This study examines the effects of morphological awareness and reading ability on the accuracy and speed of reading multi-morphemic words. Test of word reading ability and morphological awareness were given to 134 Grade 5 students. They also completed a test of their ability to read morphologically complex words, in which accuracy and response times were recorded. Two sets of response time scores were calculated – the first taking into account only the accurately pronounced words, and the second taking into account both the accurately and the inaccurately pronounced words. These words varied in surface frequency, base frequency, and transparency. Analysis of variances indicated that multi-morphemic word reading accuracy and speed were positively related to reading ability, morphological awareness, surface and base frequencies, and transparency. Significant interactions showed that (a) high base frequency increased reading accuracy and speed for words with low surface frequency, particularly for the less able students, and (b) the combination of high base frequency and transparency increased reading accuracy and speed for words with low surface frequency. Findings were similar for accuracy and both sets of response time scores. These results imply that morphological knowledge is involved in the reading of multi-morphemic words, suggesting that investigation of instruction that targets the morphological characteristics of words is warranted. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2010-04-19 18:50:46.661

The results of 17 peer-reviewed studies utilizing morphological intervention were evaluated and compared in this meta-analysis. Participants included children from preschool to ninth-grade studying deep alphabetic, shallow alphabetic, or logographic (i.e., Chinese) orthographies. Cohen’s d was calculated to examine the effects of training on reading outcomes. Effects were analyzed according to child factors (ability level and age), intervention factors (agent, duration, frequency, setting, and group size), and orthographic factors. Additionally, effects were analyzed according to linguistic level (morphological, phonological, lexical, and supralexical) as well as group (experimental treatment group versus control group; experimental treatment group versus alternative treatment group) for the ability level, age, and orthography comparisons. Results indicate that (a) morphological training generally benefits students regardless of ability level and age; however, effectiveness varies per linguistic level, (b) with proper training and scaffolding, a variety of instructors can effectively implement morphological intervention, (c) the push-in school setting is generally the most effective setting, although gains were seen across all settings, (d) treatment was most effective when offered to individuals or large groups, (e) morphological intervention yield the greatest gains when lasting longer than one month, (f) it is effective for all types of orthographies. / text

The current longitudinal study examined the development of morphological awareness (MA) in the writing of 59 (27 EL1, 32 ELL) participants in grade 3 and grade 5, using an experimental morphological error type scoring (METS) guide. The researcher -developed METS guide provided an in-depth analysis of inflectional and derivational morphological usage across five categories: omissions (MO), morphological spelling errors (Msp), morphological attempts (Mat), wrong word (WW) and wrong homophones (WH). Standardized literacy measures evaluated spelling, oral vocabulary and oral syntax. For all grade 3 to grade 5 participants the total morphological errors (TME) and morphological omissions (MO) decreased and the morphological attempts (Mat) increased. Increases in oral syntax and vocabulary correlated to increased writing performance and decreased total morphological errors (TME). Differences were observed in the correlation analysis across all morphological measures between language groups (EL1, ELL). Using a detailed morphological error analysis in children’s writing may provide an accurate measure of the development of morphological awareness and patterns of usage for morphological structures in the writing samples of diverse language groups. / Graduate

Morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge are two (among many) components of multi-faceted word knowledge critical for language development and ultimately, academic performance, as they strongly correlate with other essential, literacy-related skills, such as spelling, writing and reading comprehension (Ramirez, Chen, Geva & Kiefer, 2010). Developing these types of knowledge is a non-linear process for school-age children: morphological awareness, in particular, involves long-term learning towards a full mastery beginning in mid-dle childhood and continuing through adolescence. Such learning processes can pose significant challenges especially for children attending a school entirely in a second language (L2) while speaking, as a first language (L1), a language which is ethno-linguistically minority in status in the larger (L2) society. Despite globally growing populations of L2 children in school settings, little is known about the nature of morphological/vocabulary knowledge in one language, relative to the other, especially when children are learning two typologically distant languages with different writing systems. The current study, situated within the theoretical framework of multicompetence (Cook, 2003), set out to investigate specific aspects of vocabulary knowledge and morphological awareness in different groups of English- and Japanese-speaking monolingual and bilingual children, whilst also examining the extent to which English morphological awareness influences/or is influenced by Japanese morphological awareness among the bilingual sample. The purpose of the study is largely three-fold. One was to examine the children’s ability to understand and express a connection between a word and its meaning. The former taps into receptive vocabulary knowledge, whereas the latter expressive vocabulary knowledge. Two vocabulary tests were administered to three groups of children per language: two bilingual groups (24 Japanese learners of English as a Second Language (ESL) and 21 learners of Japanese as a Heritage Language (JHL)) and a group of 25 English Language Monolinguals (ELMs) (English); and ESLs, JHLs and a group of 27 Japanese language Monolinguals (JLMs) (Japanese). The second purpose was to investigate the children’s ability to identify morphemes included in a word and also to produce inflectional and derivational forms of a word, using two morphological tasks per language – a Word Segmentation (WS) task and a Word Analogy (WA) task. Lastly, the current study examined, through statistical analyses, the nature of an association between morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge in each language, and also whether morphological awareness in one language could act as a significant predictor of morphological awareness in the other, i.e., cross-linguistic influence. Four key findings were obtained. First, the patterns in which each group demonstrated vocabulary knowledge through English tests contrasted with the pattern observed in the Japanese results. In English, the ESL group scored more highly on the receptive test than the expressive test, whereas the reverse pattern was the case for the ELM group. The JHL group yielded comparable scores across tests. In Japanese, in contrast, all three groups (ESL/JHL/JLM) scored more highly on the expressive test than on the receptive test. Second, all groups of children typically demonstrated higher degrees of an awareness of inflectional morphemes than of derivational morphemes in the English morphological tasks (both the WS and WA tasks) and the Japanese WA task. A slightly different pattern was observed in the Japanese WS task, where the performances of ESL and JLM children were not sensitive to morpheme type, whereas the JHL group yielded higher scores on the inflectional morphemes than the root morphemes. As regards the relationship between morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge in each language, in English, it was the ability to produce morphologically complex items, as opposed to recognising morphemes, that was positively related to vocabulary knowledge in all three groups (ESLs, JHLs & ELMs). In Japanese, in contrast, both morpheme recognition and production were positively related to vocabulary knowledge in all Japanese-speaking groups (ESLs, JHLs & JLMs). Lastly, the bilingual data identified a reciprocal nature of morphological transfer (Japanese -> English) only in the ESL group. More specifically, the ESL children’s ability to identify morphemes in Japanese words through segmentation may have a positive influence on the ability to produce English inflectional and derivational items. The latter ability is, in addition, likely to play a positive role in its Japanese equivalent, namely, the ability to produce Japanese inflectional and derivational items. No transfer effects were established in either direction for the JHL group. These within-language and cross-linguistic investigations of the nature of, and the relationship between morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge are discussed in terms of the existing evidence in the literature (e.g., Carlisle, 2000; Ramirez at al.,2010) and are graphically illustrated via the integration continuum based on the notion of multicompetence (Cook, 2003). Several limitations of the current study are reviewed and discussed, fol-lowed by the Conclusion chapter, where the unique contribution of the current study to the literature is revisited, together with a brief remark about its indirect links with the field of educational research in Japan and suggestions for future research.

Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo principal investigar o desenvolvimento da consciência morfológica e o seu papel na ampliação do vocabulário, das habilidades de leitura e de escrita. Para contemplar este objetivo, foi realizado um programa de intervenção em consciência morfológica baseado na sensibilização em morfemas e em estratégias de formação de palavras. Participaram da pesquisa 44 alunos do 3º ano escolar de uma escola pública da cidade de São Paulo. Era esperado que a intervenção produzisse um efeito na habilidade dos alunos do grupo experimental na resolução das tarefas de consciência morfológica (tarefa de Produção de Neologismo, Analogia de Palavras, Derivação em Contexto), vocabulário (Tarefa de Definição), compreensão na leitura de texto (teste de Cloze), fluência de leitura (tarefa de LUMP) e escrita de palavras (tarefa de Ditado). Além disso, era esperado observar um fortalecimento da relação entre a consciência morfológica e as outras variáveis psicolinguísticas incluídas na pesquisa. Em termos de resultados, verificou-se a ampliação da consciência morfológica derivacional, no trato tanto de prefixos, quanto sufixos ao longo do tempo. Este desenvolvimento foi ainda mais expressivo nas crianças do grupo experimental, comparado ao controle. O impacto positivo e significativo do programa de intervenção em consciência morfológica ocorreu principalmente sobre as variáveis que mediam este conhecimento. Além disso foi investigado o papel da consciência morfológica para a ampliação das habilidades em vocabulário, leitura e escrita sendo atestado apenas para a primeira. Com isso, destaca-se especialmente o valor da intervenção em potencializar o desenvolvimento da consciência morfológica na reflexão e produção de palavras por crianças ao final do ciclo de alfabetização / This research aims to investigate the development of morphological awareness and its role in expanding vocabulary, reading and writing skills. In order to contemplate this objective, a morphological awareness intervention program based on sensitization in morphemes and word formation strategies was carried out. The study included 44 students from the 3rd year of a public school in the city of São Paulo. It was expected that the intervention would have an effect on the ability of students in the experimental group to solve tasks of morphological awareness (task of Neologism Production, Analogy of Words, Derivation in Context), vocabulary (Definition Task), reading comprehension (Cloze test), reading fluency (LUMP task) and word writing (dictation task). In addition, it was expected to observe a strengthening of the relationship between the morphological awareness and the other psycholinguistic variables included in the research. In terms of results, there was an increase in derivational morphological awareness, in the treatment of both prefixes and suffixes over time. This development was even more significant in the children of the experimental group compared to control. The positive and significant impact of the intervention program on morphological awareness occurred mainly on the variables that measure this knowledge. In addition, the role of morphological awareness for the expansion of vocabulary, reading and writing abilities was attested only to the former. Thus, the value of intervention in enhancing the development of morphological awareness in the reflection and production of words by children at the end of the literacy cycle is particularly noteworthy

The present dissertation research had two main purposes. The first one was to compare the development of morphological awareness between English Language Learners (ELLs) who speak Chinese or Spanish as their first language, and between these two groups of ELLs and native English-speaking children. Participants included 78 monolingual English-speaking children, 76 Chinese-speaking ELLs, and 90 Spanish-speaking ELLs from grade four and grade seven. Two aspects of morphological awareness were measured, derivational awareness and compound awareness. The results indicated that ELLs’ morphological awareness is influenced by the characteristics of their first language. While Chinese-speaking ELLs performed more similarly to English native speakers on compound awareness than Spanish-speaking ELLs, Spanish-speaking ELLs outperformed Chinese-speaking ELLs on derivational awareness. The second purpose of this dissertation was to examine the within and across language contributions of morphological awareness to word reading, vocabulary and reading comprehension in Spanish-speaking ELLs. Morphological awareness in Spanish and in English was evaluated with two measures of derivational morphology, respectively. The results showed that Spanish morphological awareness contributed unique variance to Spanish word reading, vocabulary and reading comprehension after controlling for other reading related variables. English morphological awareness also explained unique variance in English word reading, vocabulary and reading comprehension. Cross-linguistic transfer of morphological awareness was observed from Spanish morphological awareness to English word reading and vocabulary, but not to reading comprehension. English morphological awareness did not predict performance on any of the three Spanish outcome measures. These results suggest that morphological awareness is important for word reading, vocabulary and reading comprehension in Spanish, which has a shallow orthography with a complex morphological system. They also suggest that morphological awareness developed in children’s first language is associated with word reading in English, their L2. Overall, results indicate that the ability to perform morphological analysis is important for ELLs.

This thesis comprised two longitudinal studies examining the role of morphological awareness in Chinese and English reading among Chinese children. In Study 1, participants were 84 kindergarten and first grade Chinese-speaking English Language Learners (ELLs) from Canada. Children’s morphological awareness, vocabulary and reading comprehension in English were assessed at two measurement points spaced one year apart. Study 2 involved the Chinese-Canadian children from Study 1, and 98 kindergarteners and first graders from China. Their morphological awareness, vocabulary and reading comprehension in Chinese were measured at the beginning of two successive academic years. Study 1 showed that for the ELLs, morphological awareness explained increasingly large proportions of variance in English vocabulary and reading comprehension with age. In Study 2, compound awareness significantly predicted Chinese vocabulary for children from both countries. Taken together, the two studies substantiated that morphological awareness contributes to reading in Chinese and English across different language-learning contexts.

This thesis comprised two longitudinal studies examining the role of morphological awareness in Chinese and English reading among Chinese children. In Study 1, participants were 84 kindergarten and first grade Chinese-speaking English Language Learners (ELLs) from Canada. Children’s morphological awareness, vocabulary and reading comprehension in English were assessed at two measurement points spaced one year apart. Study 2 involved the Chinese-Canadian children from Study 1, and 98 kindergarteners and first graders from China. Their morphological awareness, vocabulary and reading comprehension in Chinese were measured at the beginning of two successive academic years. Study 1 showed that for the ELLs, morphological awareness explained increasingly large proportions of variance in English vocabulary and reading comprehension with age. In Study 2, compound awareness significantly predicted Chinese vocabulary for children from both countries. Taken together, the two studies substantiated that morphological awareness contributes to reading in Chinese and English across different language-learning contexts.

The present dissertation research had two main purposes. The first one was to compare the development of morphological awareness between English Language Learners (ELLs) who speak Chinese or Spanish as their first language, and between these two groups of ELLs and native English-speaking children. Participants included 78 monolingual English-speaking children, 76 Chinese-speaking ELLs, and 90 Spanish-speaking ELLs from grade four and grade seven. Two aspects of morphological awareness were measured, derivational awareness and compound awareness. The results indicated that ELLs’ morphological awareness is influenced by the characteristics of their first language. While Chinese-speaking ELLs performed more similarly to English native speakers on compound awareness than Spanish-speaking ELLs, Spanish-speaking ELLs outperformed Chinese-speaking ELLs on derivational awareness. The second purpose of this dissertation was to examine the within and across language contributions of morphological awareness to word reading, vocabulary and reading comprehension in Spanish-speaking ELLs. Morphological awareness in Spanish and in English was evaluated with two measures of derivational morphology, respectively. The results showed that Spanish morphological awareness contributed unique variance to Spanish word reading, vocabulary and reading comprehension after controlling for other reading related variables. English morphological awareness also explained unique variance in English word reading, vocabulary and reading comprehension. Cross-linguistic transfer of morphological awareness was observed from Spanish morphological awareness to English word reading and vocabulary, but not to reading comprehension. English morphological awareness did not predict performance on any of the three Spanish outcome measures. These results suggest that morphological awareness is important for word reading, vocabulary and reading comprehension in Spanish, which has a shallow orthography with a complex morphological system. They also suggest that morphological awareness developed in children’s first language is associated with word reading in English, their L2. Overall, results indicate that the ability to perform morphological analysis is important for ELLs.

Cross-linguistic transfer has been found to exist, at different degrees, in the process of second/foreign language acquisition. Both the level of orthographic depth and the orthographic distance between L1 and L2 affect the rate of the word learning process in language acquisition. Compared to English, Chinese orthography encodes morphemes within and via characters, lacks inflectional affixation, and contains a significant number of compound words. Extensive morpho-syllabic characters may develop Chinese readers' morphological awareness, as well as their vocabulary. This study examined how Taiwanese children apply decoding skills they have developed in learning Chinese, while they read English words. The degrees of transfer from Chinese to English within a structural model of morphological awareness are examined and analyzed. In addition, moderation effects resulting from regional differences and the length of time spent learning English are also discussed. Students' morphological awareness is measured in six subtests which individually emphasize inflectional morphemes, derivational morphemes, and morphemes of compound words in Chinese and English, respectively. The results show that middle school students' Chinese morphological awareness facilitates their English morphological awareness development. These students also demonstrated the ability to detect morphemes in English, but only to a limited extent. They were skilled at decoding genuine compound words and were able to detect high frequency morphemes within pseudo-words. Their lengthy experience with morphologically complex characters and words in Chinese was most likely the major factor leading to such skill. Finally, in the development of English morphological awareness, the total length of time spent learning English and the length of formal English instruction experienced at the junior high school level were both found to positively correlate with the level of students' English morphological awareness, but not with the length of formal English instruction at the elementary school level. Such a discrepancy can be attributed to the current curriculum prevalent in elementary school which is only aimed at developing students' listening and speaking skills.