Morphological awareness: A key to understanding poor reading comprehension in English.

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.

Qual a contribuição da consciência morfológica das crianças na precisão de leitura de palavras e compreensão de texto no português?

“…Há evidências dessa relação no inglês (Tong et al 2011 Freitas e Mota (2015). O estudo não encontrou uma relação entre consciência morfológica e compreensão de texto.…”

“…As palavras derivadas possuem mudanças de significado, muitas vezes acompanhadas de mudança gramatical, o que pode incidir na precisão da leitura de palavras. Leitores com desenvolvimento atípico de leitura apresentam maior dificuldade para processar a derivação do que a flexão (Tong et al, 2011). Isso pode indicar que as mudanças flexionais sejam mais previsíveis do que as derivacionais.…”

“…Esse morfema propicia uma modificação semântica na palavra "atenção", dando um significado de "falta de atenção". Na língua inglesa, há um corpo crescente de pesquisas empíricas indicando que a consciência morfológica contribui para a capacidade de leitura de palavras e de compreensão de textos (por exemplo, Carlisle, 1995;Deacon, Benere, & Pasquarella, 2013;Deacon & Kirby, 2004;Kirby et al, 2012;Kuo & Anderson, 2006;Kruk & Bergman, 2013;Mahony, Singson, & Mann, 2000;Nagy, Berninger, & Abbott, 2006;Nunes, Bryant, & Barros, 2012;Tong, Deacon, Kirby, Cain, & Parrila, 2011). O inglês é uma língua alfabética que apresenta profundidade ortográfica (Seymour, Aro, & Erskine, 2003).…”

Sara Reading Components Tests, Rise Form: Test Design and Technical Adequacy

“…A growing body of research suggests that morphological awareness is related to reading comprehension as well as the subskills that underlie reading (e.g., Carlisle, 2000;Carlisle & Stone, 2003;Fowler & Liberman, 1995;Hogan et al, 2011;Kuo & Anderson, 2006;Tong, Deacon, Kirby, Cain, & Parrila, 2011). Mahony, Singson, and Mann (2000), for instance, found independent contributions of morphological awareness to decoding in elementary school children.…”

Investigating Cognitive Processes Underlying Reading in Arabic: Evidence from Typical and Poor Reading Performance

“…Accordingly, Carlisle (1995) points out that the extent of the morphological awareness at kindergarten years, which was measured by tasks of morphological differentiation successfully predicts the ability in reading comprehension at the second grade. In other words, the morphological awareness strengthens the skills that are related to reading such as the identification of words and even meta-linguistic ability such as reading comprehension (Tong et al, 2011).…”