This study examined the impact of explicit phonological and morphological instruction in the students’ first language, Arabic, on the literacy-related skills in English as a typologically distant third language (L3). Eighty-six typical fifth-grade readers, Arabic speakers, took part in a quasi-experimental intervention in a classroom setting. Two intact classes (n = 28) received systematic instruction of Arabic phonological and morphological skills twice a week over four months. Three other comparison classes (n = 58) adhered to the standard Arabic curriculum. The pre-and post-intervention assessments of phonological and morphological awareness were conducted in Arabic and English, and the parallel tasks of deletion, segmentation, blending, and identification and inflectional morphology were used. The results of the repeated-measures analyses showed that the intervention students made significantly more improvement, as compared to control students, in both Arabic and English. Improvements in English phonological and morphological awareness were observed. The results indicate initial evidence suggesting that the positive influence of L1 teaching with a metalinguistic approach, even if it is explicit, can transfer to cross-linguistic literacy in pairs of languages that are morphologically and orthographically distinct.

This study aimed to examine the phonological awareness (PA), morphological awareness (MA), and vocabulary skills of preschool children with speech sound disorders (SSD), as well as the relationships among these three skills-known to be critical for literacy development-within the context of Turkish, a morphologically rich and phonologically transparent language. Thirty children (17 boys and 13 girls, aged 48-72 months; M = 63.03, SD = 7.79) with SSD participated. Parental consent was obtained using the History Form. Children were assessed with the Turkish School-Age Language Development Test subtests (Picture, Relational, and Oral Vocabulary, Morphological Completion) and the Turkish Articulation and Phonology Test subtests (Articulation Screening Test, Auditory Discrimination Test) for SSD. PA was assessed using the Turkish Phonological Awareness Test. All assessments were face to face. Preschool children with SSD showed heterogeneous performance across PA, MA, and vocabulary measures. A statistically significant strong positive correlation was observed between children's MA skills and PA skills at the word, rhyme, and syllable levels (r = .50-.79). A strong positive correlation was found between children's ability to generate oral definitions (an expressive vocabulary skill) and MA skills (r = .68, 95% CI [0.42, 0.84], p < .001). In addition, a moderate positive correlation was observed between children's ability to orally express relationships between spoken stimulus words (relational vocabulary) and MA skills (r = .51, 95% CI [0.18, 0.73], p < .01). This study demonstrates strong relationships among MA, PA, and vocabulary in Turkish-speaking preschool children with SSD, highlighting the interconnected nature of these skills in early language and literacy development.

Spelling errors are among the most persistent symptoms of dyslexia in adults. This study investigated the influence of morphological informationon spelling accuracy in French-speaking adults with developmental dyslexia. Specifically, we aimed to (1) compare university-level adults with dyslexia and age-matched controls in spelling morphologically complex words, and (2) examine the role of morphological awareness in spelling among individuals with dyslexia. In total, 53 adults with dyslexia and 55 typical adult readers completed a spelling task with five types of words: words with silent final letters that were either morphologically predictable or not, suffixed words, prefixed words, and inconsistent monomorphemic words. Additional measures included reading fluency, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, vocabulary, and general spelling. Results showed that adults with dyslexia benefited more than controls from morphologically predictable cues in spelling, particularly for silent final letters. Moreover, morphological awareness predicted spelling in adults with dyslexia, even after controlling for phonological awareness and vocabulary. These findings allow us to better understand the spelling profile of adults with dyslexia at university level.

This study investigated predictors of vowelized and unvowelized word reading efficiency among third-grade Hebrew-speaking students with reading difficulties (RD). First, it examined the contribution of rapid automatization naming (RAN), working memory (WM), phonological awareness (PA), morphological awareness (MA), and orthographic processing (OP) in explaining vowelized and unvowelized word reading efficiency among third-grade students with RD. It further explored how RAN interacts with WM, PA, MA, and OP in explaining word reading efficiency in the two scripts, and whether the contribution of RAN differs in strength between vowelized and unvowelized word reading.270 children were assessed on the abovementioned explanatory variables as well as word reading efficiency.While RAN, WM, PA, and OP explained both vowelized and unvowelized word reading, MA contributed only to unvowelized word reading. Moreover, a significant interaction between RAN and PA was found for vowelized word reading, indicating a skill-enhancement (protective) pattern, whereby the association between RAN and reading efficiency varied as a function of phonological awareness. For unvowelized words, RAN and WM showed a significant interaction indicating a skill-enhancement pattern, in which stronger abilities in both lead to better word reading efficiency. Finally, RAN was found to play a more pronounced role in word reading efficiency of unvowelized words.These findings provide evidence that in a dual-script language, the dynamics of RAN and other cognitive-linguistic reading predictors can vary across scripts, highlighting the need for script-dependent targeted support for children with RD.

Abstract This study aimed to test if morphological complexity (MC) could predict L2 English writing quality (L2WQ) and if the predictive power of MC would differ under integrated and independent task conditions. The data sources of the study were 234 integrated and 639 independent reliably-scored argumentative essays. Sixty-six MC indices were calculated for each text in the corpora, and the strongest possible prediction models were obtained using ElasticNet regression with recursive feature elimination and cross-validation. The results showed that the best model for integrated L2WQ was obtained with 13 MC indices, explaining almost half of the variance. For independent L2WQ, the best model could explain slightly less than one tenth of the variance with 13 MC indices. The findings underscore the need to devise an L2 MC development framework across language proficiency levels and to include MC as a component in the assessment of L2WQ. Additionally, the findings emphasize the necessity to increase morphological awareness among L2 learners.

Intervention-induced cortical thickness changes in Chinese children with reading disability.

This study aims to examine the crucial role of morphological literacy in fostering critical thinking skills among elementary school students within Indonesian language learning. The phenomenon of Indonesia's low literacy rankings based on PISA data provides the background for the urgency of this research, suggesting a need for language structure teaching strategies that can stimulate cognitive development. Using the Narrative Literature Review (NLR) method through a qualitative approach, this research synthesizes various scientific literatures to dissect the correlation between morphological awareness and critical thinking sharpness. The findings show that morphological literacy particularly the mastery of affixation and reduplication serves as a cognitive foundation that enables students to deconstruct meaning beyond textual understanding. This analytical process toward word structure encourages the development of inferential and evaluative thinking skills, which are the main pillars of critical thinking. This study concludes that strengthening morphological literacy within contextual learning is a strategic instrument to enhance students' intellectual capacity in facing future information complexities.

HighlightsWhat are the main findings?Differences in morphological skills and Oral Morphological Awareness relate mainly to diagnosis and school year.Children’s oral morphology performance may be an effective screening for RD.What are the implications of the main findings?The type and frequency of oral morphological errors suggest that students at risk should be screened early on.Orally assessing Morphological Awareness may help identify children at risk before their formal reading skills do.Background: Reading is a fundamental skill for children’s cognitive, social, and academic development which relies on the integration of multiple linguistic and cognitive abilities. Longitudinal studies consistently show that oral language skills predict reading development both in typically developing children and in those at risk for reading difficulties (RD). Despite strong empirical evidence, a gap remains between research and educational practice. Objective: The present study aims to compare linguistic variables, including vocabulary, oral text comprehension, oral morphological awareness (OMA), and morphological skills between diagnostic group (control vs. at-risk), study grade, and sex. Method: The study included 93 Spanish-speaking children aged 6 to 12 years (M = 8.7, SD = 1.9; 50 boys, 43 girls). Two diagnostic groups were established: 44 children at risk of reading difficulties (including ADHD or DLD) and 49 typically developing controls. Participants were also classified by academic cycle: 55 in the first cycle (1st–2nd grade) and 38 in the second cycle or higher (3rd–6th grade). Linguistic variables were measured through tests administered individually, with data collected during one-on-one assessment sessions. Results: Among the variables analysed, significant differences were observed only in morphological skills and OMA. No significant differences were found based on sex, whereas both academic cycle and diagnostic group showed significant effects. Conclusions: The most relevant and novel finding is that the type and frequency of errors in the OMA task could serve as an early indicator of students at risk of RD. OMA assessment could therefore be a promising method of early screening and targeted interventions.

Children’s rate of literacy development is influenced by the writing system in which they are learning to read. Studies of reading development in Arabic are few in number in comparison to those conducted in English and other European languages. The current study examined predictors of single word reading in 116 third-grade Arabic speaking children. Measures included nonverbal ability, vocabulary, verbal STM, phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN), orthographic processing, morphological awareness, word recognition, and nonword reading fluency. PA was the strongest predictor of reading accuracy and nonword reading fluency, followed by verbal STM, RAN and orthographic processing, which also made significant contributions. Morphological awareness explained a modest but statistically significant proportion of variance in word recognition. The findings are discussed in terms of orthographic depth. It is argued that these findings highlight the need for a multidimensional ­framework of orthographic depth that encompasses linguistic and orthographic features.

ABSTRACT This study examined the way in which language relates to theory of mind (ToM) during middle childhood. Two hundred and thirty-three children (ages 6–12) were tested via a concurrent design on vocabulary, phonological and morphological awareness, and six ToM domains (belief, knowledge, perception, desire, intention, and emotion). Results revealed that vocabulary had significant positive associations with three ToM domains (belief, knowledge, and intention), and morphological awareness, but not phonological awareness, emerged as a concurrent mediator of this relationship. Overall, these findings suggest that understanding words, particularly their structure and meaning, is important in linking language and ToM development during middle childhood.

Morphological awareness, the ability to consciously think about morphemes, plays an important role in literacy achievement. Historically, when measuring morphological awareness, researchers primarily have administered tasks in the spoken rather than written modality, and few have investigated the influence of modality on task performance. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine whether performance on cloze morphological awareness tasks would be different for English-speaking third- through sixth-grade students depending on whether the task was administered in the spoken or written modality. We also analyzed whether performance on a written version explained unique variance on measures of word-level reading and spelling after controlling for receptive vocabulary and performance on the spoken morphological awareness task. Third- through sixth-grade English-speaking students (n > 150 per grade) in the United States completed cloze tasks measuring their awareness of base words and their inflected or derived forms, as well as standardized measures of real word reading, decoding, spelling, and receptive vocabulary. Across each grade, students performed less well on the written compared to spoken morphological awareness tasks. Performance on the spoken version was related to at least one literacy skill at each grade, and performance on the written version significantly explained unique variance on all literacy measures for each grade beyond that of receptive vocabulary and performance on the spoken cloze morphological awareness task. For children in the mid- to upper elementary grades, researchers and practitioners should consider including written morphological awareness measures, in addition to spoken morphological awareness tasks when aiming to capture the full range of morphological awareness skills needed for word-level literacy success.

In multilingual contexts such as the Basque Autonomous Community, fostering cross-linguistic awareness is essential to support literacy development and overall academic achievement. This study investigates a pedagogical intervention aimed at developing morphological awareness as a foundation for cross-linguistic reflection to enhance reading comprehension. A quasi-experimental design was implemented in a trilingual school with 70 sixth-grade students who were assigned to an experimental group (n = 24) or a control group (n = 46). Over a six-week period, the experimental group received explicit morphological instruction in the curricular languages—Basque, Spanish, and English. Morphological awareness and reading comprehension were assessed in all three languages. Although no statistically significant improvements were observed in reading comprehension, the experimental group demonstrated significantly greater gains in morphological awareness across the three languages. In addition, out-of-school exposure to Basque was positively associated with both morphological awareness and reading comprehension, highlighting the role of linguistic input. A strong association was also found between morphological awareness and reading comprehension, supporting the interdependence of these skills. Overall, the findings underscore the potential of pedagogical translanguaging to foster metalinguistic awareness across languages in multilingual educational contexts.

This study intended to investigate the difficulties encountered by EFL learners in using four derivational adjective-noun suffixes (-al, -ous, -ic, and -ful) and their factors. Although derivational morphology can contribute to vocabulary development and academic skills, the use of suffixes that form adjectives is still a difficulty for many EFL learners. This research used a non-experimental quantitative descriptive method. The population and sample for this study comprised 33 students in the fifth semester of the Morphology course in the English Education Study Program. Data were collected using a test and a questionnaire to assess conditions influencing students' abilities. Test results showed that the four endings varied in difficulty. The endings -ous and -ic were the most difficult for students to use correctly, while -al was the easiest. Student use of -ful was not entirely principled. However, the level of accuracy for the base noun seemed to be a defining factor in suffix use accuracy. The results of the questionnaire also showed that a lack of morphological awareness, limited vocabulary size and pedagogical limitations were the three primary variables influencing students' capacity to generate adjectives. There was no appreciable impact from other factors such L1 interference, overgeneralization, lack of productive practice, and limited exposure to authentic texts. These results emphasize the need to provide more direct instruction in derivational morphology, broaden the range of activities, and increase exposure to scholarly terminology. Improvements in these areas may improve students' understanding of morphology and enable them to produce more accurate and complex academic language.

While research on the predictors of reading and reading comprehension is extensive in child and in some adult populations, particularly in alphabetic languages, few studies have examined such factors among Arabic-speaking adults. This study examined the extent to which the same linguistic and cognitive predictors contribute to reading accuracy, rate and comprehension among university students. A total of 120 young adults (aged 18–32) completed a battery of tests to examine their reading skills, phonological awareness (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN), morphological knowledge, executive functions and verbal long-term memory. Stepwise regression analyses were conducted on reading abilities. We hypothesized that PA, RAN, morphological awareness, and working memory will significantly predict reading accuracy and fluency, and to some extent, reading comprehension. Our results indicated that PA emerged as the strongest predictor of reading accuracy, while RAN most significantly predicted reading speed. Reading comprehension, however, was best predicted by a combination of phonological and morphological abilities, along with inhibitory control and long-term memory. These findings fill a gap in literature and shed light on the linguistic and cognitive mechanisms underlying adult reading skills in Arabic, a language with a complex orthographic system and diglossic situation. The results of this study are discussed in the light of previous reading literature. We propose that additional research, including other linguistic, cognitive and psycho-social factors, will be needed to gain a deeper understanding of the interplay between factors that influence reading in a language with unique linguistic features.

Abstract The past few decades have witnessed a notable surge in research pertaining to the development of Chinese literacy, particularly in the relationship between vocabulary, morphological awareness, and reading comprehension. This body of work has been originally inspired by and grounded in the theoretical paradigms established through literacy research conducted on English and other alphabetic languages. While significant strides have been made in identifying the unique morphological features of Chinese, persistent conceptual and methodological issues remain. By analyzing representative approaches and drawing insights from corpus linguistics and developmental psycholinguistic research, this review critically evaluates the applicability of presumed paradigms in understanding vocabulary, morphological awareness, and their relationship to reading comprehension in Chinese literacy development. Throughout this exploration, conceptual and methodological issues related to the assessment of vocabulary and morphological awareness and the research designs for studying their relationship with reading comprehension in Chinese are identified and addressed. Directions for future research endeavors are proposed for a more comprehensive understanding of the pivotal and unique role played by vocabulary and morphological awareness and their intricate relationship with reading comprehension in Chinese literacy development.

This study investigated how morphological awareness contributes directly or indirectly through word reading to sentence reading comprehension in French-speaking children third-and-fifth graders and how grade moderates these relations. Participants completed a morphological word analogy task, a standardized word reading fluency test, and a silent sentence reading comprehension test. Vocabulary knowledge, non-verbal reasoning, and phonological awareness were included as control variables. Using path analysis within a structural equation modeling framework, we tested moderated mediation models assessing both direct and indirect effects of morphological awareness on sentence reading comprehension through word reading fluency, as well as moderation by grade level. Results showed a weak but significant direct effect of morphological awareness on sentence reading comprehension, whereas the indirect effect through word reading fluency was not significant. Grade level did not moderate either pathway. Findings indicate that, in a moderately opaque orthography such as French, morphological awareness directly supports word reading fluency but also reading comprehension directly and beyond this former, suggesting the need for explicit morphological instruction in upper-elementary education.

This study examines the relationship between linguistic morphological awareness and artistic morphological awareness among first-year university students in a teacher education program in Cyprus. Drawing on multimodal literacy and social semiotics, it investigates how students interpret and create meaning across verbal and visual modes of communication. Sixty-seven Greek and Greek Cypriot students completed tasks measuring linguistic morphology (derivation, inflection, segmentation) and artistic morphology (point, line, shape, colour, value awareness in artworks). Principal component analysis confirmed the validity and reliability of the measures. Regression analyses showed a significant positive correlation between linguistic and artistic morphological awareness, indicating that students proficient in linguistic morphology tend to have greater sensitivity to morphological structures in visual art. These results support a meaningful link between visual and linguistic meaning-making abilities and highlight the value of integrated approaches in teacher education. Limitations include the lack of controls for verbal intelligence and the cross-sectional design, which restrict causal conclusions. Future longitudinal and intervention research is suggested to deepen understanding of these multimodal relationships and inform educational and communicative practices.

Relations between morphological awareness, vocabulary knowledge and word reading in different orthographies and scripts: Evidence from Africa and Asia

Effects of pre-listening morphological intervention on the acquisition and retention of L2 aural multimorphemic words.

Pediatric primary care offers a unique opportunity for early dyslexia screening, yet validated prereading measures capturing the full spectrum of developmental risk are absent from standard assessments, representing a critical gap in preventive care. Establishing predictive validity of these measures is essential before clinical implementation. To examine whether and to what extent deficits in 4 cognitive-linguistic domains in kindergarten estimate risk for both early-emerging (grade 1) and late-emerging (grade 4) dyslexia. This prospective longitudinal cohort study was conducted at 128 kindergartens and 60 public elementary schools representing diverse socioeconomic backgrounds in northern Israel from May 2019 to June 2023. Hebrew-speaking children who demonstrated age-appropriate nonverbal abilities (as assessed with the Raven Progressive Matrices) were included. Exposures included 4 cognitive-linguistic measures, (1) phonological awareness, (2) rapid automatized naming, (3) letter knowledge, and (4) morphological awareness, assessed in kindergarten (May to June 2019). The primary outcome was dyslexia risk in grades 1 (January to March 2020) and 4 (February to June 2023), defined as word-reading fluency at or below the 10th percentile. Cognitive-linguistic and word-reading fluency composite scores were computed by averaging raw scores from 2 to 3 tasks. Logistic regression was used to estimate associations of cognitive-linguistic measures with dyslexia risk, which were expressed as odds ratios (ORs) with 95% CIs. Among 515 Hebrew-speaking children (285 girls [55.3%]; mean [SD] age, 5.9 [0.4] years), kindergarten deficits in letter knowledge (OR, 4.75; 95% CI, 2.04-11.04; P < .001) and phonological awareness (OR, 4.17; 95% CI, 2.05-8.47; P < .001) were associated with a 4- to 5-fold increased risk of dyslexia in grade 1. Deficits in letter knowledge (OR, 3.57; 95% CI, 1.53-8.31; P = .003), morphological awareness (OR, 2.56; 95% CI, 1.09-5.97; P = .03), and rapid automatized naming (OR, 2.39; 95% CI, 1.05-5.43; P = .04) were associated with a 2.4- to 3.6-fold increased risk of dyslexia in grade 4, independently of grade 1 risk (OR, 4.98; 95% CI, 2.22-11.13; P < .001). In this cohort study of 515 children followed from kindergarten through grades 1 and 4, distinct patterns of cognitive-linguistic deficits in kindergarten were associated with 2- to 5-fold increased risk for early- and late-emerging dyslexia. These findings provide a foundational evidence base to support the integration of developmentally sensitive screening into pediatric surveillance frameworks, facilitating early identification and a shift from reactive to preventive care, including for children at risk of late-emerging dyslexia.