Using sensitivity to word structure to explain variance in high school and college level reading ability

Abstract

In this study three experiments investigate the relationship of sensitivity to word structure to direct and indirect measures of reading achievement in normal high school and college students using a four-part morpheme Sensitivity Test (MST). This test assesses knowledge of the syntactic category of common noun, verb, and adjective suffixes (Part 1), the ability to generalize this knowledge to novel forms (Part 2), the ability to distinguish derivationally-related word pairs from pseudo-related word pairs (Part 3), and knowledge of how suffixes differ in their effect on syllable boundaries in the complex word (Part 4). Experiment 1 showed that the SAT Verbal scores of 26 undergraduates correlate significantly (p<0.05) with Parts 2 and 4 of the MST; Part 1 showed ceiling effects. Experiment 2 showed that the Nelson Reading Test scores of 24 ninth-grade students correlate significantly (p<0.005) with all parts of the MST. Experiment 3 showed a significant difference between means (p<0.005) on all parts of the MST for 26 proficient and 54 non-proficient high school readers. Results are consistent with the morphophonemic nature of English spelling.