Morphological awareness and word-level reading in early and middle elementary school years

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 1051-1071
Author(s):  
Erin K. Robertson ◽  
S. Hélène Deacon
Keyword(s):  
Elementary School ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Morphological Awareness ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Past Tense ◽  
Real Word ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Pseudoword Reading ◽  
Novel Words

AbstractWe examined whether morphological awareness made a significant contribution to word-level reading across Grades 1 to 4. We test these relations specifically in a task measuring awareness of past-tense forms. A total of 375 children from Grades 1 to 4 completed tasks assessing past-tense morphological awareness along with real word and pseudoword reading. Children also completed control measures assessing phonological awareness, phonological short-term memory, sentence-level language skills, and nonverbal cognitive ability. After these controls, past-tense morphological awareness was a significant predictor of real word reading in Grades 1 and 2, but not in Grades 3 and 4. Further, following on all controls, past-tense morphological awareness was a consistent predictor of pseudoword reading across Grades 1 to 4. Morphological awareness, at least as measured with past-tense verbs, appears to have a role in word reading across the early to middle elementary school grades; for young readers, there are relations to reading of both known and novel words, and for older readers, relations are significant specifically in reading novel words. These findings are discussed within the context of theories of word reading development.

Morphological Awareness Skills of Second- and Third-Grade Students With and Without Speech Sound Disorders

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 603-616
Author(s):  
Kenn Apel ◽  
Victoria S. Henbest
Keyword(s):  
Word Reading ◽  
Speech Sound ◽  
Morphological Awareness ◽  
Literacy Skills ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Real Word ◽  
Speech Sound Disorders ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Third Grade Students ◽  
Pseudoword Reading

Purpose Morphological awareness is the ability to consciously manipulate the smallest units of meaning in language. Morphological awareness contributes to success with literacy skills for children with typical language and those with language impairment. However, little research has focused on the morphological awareness skills of children with speech sound disorders (SSD), who may be at risk for literacy impairments. No researcher has examined the morphological awareness skills of children with SSD and compared their skills to children with typical speech using tasks representing a comprehensive definition of morphological awareness, which was the main purpose of this study. Method Thirty second- and third-grade students with SSD and 30 with typical speech skills, matched on age and receptive vocabulary, completed four morphological awareness tasks and measures of receptive vocabulary, real-word reading, pseudoword reading, and word-level spelling. Results Results indicated there was no difference between the morphological awareness skills of students with and without SSD. Although morphological awareness was moderately to strongly related to the students' literacy skills, performance on the morphological awareness tasks contributed little to no additional variance to the children's real-word reading and spelling skills beyond what was accounted for by pseudoword reading. Conclusions Findings suggest that early elementary-age students with SSD may not present with concomitant morphological awareness difficulties and that the morphological awareness skills of these students may not play a unique role in their word-level literacy skills. Limitations and suggestions for future research on the morphological awareness skills of children with SSD are discussed.

Morphological awareness: Construct and predictive validity in Arabic

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 1019-1043 ◽  
Author(s):  
SANA TIBI ◽  
JOHN R. KIRBY
Keyword(s):  
Construct Validity ◽  
Predictive Validity ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Morphological Awareness ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Research Assessment ◽  
Local Dialect ◽  
Pseudoword Reading ◽  
And Gender

ABSTRACTThe purposes of this study were to examine the dimensions underlying morphological awareness (MA) in Arabic (construct validity) and to determine how well MA predicted reading (predictive validity). Ten MA tasks varying in key dimensions (oral vs. written, single word vs. sentence contexts, and standard vs. local dialect) and two reading tasks (real word and pseudoword reading) were administered to 102 Arabic-speaking Grade 3 children in Abu-Dhabi. Factor analysis of the MA tasks yielded one predominant factor, supporting the construct validity of MA in Arabic. Closer inspection revealed that this factor had two subcomponents, oral and written. Hierarchical regression analyses, controlling for age and gender, indicated that both the one- and the two-factor solutions accounted for 48% of the variance in word reading, and 40% of the variance in pseudoword reading, supporting the predictive validity of MA. Implications for future research, assessment, and instruction are discussed.

Rapid Naming, Phonological Awareness, and Reading: A Meta-Analysis of the Correlation Evidence

2003 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-440 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Lee Swanson ◽  
Guy Trainin ◽  
Denise M. Necoechea ◽  
Donald D. Hammill
Keyword(s):  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Reading Performance ◽  
Rapid Naming ◽  
Real Word ◽  
Pseudoword Reading ◽  
Size Restriction ◽  
Moderate Range

This study provides a meta-analysis of the correlational literature on measures of phonological awareness, rapid naming, reading, and related abilities. Correlations (N = 2,257) were corrected for sample size, restriction in range, and attenuation from 49 independent samples. Correlations between phonological awareness (PA) and rapid naming (RAN) were low (.38) and loaded on different factors. PA and RAN were moderately correlated with real-word reading (.48 and .46, respectively). Other findings were that (a) real-word reading was correlated best (r values were .60 to .80) with spelling and pseudoword reading, but correlations with RAN, PA, vocabulary, orthography, IQ, and memory measures were in the low-to-moderate range (.37 to .43); and (b) correlations between reading and RAN/PA varied minimally across age groups but were weaker in poor readers than in skilled readers. The results suggested that the importance of RAN and PA measures in accounting for reading performance has been overstated.

Morphological awareness and vocabulary acquisition: A longitudinal examination of their relationship in English-speaking children

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
ERIN SPARKS ◽  
S. HÉLÈNE DEACON
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Temporal Relationship ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Morphological Awareness ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Pseudoword Reading ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Nonverbal Reasoning ◽  
Longitudinal Examination

ABSTRACTAlthough a relationship between morphological awareness and vocabulary has been widely observed, questions remain about the direction of that relationship. This longitudinal study explores the temporal relationship between morphological awareness and vocabulary among monolingual English-speaking children. Participants were 100 children tested in Grades 2 and 3. We evaluated morphological awareness and vocabulary in both grades, along with phonological awareness, word reading, pseudoword reading, and nonverbal reasoning. Cross-lagged regression analyses with autoregressive controls assessed the temporal relationship between morphological awareness and vocabulary; morphological awareness at Grade 2 predicted change in vocabulary between Grades 2 and 3, but vocabulary did not predict change in morphological awareness. The results add to our understanding of the relationship between these two developing skills.

scholarly journals The roles of morphology, phonology, and prosody in reading and spelling multisyllabic words

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Jodie L. Enderby ◽  
Julia M. Carroll ◽  
M. Luisa Tarczynski-Bowles ◽  
Helen L. Breadmore
Keyword(s):  
Middle Childhood ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Morphological Awareness ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Monosyllabic Words ◽  
Prosodic Sensitivity ◽  
Early Acquisition ◽  
Derivational Morphemes ◽  
Reading And Spelling

Abstract While most English words are multisyllabic, research on literacy acquisition has tended to focus on early acquisition of monosyllabic words. The processes involved in multisyllabic word reading and spelling in middle childhood are likely to differ from those in monosyllabic reading and spelling. The current paper examines the contributions of morphological awareness (MA; awareness of derivational morphemes), prosodic sensitivity (sensitivity to lexical stress), and phonological awareness (PA; awareness of phonemes) for multisyllabic word reading and spelling, after accounting for background variables (age, vocabulary, nonverbal IQ, short-term memory). Seventy 7–10-year-old children completed a battery of tasks. MA and prosodic sensitivity were independent predictors of multisyllabic reading, while MA and PA were independent predictors of multisyllabic spelling. These results contrast with previous research, which instead found that PA plays a more prominent role while prosodic sensitivity appears to demonstrate only an indirect influence. However, those studies largely examined reading of shorter, one to three syllable words. These findings indicate when words are longer and multisyllabic, prosodic sensitivity, PA, and MA have differing direct influences on literacy. MA and prosodic sensitivity relate to word reading, while MA and PA are important for spelling.

Transfer facilitation effects of morphological awareness on multicharacter word reading in Chinese as a foreign language

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Sihui (Echo) Ke ◽  
Keiko Koda
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Adult Learners ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Morphological Awareness ◽  
Morphological Structure ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Chinese Word ◽  
Pseudoword Reading ◽  
English Speaking

Abstract This study examined the transfer facilitation effects from English morphological awareness on Chinese multicharacter word reading in English-speaking adult learners of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL). Fifty English-speaking American university CFL learners participated in our study who measured their English morphological awareness, Chinese morphological awareness, Chinese linguistic knowledge, Chinese word reading, and working memory. There were three major findings: (1) with approximately three years of formal Chinese instruction and limited Chinese print input, English-speaking adult learners of Chinese developed sensitivity to the internal morphological structure of multicharacter words in Chinese. (2) English morphological awareness did not directly contribute to Chinese bimorphemic three-character pseudoword reading yet contributed indirectly via the joint serial mediation by Chinese morphological awareness and Chinese monomorphemic two-character real word reading. (3) There was no additional influence from Chinese linguistic knowledge on Chinese word reading. And, English morphological awareness explained about 3.64% of the variance in second language Chinese bimorphemic three-character pseudoword reading. Discussion is provided regarding the transfer facilitation mechanism through which first language morphological awareness contributes to adult second language reading acquisition.

Morphological awareness: Just “more phonological”? The roles of morphological and phonological awareness in reading development

2004 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 223-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. HÉLÈNE DEACON ◽  
JOHN R. KIRBY
Keyword(s):  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Reading Development ◽  
Morphological Awareness ◽  
Single Word ◽  
Pseudoword Reading ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Single Word Reading

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 has a wide-ranging role in reading development, one that extends beyond phonological awareness.

Cross-script transfer of word reading fluency in a mixed writing system: Evidence from a longitudinal study in Japanese

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-251 ◽  
Author(s):  
TOMOHIRO INOUE ◽  
GEORGE K. GEORGIOU ◽  
HIROFUMI IMANAKA ◽  
TAKAKO OSHIRO ◽  
HIROYUKI KITAMURA ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Phonological Awareness ◽  
Path Analysis ◽  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Morphological Awareness ◽  
Rapid Automatized Naming ◽  
Writing System ◽  
The Cross

ABSTRACTWe examined the cross-lagged relations between word reading fluency in the two orthographic systems of Japanese: phonetic (syllabic) Hiragana and morphographic Kanji. One hundred forty-two Japanese-speaking children were assessed on word reading fluency twice in Grade 1 (Times 1 and 2) and twice in Grade 2 (Times 3 and 4). Nonverbal IQ, vocabulary, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, and rapid automatized naming were also assessed in Time 1. Results of path analysis revealed that Time 1 Hiragana fluency predicted Time 2 Kanji fluency after controlling for the cognitive skills. Time 2 Hiragana fluency did not predict Time 3 Kanji fluency or vice versa after the autoregressor was controlled, but Hiragana and Kanji fluency were reciprocally related between Times 3 and 4. These findings provide evidence for a cross-script transfer of word reading fluency across the two contrastive orthographic systems, and the first evidence of fluency in a morphographic script predicting fluency development in a phonetic script within the same language.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document