, 2009). ...
Prominent theories of reading development have separately emphasized the relevance of children’s skill in learning (Share, 2008) and lexical representations (Perfetti & Hart, 2002). Integrating these ideas, we examined whether skill in learning lexical representations is a mechanism that might explain children’s reading development. To do so we conducted a longitudinal study, following 139 children from Grades 3 to 5. In Grade 3, children completed measures of word reading and reading comprehension and again at Grade 5. In Grade 4, children read short stories containing novel words; they were later tested on their memory for the spellings and meanings of these new words, capturing orthographic and semantic learning, respectively. Using multiple-mediation path analysis, we tested whether children’s skill in learning orthographic and semantic dimensions of new words was a mediator of individual differences in each of word reading and reading comprehension. In models controlling for nonverbal ability, working memory, vocabulary, and phonological awareness, we found two clear effects: individual differences in orthographic learning at Grade 4 mediated the gains that children made in word reading between Grades 3 and 5 and individual differences in semantic learning at Grade 4 mediated gains in reading comprehension over the same time period. These findings suggest that children’s ability to learn lexical representations is a mechanism in reading development, with orthographic effects on word reading and semantic effects on reading comprehension. These findings show the power and the specificity of children’s capacity to learn in determining their progress in learning to read.
... there has been a growing empirical study of the role of morphological awareness 1 in reading, spelling, and reading comprehension in different languages. A good many of these studies have shown that morphological awareness is a distinct skill in reading development (e.g., in English: Carlisle & Stone, 2005;Kirby et al., 2012; in Chinese: e.g., Liu et al., 2013), in spelling (e.g., in English: Breadmore & Deacon, 2018;Deacon et al., 2009;in French: Casalis et al., 2011;in Hebrew: Levin et al., 2001), in reading comprehension (e.g., Bar-Kochva, 2013;Deacon & Kirby, 2004;Levesque et al., 2017;Vaknin-Nusbaum et al., 2016), and in intervention (e.g., Carlisle, 2010;Goodwin & Ahn, 2010. However, the role of morphology may vary across languages (Aronoff & Fudeman, 2011) depending on the extent to which the morphological system is prominent in a specific language and the amount of word-internal information it packages inside words (Duncan, 2018;Ravid, 2019). ...
Purpose
The main aim of the current study was to examine the longitudinal impact of verb inflectional distance on morphological awareness among Arabic-speaking children from kindergarten (K) to third grade. The study also investigated the impact of testing children in two language varieties, Spoken Palestinian dialect (SPD) and Modern Standard Arabic (MSA), on the development of morphological awareness.
Method
Sixty-two children were followed longitudinally at three time points: K, Grade 1 (G1), and Grade 3 (G3). Each child completed two parallel orally administered inflectional awareness pseudoverb tasks in the spoken and in the standard variety at each grade. The items were classified by form and function into two main distance levels: low-diglossic and high-diglossic, representing the closest and the farthest distance between SPD and MSA morphemes, respectively.
Results
The findings indicated that morphological awareness was more difficult for high-diglossic morphemes than for low-diglossic ones. Moreover, the findings point to different paths in the developmental trajectory of verb inflectional awareness by distance levels and language variety: In SPD, the difference in children's awareness between low-diglossic morphemes and high-diglossic morphemes decreased across grades and disappeared in G3, whereas, in MSA, this difference significantly increased from K to G1 and G3.
Conclusions
These findings demonstrate the substantial impact of verb inflectional distance on morphological awareness development before and during the initial process of learning to read. Results are discussed within the context of linguistic distance and the development of metalinguistic processing skills with implications for assessment and intervention.
... It has been found to be strongly associated with vocabulary knowledge, as morphological knowledge can help individuals infer the meanings of unfamiliar words by breaking them down into smaller meaningful parts (see Spencer et al., 2015). Morphology appears to impact comprehension directly as well as indirectly through word reading skills (Perfetti et al., 2005); indeed, empirical studies have shown a link between morphological awareness and reading comprehension in children (e.g., Deacon et al., 2014;Levesque et al., 2017;Tong et al., 2011), adult with low literacy skills (e.g., Fracasso et al., 2016;Tighe & Binder, 2015), and adult proficient readers (Guo et al., 2011;Kotzer et al., 2021). Relating this to the current study, note that most of the included connectives were morphologically complex, and thus require understanding of the bases and suffixes of words. ...
The comprehension of connectives is crucial for understanding the discourse relations that make up a text. We studied connective comprehension in English to investigate whether adult comprehenders acquire the meaning and intended use of connectives to a similar extent and how connective features and individual differences impact connective comprehension. A coherence judgment study indicated that differences in how well people comprehend connectives depend on the lexical transparency but not on the frequency of the connective. Furthermore, individual variation between participants can be explained by their vocabulary size, nonverbal IQ, and cognitive reasoning style. Print exposure was not found to be relevant. These findings provide further insight into the factors that influence discourse processing and highlight the need to consider individual differences in discourse comprehension research as well as the need to examine a wider range of connectives in empirical studies of discourse markers.
... Knowledge of the morphemic structure of words has been shown to be associated with children's word spelling and reading accuracy and fluency (Apel & Henbest, 2016;Burani et al., 2018;Deacon et al., 2013;Levesque et al., 2017Levesque et al., , 2021 as well as with vocabulary development (Carlisle, 2007;McBride-Chang et al., 2008;Pacheco & Goodwin, 2013;Ramirez et al., 2014), and morphology has been said to provide "islands of regularity" (Rastle et al., 2000, p. 527) within the English spelling system. Thus, children's ability to process the written form and meaning of derivational morphemes, either implicitly or explicitly, may be important for word reading and reading comprehension, even in the older grades of schooling where many content-specific vocabulary words are derived words (e.g., "measurement", "astrology" or "germination"; Nippold, 2018). ...
As children advance through school, derived words become increasingly common in their reading materials. Previous studies have shown that children’s knowledge of derivational morphology develops relatively slowly, but there is more to learn about this development. This study examined differences in knowledge of the form and meaning of suffixes across grade levels (Grades 3, 5, and 8) and different types of derivational suffixes (adjectives and nominals). We assessed 309 English-speaking children on word reading and receptive vocabulary tests and two tasks designed to assess the form (orthographic knowledge) and meaning (semantic knowledge) of 28 derivational suffixes (14 adjectives and 14 nominals). Overall, our findings showed a significant improvement in identifying and understanding derivational suffixes from Grade 3 to Grade 5 and a smaller, but still significant, improvement from Grade 5 to Grade 8. Our findings regarding suffix types were mixed. While written forms of adjectives were identified more accurately than nominals across all grades, this advantage did not extend to the students’ understanding of the meaning of the suffixes. These results highlight the distinction between the identification of suffixes and the understanding of their meaning. We discuss our results in relation to suffix frequency in children’s reading materials.
... This model stipulates that children master larger units than phonemes to help them recognize words. Finally, morphological and reading skills appear to enrich and influence each other (Deacon et al., 2013), and morphology also contributes to reading comprehension (see Levesque et al., 2017Levesque et al., , 2019. ...
Children with developmental dyslexia (DD) display partially preserved morphology skills which they rely upon for reading and spelling. Therefore, we conducted explicit and intensive training of derivational morphology in individuals with DD, ages 9 to 14 years, in order to assess its effect on: morphological awareness, reading (speed and accuracy), and spelling. Our pre–posttest design included a group trained in derivational morphology and a group of children who continued their business-as-usual rehabilitation program with their speech-language therapist. Results showed effects on morphological awareness and on the spelling of complex words, with a large between-group effect size for trained items and a large to moderate effect size for untrained items. All these gains tended to be maintained over time on the delayed posttest, 2 months later. For reading, the results were more contrasted, with large between-group effect sizes for accuracy and speed for trained items, reducing to a small effect for accuracy on the delayed posttest. For untrained items, small effects were observed on accuracy (at both posttests) but not on speed. These results are very promising and argue in favor of using derivational morphology as a medium to improve literacy skills in French-speaking children and adolescents with DD.
... Morphological awareness facilitates morphological decoding, consequently students' word reading and reading comprehension are improved (Levesque et al.,2017;Tighe et al., 2018). The metalinguistic development depends on increasing complexity. ...
... Several researches have revealed that morphological awareness was significantly associated with reading comprehension (Lee et al., 2022;Vulic, 2021;Aziz et al., 2019;Levesque et al., 2017). This study led also to the same result. ...
This study aimed to determine the significant influence of morphological awareness on the reading comprehension of senior high school students. This quantitative study used a descriptive-correlational survey research design to gather information and find which domain of morphological awareness best influences the senior high school students reading comprehension. This study was conducted among the Grade 12 students of Nieves Villarica National High School through stratified sampling with 197 respondents. In collecting the data, the researchers used multiple-choice question tests adapted from the study of Alsaeedi (2017) and the book of Castigador (2012). This study utilized the Mean, Pearson-Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and Multiple Linear Regression to analyze the data. The result showed that the student's morphological awareness is low, while the reading comprehension is moderate. This study also revealed a significant relationship between the morphology awareness and reading comprehension; however, there was a weak positive relationship. It was also found that the morphological structure was the best predictor of reading comprehension. The researchers recommended to the teachers to strengthen their delivery of instruction and conduct remedial teaching if the students have not fully mastered the lessons especially in morphology and reading comprehension. It was also recommended that future researchers be encouraged to conduct this kind of research in a new location and setting to expand this kind of study.
... (For examples of each subcomponent of morphological awareness, see Table 1.) Morphological awareness is thus recognized as a multilinguistic skill that supports increased word-and text-level comprehension (Apel, 2014;Goodwin et al., 2021). Morphological awareness also increases word reading efficiency by allowing readers to parse morphologically complex words into units larger than single sounds (Deacon & Kirby, 2004;Kirby et al., 2012;Levesque et al., 2017). Additionally, although students with language and literacy deficits score lower on measures of morphological awareness than their typically developing peers (Kirby et al., 2012;Tong et al., 2014), explicit morphological awareness instruction seems to yield greater literacy gains for students with language impairments than typically developing students (Bowers et al., 2010). ...
Purpose
Morphological awareness develops throughout formal schooling and is positively related to later reading abilities. However, there are limited standardized measures available for speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to use when assessing morphological awareness in clinical practice. The purpose of this tutorial is to guide clinicians in choosing between researcher-created measures of morphological awareness to use with their school-aged students.
Method
We first summarize previous morphological awareness assessment research and outline important clinical considerations when choosing a morphological awareness assessment for students in early elementary grades and beyond. Second, we highlight item characteristics regarding morpheme type, frequency, shift transparency, and imageability for students in early elementary versus later grades. Third, we discuss the type of tasks (i.e., production, decomposition, and judgment) and administration modes (i.e., oral or written and static or dynamic) available to clinicians assessing the morphological awareness skills of school-aged students. Throughout the tutorial, we reference a hypothetical case study to illustrate how SLPs might apply these suggestions and link morphological awareness assessment to treatment recommendations.
Conclusions
This tutorial highlights the importance of including morphological awareness assessments in clinical practice to support oral and written language development. We provide practical guidelines to help SLPs evaluate and choose appropriate morphological awareness assessments for their school-aged students as part of their comprehensive language evaluations and to support intervention planning.
Supplemental Material
https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.24545470
... This is unsurprising given that morphological knowledge positively contributes to word reading accuracy and vocabulary knowledge, both of which are necessary for reading comprehension. However, a number of studies have shown that morphological knowledge uniquely contributes to reading comprehension, over and above word reading and vocabulary skills (e.g., James et al., 2021;Levesque et al., 2017). According to the Morphological Pathways Framework (Levesque et al., 2021), morphology plays both direct and indirect roles in text comprehension. ...
Purpose
The impact of morphological knowledge on students' literacy development has been well documented. The purpose of this tutorial is to illustrate how school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) can target morphology in their interventions to support their students' literacy development.
Method
This tutorial includes a review of the concepts and terminology essential to providing morphological interventions, the norm-referenced and informal assessments that can be used to assess students' morphological knowledge, and intervention strategies to use across multiple grade levels that are aligned with the Common Core State Standards.
Conclusion
This tutorial provides school-based SLPs with the information needed to get started developing and implementing interventions with morphology at the core.
... For example, the facets of inflectional and derivational tasks were not confirmed as separate latent dimensions of morphological awareness while real words and pseudowords tasks represented two separate facets. Such results were also verified in Levesque et al. (2017) study, showing that multidimensional morphological awareness depended on the type of measurement tasks. According to the aforementioned studies, morphological awareness was considered as one subcategory of morphological knowledge. ...
Morphological knowledge and morphological awareness are multidimensional and both have been confirmed to make important contributions to vocabulary knowledge. However, the extant literature has not made a clear demarcation between morphological knowledge and morphological awareness. The current study examined the underlying components of morphological knowledge and morphological awareness as well as their effects on vocabulary knowledge. The performance of 226 tenth- and eleventh-graders on five tasks was investigated using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Results demonstrated that morphological knowledge and morphological awareness were two distinct constructs. In regard to the direct and indirect effects between morphological knowledge and vocabulary, it was indicated that morphological knowledge made a significant indirect effect on vocabulary knowledge through morphological awareness. However, the direct effect of morphological knowledge on vocabulary knowledge was not significant. Findings from the current study have important implications to adolescent EFL students’ vocabulary instruction and research.
... Morphological analysis is one such approach. Unlike vocabulary intervention, which focuses on creating form-meaning links and enlarging students' lexicons (Webb, 2019), morphological analysis instruction supports the process of deconstructing unfamiliar words for meaning analysis (Levesque et al., 2017). ...
... On the other hand, construction refers to the formation of words and the morphological structures of existing words. Research has shown that morphological awareness can help learners perform better in other language skills, such as reading, by enabling them to understand the correct forms of vocabulary used (Levesque, Kieffer & Deacon, 2017). Moreover, other studies (e.g., Kuo & Anderson, 2006;Nagy, Carlisle & Goodwin, 2013;Shu, McBride-Chang, Wu & Liu, 2006) have found that morphological awareness is related to the ability to recognize vocabulary, word reading, and spelling. ...
Vocabulary is a fundamental aspect of language learning, and acquiring a rich vocabulary is essential for achieving fluency in the target language (TL). Morphology, the study of word formation, plays a critical role in building vocabulary. Morphology provides learners with an understanding of how words are constructed and how their forms change based on their use in sentences. Possessing sufficient knowledge and awareness of morphology can enhance learners' ability to comprehend and produce words accurately in the TL. This research article provides a comprehensive theoretical explanation of the benefits of using morphology as an approach to constructing vocabulary. The article discusses the different ways new words are coined in various languages and how morphological processes can be used to create new words. Additionally, the article explores how morphological analysis can help learners understand the meaning of unfamiliar words based on their word parts. Moreover, the article emphasizes the importance of morphology awareness for TL learners and provides practical applications for incorporating morphology into vocabulary instruction. The article proposes that learners can benefit from explicitly teaching morphological rules, using morphological analysis to derive meaning from words, and encouraging learners to use morphological clues to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words. In conclusion, possessing morphology awareness is crucial for TL learners to acquire a robust vocabulary. By understanding the principles of word formation and variation, learners can enhance their vocabulary acquisition and usage. This research article provides a theoretical foundation for incorporating morphology into vocabulary instruction and offers practical strategies for enhancing learners' morphology awareness.
Both vocabulary skill and morphological complexity, or whether words can be broken down into root words and affixes, have a significant impact on word processing for adults with low literacy. We investigated the influence of word-level variables of morphological complexity and root word frequency, and the sentence-level variable of context strength on word processing in adults with low literacy, who differed on levels of vocabulary depth skills, which was a participant-level variable. Our findings demonstrate that morphological complexity, root word frequency, and context strength are all related to how adult learners process words while reading, but their effects are dependent on participants’ vocabulary depth. Participants with higher levels of vocabulary depth were able to more quickly process morphologically complex words and make better use of supportive sentence context as compared to individuals with lower levels of vocabulary depth. These findings suggest that both morphological complexity and vocabulary depth are important for word processing and reading comprehension in adults with low literacy.
Aims
This meta-analysis aimed to quantify the overall within- and cross-linguistic relationships between morphological awareness (MA) and vocabulary knowledge and identify moderators that influence their associations in monolingual and bilingual learners.
Methodology
We conducted a meta-analysis using 109 primary studies that met our inclusion criteria. Data from 79 L1 studies (involving 14,172 monolingual learners) and 30 L2 studies (involving 4,288 bilingual learners) were extracted.
Data and analysis
Studies were coded for learner characteristics, such as age, language background, and L1–L2 distance, as well as assessment characteristics, including task modality (e.g., oral vs. written), task content (e.g., derivation and compound), and response type (production vs. reception).
Findings/conclusions
The results indicated that (a) in monolingual research, there was a moderate correlation between MA and vocabulary ( r = .43); (b) in bilingual research, there was a significant positive correlation between L1 and L2 MA ( r = .33), and between L1 MA and L2 vocabulary ( r = .26); (c) the magnitude of the association between MA and vocabulary increased with age in monolingual learners, while that of the correlation between L1 and L2 MA decreased with age in bilingual learners; and (d) significant variations were observed depending on the specificity of the language(s) involved, as well as several assessment-related moderators.
Originality
This study contributes to the existing literature by systematically exploring the degree of association between MA and vocabulary within and across languages and examining whether these associations are influenced by learner and assessment characteristics.
Significance/implications
Our results support MA as a multidimensional, transferrable construct and underscore its important role in vocabulary for monolingual and bilingual learners. Several key considerations are discussed for the selection of MA and vocabulary assessment methods.
Deducting meanings of new or unfamiliar words requires contribution of different aspects of the language; thereby, lexical inferencing is a process in which morphological and contextual knowledge are involved to infer the meanings of new or unfamiliar words. Accordingly, this study argues whether morphological and contextual knowledge are collaborated simultaneously, or there is an independent mechanism for their contribution that functions in a separate manner. For resolving this argument, this study constructs a number of examples that contain unknown or confusing words that are examined through an illustrative analysis that is conducted for each example. The findings of this study show that meanings of unfamiliar words cannot be inferred accurately without the simultaneous work of the contextual hints and the morphological knowledge; it is also found that inferencing of new meanings through an independent activation of morphological knowledge or context is considered incomplete. This study believes that its findings may have implications for future studies that can examine the instructional role of morphology in developing lexical inferencing with possible reference to other linguistic fields such as phonetics.
The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of implicit and explicit morphological analysis instruction in Spanish, a language characterized by high morphological complexity and relatively consistent letter–sound correspondences. For 3 days, 94 Grade 3 Spanish monolingual students (43 girls; Mage = 8.9 years) were trained on target words containing experimenter-designed suffixes consistent in form and meaning (e.g., the suffix -isba refers to a factory in words such as ‘‘botisba ” [a boot factory] and ‘‘cajisba ” [a box factory]). Explicit and implicit instruction differed in the attention given to the co-occurrence of the suffixes in the target words. One day (immediate posttest) and 1 week (delayed posttest) after training concluded, participants were tested on their learning of the suffixes’ form using a suffix identification task and meaning using a word definition and a multiple-choice task. Results of mixed effects models showed that explicit instruction yielded better results for the learning of the form of the suffixes. Regarding meaning, across-condition differences were detected only in the word definition task; explicit instruction produced better results for both trained and transfer words. We discuss our findings in the context of the grain-size unit theory and examine the interplay between the language’s orthographic and morphological characteristics, considering their impact on classroom instruction.
Ισχυρά εμπειρικά ευρήματα υποδεικνύουν ότι η ανάπτυξη του προφορικού λεξιλογίου στα παιδιά συμβάλλει αποφασιστικά στην αναγνωστική κατανόηση κατά τη διάρκεια της φοίτησής τους στο σχολείο, εξασφαλίζοντας ακριβή κατανόηση του γραπτού κειμένου και αποδοτικότερη αναγνώριση λέξεων. Για την πληρέστερη κατανόηση του τρόπου με τον οποίο η ανάπτυξη του προφορικού λόγου των μαθητών διευκολύνει την πρόσβαση στη γραπτή γλώσσα, τις δύο τελευταίες δεκαετίες η έρευνα έχει εστιάσει –εκτός από το λεξιλόγιο και τη φωνημική επίγνωση- και στη συνεισφορά των μορφολογικών δεξιοτήτων (Deacon, Kieffer & Laroche, 2014· Dickinson et al., 2003· Foorman et al., 2015· Manolitsis et al., 2019· Nagy, Berninger & Abbott, 2006). Στο παρόν κεφάλαιο αναλύεται η συμβολή γλωσσικών και μεταγλωσσικών δεξιοτήτων στη μάθηση του γραπτού λόγου με ειδικότερο στόχο τη διερεύνηση της διαμεσολαβητικής επίδρασης του λεξιλογίου και της μορφολογικής επίγνωσης στη διαχρονική πρόβλεψη της αναγνωστικής κατανόησης. Οι συμμετέχοντες (Ν=570) προήλθαν από τυχαία και διαστρωματωμένη δειγματολοψία σε δημοτικά σχολεία της Κρήτης και της Αττικής και αξιολογήθηκαν ατομικά 3 φορές σε διάστημα 2 ετών με δοκιμασίες λεξιλογίου, μορφολογικής επίγνωσης, ανάγνωσης λέξεων και ψευδολέξεων, αναγνωστικής ευχέρειας και κατανόησης. Η ερευνητική υπόθεση ελέγχθηκε χρήσιμο- ποιώντας ως εξωγενείς μεταβλητές τις μετρήσεις της μορφολογικής επίγνωσης και του λεξιλογίου της πρώτης αξιολόγησης (ανεξάρτητες μεταβλητές), ενώ ως ενδογενείς μεταβλητές τις μετρήσεις της μορφολογικής επίγνωσης και του λεξιλογίου της δεύτερης αξιολόγησης (διαμεσολαβητικές μεταβλητές), καθώς και τη μέτρηση της αναγνωστικής κατανόησης της τρίτης αξιολόγησης (εξαρτημένη μεταβλητή). Από τις αναλύσεις διαδρομής που πραγματοποιήθηκαν προέκυψε ότι η αρχική μορφολογική επίγνωση ασκεί τόσο άμεση, όσο και έμμεση επίδραση στην αναγνωστική κατανόηση των μαθητών, όπως εξετάστηκε δυο χρόνια αργότερα. Επίσης, σημαντική αναδείχθηκε η διαχρονική συμβολή του λεξιλογίου, το οποίο διαπιστώθηκε ότι προβλέπει τη μεταβολή της αναγνωστικής κατανόησης μόνο διαμεσολαβητικά. Η συγκριτική εξέταση των ευρημάτων υποδεικνύει ότι η μορφολογική επίγνωση προβλέπει σε υψηλότερο βαθμό την ανάπτυξη της αναγνωστικής κατανόησης διαμέσου του λεξιλογίου σε σχέση με την πρόβλεψη της αναγνωστικής κατανόησης από το λεξιλόγιο διαμέσου της μορφολογικής επί- γνώσης. Επίσης, οι αναλύσεις διαδρομής πολλαπλών ομάδων έδειξαν ότι το προτεινόμενο μοντέλο δε διέφερε σημαντικά ανάλογα με την ηλικία των μαθητών.
Language comprehension is crucial to reading. However, theoretical models and recent research raise questions about what constitutes this multifaceted domain. We present two related studies examining the dimensionality of language comprehension and relations to reading comprehension in the upper elementary grades. Studies 1 (Grade 6; N = 148) and 2 (Grade 3–5; N = 311) contrasted factor models of language comprehension using item level indicators of morphological awareness and vocabulary (Studies 1 and 2) and syntactic awareness (Study 2). In both studies, a bifactor model—including general language comprehension and specific factors for each language component—best fit the data, and general language comprehension was the strongest predictor of reading comprehension. In Study 2, the morphology-specific factor also uniquely predicted reading comprehension above and beyond general language comprehension. Results suggest the value of modeling the common proficiency underlying performance on tasks designed to tap theoretically distinct language comprehension skills.
Learning, cognition and dyslexia This chapter: i) discusses a number of hypothesis on learning and how learning can go wrong for some; ii) refers to the nature of learning in infancy; iii) discusses declarative and procedural learning; iv) provides a neural systems framework for developmental disorders; v) suggests that it is not only the language related processes that are important but also components of motor skills; vi) discusses how this gives rise to investigating the nature and role of the cerebellum; and vii) reflects on how theoretical positions on developmental dyslexia can impact on practice. What a wonderful skill it is to be able to read! This is the centenary of Huey's seminal book (Huey, 1908) that provided the first scientific analysis of the skill. Huey's studies revealed that many processes combine seamlessly and without conscious monitoring. When reading aloud, the articulatory tract is speaking each word in sequence; the ...
This longitudinal study examined the contribution of morphological awareness to bilingual word learning of Malay–English bilingual children in Singapore where English is the medium of instruction. Participants took morphological awareness and lexical inference tasks in both English and Malay twice with an interval of about half a year, the first time at the end of Grade 3 (Time 1) and the second time at the end of the first semester of Grade 4 (Time 2). Structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses revealed that within both languages, morphological awareness significantly predicted lexical inference at Time 1 as well as Time 2, and the contribution also became strengthened over time. Cross-linguistic SEM analyses showed that concurrently at both Time 1 and Time 2, English morphological awareness only had a significant indirect effect on Malay lexical inference. The exact indirect relationships, however, varied between Time 1 and Time 2. In addition, an indirect effect of Time 1 English morphological awareness on Time 2 Malay lexical inference also surfaced. These findings suggest concurrent as well as longitudinal cross-linguistic transfer of morphological awareness from English to Malay.
The ultimate goal of children's reading development is the full and fluid understanding of texts. Morphological structure awareness, or children's awareness of the minimal units of meaning in language, has been identified as a key skill influencing reading comprehension. Here, we evaluate the roles of morphological structure awareness and two related skills, morphological analysis and morphological decoding, in Grade 3 and Grade 5 children's reading comprehension. Respectively, morphological decoding and analysis refer to the use of morphemes in reading and in understanding words. Critically, our analyses show that, together, morphological structure awareness, morphological decoding and morphological analysis account for 8% of the variance in reading comprehension, after controlling for children's age, phonological awareness, nonverbal reasoning and word reading skill. Further, of these dimensions, each of morphological decoding and morphological analysis makes a unique contribution to reading comprehension. We discuss these findings in terms of current theories of reading development and educational curricula.
The objective of this study was to explore dimensions of oral language and reading and their influence on reading comprehension in a relatively understudied population-adolescent readers in 4th through 10th grades. The current study employed latent variable modeling of decoding fluency, vocabulary, syntax, and reading comprehension so as to represent these constructs with minimal error and to examine whether residual variance unaccounted for by oral language can be captured by specific factors of syntax and vocabulary. A 1-, 3-, 4-, and bifactor model were tested with 1,792 students in 18 schools in 2 large urban districts in the Southeast. Students were individually administered measures of expressive and receptive vocabulary, syntax, and decoding fluency in mid-year. At the end of the year students took the state reading test as well as a group-administered, norm-referenced test of reading comprehension. The bifactor model fit the data best in all 7 grades and explained 72% to 99% of the variance in reading comprehension. The specific factors of syntax and vocabulary explained significant unique variance in reading comprehension in 1 grade each. The decoding fluency factor was significantly correlated with the reading comprehension and oral language factors in all grades, but, in the presence of the oral language factor, was not significantly associated with the reading comprehension factor. Results support a bifactor model of lexical knowledge rather than the 3-factor model of the Simple View of Reading, with the vast amount of variance in reading comprehension explained by a general oral language factor.
We examined the role of a hypothesized factor in reading comprehension: morphological awareness, or the awareness of and ability to manipulate the smallest meaningful units or morphemes. In this longitudinal study, we measured English-speaking children’s morphological awareness, word reading skills, and reading comprehension at Grades 3 and 4, in addition to their phonological awareness, vocabulary, and nonverbal ability as control measures. Path analyses revealed that word reading skills partially mediated the relationship between morphological awareness and reading comprehension at each grade. Further, children’s early morphological awareness partially explained children’s gains in reading comprehension, and their early reading comprehension partially explained their gains in morphological awareness. These findings support the predictions of recent models of reading comprehension: that morphological awareness impacts reading comprehension both indirectly through word reading skills and directly through the language system and that morphological awareness underpins the development of reading comprehension (e.g., Perfetti, Landi, & Oakhill, 2005).
This study tested three hypotheses about the direct and indirect contributions of derivational morphological awareness to English reading comprehension in sixth-grade students from differing language backgrounds (n= 952). Students included Spanish-speaking, Filipino-speaking, and Vietnamese-speaking language minority learners as well as native English speakers. Multiple-group structural equation modeling indicated that morphological awareness made a significant direct contribution to reading comprehension, controlling for reading vocabulary and word reading fluency. Morphological awareness also made a significant indirect contribution to reading comprehension via reading vocabulary, but not via word reading fluency. Effects were similar across the four language groups. Findings suggest that morphological awareness may play multiple important roles in English reading comprehension for students from a variety of home language backgrounds.
Developing readers of English appear to favor phonograms over grapheme-phoneme correspondences (GPCs) to read unknown words. For polysyllabic polymorphemic (PSPM) words, the morphophonemic nature of English means elementary-age children may focus on roots and affixes. Does developing readers' PSPM word reading accuracy relate to the morphological units, the nonmorphological, or both? In this study, 3rd and 4th graders (N = 202) read PSPM words (N = 45), and models were constructed to answer this question. A nonmorphological polysyllabic model showed a main effect of phonological awareness; a Vocabulary Size × Word Frequency interaction, with larger vocabularies improving accuracy for low-frequency words; and a GPC Knowledge × Word Frequency interaction, with a slight negative GPC knowledge effect for all but low-frequency words. A polymorphemic model showed main effects of word-specific root word knowledge, general root word reading, vocabulary, and word frequency. A Morphological Awareness × Morphological Transparency interaction showed morphological awareness affected accuracy for shift words more than transparent ones. In a combined model, effects were the same, except GPC knowledge positively affected accuracy for very low-frequency words, vocabulary and frequency had only main effects, and a bigram frequency effect was found. The polysyllabic model reduced child and item variance by 45% and 43%, respectively; the polymorphemic model by 62% and 67%; and the combined model by 69% and 69%. The results suggest that elementary-age developing readers rely on morphological information to read PSPM words. Implications for models of reading and reading intervention are discussed.
When children start to learn to read English, they benefit from learning grapheme–phoneme correspondences. As they become more skilled, they use larger graphophonic units and morphemes in word recognition and spelling. We hypothesized that these 2 types of units in decoding make independent contributions to children's reading comprehension and fluency and that the use of morphological units is the stronger predictor of both measures. In a longitudinal study with a large sample in the United Kingdom, we tested through multiple regressions the contributions that these different units make to the prediction of reading competence (reading comprehension and fluency). The predictors were measured when the children were aged 8–9 years. Reading comprehension and rate were measured concurrently, and reading list fluency was measured at 12 and 13 years. After controlling for age and verbal IQ, the children's use of larger graphophonic units and their use of morphemes in reading and spelling made independent contributions to predicting their reading comprehension and reading fluency. The use of morphemes was the stronger predictor in all analyses. Thus, teaching that promotes the development of these different ways of reading and spelling words should be included in policy and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
We reintroduce a wide-angle view of reading comprehension, the Reading Systems Framework, which places word knowledge in the center of the picture, taking into account the progress made in comprehension research and theory. Within this framework, word-to-text integration processes can serve as a model for the study of local comprehension processes, that is, those that make sense out of short stretches of text. These processes require linkage between the word identification system and the comprehension system, with the lexicon in the linking role. Studies of these processes examine the influence of one sentence on the reading of a single word in a second sentence, which enables the integration of the word meaning into the reader's mental model of the text. Skilled comprehenders, more than less skilled, show immediate use of word meanings in the integration process. Other evidence is also consistent with the assumption that word meaning processes are causal components in comprehension skill.
As many studies have now demonstrated that morphological awareness contributes to students' literacy development, there is growing interest in the educational value of instruction in morphological awareness. This review was undertaken to integrate findings of studies that sought to determine whether such instruction contributed to improvement in literacy. Analysis of the 16 studies that met selection criteria is organized around researchers' purpose(s) in studying the relation of morphological awareness instruction to key components of literacy development (i.e., phonology, orthography, word meaning). Results indicate that morphological awareness has the potential to contribute to students' literacy development in all three areas-most notably when it deepens students' understanding of the morphemic structure, spelling, and meaning of written words. However, examination of the design and quality of the studies of instruction in morphological awareness suggests that this is an emerging area of research. Much needs to be done to provide a clearer understanding of how, when, and why morphological awareness instruction contributes to students' literacy development.
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the relation between morphological awareness on reading comprehension is moderated by multisyllabic word reading ability in fifth-grade students (N = 169, 53.7% female, 65.2% minority status, 69.2% free/reduced lunch status), oversampled for poor reading skill, when controlling for general knowledge and vocabulary. Based on the lexical quality hypothesis, it was expected that morphological awareness would have a stronger effect on comprehension for children with poor word reading skills, suggesting possible use of morphological awareness for word identification support. Results indicated that neither morphological awareness nor word reading was uniquely associated with reading comprehension when both were included in the model along with vocabulary and general knowledge. Instead, the interaction between word reading and morphological awareness explained significant additional variance in reading comprehension. By probing this interaction, it was determined that the effect of morphological awareness on reading comprehension was significant for the 39% of the sample that had more difficulty reading multisyllabic words but not for students at the higher end of the multisyllabic word reading continuum. We conclude from these results that the relation between morphological awareness and reading comprehension is moderated by multisyllabic word reading ability, providing support for the lexical quality hypothesis. Although we have only correlational data, we suggest tentative instructional practices for improving the reading skill of upper elementary struggling readers.
This study investigated the multiple roles of morphological awareness in reading comprehension for Spanish-speaking language minority (LM) learners and their native English-speaking (NE) peers. Sixth-grade students (N = 137; 82 LM, 55 NE) were assessed on English measures of derivational morphological awareness, morphologically complex academic vocabulary, silent word reading fluency, and reading comprehension. Multiple-group path analyses indicated that morphological awareness made a significant unique contribution to comprehension as well as indirect contributions to comprehension via academic vocabulary and word reading fluency. Predictive relations were the same across language groups, with the exception of the indirect contribution via academic vocabulary, which was greater for NE speakers than for LM learners. Findings extend prior research by confirming the importance of morphological awareness in literacy development for LM learners and specifying particular roles in academic vocabulary and fluency development, suggesting the value of integrating morphology into multifaceted reading instruction in linguistically diverse classrooms.
ABSTRACTS
This study explored the effects of instruction in morphemic analysis (select prefixes) and contextual analysis (select context clue types). Four classes of fifth‐grade students were assigned to a morphemiconly, context‐only, or combined morphemic‐context experimental group or to an instructed control group. Following twelve 50‐minute lessons, students were tested on their ability to recall the meanings of words used to teach the morphemic and contextual analysis skills (lesson words), to infer the meanings of uninstructed words that contained taught morphemic elements or words that were embedded in text that included taught context clues (transfer words), and to comprehend text containing transfer words. The results indicated that (a) there was an immediate and delayed effect of morphemic and contextual analysis instruction for lesson words; (b) there was an immediate effect of morphemic and contextual analysis instruction for transfer words; (c) there was no evidence that instruction in morphemic or contextual analysis, either in isolation or combination, enhanced students' text comprehension; and, (d) students were generally just as effective at inferring word meanings when the morphemic and contextual analysis instruction was provided in combination as when the instruction was provided separately.
Este estudio exploró los efectos de la enseñanza de análisis morfológico (seleccionar prefijos) yanálisis contextual (seleccionar pistas contextuales). Cuatro cursos de estudiantes de quinto grado fueron asignados a tres grupos experimentales: morfológico, contextual o morfológico‐contextualcombinado, o a un grupo de control. Luego de 12 clases de 20 minutos, se evaluó a los estudiantes en la capacidad para recordar los significados de las palabras usadas para enseñar habilidadesde análisis morfológico y contextual (palabras de la lección), para inferir los significados de palabras no enseñadas que contenían elementos morfológicos ya vistoso palabras contenidas en textos que incluían pistas contextuales enseñadas (palabras de transferencia) y por último, comprender textos que contenían palabras de transferencia. Los resultados indicaron que (a) hubo un efecto inmediato y diferido de la enseñanza de análisis morfológico y contextual para las palabras de la lección, (b) hubo un efectoinmediato de la enseñanza de análisis morfológico y contextual para las palabras de transferencia, (c) no se obtuvo evidencia de que la enseñanza de análisis morfológicoo contextual, ya sea en forma aislada o combinada, mejorara la comprensión de textos y (d) los estudiantes fueron igualmente eficaces para inferir los significados de las palabras cuando la enseñanzade análisis morfológico y contextual se impartió en forma aislada, que cuando se realizó en forma combinada.
Diese Studie untersuchte die Unterrichtsauswirkungen in morphemischerAnalyse (Vorwort‐Auswahl) und kontextualer Analyse (Kontexthinweis‐Auswahl). Vier Klassen der fünften Stufe wurden entweder nur morphemischen, nur kontextualen, oder einer kombiniert morphemisch‐kontextualenExperimentier‐Gruppe oder einer Anweisungen befolgenden Kontrollgruppe zugeteilt. Nach 12 jeweils 50‐Minuten dauernden Unterrichtsstunden wurden die Schüler auf ihre Fähigkeit überprüft, sich an Bedeutung und Sinn der zuvor im Unterricht benutzten morphemischen und kontextualen Analysekenntnisse (Unterrichtswörter) zu erinnern, auf die Bedeutung nicht erklärter Wörter zuschließen, welche die unterrichteten morphemischen Elemente enthielten, oder die im Text verankerten Wörter, die unterrichtete Zusammenhangshinweise (Transferwörter) enthielten, zu erkennenund Text mit Transferwörter inhaltlich zu verstehen. Die Ergebnisse ließen darauf schließen, daß (a) es einen sofortigen und verzögerten Effekt der morphemischen und kontextualenAnalyseanweisung für Unterrichtswörter gab; (b) es einen Sofort‐Effekt der morphemischen und kontextualen Analyseanweisung für Transferwörter gab; (c) es keinen Beweis gab, daßdie Anweisung in morphemischer oder kontextualer Analyse entweder in der Isolation oder als Kombination das Textverständnis der Schüler verbesserte; und, (d) die Schüler allgemein ebensoerfolgreich beim Einfügen von Wortbedeutungen waren, wenn die morphemische und kontextuale Analyseanweisung als Kombination vorgegeben wurde, genau wie bei der separaten Vorgabe der Anweisung.
Cette étude explore les effets de l'enseignement de l'analyse morphémique (sélection de préfixes) et de l'analyse contextuelle (sélection de types d'indices de contexte). Ona assigné quatre classes de d'élèves de 5° année à un groupe expérimental, soit morphémique uniquement, soit contextuel uniquement, soit présentantune combinaison de morphémique et de contextuel, soit à un groupe contrôle avec enseignement. Après 12 leçons de 50 minutes, les élèves ont ététestés sur leur capacité à rappeler la signification des mots utilisés pour enseigner les compétences d'analyse morphémique et contextuelle (mots des leçons),à inférer la signification de mots non enseignés mais contenant des éléments morphémiques ou de mots insérés dans un texte comportant les indicescontextuels en seignés (mots transfert), et de comprendre un texte contenant les mots transfert. Les résultats montrent a) un effet immédiat et différé de l'enseignementde l'analyse morphémique et contextuelle pour les mots des leçons; b) un effet immédiat de l'enseignement de l'analyse morphémique et contextuelle pour les mots transfert; c)qu'il n'y a pas de preuve que l'enseignement de l'analyse morphémique et contextuelle, isolée ou combinée, facilite la compréhension de texte par les élèves; et, d) que les élèves sont en général aussi efficaces pour inférer la signification de mots après un enseignement de l'analyse morphémique et contextuelle conduitde façon isolément qu'en combinaison.
TWO STUDIES were designed to investigate the role of morphemic structure on students' word reading. The first study asked whether familiar morphemes in words facilitate word reading for elementary students. Results showed that lower and upper elementary students read words with two morphemes (derived words with a base word and one suffix, such as shady) faster than words with one morpheme (e.g., lady). The second study was designed to investigate the effects of phonological transparency on middle and high school students' reading of derived words. Results showed that phonologically transparent words, words in which a base form is intact in the pronunciation of the derived word (e.g., classic in classical), were recognized and read faster than derived words that are less phonologically transparent (e.g., colonial), pinpointing an aspect of morphemic structure that affects reading derived words. The results indicate that reading derived words is not accomplished solely by familiarity with letter-sound associations or syllables; morphemes also play a role. Results also suggest value in emphasizing morphemic structure in models of word-reading acquisition.
We looked at the effects of teaching 7- and 8-year-old children morphological and phonological distinctions. Some of those given morphological training and some of those given phonological training were also taught how to represent these distinctions in writing. All 4 intervention groups did better than the control group in a standardized test of reading after the intervention. There were gains in children's use of morphological spelling rules but not in their use of conditional phonologically based spelling rules. The improvement in the use of morphological rules in spelling was confined to groups trained in morphology. Training in phonology also had a beneficial effect on the use of morphology in reading. The results are interpreted within the framework of a dual-route model of learning to read and spell.
This study explores emerging lexical processes that may be the foundation for children's acquisition of morphological knowledge and the relation of these processes to reading comprehension. First and third graders were given two tasks involving lexical analysis of morphologically complex words. Two years later, they were given a measure of processing derived words in sentence contexts and a test of reading comprehension. The results support the view that the development of morphological processing in the elementary years might depend on access to representations of full forms, base forms, and affixes. Further, semantic and syntactic knowledge of morphemes was related to morphological processing of sentences and contributed to reading comprehension in the late elementary years.
We highlight critical conceptual and statistical issues and how to resolve them in conducting Satorra–Bentler (SB) scaled difference chi-square tests. Concerning the original (Satorra & Bentler, 200124.
Satorra , A. and
Bentler , P. M. 2001. A scaled difference chi-square test statistic for moment structure analysis. Psychometrika, 66: 507–514. [CrossRef], [Web of Science ®]View all references) and new (Satorra & Bentler, 201025.
Satorra , A. and
Bentler , P. M. 2010. Ensuring positiveness of the scaled chi-square test statistic. Psychometrika, 75: 243–248. [CrossRef], [Web of Science ®]View all references) scaled difference tests, a fundamental difference exists in how to compute properly a model's scaling correction factor (c), depending on the particular structural equation modeling software used. Because of how LISREL 8 defines the SB scaled chi-square, LISREL users should compute c for each model by dividing the model's normal theory weighted least-squares (NTWLS) chi-square by its SB chi-square, to recover c accurately with both tests. EQS and Mplus users, in contrast, should divide the model's maximum likelihood (ML) chi-square by its SB chi-square to recover c. Because ML estimation does not minimize the NTWLS chi-square, however, it can produce a negative difference in nested NTWLS chi-square values. Thus, we recommend the standard practice of testing the scaled difference in ML chi-square values for models M 1 and M 0 (after properly recovering c for each model), to avoid an inadmissible test numerator. We illustrate the difference in computations across software programs for the original and new scaled tests and provide LISREL, EQS, and Mplus syntax in both single- and multiple-group form for specifying the model M 10 that is involved in the new test.
Statistical procedures for missing data have vastly improved, yet misconception and unsound practice still abound. The authors frame the missing-data problem, review methods, offer advice, and raise issues that remain unresolved. They clear up common misunderstandings regarding the missing at random (MAR) concept. They summarize the evidence against older procedures and, with few exceptions, discourage their use. They present, in both technical and practical language, 2 general approaches that come highly recommended: maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian multiple imputation (MI). Newer developments are discussed, including some for dealing with missing data that are not MAR. Although not yet in the mainstream, these procedures may eventually extend the ML and MI methods that currently represent the state of the art. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Reciprocal relations between emerging morphological processes and reading skills were examined in a longitudinal study tracking children from Grade 1 through Grade 3. The aim was to examine predictive relationships between productive morphological processing involving composing and decomposing of inflections and derivations, reading ability for pseudoword and word decoding, and word and passage reading comprehension after controlling for initial abilities in reading, morphological processing, phonological awareness, and vocabulary. Reciprocal influences were indicated by predictive relations among initial morphological processes and later reading abilities co-occurring with relationships between initial reading abilities and later morphological processes. Using multilevel modeling, decomposing and composing were found to predict emerging word decoding and word and passage comprehension but not pseudoword decoding. Reading comprehension predicted growth in decomposing. Subsequent regression analyses of model-estimated early linear growth in predictors and later linear growth in outcomes showed that early growth in morphological processes predicted later growth in word decoding and passage comprehension. Although reciprocal relations between emerging morphological processes and reading skills were observed, the different patterns on each side of the reciprocal "coin" indicated that the mechanisms underlying predictive influences are likely different but related to quality of lexical representations.
Structural equation modeling evaluated the contribution of phonological, orthographic, morphological, and oral vocabulary factors to word reading, spelling, and reading comprehension outcomes in 98 2nd graders at risk for passing state standards in reading and to those same outcomes plus composing in 97 4th graders at risk for passing state standards in writing. For 2nd-grade children, morphology contributed uniquely to reading comprehension, and oral vocabulary and orthography contributed uniquely to word reading. For 4th-grade children, morphology and oral vocabulary did not contribute uniquely to any outcomes, but morphology and word reading were correlated, and orthography and phonology contributed uniquely to decoding words with affixes. Fourth graders are still learning to coordinate orthographic, phonological, and morphological cues in written words. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Word identification, which is the retrieval of the linguistic constituents (phonological, semantic) of a word, plays a central role in children's reading development. This development includes the automatization of word decoding and the attainment of fluent reading levels, both essential for skilled reading with comprehension (Perfetti, 1992; Stanovich, 2000; Verhoeven & van Leeuwe, 2009). In learning to read, children first acquire elementary decoding skills, and then gradually apply these skills with greater accuracy and speed, leading to an increasingly automated process of that recognizes multiletter units (consonant clusters, syllables, and morphemes) and whole words (Ehri, 2005). Automatic word recognition enables the devotion of mental resources to the meaning of a text and thus allows readers to use reading as a tool for the acquisition of new information and knowledge (Perfetti, 1998; Stanovich, 2000).
Given the morphophonemic nature of the English orthography, surprisingly few studies have examined the roles of morphological and phonological awareness in reading. This 4-year longitudinal study (Grades 2-5) compared these two factors in three aspects of reading development: pseudoword reading, reading comprehension. and single word reading. Morphological awareness contributed significantly to pseudoword reading and reading comprehension, after controlling prior measures of reading ability. verbal and nonverbal intelligence, and phonological awareness. This contribution was comparable to that of phonological awareness and remained 3 years after morphological awareness was assessed. In contrast, morphological awareness rarely contributed significantly to single word reading. We argue that these results provide evidence that morphological awareness hits a wide-ranging role in reading development, one that extends beyond phonological awareness.
It has long been known that an awareness of how letters correspond to speech sounds (or phones) is crucial for a child to learn to read English (Adams, 1990; Bradley & Bryant, 1985; Liberman, 1982; Mann, 1998; Perfetti, 1985). This allows young decoders of the English orthography to gain the insight that strings of letters, like b-i-g and d-o-g, can be sounded out and synthesized into words. A simplistic or ‘shallow’ phonemic decoding strategy, which ascribes one phoneme to each grapheme, is beneficial when the words to be decoded are orthographically regular and phonologically simple. However, by the fifth grade, more than 27 less common and more complex words (such as methodical and angelic) will be encountered each day (Anglin, 1993; Tyler & Nagy, 1989), and a more complicated decoding strategy must be used.
The primary goal was to expand our understanding of text reading fluency (efficiency or automaticity)-how its relation to other constructs (e.g., word reading fluency and reading comprehension) changes over time and how it is different from word reading fluency and reading comprehension. We examined (1) developmentally changing relations among word reading fluency, listening comprehension, text reading fluency, and reading comprehension; (2) the relation of reading comprehension to text reading fluency; (3) unique emergent literacy predictors (i.e., phonological awareness, orthographic awareness, morphological awareness, letter name knowledge, vocabulary) of text reading fluency vs. word reading fluency; and (4) unique language and cognitive predictors (e.g., vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, theory of mind) of text reading fluency vs. reading comprehension. These questions were addressed using longitudinal data (two timepoints; Mean age = 5;24 & 6;08) from Korean-speaking children (N = 143). Results showed that listening comprehension was related to text reading fluency at time 2, but not at time 1. At both times text reading fluency was related to reading comprehension, and reading comprehension was related to text reading fluency over and above word reading fluency and listening comprehension. Orthographic awareness was related to text reading fluency over and above other emergent literacy skills and word reading fluency. Vocabulary and grammatical knowledge were independently related to text reading fluency and reading comprehension whereas theory of mind was related to reading comprehension, but not text reading fluency. These results reveal developmental nature of relations and mechanism of text reading fluency in reading development.
We report results from two studies on the underlying dimensions of morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge in elementary-aged children. In Study 1, 99 fourth-grade students were given multiple measures of morphological awareness and vocabulary. A single factor accounted for individual differences in all morphology and vocabulary assessments. Study 2 extended these results by giving 90 eighth-grade students expanded measures of vocabulary and morphology that assessed (a) definitional knowledge, (b) usage, (c) relational knowledge, and (d) knowledge of morphological variants, with each potential aspect of knowledge assessed using an identical set of 23 words to control for differential knowledge of specific vocabulary items. Results indicated that a single-factor model that encompassed morphological and vocabulary knowledge provided the best fit to the data. Finally, explanatory item response modeling was used to investigate sources of variance in the vocabulary and morphological awareness tasks we administered. Implications for assessment and instruction are discussed.
The purpose of this research was to determine the number of distinct words in printed school English. A detailed analysis was done of a 7,260 word sample from the Carroll, Davies and Richman, Word Frequency Book. Projecting from this sample to the total vocabulary of school English, our best estimate is that there are about 88,500 distinct words. Furthermore, for every word a child learns, we estimate that there are an average of one to three additional related words that should also be understandable to the child, the exact number depending on how well the child is able to utilize context and morphology to induce meanings. Based on our analysis, a reconcilation of estimates of children's vocabulary size was undertaken, which showed that the extreme divergence in estimates is due mainly to the definition of "word" adopted. Our findings indicate that even the most ruthlessly systematic direct vocabulary instruction could neither account for a significant proportion of all the words children actually learn, nor cover more than a modest proportion of the words they will encounter in school reading materials. /// [French] Le but de cette recherche était de déterminer le nombre de mots distincts dans l'Anglais scolaire imprimé. Une analyse détaillée a été faite d'un échantillon de 7260 mots à partir du Livre de fréquence de mots Carroll, Davies et Richman. En projetant à partir de cet échantillon jusqu'au vocabulaire total de l'Anglais scolaire, notre estimation meilleure est qu'il y a environ 88500 mots distincts. De plus, pour chaque mot qu'un enfant apprend, nous estimons qu'il y a une moyenne d'un à trois mots additionnels en rapport qui devraient être aussi compris par l'enfant, le nombre exact dépendant de combien l'enfant est capable d'utiliser le contexte et la morphologie pour produire des significations. Basée sur notre analyse, on a entrepris une réconciliation d'estimations de la quantité de vocabulaire des enfants, qui a montré que l'extrême divergence en estimations est due principalement à la définition du "mot" adopté. Nos découvertes indiquent que même l'instruction de vocabulaire directe la plus systématique ne pourrait ni compter pour une proportion significative de tous les mots que les enfants apprennent vraiment, ni couvrir plus qu'une proportion modeste de mots qu'ils rencontreront dans le matériel de lecture scolaire. /// [Spanish] El objetivo de esta investigacion era determinar el número de distintas palabras en el inglés escolar escrito. Se hizo un análisis detallado de una muestra de 7.260 palabras del Word Frequency Book (Libro de Frecuencia de Palabras) de Carroll, Davies y Richman. Reflejando desde esta muestra al vocabulario total del inglés escolar, nuestro mejor cálculo indica que hay aproximadamente 88.500 palabras distintas. Además, por cada palabra que un niño aprende, calculamos que hay un promedio de una a tres palabras relacionadas adicionales que también deberían comprenderse por el niño, dependiendo el número exacto hasta qué punto el niño es capaz de utilizar contexto y morfología para inducir significado. Basado en nuestro análisis, se procedió a una conciliación de cálculos sobre la extensión del vocabulario de los niños, que demostró que la extrema discrepancia en los cálculos se debe principalmente a cuál definición se adopta sobre lo que es "palabra". Nuestros resultados indican que ni siquiera la más rigurosa y sistemática instrucción directa de vocabulario podía justificar una proporción significativa de todas las palabras que los niños realmente aprenden, ni cubrir más que una modesta proporción de las palabras con las que se enfrentarán en materiales de lectura escolares.
The purpose of this study was to examine the construct of morphological awareness and its relations to vocabulary knowledge in Adult Basic Education (ABE) students. Morphological awareness has emerged as an important predictor of children's and ABE students' reading comprehension abilities; however, there has been a dearth of research investigating the construct and potential multidimensionality of morphological awareness. First, we examined three sets of distinctions among morphological awareness measures: inflected versus derived, real words versus pseudowords, and contextual cues versus no contextual cues. A series of confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) revealed that the construct of morphological awareness could be multidimensional, as evidenced by a breakdown of tasks including only real words versus tasks with only pseudowords. Second, we investigated whether morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge were best represented as distinct constructs or the same underlying ability. CFAs indicated that real-word and pseudoword morphological awareness were separate factors from vocabulary knowledge. These results have important implications for morphological and vocabulary instruction in ABE programs. Moreover, the results have practical implications for researchers assessing morphological awareness because the findings indicate that different morphological awareness measures may be tapping disparate facets of the construct.
The goal of this study was to investigate the effect of Chinese-specific morphological awareness on vocabulary acquisition among young Chinese-speaking students. The participants were 288 Chinese-speaking second graders from three different cities in China. Multiple regression analysis and mediation analysis were used to uncover the mediated and unmediated effects of morphological awareness on reading vocabulary knowledge. Results showed that both morphological awareness and lexical inference ability significantly contributed to reading vocabulary knowledge after each factor was controlled for. The ability to extract sublexical morphological information (in the form of derivational awareness and compound awareness) significantly predicted the students' reading vocabulary. More importantly, the study revealed that morphological awareness made a significant indirect contribution to reading vocabulary via lexical inference ability. Findings suggest that morphological awareness enhances young Chinese students' reading vocabulary acquisition by the partial mediation of their lexical inference ability.
As many studies have now demonstrated that morphological awareness contributes to students' literacy development, there is growing interest in the educational value of instruction in morphological awareness. This review was undertaken to integrate findings of studies that sought to determine whether such instruction contributed to improvement in literacy. Analysis of the 16 studies that met selection criteria is organized around researchers' purpose(s) in studying the relation of morphological awareness instruction to key components of literacy development (i.e., phonology, orthography, word meaning). Results indicate that morphological awareness has the potential to contribute to students' literacy development in all three areas—most notably when it deepens students' understanding of the morphemic structure, spelling, and meaning of written words. However, examination of the design and quality of the studies of instruction in morphological awareness suggests that this is an emerging area of research. Much needs to be done to provide a clearer understanding of how, when, and why morphological awareness instruction contributes to students' literacy development.
تزايد الاهتمام بالقيمة التعليمية للتدريس في مجال المعرفة الصرفية لأن العديد من الدراسات قد أثبتت الآن أن المعرفة الصرفية تسهم في تطوير القراءة والكتابة بالنسبة للطلاب. لقد تم العمل على هذه المراجعة النقدية لدمج النتاتج التي توصلت إليها الدراسات التي سعت إلى تحديد إن كان هذا التدريس قد أسهم في تحسين القراءة والكتابة. يتمحور تحليل الدراسات الستة عشرة التي تخضع لمعايير الانتقاء حول غرض/ أغراض الباحثين في دراسة العلاقة بين تعليم المعرفة الصرفية والمكونات الرئيسية لتطوير القراءة والكتابة ( أي علم الأصوات الكلامية والإملاء ومعنى الكلمة ). تشير النتائج أن للمعرفة الصرفية قدرة على الاسهام في تطوير القراءة والكتابة بالنسبة للطلاب في المجالات الثلاثة – لاسيما عندما تعمق فهم الطلاب للبنية الصرفية والاملاء وكذلك معنى الكلمات المكتوبة. ومع ذلك فإن دراسة التصميم وجودة دراسات تعليم المعرفة الصرفية توحي بأنها مجال ناشئ للبحث. نحتاج إلى القيام بالكثير من الأبحاث من أجل توفير فهم أوضح عن كيف ومتى ولماذا تسهم المعرفة الصرفية في تطوير القراءة والكتابة لدى الطلاب.
现今许多研究已证明词法意识有助学生的读写能力发展，而人们对词法意识在读写教学方面的教育价值之兴趣也日益俱增。本文献综述旨在结合有关确定词法意识教学对改善读写教学成效之研究结果。本文献综述分析16个符合挑选标准的相关研究进行。分析内容围绕着研究者在考查词法意识教学与读写能力发展的关键组成部分(即语音、拼字法，词义）之关系时所持之研究目的。分析结果显示，词法意识教学有促进学生在这三方面的读写能力发展的潜力，而最显著的是在加深学生对书面字词的语素结构、拼写及单词意义之认识方面的潜力。然而，考查词法意识教学研究之设计与素质结果显示这是一个新兴的研究领域。对于词法意识教学如何、何时及为何有助于学生读写能力发展，仍需要进一步研究， 寻求更清晰的认识。
Du fait que beaucoup d'études ont maintenant fait la preuve que la conscience morphologique contribue au développement de la littératie des élèves, il existe un intérêt croissant à l'égard de l'intérêt pédagogique que présente l'enseignement de la morphologie. Cette revue a été entreprise afin d'intégrer les résultats des études conçues pour déterminer si un tel enseignement contribue au développement de la littératie. L'analyse des seize études répondant aux critères de sélection a été effectuée sur les recherches ayant pour but d'étudier la relation entre l'enseignement de la conscience morphologique et des composants‐clé du développement de la littératie (c'est‐à‐dire la phonologie, l'orthographe, la signification des mots). Les résultats montrent que la conscience morphologique peut contribuer au développement de la littératie des élèves dans les trois domaines — elle permet en particulier d'approfondir la compréhension de la structure morphémique, l'orthographe, et la signification des mots écrits. Cependant, l'examen des plans expérimentaux et la qualité des recherches sur la conscience morphologique suggère qu'il s'agit là d'un secteur émergent de recherche. Il reste beaucoup à faire pour comprendre plus clairement comment, quand, et pourquoi la conscience morphologique contribue au développement de la littératie des élèves.
Множество исследований свидетельствуют о том, что для развития грамотности учащихся важно понимание морфологического состава слова, поэтому растет интерес к соответствующим обучающим программам. Данный обзор охватывает результаты шестнадцати исследований, которые помогают определить, какой вклад вносят подобные программы в развитие грамотности. Исследования были проанализированы с точки зрения цели или целей, которые ставили перед собой ученые при изучении морфологического сознания учащихся в контексте общего развития грамотности по ключевым компонентам (фонология, орфография, семантика). Результаты подтверждают, что знание морфологии способно продвинуть учащихся во всех трех компонентах грамотности, поскольку углубляется понимание структуры слов, особенностей их написания и смысла. Однако, экспертиза уже предпринятых исследований показывает, что их качество оставляет желать лучшего и эта работа только начинается. Ученым еще предстоит понять как, когда и почему надо заниматься с учениками морфологией и какое значение имеет морфология для развития грамотности.
Ya que muchos estudios han mostrado que la conciencia morfológica contribuye al desarrollo de la alfabetización de los estudiantes, está creciendo el interés en el valor docente de la enseñanza de la conciencia morfológica. Este repaso se ha hecho para integrar las conclusiones de estudios que trataron de determinar si dicha instrucción contribuyó al mejoramiento en la alfabetización. El análisis de los 16 estudios que cumplían los criterios de selección fue organizado de acuerdo a los objetivos de los investigadores para estudiar la relación que la instrucción sobre la conciencia morfológica tiene con los componentes claves del desarrollo de la alfabetización (o sea, la fonología, la ortografía, el significado de palabras). Los resultados indican que la conciencia morfológica tiene el potencial de contribuir al desarrollo de la alfabetización de los estudiantes en las tres áreas—particularmente cuando dicha conciencia profundiza el entendimiento de la estructura del morfema, la ortografía, y el significado de las palabras escritas. Sin embargo, la revisión del diseño y la calidad de los estudios de instrucción sobre la conciencia morfológica sugieren que esta área de investigación está comenzando. Falta mucho por hacer para tener un entendimiento claro de cómo, cuándo y por qué la instrucción sobre la conciencia morfológica contribuye al desarrollo de la alfabetización del estudiante.
The purpose of this special issue of the Journal of Learning Disabilities is to bring to the attention of researchers and educators studies on morphology and literacy that either involve students with learning difficulties or have educational implications for teaching such students. In our introduction, we first provide background information about morphological knowledge and consider the role of morphology in literacy, focusing on findings that are relevant for instruction of students who struggle with reading and writing. Next we present an overview of the studies included in this issue, organized by current issues concerning the role of morphological knowledge in literacy. Collectively, the articles in this issue suggest that students with weaker literacy skills tend to lag behind their peers in morphological knowledge but that all students are likely to benefit from morphological instruction. Morphological interventions hold promise, especially for students who face challenges in language learning and literacy, but additional research is needed to provide a basis for informed decisions about the design of effective morphological interventions.
In the past decade, there has been a surge of interest in morphological awareness, which refers to the ability to reflect on and manipulate morphemes and word formation rules in a language. This review provides a critical synthesis of empirical studies on this topic from a broad cross-linguistic perspective. Research with children speaking several languages indicates that knowledge of inflectional morphology is acquired before knowledge of derivational morphology and the morphology of compounds, which continue to develop through the elementary school years. Research establishes that morphological awareness contributes to the decoding of morphologically complex words and contributes to the development of reading comprehension, although the relationship is probably reciprocal rather than unidirectional. Morphological awareness becomes an increasingly important predictor of measures of reading as children grow older. Morphological awareness is intertwined with other aspects of metalinguistic awareness and linguistic competence—notably, phonological awareness, syntactic awareness, and vocabulary knowledge. Lack of satisfactory control of these intertwined elements is one of several shortcomings of the existing literature.
A conceptual analysis is made of several ways in which the morphological structure of words might enter their lexical representation and/or processing. Economising on storage space seems an attractive option in light of the linguistic definition of the morpheme. However, for several word types, problems would arise in the mapping of morphs onto morphemes and of morphemic meanings onto whole-word meanings. Moreover, economy is a legal option, which might not be available to the mental lexicon. Alternatively, morphs might be put to the purpose of increasing lexical access speed, as proposed by Taft and Forster (1975) in their prefix-stripping model. It is demonstrated that such a view strips morphology from virtually all of its linguistic aspects. Furthermore, the prefix-stripping model would decrease rather than increase the access speed for several types of prefixed words in a number of languages. Linguistically interesting hypotheses are instantiated by the view that affixes are used for providing the syntactic processor with structural information and by the proposal that morphologically organised representational structures are the result of an encoding/retrieval scheme developed at the time of lexical acquisition/learning. Finally, morphemic units might be involved in processing as the result of the frequency of their letter cluster. It is a remarkable fact in current psycholinguistic research on morphology that, despite the linguistic nature of the study object, the majority of studies addressing it have been concerned with access representations rather than intra-lexical, linguistically relevant representations.
Using a reliable and broad-based measure of morphological awareness, which tapped knowledge of relational, syntactic, and distributional morphology, we examined the development of morphological knowledge among older elementary students and the relationship of their morphological knowledge to a range of literacy measures. We found that morphological awareness continued to develop from fourth to sixth grade and development was most pronounced when derivational forms required phonological changes to their base words (i.e., phonologically opaque items such as signature/sign). Furthermore, children's skill with phonologically opaque items on our morphological assessment made a unique contribution to real-word and non-word reading, beyond phonological awareness and vocabulary. In the case of comprehension, neither morphological nor phonological awareness accounted for unique variance once vocabulary was considered as a factor.
In the present study, 81 fifth grade and 82 eighth grade children completed a continuous lexical decision priming task that examined their reading times for evidence of sensitivity to the morphological structure of words during reading. A lexical decision task measured students' response times to target words preceded by a prime (which children also read and responded to) that was morphologically related, semantically related, orthographically similar, or unrelated. ANOVAs indicated that children read target words more quickly and accurately following words that were morphologically related, compared to words that had only semantic or orthographic overlap with targets, with no differences in priming effects between readers of high and average skill. Although differential sensitivity to morphological structure during reading was not associated with reading skill, a secondary regression analysis indicated that children's performance on a measure of explicit morphological production was a significant unique predictor of both word identification and reading comprehension. Although evidence of children's sensitivity to morphological structure during reading does not necessarily prove that morphological processes support children's decoding or comprehension of unfamiliar words encountered in text, documentation of such sensitivity during actual word reading is an important step in the test of such an hypothesis.
[Note: Deborah McCutchen discusses the research presented in this article in a podcast at the “Voice of Literacy”: http:www.voiceofliteracy.orgposts36451 .]
تلخيص البحث: في الدراسة الجارية ها هنا، لقد انهى 81 طالباً في الصف الخامس و82 طالباً في الصف الثامن واجب تجهيز قرار مصطلحي مستمر قد فحص توقيت قراءتهم للدلائل على إرهاف الحس لتركيب الكلمات الصرفي أثناء القراءة. إذ قاس واجب قرار مصطلحي توقيت ردود الطلاب لكلمات مستهدفة سبقها سؤال تجهيز (قرأه الطلاب ورد عليه) وكان السؤال له علاقة صرفية أو معنوية أو متشابهة من حيث الخط أو ليس له علاقة. وأشارت اختبارات إحصائية إلى أن الأولاد يقرؤون الكلمات المستهدفة بشكل أسرع وأدق حين تتبع كلمات لها علاقة صرفية بالمقارنة إلى كلمات لها علاقة معنوية أو خطية بالكلمات المستهدفة بدون أي اختلافات بتأثيرات أسئلة مجهزة بين القراء ذوي المهارة العالية والمتوسطة. وبالرغم من أن إرهاف الحس المميز للتركيب الصرفي أثناء القراءة لم يكن له علاقة بالمهارة القرائية فأن التحليل الارتدادي الثانوي أشار إلى أن أداء الأولاد من حيث إنتاج صرفي مباشر كان عنصراً مكهناً فريداً هاماً لتعيين الكلمة واستيعاب القراءة. ومع أن لا تثبت أدلة إرهاف الأولاد الحسي للتركيب الصرفي أثناء القراءة أن العمليات الصرفية تدعم تفكيك الأولاد الكلمات غير المألوفة أو استيعابها يواجهونها في السياق فتوثيق حس كهذا أثناء قراءة الكلام الحقيقي يعتبر خطوة مهمة في اختبار افتراض كهذا.
[Podcast: http:www.voiceofliteracy.orgposts36451 ]
在本研究中，81名五年级学生及82名八年级学生完成一项有关连续性词汇判断的启动作业。该作业是用来审查学生的阅读时间，作为学生在阅读过程中对单字词素结构敏感度之证据。词汇判断作业量度学生对置于启动词之后的目标单词所作出的回应时间（学生也需阅读与回应启动词），而这些启动词有与目标单词在词素结构上是相关的、在语义上是相关的、在拼写上是相类似的、或毫不相关的。方差分析结果显示，学生阅读那些置于词素结构相关的启动词之后的目标单词较快速和较准确，而相对来说，学生阅读那些只在语义上或拼字上有重叠关系的启动词之后的目标单词则较慢和较欠准确性，这些启动词效应对阅读能力高与阅读能力一般的阅读者来说，并无分别。学生在阅读过程中对词素结构有不同的敏感度，但这与阅读能力并没有关联；虽然如此，二级回归分析结果却显示，学生在显式词素结构测验的成绩，是一个预测单字辨认能力和阅读理解能力的显著而独特的因子。虽然，证据显示学生在阅读过程中对词素结构的敏感度并不一定证明词素结构处理过程能支援学生解码与理解文本中所遇到的生词，但在实际单字阅读中，这种敏感度的纪录是验证这个假设的一项重要程序。
[Podcast: http:www.voiceofliteracy.orgposts36451 ]
Dans cette étude, 81 enfants de cinquième année et 82 enfants de huitième année ont effectué une tâche de décision lexicale continue avec amorçage afin d'étudier leurs temps de lecture en tant qu'indicateur de leur sensibilité à la structure morphologique des mots pendant la lecture. Une tâche de décision lexicale a mesuré les temps de réponse des élèves à des mots cibles précédés par un mot amorce (que les enfants devaient lire également et auquel ils devaient répondre) qui lui était lié morphologiquement, sémantiquement, orthographiquement, ou pas du tout. Les ANOVAs ont montré que les enfants lisent les mots cibles plus vite et plus précisément quand ils viennent après des mots apparentés morphologiquement, en comparaison avec des mots qui ne leur ressemblent que sémantiquement ou orthographiquement, sans qu'il y ait de différence dans les effets d'amorce entre bons et moyens lecteurs. Quoique la sensibilité différentielle à la structure morphologique pendant la lecture ne soit pas liée à la compétence en lecture, une analyse de régression secondaire a montré que les performances des enfants dans une mesure de production morphologique explicite permettent seules de prédire de façon significative à la fois l'identification des mots et leur compréhension en lecture. Quoique les faits relatifs à la sensibilité des enfants à la structure morphologique pendant la lecture ne prouve pas nécessairement que les processus morphologiques sont la base du décodage ou de la compréhension des mots non familiers rencontrés dans le texte, les données relatives à une telle sensibilité pendant la lecture actuelle d'un mot est un pas important pour tester une telle hypothèse.
[Podcast: http:www.voiceofliteracy.orgposts36451 ]
В рамках данного исследования ученики пятого (81 чел.) и восьмого (82 чел.) классов занимались решением лексических задач на основе “прайминга” (предварительного предъявления слов). Скорость их чтения при этом проверялась как индикатор восприимчивости детей к морфологической структуре слова во время чтения. Учитывалось время решения лексической задачи – то есть, сколько времени требуется ученику для реакции на целевые слова, которым предшествует “прайм” (слова, которые дети также прочитывают и воспринимают). Прайм связан с целевым словом либо морфологически, либо семантически, либо орфографически, либо не связан с ним вовсе. Дисперсионный анализ указывает, что после предъявления морфологически родственных слов дети читают целевые слова более быстро и точно, нежели после слов, имеющих с целевыми словами лишь семантическую или орфографическую связь, причем это характерно для детей и с хорошими и со средними навыками чтения. Хотя восприимчивость к морфологической структуре при чтении оказалась напрямую не связанной с навыками чтения, вторичный регрессионный анализ показывает, что такой параметр деятельности учащихся, как эксплицитное продуцирование морфем, является значимым уникальным сигналом, по которому можно предсказать, как они смогут идентифицировать слова и понимать читаемый текст. Безусловно, восприимчивость детей к морфологической структуре слов при чтении не обязательно означает, что именно морфологические процессы помогают детям декодировать текст и понимать незнакомые слова, которые встречаются в тексте, но то, что эта восприимчивость была задокументирована в процессе реального чтения, – важный шаг для проверки такой гипотезы.
[Podcast: http:www.voiceofliteracy.orgposts36451 ]
En este estudio, 81 estudiantes de quinto grado y 82 estudiantes de octavo grado completaron una tarea continua de mejoramiento de la decisión de escoger léxico. Esta tarea tomó nota del tiempo que les tomaba leer en busca de evidencia de su sensibilidad a la estructura morfológica de las palabras al leer. Una tarea de escoger palabras midió el tiempo que les tomó responder a ciertas palabras que habían sido precedidas por una palabra básica (que los estudiantes ya habían leído y a la cual habían respondido) que se relacionaba morfológica o semánticamente, o que se escribía de una forma similar, o que no estaba relacionada. Análisis de las variantes (ANOVA) indicaron que los jóvenes leían las palabras escogidas más rápida y correctamente cuando seguían palabras relacionadas morfológicamente, en comparación con palabras que sólo tenían una relación semántica u ortográfica, fueran ellos buenos lectores o lectores promedios. Aunque la diferencia de sensibilidad a las estructura morfológicas al leer no está asociada con lo bien que se lee, un análisis secundario de regresión indicó que el desempeño de los jóvenes en una medida de producción morfológica explícita era un predictor único y significante de tanto la identificación de palabras como la comprensión de la lectura. Aunque evidencia de la sensibilidad de los jóvenes a la estructura morfológica durante la lectura no necesariamente prueba que los procesos morfológicos apoyan la decodificación ni la comprensión de palabras nuevas que ellos encuentran en los textos, la documentación de tal actividad en el acto de leer es un paso importante en el proceso de verificar tal hipótesis.
[Podcast: http:www.voiceofliteracy.orgposts36451 ]
Results show when reading an unfamiliar word children benefit from the context of the sentence. When words have irregular spelling–sound correspondences, pronunciation cues contained in spelling patterns are important. Variations in decoding skill are important to success in reading unfamiliar words than sensitivity to sentential contexts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
We examined whether Grade 4, 6, and 8 children access the base form when reading morphologically complex words. We asked children to read words varying systematically in the frequency of the surface and base forms and in the transparency of the base form. At all grade levels, children were faster at reading derived words with high rather than low base frequencies when the words were of low surface frequency. Effects of the frequency and transparency of the base form on word reading accuracy occurred only in Grades 4 and 6. The results add to the growing body of evidence that children access the morphological structure of the words that they encounter in print.
This study examined whether morphological analysis may be a mechanism underlying the relationship of morphological awareness to vocabulary and comprehension. Eighty-eight fifth- and 74 eighth-grade students completed a task designed to assess whether students use morphological analysis to infer meanings of low-frequency, presumably unfamiliar, words. Students chose a definition from among three alternatives for low-frequency, morphologically accessible words or approximate synonyms that were less morphologically accessible, both within the same sentence context. In addition, they chose definitions for 18 nonsense words that were also designed to afford differential access via morphological analysis. Students were more accurate with morphologically accessible items (words and nonwords) than less accessible items, suggesting that students can use morphological analysis to infer word meanings. Regression analyses indicated that skill in morphological analysis accounted for unique variance in vocabulary and comprehension for both age groups. These results have implications for theoretical accounts of how morphological awareness may support students vocabulary growth and comprehension.