The Training of Morphological Decomposition in Word Processing and Its Effects on Literacy Skills

Abstract

This study set out to examine the effects of a morpheme-based training on reading and spelling in fifth and sixth graders (N = 47), who present poor literacy skills and speak German as a second language. A computerized training, consisting of a visual lexical decision task (comprising 2,880 items, presented in 12 sessions), was designed to encourage fast morphological analysis in word processing. The children were divided between two groups: the one underwent a morpheme-based training, in which word-stems of inflections and derivations were presented for a limited duration, while their pre- and suffixes remained on screen until response. Another group received a control training consisting of the same task, except that the duration of presentation of a non-morphological unit was restricted. In a Word Disruption Task, participants read words under three conditions: morphological separation (with symbols separating between the words’ morphemes), non-morphological separation (with symbols separating between non-morphological units of words), and no-separation (with symbols presented at the beginning and end of each word). The group receiving the morpheme-based program improved more than the control group in terms of word reading fluency in the morphological condition. The former group also presented similar word reading fluency after training in the morphological condition and in the no-separation condition, thereby suggesting that the morpheme-based training contributed to the integration of morphological decomposition into the process of word recognition. At the same time, both groups similarly improved in other measures of word reading fluency. With regard to spelling, the morpheme-based training group showed a larger improvement than the control group in spelling of trained items, and a unique improvement in spelling of untrained items (untrained word-stems integrated into trained pre- and suffixes). The results further suggest some contribution of the morpheme-based training to performance in a standardized spelling task. The morpheme-based training did not, however, show any unique effect on comprehension. These results suggest that the morpheme-based training is effective in enhancing some basic literacy skill in the population examined, i.e., morphological analysis in word processing and the access to orthographic representations in spelling, with no specific effects on reading fluency and comprehension.

Effects of a morpheme-based training procedure on the literacy skills of readers with a reading disability

“…Improvements in other measures of some of the reading tests and in the spelling of trained words could not, however, be ascribed to the morphological manipulation alone. The advantage of the morpheme-based training program in comparison to the control procedure in spelling of untrained word stems (embedded in trained prefixes and/or affixes) has also been reported in our previous examination of the same programs in struggling readers, who speak German as a second language (Bar-Kochva & Hasselhorn, 2017). The morpheme-based program may have improved the sensitivity of the participants to the morphological structure of words.…”

“…In other words, spelling may have become less arbitrary and increasingly guided by the words' morphology. Another possibility, as previously suggested (Bar-Kochva & Hasselhorn, 2017), is that an improved sensitivity to the morphological structure of words, following the morpheme-based training procedure, contributed to the participants' ability to deduce the spelling of words, which were unfamiliar to them in their written form, based on analogies to morphologically related words, which spelling was familiar to them. Considering that the morpheme-based training procedure did not have a unique effect on improvement in spelling of trained words but did show such an effect on spelling of untrained word stems, some effect of generalization may be concluded.…”

“…These two programs were contrasted in a recent study of German-speaking children who struggle with reading and who speak German as a second language due to a migration background (Bar-Kochva & Hasselhorn, 2017). Participants received 12 sessions of training, each lasting 15-20 min.…”

Examining the effects of Structured Word Inquiry on the reading and spelling skills of persistently poor Grade 3 readers

“…In view of these findings, some researchers turned their interest to interventions targeting other linguistic skills such as morphological awareness (e.g., Bar‐Kochva & Hasselhorn, 2017; Lyster et al, 2016). In their meta‐analysis, Bowers et al (2010) reported significant effects of morphology instruction on literacy skills and further indicated that morphology interventions work better for struggling readers and children in early grades.…”

Non-phonological Strategies in Spelling Development

“…Notably, this was true for children in grade 2 as for children in grade 4, indicating that having little or no contact with the language of instruction outside school has a long-lasting impact on these children's literacy development. This means that L2 learners require extra support for spelling development beyond phonology (e.g., Bar-Kochva and Hasselhorn, 2017;Bowers and Bowers, 2017), though such training can be similar in nature to training aimed to their L1 peers (e.g., Devonshire and Fluck, 2010;Devonshire et al, 2013;Alves et al, 2018). Without adequate support, however, these children could be at risk of academic failure, in view of the key role that spelling has on writing development (e.g., Juel, 1988;Salas and Silvente, 2019).…”