Abstract
This scoping review explores the causal relationship between morphological instruction and reading development in young L2 learners by synthesizing 12 primary studies published between 2004 and 2019 (N = 1,535). These studies focused on reading English as the target language and involved participants between kindergarten and Grade 12 from four countries (China, Egypt, Singapore, and the USA). Findings suggested that (a) morphological instruction led to consistent and positive gains in L2 children’s morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge, and the effect sizes (Cohen’s ds) ranged from small to large; and (b) the relationship between morphological instruction and other outcomes such as phonological awareness, word reading accuracy, word reading fluency, spelling, and reading comprehension was inconclusive. Notably, transfer effects of L2 English morphological instruction on novel word learning in English or on reading development in an additional language were only examined and observed in four primary studies. Discussion was provided regarding future instructional and research design.
Highlights
We examined the implementation of morphological instruction in the selected studies, explored the extent to which morphological instruction influences the acquisition of a range of L2 reading-related outcomes by summarizing the effect sizes (Cohen’s ds), and evaluated study and instructional designs following systematic coding schemes
Evidence regarding the causal relationship between morphology and L2 English reading development
This scoping review focused on the causal evidence of the impact of morphological instruction on English reading development in a specific learner group
Summary
Recent reviews have discussed the causal relationship between morphological instruction and English literacy development, including critical reviews (Henbest & Apel, 2017; Kirby & Bowers, 2017; Nagy et al, 2014), systematic syntheses (Brandes & McMaster, 2017; Carlisle, 2010), and quantitative meta-analyses (Bowers et al, 2010; Goodwin & Ahn, 2010, 2013; Reed, 2008). In a meta-analysis of 30 independent studies and 92 standardized mean differences, Goodwin and Ahn (2013) assessed the overall effect of morphological instruction and examined possible moderator effects. Their findings indicated that children who received morphological instruction performed significantly better on diverse measures of literacy achievement than comparison groups; the overall effect size was medium (d = 0.32). Instructional strategies (e.g., teaching affixes versus bases, promoting problem-solving or not), were not included in the analysis
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