In the past decade, there has been a surge of interest in morphological awareness, which refers to the ability to reflect on and manipulate morphemes and word formation rules in a language. This review provides a critical synthesis of empirical studies on this topic from a broad cross-linguistic perspective. Research with children speaking several languages indicates that knowledge of inflectional morphology is acquired before knowledge of derivational morphology and the morphology of compounds, which continue to develop through the elementary school years. Research establishes that morphological awareness contributes to the decoding of morphologically complex words and contributes to the development of reading comprehension, although the relationship is probably reciprocal rather than unidirectional. Morphological awareness becomes an increasingly important predictor of measures of reading as children grow older. Morphological awareness is intertwined with other aspects of metalinguistic awareness and li...

Morphological Awareness and Learning to Read: A Cross-Language Perspective

Syntactic awareness has been linked to word reading and reading comprehension. The predictive power of two syntactic awareness tasks (grammatical correction, word-order correction) for both aspects of reading was explored in 8- and 10-year-olds. The relative contributions of vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and memory to each were assessed. After vocabulary, memory explained variance on the word-order correction task; in contrast, grammatical knowledge explained performance on the grammatical correction task. The relation between syntactic awareness and reading comprehension was mediated by vocabulary, grammatical knowledge, and memory; in contrast, word reading and syntactic awareness shared unique variance not explained by these controls. The implications for how we measure syntactic awareness and its relation with reading ability are discussed.

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Syntactic awareness and reading ability: Is there any evidence for a special relationship?

In this study, we assessed and analyzed 5th grade students’ levels of syntactic awareness in relation to their reading fluency and comprehension. The aim was to examine the role of syntactic awareness (children's awareness of the syntactic structure of sentences and their ability to reflect on and manipulate that structure) as a potential source of reading fluency and comprehension difficulty for these readers. We found that the students’ levels of syntactic awareness were significantly related to their reading fluency (r= .625) and reading comprehension performance (r= .816). These relationships indicate that lower levels of syntactic awareness correspond to poor reading fluency and poor comprehension among these readers. These findings have important implications for research and instruction addressing the relative contributions of broader language skills to the development of reading fluency and comprehension among struggling readers.

How problems of reading fluency and comprehension are related to difficulties in syntactic awareness skills among fifth graders

Purpose In this study, the authors compared the morphological awareness abilities of children with speech sound disorder (SSD) and children with typical speech skills and examined how morphological...

Contributions of morphological awareness skills to word-level reading and spelling in first-grade children with and without speech sound disorder.

An experiment examined whether metalinguistic awareness involving the detection of semantic ambiguity can be taught, and whether this instruction improves students' reading comprehension. Lower SES third graders from a variety of cultural backgrounds (M = 8 yr. 7 mo., N = 46) were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. Those receiving metalinguistic ambiguity instruction learned to analyze multiple meanings of words and sentences in isolation, in riddles, and in text taken from the Amelia Bedelia series (Parish, 1979, 1988). The control group received a book reading and discussion treatment to provide special attention and to rule out Hawthorne effects. Results showed that metalinguistic ambiguity instruction was effective in teaching students to identify multiple meanings of homonyms and ambiguous sentences and to detect inconsistencies in text. Moreover, this training enhanced students' reading comprehension on a paragraph completion task (WRMT-R) but not on a multiple-choice passage recall task (GMRT4), possibly because the two tests differ in the array of linguistic or cognitive correlates influencing performance. Comprehension monitoring was not found to mediate the relationship between ambiguity instruction and reading comprehension. Results carry implications for the use of language-based methods to improve reading comprehension in the classroom.



[Note. Marcy Zipke discusses the research presented in this article in a podcast from the “Voice of Literacy”: http:www.voiceofliteracy.orgposts35281.]



لقد استقصت تجربة إذا كان من الممكن أن يعلم وعي بما فوق اللغة بما فيه القدرة على تحديد الغموض المعنوي وكذلك إذا في استطاعة هذا التعليم أن يحسن استيعاب القراءة لدى الطلاب. وقد تم وضع طلاب الصف الثالث من الطبقة الاجتماعية المنخفضة على اختلاف خلفياتهم (المعدل = 8 سنوات 7 أشهر والعدد = 46) عشوائيا في مجموعتين معالجة وضابطة والذين تعرضوا لتعليم المعاني الغامضة ما فوق اللغة قد تعلموا القيام بتحليل عدة معان للكلمات والجمل في حالات الانعزال والفوازير والنص المأخوذ من سلسلة آميليا بديليا (باريش، 1979، 1988). وقد تعرضت المجموعة الضابطة لقراءة كتاب ومعالجته في النقاش لتوفير انتباه خاص واستبعاد تأيرات هاوثورن. وقد أشارت النتائج إلى أن تعليم المعاني الغامضة مفيد في توعية الطلاب كيف السبيل إلى تحديد المعاني المتعددة لدى الكلمات ذات اللفظة المجانسة والجمل الغامضة وتعيين التناقضات في النص. وبالإضافة إلى ذلك حسن هذا التدريب استيعاب الطلاب القرائي في واجب إكمال فقرة (دبليو أر إم تي – أر) لكن ليس في واجب استرجاع النص ذات الخيارات المتعددة (جي إم أر تي 4) وهنالك احتمال أنه يرجع عدم النجاح هذا الواجب إلى اختلاف الامتحانين من حيث مجموعة التناسبات الذهنية واللغوية التي تؤثر في الأداء. ووجدنا من خلال التجربة أن مراقبة الاستيعاب لم توسط العلاقة بين تعليم المعاني العامضة واستيعاب القراءة. وتحمل النتائج عواقب لاستخدام المناهج المبنية على اللغة كي يحسن استيعاب القراءة في الصف.



[Podcast: http:www.voiceofliteracy.orgposts35281.]



本实验研究，考查在发觉有语义含糊时所涉及的元语言意识，是否可以教授给学生，而这样的教学，是否可以改进学生的阅读理解能力。被随机分配到试验组和对照组的受测试者，是来自多种不同文化背景低收入户的小学三年级学生(平均年龄＝8岁7个月，人数＝46)。试验组接受元语言语义含糊教学，学习分析在AmeliaBedelia系列丛书(Parish，1979，1988)中出現的单词、单句所含的多重意义，以及在谜语和语篇中词句所含的多重意义。对照组则接受书本阅读和讨论的处理；给予这组特别的关注，是要防止霍索恩效应。研究结果显示，元语言语义含糊教学，能有效地教授学生辨认出同音异义字词和语义含糊句子的多重意义，并能看出语篇中所含的不一致性语义。这种元语言教学能提高学生在段落完成任务(WRMT-R) 中所测验的阅读理解能力，但不能提高他们在多项选择的段落回忆任务 (GMRT4) 中所测试的阅读理解能力。这可能是因为該两个测验在语言或认知的关联关系中存在着很多的差别，因而影响到学生的表现。结果显示，阅读理解监控能力在元语言语义含糊教学与阅读理解的关系中，没有产生中介作用。研究结果为采用语言为主的教学方法以求改进阅读理解能力的课堂实践带来启示。



[Podcast: http:www.voiceofliteracy.orgposts35281.]



Une experience a ete realisee afin d'examiner s'il est possible d'enseigner la conscience metalinguistique pour la detection de l'ambiguite semantique, et si cet enseignement permet d'ameliorer la comprehension de la lecture. On a assigne au hasard a des groupes experimental et controle des eleves faibles de milieu defavorise de troisieme annee provenant de differentes origines culturelles (M = 8.7 ans, N = 46). Ceux qui ont recu un enseignement relatif a l'ambiguite metalinguistique ont appris a analyser les divers sens de mots et de phrases isoles, de devinettes, et de textes tires de la collection d'Amelia Bedelia (Parish, 1979, 1988). Le groupe controle a eu un livre a lire et une discussion afin de beneficier d'une attention particuliere et eviter un effet Hawthorne. Les resultats montrent que l'enseignement de l'ambiguite semantique est efficace pour enseigner aux eleves a identifier les differents sens des homonymes et des phrases ambigues et pour detecter les anomalies dans le texte. En outre cet entrainement a developpe la comprehension de la lecture dans une tâche consistant a completer un paragraphe (WRMT-R), mais pas dans une tâche de rappel de passage a choix multiple (GMRT4), peut-etre parce que les deux tests sont differents en ce qui concerne les correlats linguistiques ou cognitifs qui jouent sur la performance. On n'a pas trouve que le pilotage de la comprehension intervienne entre l'enseignement de l'ambiguite et la comprehension de la lecture. Ces resultats ont des implications en ce qui concerne les methodes a utiliser pour ameliorer la comprehension de la lecture en classe.



[Podcast: http:www.voiceofliteracy.orgposts35281.]



Можно ли привить школьникам навыки металингвистического восприятия, в том числе, обнаружения семантической двусмысленности? Насколько такие навыки способствуют лучшему пониманию прочитанного? Третьеклассники из семей разного этнокультурного происхождения (46 человек, средний возраст – 8 лет и 7 месяцев) были беспорядочно определены либо в экспериментальную, либо в контрольную группу. Экспериментальная группа училась анализировать неоднозначную лексику и предложения: как отдельные слова и фразы, так и двусмысленности в загадках и в текстах, взятых из книг серии “Амелия Беделия” (Parish, 1979, 1988). Контрольная группа также читала книги, им тоже уделялось внимание, но так, чтобы исключить “Хоторнский эффект” (когда измеряемый параметр улучашется благодаря самому факту участия в эксперименте – прим. пер.). Результаты показали, что металингвистическое обучение, в т.ч. понимание двусмысленности, оказалось эффективно для распознавания учащимися значений омонимов и неоднозначных предложений и помогло им обнаружить несообразности в тексте. Более того, такой подход улучшает понимание прочитанного в объеме абзаца (WRMT-R), но не в тестах, где предложено выбрать один верный ответ из четырех по содержанию текста (GMRT4). Возможно, это происходит потому, что два этих теста отличаются по множеству лингвистических и когнитивных параметров, которые могут повлиять на результат. Мониторинг понимания не выявил связи между умением распознавать двусмысленности и пониманием прочитанного в целом. Полученные результаты имеют значение для применения языковых методов улучшения понимания прочитанного.



[Podcast: http:www.voiceofliteracy.orgposts35281.]



Se hizo un experimento para ver si es posible ensenar el estar conciente de la deteccion de ambiguedades linguisticas del lenguaje, y si tal instruccion mejora la comprension de lectura del estudiante. Estudiantes de tercer grado de varios trasfondos culturales con bajos SES (M = 8 anos 7 meses, N = 46) fueron asignados al azar a grupos de control y de tratamiento. Los que recibieron instruccion sobre la ambiguedad metalinguistica aprendieron a analizar los muchos posibles significados de palabras y oraciones por separado, en acertijos, y en textos de la serie escrita por Amelia Bedelia (Parish, 1979, 1899). El grupo de control recibio un tratamiento de lectura y discusion de un libro para darles atencion especial y descartar el efecto Hawthorne. Los resultados mostraron que la instruccion logro ensenarles a los estudiantes a identificar varios de los significados de homonimos y oraciones ambiguas y detectar incongruencias en textos. Ademas, este entrenamiento mejoro su comprension de la lectura en una tarea de completar el parrafo (WRMT-R) pero no en una tarea de escoger entre respuestas sobre un parrafo que habian leido (GMRT4), a lo mejor porque tales examenes difieren en el orden de correlativos linguisticos o cognitivos que afectan su ejecucion. Se encontro que controlar la comprension no afecta la relacion entre la instruccion sobre ambiguedades y la comprension de la lectura. Los resultados muestran que el uso de metodos basados en el lenguaje para mejorar la comprension de lectura en el salon de clase tiene consecuencias.



[Podcast: http:www.voiceofliteracy.orgposts35281.]

/pdf/using-semantic-ambiguity-instruction-to-improve-third-513a2i3kkp.pdf

Using Semantic Ambiguity Instruction to Improve Third Graders' Metalinguistic Awareness and Reading Comprehension: An Experimental Study

This aim of this paper is to analyse the links between syntactic awareness and reading, in its recoding and comprehension aspects, in pre-adolescent readers. The study, conducted with 83 sixth grade pupils, examined the relation between (1) seven syntactic and morpho-syntactic tasks (repetition, judgment, correction, localization, explanation, replication and identification) and (2) several indicators of recoding and comprehension in reading. Regression analyses revealed differential contributions as a function of syntactic task, type of agrammaticality, and the aspect of reading tested, after we had controlled for the influence of reasoning, memory, and linguistic competences. Contributions resulting from the morpho-syntactic tasks were observed more frequently for recoding, whereas those involving the inversion of word or phrase orders operated more frequently as indicators of reading comprehension. The more explicit the syntactic awareness tasks, the more frequent and greater their contribution to reading performances. Comparisons of syntactic performances as a function of three levels of reading comprehension (good, average, poor) revealed a syntactic deficit in the poor comprehenders. The poor comprehenders exhibited a deficit in the majority of the syntactic tasks. The average comprehenders achieved lower performances than the good comprehenders in the tasks assessing explicit knowledge of syntax but not in those assessing implicit knowledge.

Implicit and explicit syntactic knowledge and reading in pre‐adolescents

Paradigms used to test syntactic awareness are not without controversy. Some disagreements remain about the nature of syntactic knowledge tested and the level of control that they require. In the present study, participants were presented a task designed in such a way that an intentional analysis needed to be completed. Participants had to reproduce in a correct sentence, a morphemic or syntactic agrammaticality presented in another sentencial context. This replication task was compared with other tasks generally used in syntactic awareness assesment. Thus, seven syntactic tasks were proposed to 83 6th grade pre-adolescents : repetition, judgment, correction, location and 3 versions of replication. Analyses of variance, component analyses and fixed order regression controlling influence of IQ and memory span, indicated that replication tasks behaved differently from other tasks. These data provide strong support for the interest of replication tasks.

La conscience syntaxique chez les préadolescents: question de méthodes

Le present article decrit un certain nombre d'exercices metalinguistiques et met en liens les performances a ces exercices avec l'efficience de la lecture a differents niveaux d'apprentissage et d'expertise, de l'ecole maternelle au college. Les resultats permettent de constater que les capacites metalinguistiques introduisent bien des differences dans une population de pre-lecteurs, comme dans les populations de lecteurs, qu'ils soient debutants ou confrontes depuis longtemps aux situations de manipulation de l'ecrit.

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Christine Gaux

Papers

Implicit and explicit syntactic knowledge and reading in pre‐adolescents

La conscience syntaxique chez les préadolescents: question de méthodes

Capacités métalinguistiques et lecture, quels liens ?

Développement métalinguistique et acquisition de la lecture