Role Of Morphological Awareness Research Articles

The Role of Morphological Awareness and Orthographic Awareness in Reading Comprehension in Arabic: Do Reading Fluency and Working Memory Count?

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.

The role of morphological awareness in L2 postgraduates’ academic writing: is vocabulary knowledge a mediating variable?

The role of morphological awareness in L2 postgraduates’ academic writing: is vocabulary knowledge a mediating variable?

The Role of Morphological Awareness and Background Knowledge in Turkish EFL Learners’ Writing Ability

The Role of Morphological Awareness and Background Knowledge in Turkish EFL Learners’ Writing Ability

Exploring the Underpinnings and Longitudinal Associations of Word Reading and Word Spelling: A 2-year Longitudinal Study of Hong Kong Chinese Children Transitioning to Primary School

ABSTRACT We investigated the correlates of word reading and spelling as well as the relations of word reading and spelling in Hong Kong Chinese children. A set of literacy-related skills and delayed copying were administered in kindergarten, and Chinese word reading and dictation were tested at kindergarten as well as in first and second grade. The final preferred model in cross-lagged analysis showed that reading performance at kindergarten and first grade predicted spelling performance at first grade and second grade, respectively. However, the relations were not bidirectional. This study underscores the critical roles of morphological awareness, RAN, and delayed copying for early literacy performance in Chinese. In addition, it demonstrates that earlier reading performance predicts later spelling performance in Chinese, but early spelling does not predict subsequent reading in Chinese in the early grades.

The Importance of Morphological Awareness in Bilingual Language and Literacy Skills: Clinical Implications for Speech-Language Pathologists.

Purpose This clinical focus article will highlight the importance and role of morphological awareness (MA) across orthographies, in particular, the role it plays in reading development, specifically with bilingual populations. MA supports reading acquisition and development beyond other predictors of reading, such as phonological awareness, orthographic knowledge, and rapid automatic naming to name a few. While MA aids in the development of decoding fluency, vocabulary development, and reading comprehension, explicit morphological instruction does not occur regularly in reading intervention. For English learners (ELs), instruction should focus on improving MA, semantic awareness, and orthographic processing, which in turn would exert a positive influence on reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension. This clinical focus article aims to provide speech-language pathologists with applicable tasks to measure MA and strategies to guide explicit morphological instruction. Method The role of MA in reading development will be described with regard to its importance beyond other predictors and the role it plays in theoretical models of reading development. Then, MA will be described across orthographies, with a focus on cross-linguistic influences. Finally, measurement tasks will be described, and clinical implications will be discussed in terms of using different strategies and tools to explicitly address MA. Conclusion Clinical implications of morphological instruction should be further explored and incorporated in current practices. With regard to ELs, it is important that we provide effective and specific instruction to better bridge the academic achievement gaps and increase overall language and literacy skills. Morphological instruction should be explicit and provided in conjunction with other domains of language. Equally important is leveraging families of ELs to promote their children's oral language and literacy in their first language.

COMPREENSÃO DE LEITURA E CONSCIÊNCIA MORFOLÓGICA NO ENSINO FUNDAMENTAL I

A compreensão de leitura e a consciência morfológica são habilidades que contribuem para o processo de ensino-aprendizagem. O objetivo do presente estudo foi investigar a proficiência em compreensão de leitura de 70 alunos (2º ao 5º ano) de uma escola pública paulista e verificar as diferenças de desempenho e as correlações existentes entre esta habilidade e a consciência morfológica. Os instrumentos utilizados foram dois testes de Cloze e as Tarefas de Avaliação da Consciência Morfológica. Os resultados indicaram aumento crescente em compreensão de leitura e consciência morfológica, conforme o avanço dos anos escolares. No 2º e 3º ano, os alunos obtiveram maiores escores na consciência morfológica derivacional e no 4º e 5º ano na flexional. Verificaram-se correlações estatisticamente significativas entre essas habilidades apenas no 3º e 5º ano. Sugere-se a continuidade nas investigações sobre o papel da consciência morfológica para o desenvolvimento da compreensão de leitura.

Cognitive-Linguistic Skills Underlying Word Reading and Spelling Difficulties in Chinese Adolescents With Dyslexia

The present study investigated the co-occurrence of word reading and spelling difficulties for Chinese first language (L1) and English second language (L2) and the role of morphological awareness in word reading and spelling ability across two languages. A total of 110 Hong Kong Chinese-speaking students in Grade 7, including 55 adolescents with dyslexia (28 males, mean age = 152.11 months) and 55 typically developing adolescents (27 males, mean age = 151.85 months) participated. They were assessed on the cognitive-linguistic measures of morphological awareness, phonological awareness, vocabulary knowledge, rapid naming, word reading, and word spelling in L1 and L2. Multivariate analysis of variance showed that compared with the typical students, adolescents with dyslexia had poorer performance in all L1 and L2 measures except the phonological awareness in Chinese. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that for both groups of students, morphological awareness contributed uniquely to word reading and spelling in L1 and L2; rapid letter naming contributed uniquely to English word spelling. Findings highlight the importance of co-occurring difficulties in L1 and L2 reading and spelling and that morphological awareness may play a critical role in predicting word reading and spelling across languages for Chinese adolescents with dyslexia and those without difficulty.

Role of Morphological Awareness and Morphological Processing in Korean Secondary School Students' English-Vocabulary Knowledge and Reading Comprehension

Role of Morphological Awareness and Morphological Processing in Korean Secondary School Students' English-Vocabulary Knowledge and Reading Comprehension

The role of morphological awareness in reading and spelling performance

The role of morphological awareness in reading and spelling performance Abstract. Objective: Although morphological awareness (MA) is known to be important for literacy acquisition, there are few studies - and no tests - to assess it in the German language. This study evaluates the relationship between MA and three different reading measures as well as spelling and phonological awareness (PA) in German children. Method: To assess MA, we developed an MA screening instrument. We then assessed reading speed, fluency, pseudoword decoding, spelling, MA, and PA of 172 2nd-graders. Results: MA correlated significantly with the three reading measures as well as spelling and PA, and it explained significant variance of reading speed, fluency, and spelling both in addition to PA and on its own. MA did not account for additional variance of pseudoword decoding. The variance explained by MA was significant for reading and for spelling disorders. Conclusions: The results demonstrate that MA is very important also for German literacy acquisition. Including MA is a promising approach not only for spelling, but also for reading interventions.

The role of morphological awareness in L2 Chinese lexical inference: from a perspective of word semantic transparency

Lexical inference refers to the ability to make informed guesses about the meaning of an unknown word. This inferencing ability is affected by learner-related (i.e., morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge) and language-related (i.e., word semantic transparency) factors. Previous studies have shown that these factors play independent roles in lexical inference for second language (L2) learners. However, little is known regarding how language-related factors shape the contributions of learner-related factors to lexical inference. To fill this gap, the present study addressed two research questions. (1) Does morphological awareness, mediated by vocabulary knowledge, contribute to lexical inference when the inferred words have different levels of semantic transparency? (2) If so, how are these contributions of morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge affected by word semantic transparency? Ninety-one intermediate-level L2 Chinese learners participated in this study; they completed two morphological awareness tasks, one vocabulary knowledge task, and one lexical inference task in Chinese. The findings, based on correlational analyses, hierarchical multiple regressions, and mediation analyses, showed the following: (1) vocabulary knowledge and morphological awareness did not affect lexical inference for opaque words. (2) Vocabulary knowledge was a significant and direct predictor of lexical inference for transparent and semi-transparent words. And (3) morphological awareness, when mediated by vocabulary knowledge, indirectly contributed to lexical inference for transparent words, but it directly and indirectly made significant contributions to lexical inference for semi-transparent words.

The role of morphological awareness in Chinese children's reading comprehension: The mediating effect of word reading fluency

The role of morphological awareness in Chinese children's reading comprehension: The mediating effect of word reading fluency

MORPHOLOGICAL AWARENESS AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH READING COMPREHENSION OF EFL SAUDI UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

In the past ten years, there has a research interest in morphological awareness, which refers to an individual’s ability to decode the morphemic structure of words and further analyze them. The current study is an attempt to investigate levels of awareness of EFL Saudi university students and also to discover any potential relationship between their morphological awareness and successful reading comprehension. To this end, the researcher administered a modified version of Morphological Awareness Test (McBride- Chang et al. 2008) to 35 undergraduate students at the Department of Foreign Languages at Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Al Baha University in the academic year 2016/2017. The test included the analytic and synthetic aspects of word formation rules. Instruments of the study also included an adopted version of Reading Comprehension Test for Smart Choice Learners (Oxford, 2007). Results of the study indicated that the average score of the Morpheme Identification section (the analytic aspect of morphological awareness) was the highest among the students (M= 27.11, SD= 6.20) in comparison to the synthetic aspect of morphological awareness (M= 14.66, SD= 11.91). The students noticeably scored better in the Morpheme Identification Test (88.57%) than they did in the Morphological Structure Test (57.6%). The overall mean score of the Morphological Awareness Test was 41.77 out of 68 with a considerable dispersion among the results (SD= 14.63) with overall percentage (65.71%) which indicated that the students had intermediate awareness of word formation rules. In addition, EFL students scored better in the Inflectional affixes in both the analysis section (63%, SD= 5.32) and the synthesis section (50%, SD=9.85) than they did with the Derivational affixes (59.15%, SD= 7.38 in the analysis section, 46.33%, SD=13.72 in the synthesis section). Furthermore, there is high positive correlation between total students' scores on analytical aspect section of the morphological awareness test and reading comprehension test (0.871) (0.009). There is positive correlation between students' scores on synthetic aspect section of the morphological test and reading comprehension (0.841) (0.005), but it is weaker than that of the first section of the test. The total scores of students on morphological test positively correlate with their total scores on reading comprehension test (0.869) (0.005). The present study ended up with a set of pedagogical implications and recommendations to include training on rules of word formation in EFL curriculum so as to increase their morphological awareness and to develop their successful reading comprehension endeavors. Future research themes were also recommended such as the role of morphological awareness in tracing semantic irregularities to enhance learners' understanding of different English words and to explore the relationship between morphological awareness and other language learning skills including listening and speaking. Article visualizations:

The Role of Morphological Awareness in Word Reading Skills in Japanese: A Within-Language Cross-Orthographic Perspective

ABSTRACTWe examined the relationship between morphological awareness and word reading skills in syllabic Hiragana and morphographic Kanji. Participants were 127 Grade 1 Japanese-speaking children who were followed until Grade 2. The results showed that Grade 1 morphological awareness was uniquely and comparably associated with word reading skills in both Hiragana and Kanji in Grade 1 after controlling for nonverbal and verbal cognitive abilities, phonological awareness, and rapid automatized naming. The effect of Grade 1 morphological awareness on Grade 2 Kanji word recognition was slightly stronger (∆R2 = .10) than the effect on Grade 2 Hiragana reading fluency (∆R2 = .03). The findings suggest that morphological awareness plays an important role in early word reading skills across the two scripts, and with reading skill development it may become more important for mastering morphographic Kanji characters.

Preliminary study of the effect of Incremental Rehearsal with a morphological component for teaching Chinese character recognition

The current study examined the effectiveness of Incremental Rehearsal (IR) for teaching Chinese character recognition using a single-case experimental design. In addition, a morphological component was added to standard IR procedures (IRM) to take into account the role of morphological awareness in Chinese reading. Three kindergarten students in Hong Kong who were learning Cantonese-Chinese were taught Chinese characters with IR and IRM over six weeks using two ABAB designs. The study found that both IR and IRM effectively increased retention and maintenance of Chinese characters.

Role of morphological awareness in biliteracy development: Within- and cross-language perspectives among Korean ESL learners in grades five and six

The study investigated the within- and cross-language contribution of morphological awareness (MA) to vocabulary and reading comprehension among students learning to read two typologically different orthographies at the same time: Korean and English. Fifty Korean ESL learners in grades five and six were administered Korean and English measures of MA (derivational and compound morphemes), vocabulary, and reading comprehension (narrative and expository texts), in addition to measures of phonological awareness (PA) and orthographic awareness (OA). Information about home language environment was also obtained from a parental questionnaire. Path analysis showed that MA was the most significant contributor to vocabulary (β=0.33, p<0.05) and reading comprehension (β=0.46, p<0.01) in English; and in Korean (β=0.62 and β=0.54, respectively, all ps<0.01), controlling for effects of PA and OA. Unidirectional cross-language transfer was found from Korean MA to English vocabulary (β=0.27, p<0.05) and reading comprehension (β=0.22, p<0.05) and multiple determining factors are discussed. Educational implications and research recommendations are also presented.

The role of morphological awareness in reading achievement among young Chinese-speaking English language learners: a longitudinal study

The present study examined the development of morphological awareness and its contribution to vocabulary and reading comprehension among young Chinese-speaking English language learners (ELLs). We focused on two aspects of morphological awareness: derivational awareness and compound awareness. Participants included 46 kindergarteners (younger cohort) and 34 first graders (older cohort) of Chinese descent in Canada at the beginning of the study. Children were administered a battery of English measures including derivational awareness, compound awareness, phonological awareness, receptive vocabulary, and reading comprehension at two time points spaced 1 year apart. Results demonstrated a steady growth in Chinese-speaking ELL children’s derivational and compound awareness from kindergarten to Grade 2. Importantly, for the first graders, morphological awareness accounted for unique variance in vocabulary concurrently, and unique variance in both vocabulary and reading comprehension a year later. Generally speaking, the variance explained by morphological awareness increased with grade level, and derivational awareness accounted for more variance in vocabulary and reading comprehension than did compound awareness. These results underscore the emerging importance of morphological awareness, especially derivational awareness, in young Chinese-speaking ELL children’s English reading development.

Crossover: The role of morphological awareness in French immersion children's reading.

Achieving biliteracy is a remarkable accomplishment, and it is important to understand the range of factors that permit its successful realization. The authors investigated a factor known to affect reading in monolingual children that has received little attention in the second-language literature: morphological awareness. The researchers tracked the relationships between performance on past tense analogy tasks (the measure of morphological awareness) and reading of English and French in a group of 58 French immersion children across Grades 1-3. Early measures of English morphological awareness were significantly related to both English and French reading, after controlling for several variables. In contrast, early measures of French morphological awareness were significantly related to French reading only. Later measures of morphological awareness in French were significantly related to English and French reading. These relationships persisted even after controlling for several variables. Results of this study suggest that morphological awareness can be applied to reading across orthographies and that this relationship changes as children build their language and literacy skills. These findings are discussed in light of current theories of second-language reading acquisition.

This turnip's not for turning: Children's morphological awareness and their use of root morphemes in spelling

We report on a study designed to examine children's understanding of (1) the connection between root morphemes and the spelling of inflected words and (2) the role of morphological awareness in this understanding. Seven‐ to 9‐year‐old children were given clues (e.g. turn) to the spelling of inflected and control words (e.g. turning and turnip). While the use of the clue was not specific to inflected words, spelling was better of the first segments (e.g. turn) of the inflected than of the control words. This difference suggests that children appreciate the role of root morphemes in spelling of inflected words. Further, it seems that morphological awareness is employed in the spelling of a wide range of words. These results are placed in context of current theories of spelling development.

The role of morphological awareness in children's vocabulary acquisition in English

Tasks of speeded naming, phonological awareness, word identification, nonsense word repetition, and vocabulary, along with two measures of morphological awareness (morphological structure awareness and morpheme identification), were administered to 115 kindergartners and 105 second graders. In the combined sample, 48% of the variance in vocabulary knowledge was predicted by the phonological processing and reading variables. Morphological structure awareness and morpheme identification together predicted an additional unique 10% of variance in vocabulary knowledge, for a total of 58% of the variance explained; both measures of morphological awareness were uniquely associated with vocabulary knowledge. Results underscore the potential importance of different facets of morphological awareness, as distinct from phonological processing skills, for understanding variability in early vocabulary acquisition.