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Evaluating models of how morphological awareness connects to reading comprehension: A study in Portuguese
Author(s) -
Oliveira Márcia,
Levesque Kyle C.,
Deacon S. Hélène,
Mota Márcia Maria Peruzzi Elia
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of research in reading
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.077
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1467-9817
pISSN - 0141-0423
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9817.12296
Subject(s) - reading comprehension , psychology , comprehension , reading (process) , orthography , phonological awareness , cognitive psychology , linguistics , portuguese , philosophy
Background Reading comprehension is a complex skill, drawing on a range of resources. One is morphological awareness, or the awareness of the smallest meaningful units in language. Testing the predictions of the Simple View of Reading, we evaluate how morphological awareness relates to reading comprehension in a relatively transparent orthography. Method There were 70 Portuguese‐speaking children in Grade 2 in our study. The children completed measures of morphological awareness and reading comprehension, along with two potential mediators: word reading and listening comprehension. Children also completed control measures of phonological awareness and nonverbal ability. Results Path analysis showed that there were indirect effects of morphological awareness on reading comprehension through each of word reading and listening comprehension. There was no significant direct effect of morphological awareness on reading comprehension beyond these mediators and controls. Conclusions Our results provide a novel empirical confirmation of the predictions of current models of reading comprehension. We do so for readers of a relatively transparent orthography. Highlights What is already known about this topic Many studies with English‐speaking children have demonstrated that morphological awareness contributes to reading comprehension. Much less is known about how this relation works and if it holds for readers of relatively transparent orthographies.What this paper adds This study shows that the relation between morphological awareness and reading comprehension holds for children learning to read in the relatively transparent orthography of Portuguese. This study also shows just how these relations work. For Portuguese‐speaking children in Grade 2, the relation between morphological awareness and reading comprehension is fully mediated by word reading and listening comprehension.Implications for theory, policy or practice Our findings provide support for the Simple View of Reading, highlighting the dual roles of word reading and listening comprehension in reading comprehension. Our findings point to targets for intervention; morphological awareness instruction might be most effective if paired with instruction on how morphology impacts both word reading and oral language.