Abstract
The purpose of the current study was to explore longitudinally the bidirectional cross-language effects between morphological awareness and vocabulary development across English and French over one year. Participants included 81 Grade 1 students and 75 Grade 2 students. All were non-native speakers of French, and demonstrated average English word reading and vocabulary skills. They received formal instruction entirely in French at school. Children were tested at two time points spaced one year apart with tasks tapping inflectional and derivational morphological awareness, and vocabulary. They also completed measures of phonological awareness, word reading, and non-verbal reasoning. The Grade 1 students were assessed in English only at pretest, and in English and French at post-test. The Grade 2 students were assessed in English and French at both time points. As predicted, regression analyses revealed that English inflectional awareness predicted unique variance in French vocabulary among Grade 1 students. Among Grade 2 students, cross-lagged analyses showed that both English inflectional and English derivational awareness predicted gains in French vocabulary between Grades 2 and 3. Conversely, counter to our expectations, French morphological awareness did not predict gains in English vocabulary over time. Taken together, these results extend the extant corpus of research to substantiate that children can leverage morphological awareness from their primary language to facilitate their vocabulary learning in their second language.
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Notes
The ELL group was linguistically diverse, comprised of speakers of Russian, Chinese, Korean, Hebrew, Spanish, Romanian, Farsi, Serbian, Hindi, Hungarian, Tagalong, Albanian, Amharic, Filipino, Georgian, Italian, or Punjabi.
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Appendices
Appendix A: English inflectional awareness task
Practice items: | ||
|---|---|---|
A. | Eyebrow | She raised both her _____________. (eyebrows) |
B. | Running | She loves to ___________________. (run) |
C. | Tall | He is tall, but his brother is even ___________________. (taller) |
Test items: | ||
|---|---|---|
Target | Sentence | |
1. | Jacket | Millie has three ___________. (jackets) |
2. | Skip | Yesterday at recess, the girls ___________. (skipped) |
3. | Roses | For my grandmother’s birthday, I bought her a purple __________. (rose) |
4. | Entering | This is the race that all my friends want to ___________. (enter) |
5. | Shorter | For us, the summer is always too ____________. (short) |
6. | Pays | At the store, we saw a lot of people lining up to __________. (pay) |
7. | Chirp | The bird in the cage is __________. (chirping) |
8. | Long | Among the three sisters, her hair is the ____________. (longest) |
9. | Cousin | This summer, I lived with my five _________. (cousins) |
10. | Sings | Since she was little, she has loved to ____________. (sing) |
11. | Repair | This is the bicycle that my dad is _________. (repairing) |
12. | Exercise | Last night, my brother and I _____________. (exercised) |
13. | Catching | There were many fish in the river for us to _________. (catch) |
14. | Large | Around the neighbourhood, this house is the _____________. (largest) |
15. | Wishes | When you see a shooting star, you should make a _____________. (wish) |
16. | Simpler | The activity that our teacher has asked us to do is very ___________. (simple) |
Appendix B: English derivational awareness task
Practice items: | ||
|---|---|---|
A. | Beauty | This drawing is _____________. (beautiful) |
B. | Runner | She loves to ___________________. (run) |
C. | Curl | His hair is very _________________. (curly) |
Test items: | ||
|---|---|---|
Target | Sentence | |
1. | Baker | Mom put the bread in the oven to __________. (bake) |
2. | Compare | The prices of these two balls are quite ___________. (comparable) |
3. | Five | The horse came in __________. (fifth) |
4. | Calculator | The answer to this math question is easy to ___________. (calculate) |
5. | Dangerously | Swimming in this river would be too __________. (dangerous) |
6. | Grow | I measured the plant’s _________. (growth) |
7. | Mystery | The dark glasses made the man look ___________. (mysterious) |
8. | Profitable | In summer selling ice cream makes a ___________. (profit) |
9. | Dancer | Both my sister and I love to _________. (dance) |
10. | Boldly | These people are so _________. (bold) |
11. | Glory | The view from the hilltop was ____________. (glorious) |
12. | Strong | He wanted to show off his ___________. (strength) |
13. | Six | This hamburger is his ___________. (sixth) |
14. | Rely | His friend thinks he is __________. (reliable) |
15. | Dryer | Put the laundry out to ________. (dry) |
16. | Width | The mouth of the river is very ____________. (wide) |
Appendix C: French inflectional awareness task
Practice items: | ||
|---|---|---|
A. | Étudier | Maintenant, l’enfant ________. (étudie) |
B. | Musicien | Ma sœur est une ________. (musicienne) |
C. | Heureuse | Aujourd’hui, Paul a l’air très _______. (heureux) |
Test items: | ||
|---|---|---|
Target | Sentence | |
1. | Écouter | Quand je lui parle, Chantal …(écoute) |
2. | Trouver | Voici le livre que j’ai … (trouvé) |
3. | Briller | Le soleil … (brille) |
4. | Animaux | Le chien est un… (animal) |
5. | Actif | Depuis qu’elle a reçu une bicyclette, Marie est très… (active) |
6. | Entières | Pour finir ce travail, il me faut un jour… (entier) |
7. | Obéir | Quand Maman me dit de ranger, je… (obéis) |
8. | Arriver | Le voyage était long, mais enfin je… (suis arrivé) |
9. | Danseur | Claire et Anne sont toutes les deux… (danseuses) |
10. | Répondre | L’enseignante pose des questions et nous… (répondons) |
11. | Téléphoner | Quand mon amie veut me parler, elle me… (téléphone) |
12. | Vif | Manon est une élève… (vive) |
13. | Chères | Il n’a pas acheté le manteau parce qu’il était trop… (cher) |
14. | Entendre | Même s’ils sont loin, les avions qui passent font un bruit que nous… (entendons) |
15. | Chevaux | Il habite à la ferme où il a un … (cheval) |
16. | Chanteur | Une des soeurs est pianiste mais les deux autres sont… (chanteuses) |
Appendix D: French derivational awareness task
Practice items: | ||
|---|---|---|
A. | Confort | Ma nouvelle chaise est très ________. (confortable) |
B. | Joueur | Tous les enfants aiment ________. (jouer) |
C. | Rapide | Quand la cloche sonne, les élèves sortent de la classe ______. (rapidement) |
Test items: | ||
|---|---|---|
Target | Sentence | |
1. | Vitesse | Il parle toujours trop … (vite) |
2. | Difficulté | À mon avis, la science n’est pas un sujet… (difficile) |
3. | Fierté | Aux Olympiques, les athlètes participent… (fièrement) |
4. | Dessiner | Sarah a fini son … (dessin) |
5. | Curiosité | Le singe est un animal très… (curieux) |
6. | Seulement | Quand ses amis sont partis, Marc était… (seul) |
7. | Rêver | Cette nuit en dormant, j’ai fait un… (rêve) |
8. | Finir | Nous avons tant mangé de pommes qu’elles sont… (finies) |
9. | Afficher | Regarde la grande … ! (affiche) |
10. | Courageux | Pour éteindre le feu, les pompiers ont travaillé… (courageusement) |
11. | Liberté | L’été en vacances, je me sens… (libre) |
12. | Perdre | Les clés sont … (perdues) |
13. | Choisir | Monsieur Simard a fait son … (choix) |
14. | Tristesse | Quand il a cassé son jouet, Michel était… (triste) |
15. | Simplement | C’est une tâche… (simple) |
16. | Photographier | Tout le monde sourit sur la… (photo) |
17. | Défendre | Au hockey, Manuel joue en… (défense) |
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Lam, K., Chen, X. The crossover effects of morphological awareness on vocabulary development among children in French immersion. Read Writ 31, 1893–1921 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-017-9809-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-017-9809-2