Longitudinal Relations Among Levels of Morphological Awareness and Character Reading in Chinese

• In Event: AERA Poster Session 7
  In Poster Session: Longitudinal Studies Poster Session

Abstract

The present study examined the longitudinal direct and indirect relationships between levels of morphological awareness (lexical and sublexical) and character reading in Chinese. To this end, we tested 203 Chinese children once a year between grades 1 and 3 on measures of lexical (lexical compounding task) and sublexical (semantic radical task) morphological awareness and character reading. Cross-lagged panel analyses showed that lexical morphological awareness made direct contributions to character reading over time. However, sublexical morphological awareness did not make direct or indirect contributions to character reading over time. Theoretical and educational implications of the findings are discussed.

Authors

• Bing Han, Texas A&M University - College Station

• Pohwee Koh, Texas A&M University - College Station

• Hong Li, Beijing Normal University

• Shuai Zhang, Appalachian State University

• R. Malatesha Joshi, Texas A&M University - College Station