Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The contribution of morphological awareness to reading comprehension in early stages of reading

  • Published:
Reading and Writing Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The contribution of morphological awareness to reading comprehension in Hebrew was studied in 298 second grade students who practiced two types of inflections, plural and possessive. Reading tasks at the beginning and end of the school year indicated that all improved on all tests in that period. Orthographic word recognition and morphological awareness predicted reading comprehension at the end of year. Students with low (LPD) and high (HPD) phonological decoding skills clearly differed qualitatively in reading comprehension. In the HPD students it was predicted by awareness of possessive inflections; in the LPD students it was predicted by orthographic word recognition ability. The results highlight the importance of examining the different components of morphological awareness in readers with different levels of phonological decoding ability.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. There are some cases in which the root sequence is interrupted by vowels that are represented by letters but these forms.

  2. Hebrew orthography is considered shallow and transparent at the beginning of elementary school when it is presented pointed, and considered deep and opaque when it is presented unpointed.

References

  • Bar-Kochva, I. (2013). What are the underlying skills of silent reading acquisition? A developmental study from kindergarten to the 2nd grade. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 26(9), 1417–1436.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bar-On, A. (2010). The role of linguistic knowledge in learning to read non-voweled Hebrew. Doctoral dissertation, Tel Aviv University, Israel.

  • Bar-On, A., & Ravid, D. (2011). Morphological analysis in learning to read pseudowords in Hebrew. Applied Psycholinguistics, 32(3), 553–581.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ben-Dror, I., Bentin, S., & Frost, R. (1995). Semantic, phonologic and morphologic skills in reading disabled and normal children: Evidence from perception and production of spoken Hebrew. Reading Research Quarterly, 30(4), 876–893.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berman, R. A. (1997). Preschool knowledge of language: What five-year-olds know about language structure and language use. In C. Pontecorvo (Ed.), Writing development: An interdisciplinary view (pp. 61–76). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Berman, R. A. (2002). Children’s lexical innovations: Developmental perspectives on Hebrew verb structure. In J. Shimron (Ed.), Language processing and acquisition in languages of Semitic, root-based morphology (pp. 243–291). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berninger, V. W., Abbott, R. D., Nagy, W., & Carlisle, J. (2010). Growth in phonological, orthographic, and morphological awareness in grades 1 to 6. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 39, 141–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carlisle, J. F. (1995). Morphological awareness and early reading achievement. In L. B. Feldman (Ed.), Morphological aspects of language processing (pp. 189–209). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carlisle, J. F. (2003). Morphology matters in learning to read: A commentary. Reading Psychology, 24, 291–322.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carlisle, J. F. (2007). Fostering morphological processing, vocabulary development and reading comprehension. In R. Wagner, A. Muse, & K. Tannenbaum (Eds.), Vocabulary acquisition (pp. 78–104). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carlisle, F. J. (2010). Effects of instruction in morphological awareness on literacy achievement: An integrative review. Reading Research Quarterly, 45, 464–487.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carlisle, J. F., & Fleming, J. (2003). Lexical processing of morphologically complex words in the elementary years. Scientific Studies of Reading, 1, 239–253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chall, J. S. (1983). Stages of reading development. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, A., Schiff, R., & Gillis-Carlebach, M. (1996). Hashva’at ha’osher morfologi, hataxbiri v’hanarativi bein yeladim hamitkahim b’kriah l’vein yeladim yodei-k’ro. [A comparison of morphologic, syntactic, and narrative richness between children with reading difficulties and good readers]. Megamot, 57(3), 273–291.

    Google Scholar 

  • Deacon, S. H., Benere, J., & Pasquarella, A. (2013). Reciprocal relationship: Children’s morphological awareness and their reading accuracy across grades 2 to 3. Developmental Psychology, 49(6), 1113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deacon, S. H., & Kirby, J. R. (2004). Morphological awareness: Just “more phonological”? The roles of morphological and phonological awareness in reading development. Applied Psycholinguistics, 25(2), 223–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ehri, L. C. (2005). Learning to read words: Theory, findings and issues. Scientific Studies of Reading, 9, 167–189.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fowler, A. E., & Liberman, I. (1995). The role of phonology and orthography in morphological awareness. In L. B. Feldman (Ed.), Morphological aspects of language processing (pp. 157–188). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frost, R. (2011). Looking across orthographies. In P. McCardle, J. R. Lee, O. J. L. Tzeng, & B. Miller (Eds.), Dyslexia across languages: Orthography and the brain-gene-behavior link. Baltimore, MD: Brooks Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert, J. K., Goodwin, A. P., Compton, D. L., & Kearns, D. M. (2014). Multisyllabic word reading as a moderator of morphological awareness and reading comprehension. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 47(1), 34–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gonter-Gaustad, M., & Kelly, R. (2004). The relationship between reading achievement and morphological word analysis in deaf and hearing students matched for reading level. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education, 9, 269–285.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz-Kraus, T., Cicchino, N., Amiel, M., Holland, S. K., & Breznitz, Z. (2014). Reading improvement in English- and Hebrew-speaking children with reading difficulties after reading acceleration training. Annals of Dyslexia, 64(3), 183–201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kieffer, M. J. (2014). Morphological awareness and reading difficulties in adolescent Spanish-speaking language minority learners and their classmates. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 47(1), 44–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirk, C., & Gillon, T. G. (2009). Integrated morphological awareness intervention as a tool for improving literacy. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 40, 341–351.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuo, L., & Anderson, R. C. (2006). Morphological awareness and learning to read: Across-language perspective. Educational Psychologist, 41(3), 161–180.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levin, I., Ravid, D., & Rapaport, S. (2001). Morphology and spelling among Hebrew-speaking children: From kindergarten to first grade. Journal of Child Language, 28, 741–772.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Marcolini, S., Traficante, D., Zoccolotti, P., & Burani, C. (2011). Word frequency modulates morpheme-based reading in poor and skilled Italian readers. Applied Psycholinguistics, 32(03), 513–532.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nagy, W. E., Berninger, V. W., & Abbot, R. C. (2006). Contribution of morphology beyond phonology to literacy outcomes of upper elementary and middle-school students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 134–147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nagy, W. E., Carlisle, J. F., & Goodwin, A. P. (2014). Morphological knowledge and literacy acquisition. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 47(1), 3–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nevo, E., Brande, S., & Shaul, S. (2015). The effects of two different reading acceleration training programs on improving reading skills of second graders. Reading Psychology,. doi:10.1080/02702711.2015.1066911.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perfetti, C. A. (1992). The representation problem in reading acquisition. In P. B. Gough, L. C. Ehri, & R. Treiman (Eds.), reading acquisition (pp. 145–174). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Perfetti, C. (2007). Reading ability: Lexical quality to comprehension. Scientific Studies of Reading, 11(4), 357–383.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ravid, D. (1995). Neutralization of gender distinctions in Modern Hebrew numerals. Language Variation and Change, 7(1), 79–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ravid, D. (2001). Learning to spell in Hebrew: Phonological and morphological factors. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 14, 459–485.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ravid, D. (2002). A developmental perspective on root perception in Hebrew and Palestinian Arabic. In J. Shimron (Ed.), Language processing and acquisition in languages of Semitic, root-based morphology (pp. 293–319). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ravid, D. (2006). Word-level morphology: A psycholinguistic perspective on linear formation in Hebrew nominals. Morphology, 16, 127–148.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ravid, D., & Bar-On, A. (2001).The Semitic root in language acquisition. In GALA, 2001 Proceedings. University of Lisbon, Cidade universitaria – Faculdade de letras, Portugal.

  • Ravid, D., Dressler, W. U., Nir-Sagiv, B., Korecky-Kröll, K., Souman, A., Rehfeldt, K., & Gillis, S. (2008). Core morphology in child directed speech: Crosslinguistic corpus analyses of noun plurals. TILAR Series, (6), 25–60.

  • Ravid, D., & Epel-Mashraki, Y. (2007). Prosodic reading, reading comprehension and morphological skills in Hebrew-speaking fourth graders. Journal of Research in Reading, 30(2), 140–156.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ravid, D., & Malenky, A. (2001). Awareness of linear and nonlinear morphology in Hebrew: A development study. First Language, 21, 25–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ravid, D., & Schiff, R. (2006). Roots and patterns in Hebrew language development: Evidence from written morphology analogies. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 19, 789–818.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reynolds, R. E. (2000). Attentional resource emancipation: Toward understanding the interaction of word identification and comprehension processes in reading. Scientific Studies of Reading, 4(3), 169–195.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rispens, J. E., McBride-Chang, C., & Reitsma, P. (2008). Morphological awareness and early and advanced word recognition and spelling in Dutch. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 21(6), 587–607.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schiff, R., & Lotem, E. (2011). Effects of phonological and morphological awareness on children’s word reading development from two socioeconomic backgrounds. First Language, 31(2), 139–163.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schiff, R., & Ravid, D. (2004). Vowel representation in written Hebrew: Phonological, orthographic and morphological contexts. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 17, 245–265.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schiff, R., & Ravid, D. (2007). Morphological analogies in Hebrew-speaking university students with dyslexia compared with typically developing gradeschoolers. Journal of Pscholinguistic Research, 36, 237–253.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schiff, R., Ravid, D., & Levy-Shimon, S. (2011). Children’s command of plural and possessive marking on Hebrew nouns: A comparison of obligatory versus optional inflections. Journal of child language, 38(2), 433–454.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shany, M., Bar-On, A., & Katzir, T. (2012). Reading different orthographic structures in the shallow-pointed Hebrew script: A cross-grade study in elementary school. Reading and Writing, 25(6), 1217–1238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Share, D. (2005). Disleksia b’ivrit: Hamorfologia v’haortografia haivriot. [Dyslexia in Hebrew: Hebrew morphology and orthography]. Script – Orianut: Xeker, iyun, v’ma’as, 9, 9–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Share, D. L. (2008). On the Anglocentricities of current reading research and practice: The perils of overreliance on an “outlier” orthography. Psychological Bulletin, 134(4), 584–615.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shatil, E., Nevo, B., & Breznitz, Z. (2007). Elul test. A standardized diagnostic test for learning disabilities. Haifa, Israel: Haifa University Publication.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shimron, J. (2006). Reading Hebrew: The language and the psychology of reading it. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singson, M., Mahony, D., & Mann, V. (2000). The relation between reading ability and morphological skills: Evidence from derivational suffixes. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 12(3), 219–252.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stanovich, K. E. (2000). Progress in understanding reading: Scientific foundations and new frontiers. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taft, M. (2003). Morphological representation as a correlation between form and meaning. In E. Assink & D. Sandra (Eds.), Reading complex words (pp. 113–137). Amsterdam: Kluwer.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Taft, M., & Ardasinki, S. (2006). Obligatory decomposition in reading prefixed verbs. The Mental Lexicon, 1, 183–199.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tong, X., Deacon, S. H., & Cain, K. (2013). Morphological and syntactic awareness in poor comprehenders: Another piece of the puzzle. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 47, 22–33.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tong, X., Deacon, S. H., Kirby, J. R., Cain, K., & Parrila, R. (2011). Morphological awareness: A key to understanding poor reading comprehension in English. Journal of Educational Psychology, 103(3), 523–534.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vaknin-Nusbaum, V., Sarid, M., & Shimron, J. (2016). Morphological awareness and reading in second and fifth grade: Evidence from Hebrew. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 29(2), 229–244.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verhoeven, L., & Carlisle, J. (2006). Morphology in word identification and word spelling. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 19, 643–650.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verhoeven, L., & Perfetti, C. A. (2003). The role of morphology in learning to read. Scientific Studies of Reading, 7, 209–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Verhoeven, L., & Perfetti, C. A. (2011). Morphological processing in reading acquisition: A cross-linguistic perspective. Applied Psycholinguistics, 32, 457–466.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolf, M. (2008). Proust and the squid: The story and science of the reading brain. Cambridge: Icon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wolter, J. A., & Gibson, F. E. (2015). Morphological awareness assessment and intervention to improve language and literacy. Seminars in Speech and Language, 36(1), 31–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, Western Galilee College and University of Haifa, P.O. Box 2125, 24121, Acco, Israel

    Vered Vaknin-Nusbaum, Miri Sarid, Michal Raveh & Einat Nevo

  2. The Center for The study of Society, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Vered Vaknin-Nusbaum

Authors
  1. Vered Vaknin-Nusbaum
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Miri Sarid
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Michal Raveh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Einat Nevo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Vered Vaknin-Nusbaum.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Vaknin-Nusbaum, V., Sarid, M., Raveh, M. et al. The contribution of morphological awareness to reading comprehension in early stages of reading. Read Writ 29, 1915–1934 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-016-9658-4

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-016-9658-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation