Given the morphophonemic nature of the English orthography, surprisingly few studies have examined the roles of morphological and phonological awareness in reading. This 4-year longitudinal study (Grades 2-5) compared these two factors in three aspects of reading development: pseudoword reading, reading comprehension, and single word reading. Morphological awareness contributed significantly to pseudoword reading and reading comprehension, after controlling prior measures of reading ability, verbal and nonverbal intelligence, and phonological awareness. This contribution was comparable to that of phonological awareness and remained 3 years after morphological awareness was assessed. In contrast, morphological awareness rarely contributed significantly to single word reading. We argue that these results provide evidence that morphological awareness has a wide-ranging role in reading development, one that extends beyond phonological awareness.

The authors reviewed all peer-reviewed studies with participants from preschool to Grade 8 for this meta-analysis of morphological interventions. They identified 22 applicable studies. Instructional effects (Cohen’s d) were averaged by linguistic outcome categories (morphological sublexical, nonmorphological sublexical, lexical, and supralexical) and comparison group (experimental group vs. control or experimental group vs. alternative training). The authors investigated the effects of morphological instruction (a) on reading, spelling, vocabulary, and morphological skills, (b) for less able readers versus undifferentiated samples, (c) for younger versus older students, and (d) in combination with instruction of other literacy skills or in isolation. Results indicate that (a) morphological instruction benefits learners, (b) it brings particular benefits for less able readers, (c) it is no less effective for younger students, and (d) it is more effective when combined with other aspects of literacy instruction. Implications of these findings are discussed in light of current educational practice and theory.

We investigated the effects of morphological awareness on five measures of reading in 103 children from Grades 1 to 3. Morphological awareness was assessed with a word analogy task that included a wide range of morphological transformations. Results indicated that the new measure had satisfactory reliability, and that morphological awareness was a significant predictor of word reading accuracy and speed, pseudoword reading accuracy, text reading speed, and reading comprehension, after controlling the effects of verbal and nonverbal ability and phonological awareness. Morphological awareness also explained variance in reading comprehension after further controlling word reading. We conclude that morphological awareness has important roles in word reading and reading comprehension, and we suggest that it should be included more frequently in assessments and instruction.

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Current theoretical interpretations of naming speed and the research literature on its relation to reading are reviewed in this article. The authors examine naming speed's effects across languages and the shape of its relationship to reading. Also considered is the double‐deficit hypothesis, by which students with both slow naming speed and low phonological awareness are hypothesized to be most at‐risk for reading disability. Finally, the instructional literature regarding attempts to improve naming speed and use of naming speed as a predictor of response to intervention is reviewed. The authors conclude that naming speed is uniquely associated with a range of reading tasks across orthographies, and that early identification would be improved by the inclusion of naming speed measures. The poor response to instruction of students who have slow naming speed should be considered when designing interventions. Further work is required to specify the theoretical nature of naming speed and to determine how to help students with slow naming speed. لقد تمت مراجعة التفسيرات النظرية الجارية تجاه سرعة التحديد والأبحاث العلمية بشأن علاقتها بالقراءة في هذه المقالة. إذ يفحص المؤلفون تأثيرات سرعة التحديد عبر اللغات وشكل علاقتها بالقراءة. كما تم الأخذ في الاعتبار نظرية النقصان المتضاعف التي تقول لما يجمع البطء في سرعة التحديد والوعي الضعيف في الصوتيات عند الطالب فيفترض أنه في خطر من العجز في القراءة. وفي الختام تمت مراجعة الأبحاث التعليمية المتعلقة بالمساعي في تحسين سرعة التحديد واستخدام سرعة التحديد كمنبئ للإجابة للتدخل. وينتهي المؤلفون إلى أن سرعة التحديد متعلقة بشكل فريد بمدى من واجبات القراءة عبر الخطوط وأن التعريف المبكر سيتحسن من خلال انضمان مقاييس سرعة التحديد. ويُفترَض أن الاستجابة الضعيفة لتعليم الطلاب الذين يعانون من سرعة التحديد البطيئة أن يأخذهم بعين الاعتبار عند تصميم التدخلات. وهذا يتطلب أكثر جهد لتعريف طبيعة نظرية سرعة التحديد وتعيين كيفية مساعدة الطلاب الذين عندهم سرعة التحديد البطيئة. 本文评审现时有关命名速度的理论解释及命名速度与阅读之关系的文献。作者首先考查在不同的语言中命名速度的影响力及命名速度与阅读之关系的情形；继而探讨双缺失这个假设，也就是命名速度慢及语音意识低的学生最容易有阅读障碍的假设。最后作者评审教学文献，考查提高命名速度及使用命名速度作为干预教学效应预测因子的尝试。作者在结论中指出：在不同的语言表音方式中，命名速度与一系列的阅读学习任务均具有独特的关联；把命名速度评估纳入考核测试中会有助改善命名速度能力的早期鉴定；在设计干预教学时应考虑到命名速度慢的学生对教学反应差的问题；以及有需要进一步研究命名速度的理论性质，及确定帮助命名速度慢的学生的方法。 On analyse dans cet article les interprétations théoriques courantes de la vitesse de dénomination et la littérature de recherche concernant ses relations avec la lecture. Les auteurs analysent les effets de la vitesse de lecture à travers les langues et la forme de sa relation à la lecture. On analyse également l'hypothèse du double déficit selon laquelle les élèves ayant à la fois une vitesse de dénomination lente et une conscience phonologique faible sont considérés comme présentant le plus de risques de difficultés en lecture. On analyse enfin la littérature pédagogique sur les essais d'amélioration de la vitesse de lecture et d'utilisation de la vitesse de dénomination comme prédicteur de la réponse à l'intervention. Les auteurs concluent que la vitesse de dénomination est associée uniquement à un ensemble de tâches de lecture li...

We review the Simple View of Reading (SVR) model and examine its nature, applicability and validity. We describe the SVR as an abstract framework for understanding the relationship between global linguistic comprehension and word-reading abilities in reading comprehension (RC). We argue that the SVR is neither a full theory of reading nor a blueprint for instruction. Nevertheless we argue that the model is helpful in conceptualising these broad skills and thus in planning for teaching and learning. We review empirical evidence concerning the SVR, suggesting that it provides a good fit to much scientific data on typical and atypical development, and variation among students across the school age range. We also indicate several areas in which we think the SVR is incomplete or in need of further empirical support. These include the way in which word decoding is conceptualised, the ways in which RC is measured, RC strategies, the role of reading fluency, reading with illustrations and second-language reading.

No abstract

This longitudinal study examined the performance of poor comprehenders on several reading-related abilities in the late elementary school years. We identified 3 groups of readers in Grade 5 who were matched on word reading accuracy and speed, nonverbal cognitive ability, and age: unexpected poor comprehenders, expected average comprehenders, and unexpected good comprehenders. We compared these groups in Grade 5 and, retrospectively, in Grade 3. The 3 groups performed similarly on phonological awareness, naming speed, and orthographic processing tasks but differed in morphological awareness, even when vocabulary was controlled statistically. Unexpected poor comprehenders performed more poorly than expected average comprehenders in morphological derivation at Grade 5 but not in Grade 3; in contrast, expected average comprehenders performed more poorly than unexpected good comprehenders at Grade 3, but these groups did not differ in Grade 5. Our findings suggest that poor morphological awareness contributes to reading comprehension difficulties and that children with different reading comprehension profiles may learn morphology at different rates.