Exploring the dimensionality of morphological knowledge for adolescent readers

Abstract

This study examined the dimensionality of morphological knowledge. The performance of 371 seventh- and eighth-graders on seven morphological knowledge tasks was investigated using confirmatory factor analysis. Results suggested that morphological knowledge was best fit by a bifactor model with a general factor of morphological knowledge and seven specific factors, representing tasks that tap different facets of morphological knowledge. Next, structural equation modelling was used to explore links to literacy outcomes. Results indicated the general factor and the specific factor of morphological meaning processing showed significant positive associations with reading comprehension and vocabulary. Also, the specific factor of generating morphologically related words showed significant positive associations with vocabulary, while specific factors of morphological word reading and spelling processing showed small negative relationships to reading comprehension and vocabulary. Findings highlight the complexity of morphological knowledge and suggest the importance of being cognizant of the nature of morphology when designing and interpreting studies.

Inferring Meaning From Meaningful Parts: The Contributions of Morphological Skills to the Development of Children's Reading Comprehension

“…Thus, to reiterate, morphological analysis is used to determine the meaning of unfamiliar morphologically complex words, whereas morphological awareness is a source of metalinguistic knowledge that enables children to reflect on and manipulate morphemes in language more broadly. This conceptual distinction is in line with recent evidence that morphology may be multidimensional (Goodwin et al., ; Tighe & Schatschneider, ).…”

“…For instance, several cross‐sectional studies have shown morphological awareness and morphological analysis to be positively correlated in children and adults but not redundantly or overly correlated, as would be expected if multicollinearity was an issue (e.g., Deacon et al., ; D. Zhang & Koda, ; H. Zhang, ). Confirmatory factor analysis has also demonstrated that morphological awareness and morphological analysis are best represented as separate constructs rather than a single morphology construct for students in grades 3 (Levesque et al., ), 7, and 8 (Goodwin et al., ). Beyond cross‐sectional data, it remains to be determined how morphological awareness and morphological analysis relate to each other over time.…”

“…Although morphological analysis can be applied strategically to understand words, we view it as a form of online, tacit morphological processing (see Goodwin, Petscher, Carlisle, & Mitchell, ). In research, this construct is most often measured by asking students to choose or produce definitions for multimorphemic words (e.g., McCutchen & Logan, ; Pacheco & Goodwin, ; H. Zhang, ).…”

Multiple Pathways by Which Compounding Morphological Awareness Is Related to Reading Comprehension: Evidence From Chinese Second Graders

“…To our knowledge, no theory has articulated differential relations of morphological awareness to reading as a function of specific aspects of morphological awareness (e.g., inflectional, derivational, compounding). As noted earlier, multiple morphological awareness tasks were found to have a bifactor structure composed of a common underlying factor and task‐specific factors (Goodwin et al., ), and it is an open question as to whether the relation of morphological awareness to reading is primarily driven by the common underlying morphological awareness factor or whether specific factors add a unique contribution and, if so, how.…”

The relationship between morphological awareness and reading comprehension in Spanish‐speaking children

“…However, they do not assert that this morphological knowledge is limited to morphological awareness. Indeed, as we mentioned in the introduction, the concept of “morphological knowledge” can encompass two different skills: tacit morphological processing and morphological awareness (Goodwin et al ., ; Nagy et al ., ). Thus, our results seem to show that the interpretation by Deacon et al .…”