Relationship between morphological awareness and reading abilities in Chinese

Abstract

 This study investigates the characteristics of Chinese morphemes and the role of morphological awareness in reading ability among adult readers in Hong Kong. It also highlights the significance of examining morphological awareness on three aspects, orthography, phonology, and semantic, as a whole. The rationale of which is derived from the idea that word form, sound, and meaning, are three indispensable components that compose a morpheme. To investigate morphological awareness and reading ability in Chinese adult readers, twenty-six adults between 22 to 61 years of age who were born and raised in Hong Kong were invited to participate in the present study. Measures on cognitive-linguistic skills including morphological awareness with respect to orthographical, phonological, and semantical knowledge, radical awareness, homograph awareness, and rapid naming, and literacy skills including comprehension and character recognition skills were conducted. The results indicated that reading ability correlates with morphological awareness and reading comprehension. However, direct correlation was not found between morphological awareness and comprehension ability. Among all the morphological skills measured in this study, common wrong word detection task and radical task was significantly associated with reading ability. These results shed light on the importance of understanding Chinese morphemes comprehensively and drew attention to trainings that include morphological awareness, reading ability, and character recognition is crucial in advancing Chinese reading ability.