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Developmental relations between facets of morphological awareness in Chinese: a latent change score modeling study

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2022

Poh Wee Koh
Affiliation:
Department of Teaching, Learning, and Culture, Texas A & M University, College Station, TX, USA
Richard K. Wagner
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
Jamie M. Quinn
Affiliation:
Florida Center for Reading Research, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA
Hui Yi
Affiliation:
Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education (Beijing Normal University), Institute of Children’s Reading and Learning, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China
Miao Li
Affiliation:
College of Education, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
Hong Li*
Affiliation:
Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education (Beijing Normal University), Institute of Children’s Reading and Learning, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, P. R. China
*
*Corresponding author. Email: psy.lihong@bnu.edu.cn

Abstract

Chinese morphological awareness is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct but there is a lack of understanding of how its dimensions are related. Latent change score modeling was used to examine the bivariate relationships of two facets of oral morphological awareness, namely morpheme and structure awareness in Chinese children in grades one through three. Two hundred and three children in China completed morpheme (homonym awareness) and structure awareness (lexical compounding) tasks across the three grades (M = 6.66, SD = .30 at the first time point). Results indicated that growth in structure awareness was predicted in part by previous levels of morpheme awareness, suggesting that morpheme awareness leads the growth of structure awareness. Educational implications are discussed.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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