Chinese adolescents learning to read in English: How do different types of morphological awareness contribute to vocabulary knowledge and comprehension?

In this study, we investigated how different types of morphological awareness in Chinese and English contributed to English vocabulary and reading comprehension for English as Foreign Language (EFL) students. Eighth-grade Chinese EFL students (n = 49) completed researcher-designed assessments of derivational and compound awareness in both Chinese and English, as well as standardized tasks of vocabulary and reading comprehension in English. Measures were administered twice in a six-month interval. We used hierarchical linear regression to investigate contributions of Chinese and English morphological awareness to English vocabulary knowledge and English reading comprehension. As expected, we found moderate correlations across languages for both derivational and compounding morphology. However, contrary to our hypotheses of cross-l inguistic transfer of morphological awareness, Chinese derivational awareness did not explain unique variance in either English vocabulary or reading comprehension. In fact, only English derivational awareness explained significant unique variance in English reading comprehension and only English co mpound awareness explained unique variance in English vocabulary knowledge. These findings may inform future intervention research to improve English reading-related skills.
Source: Reading and Writing - Category: Child Development Source Type: research