The Longitudinal Contribution of Early Morphological Awareness Skills to Reading Fluency and Comprehension in Greek

The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine the role of three morphological awareness (MA) skills (inflection, derivation, and compounding) in word reading fluency and reading comprehension in a relatively transparent orthography (Greek). Two hundred and fifteen (104 girls; Mage = 67.40 mo...

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Main Authors: George Manolitsis, Ioannis Grigorakis, George K. Georgiou
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-10-01
Series:Frontiers in Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01793/full
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author George Manolitsis
Ioannis Grigorakis
George K. Georgiou
author_facet George Manolitsis
Ioannis Grigorakis
George K. Georgiou
author_sort George Manolitsis
collection DOAJ
description The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine the role of three morphological awareness (MA) skills (inflection, derivation, and compounding) in word reading fluency and reading comprehension in a relatively transparent orthography (Greek). Two hundred and fifteen (104 girls; Mage = 67.40 months, at kindergarten) Greek children were followed from kindergarten (K) to grade 2 (G2). In K and grade 1 (G1), they were tested on measures of MA (two inflectional, two derivational, and three compounding), letter knowledge, phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and general cognitive ability (vocabulary and non-verbal IQ). At the end of G1 and G2, they were also tested on word reading fluency and reading comprehension. The results of hierarchical regression analyses showed that the inflectional and derivational aspects of MA in K as well as all aspects of MA in G1 accounted for 2–5% of unique variance in reading comprehension. None of the MA skills predicted word reading fluency, after controlling for the effects of vocabulary and RAN. These findings suggest that the MA skills, even when assessed as early as in kindergarten, play a significant role in reading comprehension development.
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spelling doaj.art-4b8d48afbb874ad7bfeb8387b423dfa72022-12-21T23:55:33ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782017-10-01810.3389/fpsyg.2017.01793291293The Longitudinal Contribution of Early Morphological Awareness Skills to Reading Fluency and Comprehension in GreekGeorge Manolitsis0Ioannis Grigorakis1George K. Georgiou2Department of Preschool Education, University of Crete, Rethymno, GreeceDepartment of Preschool Education, University of Crete, Rethymno, GreeceDepartment of Educational Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, CanadaThe purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine the role of three morphological awareness (MA) skills (inflection, derivation, and compounding) in word reading fluency and reading comprehension in a relatively transparent orthography (Greek). Two hundred and fifteen (104 girls; Mage = 67.40 months, at kindergarten) Greek children were followed from kindergarten (K) to grade 2 (G2). In K and grade 1 (G1), they were tested on measures of MA (two inflectional, two derivational, and three compounding), letter knowledge, phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and general cognitive ability (vocabulary and non-verbal IQ). At the end of G1 and G2, they were also tested on word reading fluency and reading comprehension. The results of hierarchical regression analyses showed that the inflectional and derivational aspects of MA in K as well as all aspects of MA in G1 accounted for 2–5% of unique variance in reading comprehension. None of the MA skills predicted word reading fluency, after controlling for the effects of vocabulary and RAN. These findings suggest that the MA skills, even when assessed as early as in kindergarten, play a significant role in reading comprehension development.http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01793/fullmorphological awarenessreading fluencyreading comprehensionvocabularyphonological awarenessrapid automatized naming
spellingShingle George Manolitsis
Ioannis Grigorakis
George K. Georgiou
The Longitudinal Contribution of Early Morphological Awareness Skills to Reading Fluency and Comprehension in Greek
Frontiers in Psychology
morphological awareness
reading fluency
reading comprehension
vocabulary
phonological awareness
rapid automatized naming
title The Longitudinal Contribution of Early Morphological Awareness Skills to Reading Fluency and Comprehension in Greek
title_full The Longitudinal Contribution of Early Morphological Awareness Skills to Reading Fluency and Comprehension in Greek
title_fullStr The Longitudinal Contribution of Early Morphological Awareness Skills to Reading Fluency and Comprehension in Greek
title_full_unstemmed The Longitudinal Contribution of Early Morphological Awareness Skills to Reading Fluency and Comprehension in Greek
title_short The Longitudinal Contribution of Early Morphological Awareness Skills to Reading Fluency and Comprehension in Greek
title_sort longitudinal contribution of early morphological awareness skills to reading fluency and comprehension in greek
topic morphological awareness
reading fluency
reading comprehension
vocabulary
phonological awareness
rapid automatized naming
url http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01793/full
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