Direct And Indirect Effects Of Morphological Awareness On Reading Comprehension Ability Among EFL Learners In Junior High School

Morphological awareness(MA)refers to the ability to consciously consider and manipulate the smallest units of meaning in language,including base words and affixes.It has been reported to affect various aspects of second language performance on vocabulary learning and reading comprehension.Vocabulary thus mediates itself between morphological awareness and reading comprehension.Although plentiful researches have proved that morphological awareness significantly contributes to reading ability and occupies a critical role in vocabulary growth,fewer of them stretch exploration into the indirect effects of vocabulary knowledge and lexical inference,especially in non-alphabetic language environment.Against this background,more researches still carry the responsibility to the growth of achievement in this area.The present study examines the direct and indirect effects of morphological awareness on reading comprehension among junior high school students.Specially,three research questions are to be addressed as followings:(1)To what extent does morphological awareness have significant correlation with vocabulary knowledge,lexical inference and reading comprehension among junior high school EFL learners?(2)What are the unique direct effects of morphological awareness on reading comprehension in relation to two major reading-related variables(vocabulary knowledge and lexical inference)(3)Through vocabulary knowledge and lexical inference respectively,how will morphological awareness function the indirect effects on reading comprehension?Participants involved in this study are students of the third grade in a junior high school.152 students are selected from 3 natural classes during their compulsory education year.A series of testing materials are conducted to assess English learners' morphological awareness,vocabulary knowledge,lexical inference and reading ability.Morphological awareness test covers identification,discrimination,interpretation and manipulation.Vocabulary knowledge test evaluates vocabulary breadth and depth.Lexical inference and reading ability are also examined.Ten students who are selected in pilot-test are not considered within actual data process.With the employment of SPSS 17.0,descriptive statistic and correlation analysis are to find out correlation between morphological awareness,vocabulary knowledge,lexical inference and reading comprehension.Within the Structural Equation Modeling(SEM)framework,direct and indirect effects of morphological awareness are explored.Results indicate that:Firstly,morphological awareness is significantly correlated with vocabulary knowledge,lexical inference and reading comprehension.Specifically,morphological awareness intensively relates with vocabulary knowledge.For lexical inference and reading comprehension,the relations with morphological awareness approach a medium level.Secondly,direct effects are to be found in morphological awareness and reading comprehension.Morphological awareness makes positively independent contribution to reading comprehension.In other words,morphological awareness significantly affects reading comprehension.Like vocabulary knowledge and lexical inference,morphological awareness also independently contributes the growth of reading.Thirdly,indirect effects significantly exist between morphological awareness and reading comprehension.After controlling related predictor variables,vocabulary knowledge mediates much better than lexical inference.That is to say,morphological awareness indirectly and powerfully effects reading comprehension via vocabulary individually.While for lexical inference,it plays relatively low part in the association with morphological awareness and reading comprehension.With previous research,the findings reveal the dynamic process of change concerning the morphological awareness-reading relationship in EFL learners.Implications for reading instruction are provided at the end of the study.It may highlight the importance of teaching and learning morphological awareness among students in junior high schools.Besides,the limitations are mentioned for future research.