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The roles of morphology, phonology, and prosody in reading and spelling multisyllabic words

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2021

Jodie L. Enderby ,
Julia M. Carroll Open the ORCID record for Julia M. Carroll [Opens in a new window] ,
M. Luisa Tarczynski-Bowles  and
Helen L. Breadmore
Jodie L. Enderby
Affiliation:
Centre for Global Learning, Education and Attainment, Coventry University, Coventry, UK
Julia M. Carroll*
Affiliation:
Centre for Global Learning, Education and Attainment, Coventry University, Coventry, UK
M. Luisa Tarczynski-Bowles
Affiliation:
Centre for Global Learning, Education and Attainment, Coventry University, Coventry, UK
Helen L. Breadmore
Affiliation:
Centre for Global Learning, Education and Attainment, Coventry University, Coventry, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: julia.carroll@coventry.ac.uk
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Abstract

While most English words are multisyllabic, research on literacy acquisition has tended to focus on early acquisition of monosyllabic words. The processes involved in multisyllabic word reading and spelling in middle childhood are likely to differ from those in monosyllabic reading and spelling. The current paper examines the contributions of morphological awareness (MA; awareness of derivational morphemes), prosodic sensitivity (sensitivity to lexical stress), and phonological awareness (PA; awareness of phonemes) for multisyllabic word reading and spelling, after accounting for background variables (age, vocabulary, nonverbal IQ, short-term memory). Seventy 7–10-year-old children completed a battery of tasks. MA and prosodic sensitivity were independent predictors of multisyllabic reading, while MA and PA were independent predictors of multisyllabic spelling. These results contrast with previous research, which instead found that PA plays a more prominent role while prosodic sensitivity appears to demonstrate only an indirect influence. However, those studies largely examined reading of shorter, one to three syllable words. These findings indicate when words are longer and multisyllabic, prosodic sensitivity, PA, and MA have differing direct influences on literacy. MA and prosodic sensitivity relate to word reading, while MA and PA are important for spelling.

Keywords

multisyllabic wordsspellingprosodic sensitivityphonological awarenessmorphological awareness
Type
Original Article
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , July 2021 , pp. 865 - 885
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

We would like to thank all the children, parents and teachers involved in the research.

This work was completed as part of the first author’s Masters by Research dissertation.

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