Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

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

  • Published:
Reading and Writing Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

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.

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

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Due to our small sample size, age and nonverbal reasoning were entered as control variables in separate regression models.

  2. The child’s Chinese proficiency level was similar to that of peers when assessed as part of our larger research project.

  3. The removal of this child did not change the pattern of results reported below.

  4. The patterns of results were largely the same when nonverbal reasoning or maternal education was entered in the first step.

  5. According to analyses conducted using data from the Landed Immigrant Data System in Canada, 60.5% of the adult Chinese immigrants arriving in Canada between 1996 and 2001 have a post-secondary degree (Guo & DeVoretz, 2007).

References

  • Akhtar, N., & Tomasello, M. (1997). Young children’s productivity with word order and verb morphology. Developmental Psychology, 33, 952–965. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.33.6.952.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anglin, J. M. (1993). Vocabulary development: A morphological analysis. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 58(10), v-165. doi:10.2307/1166112.

  • Anisfeld, M., & Tucker, G. R. (1968). English pluralisation rules for six-year-old children. Child Development, 38, 1201–1217.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berko, J. (2004). The child’s learning of English morphology. In D. A. Balota & E. J. Marsh (Eds.), Cognitive psychology: Key readings (pp. 523-537). New York, NY: Psychology Press (Reprinted from Word, 14, 150–177).

  • Bowers, P. N., Kirby, J. R., & Deacon, S. H. (2010). The effects of morphological instruction on literacy skills: A systematic review of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 80, 144–179. doi:10.3102/0034654309359353.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Caravolas, M., & Bruck, M. (1993). The effect of oral and written language input on children’s phonological awareness: A cross-linguistic study. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 55, 1–30. doi:10.1006/jecp.1993.1001.

    Article  Google Scholar 

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

    Google Scholar 

  • Carlisle, J. F. (2000). Awareness of the structure and meaning of morphologically complex words: Impact on reading. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 12, 169–190. doi:10.1023/A:1008131926604.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carlisle, J. F., Beeman, M., Davis, L. H., & Spharim, G. (1999). Relationship of metalinguistic capabilities and reading achievement for children who are becoming bilingual. Applied Psycholinguistics, 20, 459–478. doi:10.1017/S0142716499004014.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carlisle, J. F., & Fleming, J. (2003). Lexical processing of morphologically complex words in the elementary years. Scientific Studies of Reading, 7, 239–253. doi:10.1207/S1532799XSSR0703_3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carlisle, J. F., & Nomanbhoy, D. M. (1993). Phonological and morphological awareness in first graders. Applied Psycholinguistics, 14, 177–195. doi:10.1017/S0142716400009541.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carlo, M. S., August, D., Mclaughlin, B., Snow, C. E., Dressler, C., Lippman, D. N., et al. (2004). Closing the gap: Addressing the vocabulary needs of English-Language Learners in bilingual and mainstream classrooms. Reading Research Quarterly, 39, 188–215. doi:10.1598/RRQ.39.2.3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Catts, H. W., Hogan, T. P., & Adlof, S. M. (2005). Developmental changes in reading and reading disabilities. In H. W. Catts & A. G. Kamhi (Eds.), The connections between language and reading disabilities (pp. 25–40). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, X., Hao, M., Geva, E., Zhu, J., & Shu, H. (2009). The role of compound awareness in Chinese children’s vocabulary acquisition and character reading. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 22, 615–631. doi:10.1007/s11145-008-9127-9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cheung, H., Chen, H. C., Lai, C. Y., Wong, O. C., & Hills, M. (2001). The development of phonological awareness: Effects of spoken language experience and orthography. Cognition, 81, 227–241. doi:10.1016/S0010-0277(01)00136-6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chiappe, P., Glaeser, B., & Ferko, D. (2007). Speech perception, vocabulary, and the development of reading skills in English among Korean- and English-speaking children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99, 154–166. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.99.1.154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chiappe, P., Siegel, L. S., & Wade-Woolley, L. (2002). Linguistic diversity and the development of reading skills: A longitudinal study. Scientific Studies of Reading, 6, 369–400. doi:10.1207/S1532799XSSR0604_04.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, E. V. (1981). Lexical innovations: How children learn to create new words. In W. Deutsch (Ed.), The child’s construction of language (pp. 299–328). New York, NY: Academic.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, E. V., Gelman, S. A., & Lane, N. M. (1985). Compound nouns and category structure in young children. Child Development, 56, 84–94. doi:10.2307/1130176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cossu, G., Shankweiler, D., Liberman, I. Y., Katz, L., & Tola, G. (1988). Awareness of phonological segments and reading ability in Italian children. Applied Psycholinguistics, 9, 1–16. doi:10.1017/S0142716400000424.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • da Fontoura, H. A., & Siegel, L. S. (1995). Reading, syntactic, and working memory skills of bilingual, Portuguese-English Canadian children. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 7, 139–153. doi:10.1007/BF01026951.

    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, 223–238. doi:10.1017.S0124716404001117.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Derwing, B. L., & Baker, W. J. (1979). Recent research on the acquisition of English morphology. In P. Fletcher & M. Garman (Eds.), Language acquisition (pp. 209–223). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Derwing, B. L., & Baker, W. J. (1986). Assessing morphological development. In P. J. Fletcher & M. Garman (Eds.), Language acquisition: Studies in first language development (2nd ed., pp. 326–338). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Dunn, L., & Dunn, L. (1997). Peabody picture vocabulary test—Third edition. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.

    Google Scholar 

  • Durgunoğlu, A. Y., & Oney, B. (1999). A cross-linguistic comparison of phonological awareness and word recognition. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 11, 281–299. doi:10.1023/A:1008093232622.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Durgunoğlu, A. Y., & Oney, B. (2002). Phonological awareness in literacy development: It’s not only for children. Scientific Studies of Reading, 6, 245–266. doi:10.1207/S1532799XSSR0603_3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Buchner, A., & Lang, A.-G. (2009). Statistical power analyses using G*Power 3.1: Tests for correlation and regression analyses. Behavior Research Methods, 41, 1149–1160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Lang, A.-G., & Buchner, A. (2007). G*Power 3: A flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 175–191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Geva, E. (2008). Facets of metalinguistic awareness related to reading acquisition in Hebrew: Evidence from monolingual and bilingual children. In K. Koda & A. Zehler (Eds.), Learning to read across languages (pp. 154–187). New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gonnerman, L. M., Seidenberg, M. S., & Andersen, E. S. (2007). Graded semantic and phonological similarity effects in priming: Evidence for a distributed connectionist approach to morphology. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 136, 323–345. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.136.2.323.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gottfried, A. W., Gottfried, A. E., Bathurst, K., Guerin, D. W., & Parramore, M. (2003). Socioeconomic status in children’s development and family environment: Infancy through adolescence. In M. H. Bornstein & R. H. Bradley (Eds.), Socioeconomic status, parenting, and child development (pp. 189–207). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gough, P. B., & Tunmer, W. E. (1986). Decoding, reading, and reading disability. Remedial and Special Education, 7, 6–10. doi:10.1177/074193258600700104.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guo, S., & DeVoretz, D. J. (2007). The changing face of Chinese immigrants in Canada (IZA discussion paper no. 3018). Retrieved from http://www.iza.org/index_html?lang=en&mainframe=http%3A//www.iza.org/en/webcontent/personnel/photos/index_html%3Fkey%3D89&topSelect=personnel&subSelect=fellows.

  • Hart, B., & Risley, T. (1995). Meaningful differences in everyday parenting and intellectual development in young American children. Baltimore, MD: Brookes.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jongejan, W., Verhoeven, L., & Siegel, L. S. (2007). Predictors of reading and spelling abilities in first- and second-language learners. Journal of Educational Psychology, 99, 835–851. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.99.4.835.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Katamba, F. (1993). Morphology. London, England: Macmillan Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katz, L. A. (2004). An investigation of the relationship of morphological awareness to reading comprehension in fourth and sixth graders. Doctoral dissertation. Available from ProQuest Dissertation and Theses database. UMI no. 3138192.

  • Kieffer, M. J., & Lesaux, N. K. (2008). The role of derivational morphological awareness in the reading comprehension of Spanish-speaking English Language learners. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 21, 783–804. doi:10.1007/s11145-007-9092-8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kieffer, M. J., & Lesaux, N. K. (2010, March). Dimensions of reading vocabulary knowledge in first and second language learners. Paper presented at the meeting of American Association for Applied Linguistics, Atlanta, GA.

  • Kirby, J. R., & Savage, R. S. (2008). Can the simple view deal with complexities of reading? Literacy, 42, 75–82. doi:10.1111/j.1741-4369.2008.00487.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ku, Y., & Anderson, R. C. (2003). Development of morphological awareness in Chinese and English. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 16, 399–422. doi:10.1023/A:1024227231216.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuo, L.-J., & Anderson, R. C. (2006). Morphological awareness and learning to read: A cross-language perspective. Educational Psychologist, 41, 161–180. doi:10.1207/s15326985ep4103_3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lesaux, N. K., Kieffer, M. J., Faller, E., & Kelley, J. (2010). The effectiveness and ease of implementation of an academic vocabulary intervention for sixth graders in urban middle schools. Reading Research Quarterly, 45, 198–230. doi:10.1598/RRQ.45.2.3.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lesaux, N., & Siegel, L. S. (2003). The development of reading in children who speak English as a Second Language (ESL). Developmental Psychology, 39, 1005–1019. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.39.6.1005.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li, W., Anderson, R. C., Nagy, W., & Zhang, H. (2002). Facets of metalinguistic awareness that contribute to Chinese literacy. In W. Li, J. S. Gaffney, & J. L. Packard (Eds.), Chinese children’s reading acquisition: Theoretical and pedagogical issues (pp. 87–106). London, England: Kluwer Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lipka, O., & Siegel, L. S. (2007). The development of reading skills in children with English as a second language. Scientific Studies of Reading, 11, 105–131. doi:10.1080/10888430709336555.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Low, P., & Siegel, L. S. (2005). A comparison of the cognitive processes underlying reading comprehension in native English and ESL speakers. Written Language and Literacy, 8, 207–231. doi:10.1075/wll.8.2.09low.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mahony, D. L., Singson, M., & Mann, V. (2000). Reading ability and sensitivity to morphological relations. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 12, 191–218. doi:10.1023/A:1008136012492.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Markwardt, F. C., Jr. (1998). Peabody individual achievement test—Revised. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • McBride-Chang, C. (2004). Children’s literacy development. London, England: Edward Arnold/Oxford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McBride-Chang, C., Cheung, H., Chow, B. W.-Y., Chow, C. S.-L., & Choi, L. (2006). Metalinguistic skills and vocabulary knowledge in Chinese (L1) and English (L2). Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 19, 695–716. doi:10.1007/s11145-005-5742-x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McBride-Chang, C., Shu, H., Ng, J. Y. W., Meng, X., & Penney, T. (2007). Morphological structure awareness, vocabulary, and reading. In R. K. Wagner, A. E. Muse, & K. R. Tannenbaum (Eds.), Vocabulary acquisition: Implications for reading comprehension (pp. 104–122). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McBride-Chang, C., Tardif, T., Cho, J., Shu, H., Fletcher, P., Stokes, S. F., et al. (2008). What’s in a word? Morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge in three languages. Applied Psycholinguistics, 29, 437–462. doi:10.1017/S014271640808020X.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McBride-Chang, C., Wagner, R. K., Muse, A., Chow, B. W., & Shu, H. (2005). The role of morphological awareness in children’s vocabulary acquisition in English. Applied Psycholinguistics, 26, 415–435. doi:10.1017/S014271640505023X.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muter, V., & Diethelm, K. (2001). The contribution of phonological skills and letter knowledge to early reading development in a multilingual population. Language Learning, 51, 187–219. doi:0.1111/1467-9922.00153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nagy, W. E., & Anderson, R. C. (1984). How many words are there in printed school English? Reading Research Quarterly, 19, 304–330.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nagy, W., Berninger, V. W., & Abbott, R. D. (2006). Contributions of morphology beyond phonology to literacy outcomes of upper elementary and middle-school students. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 134–147. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.98.1.134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ramírez, G., Chen, X., Geva, E., & Luo, Y. (2011). Morphological awareness and word reading in English language learners: Evidence from Spanish- and Chinese-speaking children. Applied Psycholinguistics. Available on CJO 2011. doi:10.1017/S0142716411000233

  • Raven, J., Raven, J. C., & Court, J. H. (1998). Manual for Raven’s advanced progressive matrices (1998th ed.). Oxford, England: Oxford Psychologists Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reed, D. K. (2008). A synthesis of morphology interventions and effects on reading outcomes for students in Grades K-12. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 23, 36–49. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5826.2007.00261.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shu, H., McBride-Chang, C., Wu, S., & Liu, H. (2006). Understanding Chinese developmental dyslexia: Morphological awareness as a core cognitive construct. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 122–133. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.98.1.122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Siegel, L. S. (2008). Morphological awareness skills of English language learners and children with dyslexia. Topics in Language Disorders, 28, 15–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Silvestri, S., & Silvestri, R. (1977). A developmental analysis of the acquisition of compound words. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in the Schools, 8, 217–221.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sun, H. L., Sun, D. J., Huang, J. P., Li, D. J., & Xing, H. B. (1996). The description on the corpus system of modern Chinese studies. In Z. S. Luo & S. L. Yuan (Eds.), Studies of Chinese and Chinese character in the computer era. Tsinghua, China: Tsinghua University Publisher.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, I., & Taylor, M. M. (1995). Writing and literacy in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tilstra, J. S., McMaster, K. L., van den Broek, P., Kendeou, P., & Rapp, D. N. (2009). Simple but complex: Components of the simple view of reading across grade levels. Journal of Research in Reading, 32, 383–401. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9817.2009.01401.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Torgesen, J. K., Wagner, R. K., & Rashotte, C. A. (1997). Contributions of phonological awareness and rapid automatic naming ability to growth of word reading skills in second- to fifth grade children. Scientific Studies in Reading, 1, 161–185. doi:10.1207/s1532799xssr0102_4.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tyler, A., & Nagy, W. (1989). The acquisition of English derivational morphology. Journal of Memory and Language, 28, 649–667. doi:10.1016/0749-596X(89)90002-8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tyler, A., & Nagy, W. E. (1990). Use of derivational morphology during reading. Cognition, 36, 17–34. doi:10.1016/0010-0277(90)90052-L.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Steensel, R. (2006). Relations between socio-cultural factors, the home literacy environment and children’s literacy development in the first years of primary education. Journal of Research in Reading, 29, 367–382. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9817.2006.00301.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner, R. K., Torgesen, J. K., & Rashotte, C. A. (1999). Comprehensive test of phonological processing (CTOPP). Austin, TX: PRO-ED.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, M., Cheng, C., & Chen, S.-W. (2006). Contribution of morphological awareness to Chinese-English biliteracy acquisition. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 542–553. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.98.3.542.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang, M., & Koda, K. (2007). Commonalities and differences in word identification skills among learners of English as a second language. Language Learning, 57, 201–222. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9922.2007.00416.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Windsor, J. (1994). Children’s comprehension and production of derivational suffixes. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 37, 408–417.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woodcock, R. W. (1984). Woodcock language proficiency battery. Allen, TX: DLM.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human Development and Applied Psychology, Ontario Institute of Studies in Education, University of Toronto, 252 Bloor Street West, 9th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5S 1V6, Canada

    Katie Lam, Xi Chen, Esther Geva & Yang C. Luo

  2. School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, No. 19, Xin Jie Kou Wai St., Haidian, 100875, Beijing, China

    Hong Li

Authors
  1. Katie Lam
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Xi Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Esther Geva
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Yang C. Luo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Hong Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katie Lam.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Lam, K., Chen, X., Geva, E. et al. The role of morphological awareness in reading achievement among young Chinese-speaking English language learners: a longitudinal study. Read Writ 25, 1847–1872 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-011-9329-4

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-011-9329-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation