The Relationship between Morphological Awareness and Composition for 3rd and 5th Grade School-aged Children

Abstract

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between composition and morphological awareness of typical school-aged children in the 3rd to 5th grades.Methods: To this end, a total of 44 children’s (24 in 3rd grade, 20 in 5th grade) ‘My Dream’ writing samples were analyzed into single words and 3 complex words (inflection, derivation, and compound). This study found a correlation between morphological awareness used in the composition and measurements of individual morphological awareness. The effect on composition was investigated through regression analysis.Results: First, the single words and the three types of complex words used in the compositions increased significantly as the grade went up. In addition, the difference by word types was also significant and the interaction effect between grade and word types was shown. Second, the number of single words and subtypes of complex words also increased according to the grade, and the difference between the types was significant. Third, there was a significant correlation between all morphological awareness variables except compound complex words. The result of regression analysis indicated that derivative morphological awareness and derived complex words are significant predictors for the composition.Conclusion: The results of this study confirm that the use of morphological awareness in composition contributes to the improvement of the quality of the composition. This suggests that morphological awareness needs to be considered in composition evaluation and intervention.