Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-tbj44 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-29T22:33:17.897Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Inflectional morphological awareness and word reading and reading comprehension in Greek

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 March 2014

KYRIAKOULA M. ROTHOU  and
SUSANA PADELIADU
KYRIAKOULA M. ROTHOU*
Affiliation:
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
SUSANA PADELIADU
Affiliation:
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Kyriakoula M. Rothou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GR Thessaloniki 54124, Greece. E-mail: kyriakirothou@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The study explored the contribution of two aspects of inflectional morphological awareness, verb inflection and noun–adjective inflection, to word reading and reading comprehension in the Greek language, which is an orthographically transparent language. Participants (120 first graders, 123 second graders, 126 third graders) were given two oral language experimental tasks of inflectional morphological awareness. Furthermore, phonological awareness, receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, decoding, and reading comprehension were evaluated. It was revealed that noun–adjective inflectional morphology contributed significantly to decoding only in first grade, while verb inflectional morphology had a significant contribution to reading comprehension in third grade. It is interesting that inflectional morphological awareness did not predict reading skills for second graders. Phonological awareness was a firm predictor of word reading in all grades and made a unique contribution in Grades 2 and 3. Finally, in all grades, receptive vocabulary was a steady predictor of reading comprehension, whereas expressive vocabulary predicted only first-grade reading comprehension. It is suggested that inflectional morphological awareness may be an important predictor of early reading in a language with a shallow orthography and a rich morphology.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , July 2015 , pp. 1007 - 1027
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Bentler, P. M. (2006). EQS 6 structural equations program manual. Encino, CA: Multivariate Software.Google Scholar
Caravolas, M., Lervag, A., Defior, S., Malkova, G. S., & Hulme, C. (2013). Different patterns, but equivalent predictors, of growth in reading in consistent and inconsistent orthographies. Psychological Science, 24, 1398–1407. doi:10.1177/0956797612473122 Google Scholar
Carlisle, J. F. (1995). Morphological awareness and early reading achievement. In Feldman, L. (Ed.), Morphological aspects of language processing (pp. 189–209). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Carlisle, J. F., & Nomanbhoy, D. M. (1993). Phonological and morphological awareness in first graders. Applied Psycholinguistics, 14, 177–195. doi:10.1017/S0142716400009541 Google Scholar
Casalis, S., & Luis-Alexandre, M. F. (2000). Morphological analysis, phonological analysis and learning to read French: A longitudinal study. Reading & Writing, 12, 303–335.Google Scholar
Chliounaki, K., & Bryant, P. (2002). Construction and learning to spell. Cognitive Development, 17, 1489–1499.Google Scholar
Chliounaki, K., & Bryant, P. (2007). How children learn about morphological rules. Child Development, 78, 1360–1373. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01070.x Google Scholar
Deacon, S. H. (2011). Sounds, letters and meanings: The independent influences of phonological, morphological and orthographical skills on early word reading accuracy. Journal of Research in Reading. Advance online publication. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9817.2011.01496.x Google Scholar
Deacon, S. H., & Kirby, J. R. (2004). Morphological awareness: Just “more phonological”? The roles of morphological and phonological awareness in reading development. Applied Psycholinguistics, 25, 223–238. doi:10.1017/S0142716404001110 Google Scholar
de Jong, P. F., & van der Leij, A. (2002). Effects of phonological abilities and linguistic comprehension on the development of reading. Scientific Studies of Reading, 6, 51–77. doi:10.1207/S1532799XSSR0601_03 Google Scholar
Florit, E., & Cain, K. (2011). The simple view of reading: Is it valid for different types of alphabetic orthographies? Educational Psychology Review, 23, 553–576. doi 10.1007/s10648-011-9175-6 Google Scholar
Georgas, D. D., Paraskevopoulos, I. N., Bezevegis, I. G., & Giannitsas, N. D. (1997). Greek WISC-III: Wechsler Intelligence Scales for Children. Athens: Ellinika Grammata.Google Scholar
Georgiou, G. K., Torppa, M., Manolitsis, G., Lyytinen, H., & Parrila, R. (2012). Longitudinal predictors of reading and spelling across languages varying in orthographic consistency. Reading & Writing, 25, 321–346. doi:10.1007/s11145-010-9271-x Google Scholar
Hoover, W. A., & Gough, P. B. (1990). The simple view of reading. Reading & Writing, 2, 127–160.Google Scholar
Kirby, J. R., Deacon, H. S., Bowers, P. N., Izenberg, L., Wade-Woolley, L., & Parrila, R. (2011). Children's morphological awareness and reading ability. Reading & Writing. Advance online publication. doi:10.1007/s11145-010-9276-5 Google Scholar
Kuo, L., & Anderson, R. C. (2006). Morphological awareness and learning to read: A cross-language perspective. Educational Psychologist, 41, 161–180. doi:10.1207/s15326985ep4103_3 Google Scholar
Mahony, D., Singson, M., & Mann, V. (2000). Reading ability and sensitivity to morphological relations. Reading & Writing, 12, 191–218.Google Scholar
Manis, F. R., Doi, L. M., & Bhadha, B. (2000). Naming speed, phonological awareness, and orthographic knowledge in second graders. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 33, 325–374. doi:10.1177/002221940003300405 Google Scholar
Manolitsis, G., & Kandilidou, K. (2011). Morphological awareness instruction in kindergarten and children's early literacy development. Paper presented at the 17th European Conference on Reading, Mons, Belgium.Google Scholar
Megherbi, H., Seigneuric, A., & Ehrlich, M. F. (2006). Reading comprehension in French 1st and 2nd grade children: Contribution of decoding and language comprehension. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 21, 135–147.Google Scholar
Müller, K., & Brady, S. (2001). Correlates of early reading performance in a transparent orthography. Reading & Writing, 14, 757–799.Google Scholar
Muter, V., Hulme, C., Snowling, M. J., & Stevenson, J. (2004). Phonemes, rimes, vocabulary, and grammatical skills as foundations of early reading development: Evidence from a longitudinal study. Developmental Psychology, 40, 665–681. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.40.5.665 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ouellette, G. P. (2006). What's meaning got to do with it: The role of vocabulary in word reading and reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 554–566. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.98.3.554 Google Scholar
Padeliadu, S., & Antoniou, F. (2007). TestA, reading test. Athens: YPEPTH, EPEAEK.Google Scholar
Padeliadu, S., Antoniou, F., & Sideridis, G. (in press). NewTELA, reading test. Athens: YPEPTH, EPEAEK.Google Scholar
Padeliadu, S., & Rothou, K. M. (2011). Η ανάπτυξη της μορφολογικής επίγνωσης στα Ελληνικά: μία διερευνητική μελέτη [The development of morphological awareness in Greek: An exploratory study]. Paper presented at the 19th International Symposium on Theoretical & Applied Linguistics, Thessaloniki, Greece.Google Scholar
Padeliadu, S., Rothou, K. M., & Sideridis, G. (in press). Component skills of beginning readers in Greek: Morphological awareness, phonological awareness and vocabulary skills. Proceedings from the 17th European Conference on Reading.Google Scholar
Porpodas, K. (2006). Literacy acquisition in Greek: Research review of the role of phonological and cognitive factors. In Joshi, R. M. & Aaron, P. J. (Eds.), Handbook of orthography and literacy (pp. 189–200). London: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Porpodas, K. (2007). Detection test of reading difficulties. Athens: YPEPTH, EPEAEK.Google Scholar
Protopapas, A., Sideridis, G. D., Mouzaki, A., & Simos, P. (2007). Development of lexical mediation in the relation between reading comprehension and word reading skills in Greek. Scientific Studies of Reading, 11, 165–197. doi:10.1080/10888430701344322 Google Scholar
Protopapas, A., Simos, P. G., Sideridis, G. D., & Mouzaki, A. (2012). The components of the Simple View of Reading: A confirmatory factor analysis. Reading Psychology, 33, 217–240. doi:10.1080/02702711.2010.507626 Google Scholar
Ralli, A. (2005). Μορφολογία [Morphology]. Athens: Patakis.Google Scholar
Ricketts, J., Nation, K., & Bishop, D. V. M. (2007). Vocabulary is important for some, but not all reading skills. Scientific Studies of Reading, 11, 235–257. doi:10.1080/10888430701344306 Google Scholar
Rispens, J. E., McBride-Chang, C., & Reitsma, P. (2008). Morphological awareness and early and advanced word recognition and spelling in Dutch. Reading & Writing, 21, 587–607. doi:10.1007/s11145-007-9077-7 Google Scholar
Roman, A. A., Kirby, J. R., Parrila, R. K., Wade-Woolley, L., & Deacon, S. H. (2009). Toward a comprehensive view of the skills involved in word reading in Grades 4, 6, and 8. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 102, 96–113. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2008.01.004 Google Scholar
Rothou, K. M., & Padeliadu, S. (2011). Predictions of reading in Greek based on compound awareness, phonological awareness and vocabulary skills. Poster presented at the First Eldel International Conference on Reading, Spelling and Writing Development, Prague. Retrieved from http://www.eldel.eu/noneldelpublications Google Scholar
Seymour, P. H., Aro, M., & Erskine, J. M. (2003). Foundation literacy acquisition in European orthographies. British Journal of Psychology, 94, 143–174.Google Scholar
Simos, P. G., Sideridis, G. D., Protopapas, A., & Mouzaki, A. (2011). Psychometric evaluation of a Receptive Vocabulary Test for Greek elementary students. Assessment for Effective Intervention, 37, 34–49. doi:10.1177/1534508411413254 Google Scholar
Tsesmeli, S. (2007). The role of derivational morphology in the development of spelling ability: A cross-linguistic approach. Psychology: Journal of the Hellenic Psychological Society, 14, 231–249.Google Scholar
Tsesmeli, S. (2009). Morphological interventions on students with difficulties in spelling acquisition: Single case studies in English and Greek. Psychology: Journal of the Hellenic Psychological Society, 16, 226–252.Google Scholar
Verhoeven, L., & van Leeuwe, J. (2008). Prediction of the development of reading comprehension: A longitudinal study. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 22, 407–423. doi:10.1002/acp.1414 Google Scholar
Verhoeven, L., van Leeuwe, J., & Vermeer, A. (2011). Vocabulary growth and reading development across the elementary school years. Scientific Studies of Reading, 15, 8–25. doi:10.1080/10888438.2011.536124 Google Scholar
Wang, M., Ko, I. Y, & Choi, J. (2009). The importance of morphological awareness in Korean–English biliteracy acquisition. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 34, 132–142. doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych.2008.12.002 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ziegler, J. C., & Goswami, U. (2005). Becoming literate in different languages: Similar problems, different solutions. Developmental Science, 9, 429–453. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2006.00509.x CrossRefGoogle Scholar