Role of Morphological Awareness in Reading Comprehension Among Canadian Children Enrolled in French Immersion Programs

• In Event: Mapping Morphology and Its Multidimensionality, Assessment, Relations to Outcomes, and Relation to Covariates

Abstract

Purpose:
Morphological awareness is related to literacy at multiple levels (Nagy, Carlisle, & Goodwin, 2013). It enhances the efficiency of decoding, facilitates access to meaning, and helps the reader understand syntactic properties (e.g., part of speech) of morphologically complex words. Morphological awareness not only contributes to reading comprehension indirectly through decoding and vocabulary, it also exerts direct effects through “on the spot vocabulary learning” and the use of syntactic signals (Nagy, 2007). In bilingual children, morphological awareness has been found to explain variances in reading comprehension within each of their languages, as well transfer between the two languages (e.g., Chung, Chen, & Geva, 2019).

Despite the complex relationship outlined above, previous research has primarily focused on the direct effect of morphological awareness on reading comprehension after controlling for phonological awareness. In the present study, we evaluate the relationship not only through direct effects, but also through indirect effects mediated by word reading and vocabulary. In addition, our model includes other dimensions of metalinguistic awareness and oral language such as phonological awareness, syntactic awareness, and narrative skills. Carlisle (2003) argues that morphological processing is characterized by interactive processes along linguistic dimensions. As such, we explore how these skills jointly contribute to reading comprehension.

Our participants are Canadian children enrolled in French immersion programs. These children are English speakers living in an English dominant environment but they receive school instruction in French. Because French immersion children are additive English-French bilinguals, we examine the relationship between morphological awareness and reading comprehension with each of English and French, and across the two languages. Based on our earlier studies (Lam & Chen, 2018; Lam, Chen, & Deacon, 2019), we expect to observe direct/indirect effects within English and French, and transfer effects from English morphological awareness to French reading comprehension.

Method:
Participants included 135 children in grades 2 and 3 in French immersion programs. All children started junior kindergarten in English but switched to French instruction at the beginning of senior kindergarten. They were administered a battery of measures including morphological awareness, phonological awareness, syntactic awareness, narrative skills, word reading, vocabulary and reading comprehension in English and French. Non-verbal reasoning was administered as a control measure and information about family background and activities was collected through a questionnaire.

Results:
Preliminary analyses were conducted separately for morphological awareness, syntactic awareness, and narrative skills. To address the research questions of the present study, we will include all the measures in structural equation models (SEM) to explore the direct and indirect effects of morphological awareness on reading comprehension. The SEM models will be analyzed for English and French separately. An additional cross-language model will be analyzed using both English and French variables to predict French reading comprehension.

Significance:
The results will increase our understanding of how morphological awareness contributes to reading comprehension at multiple levels in English-French bilinguals. These findings will also help immersion teachers use morphological skills to enhance literacy development.

Authors

• Xi Becky Chen, University of Toronto - OISE

• Kathleen HIpfner-Boucher, University of Toronto - OISE

• Diana Burchell, University of Toronto

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