Catherine McBride?Chang|Twila Tardif|Jeung?Ryeul Cho|Hua Shu|Paul Fletcher|Stephanie F. Stokes|Amy Wong|K. K. Leung
What's in a word? Morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge in three languages
University of Michigan–Ann Arbor|Kyungnam University|Beijing Normal University|University College Cork|Newcastle University|University of Hong Kong
abstract understanding words created potentially key component able learn understand new vocabulary words however research morphological awareness relatively rare study 660 preschoolaged children three language groups cantonese mandarin korean speakers compounding morphology highly prevalent tested abilities manipulate familiar morphemes create novel compound words well variety early language reasoning measures twice span 9 months 1 year time 1 vocabulary knowledge phonological processing reasoning skills controlled morphological awareness predicted unique variance time 2 vocabulary knowledge across languages across languages vocabulary knowledge also predicted unique variance subsequent morphological awareness time 1 morphological awareness controlled findings underscore bidirectional bootstrapping morphological awareness vocabulary acquisition languages lexical compounding prominent suggest morphological awareness may practically important predicting fostering childrens early vocabulary learning