Morphological awareness stands as a pivotal facet of metalinguistic awareness, exerting a significant influence on children's linguistic progression. Morphological awareness in Chinese has three aspects: word level, character level and sub-lexical level. At the word level, morphological awareness encapsulates children's comprehension of morpheme meanings and structures, comprising compounding morphological awareness and word structure awareness. These components scrutinize Chinese vocabulary, elucidating morpheme semantics and grammatical structure, respectively. Through these facets of morphological awareness, children achieve a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of vocabulary semantics and syntax, thereby enhancing the efficacy of vocabulary acquisition. Given the intricate interplay between compounding morphological awareness, word structure awareness, and vocabulary knowledge, it is imperative to explore their interconnectedness within the realm of children's language development. The study investigated changes in the developmental interplay among compounding morphological awareness, word structure awareness, and vocabulary knowledge in elementary school children from third to fifth grade. A cohort of 278 third-graders underwent three follow-up tests over a span of two years. The assessments were conducted at Time 1 (fall semester of Grade 3), Time 2 (fall semester of Grade 4), and Time 3 (fall semester of Grade 5), each separated by a one-year interval. Age, IQ, and phonological awareness were treated as control variables and measured at Time 1. Utilizing a cross-lagged model, the study examined the dynamic relationships among compounding morphological awareness, word structure awareness, and vocabulary knowledge across different time points. The results showed that after controlling for the above additional variables: (1) Vocabulary knowledge at Time 1 significantly predicted compounding morphological awareness and word structure awareness at Time 2. Similarly, compounding morphological awareness at Time 1 significantly predicted word structure awareness and vocabulary knowledge at Time 2. However, word structure awareness at Time 1 did not significantly predict compounding morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge at Time 2. (2) Compounding morphological awareness at Time 2 significantly predicted word structure awareness and vocabulary knowledge at Time 3. Likewise, word structure awareness at Time 2 significantly predicted compounding morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge at Time 3. However, vocabulary knowledge at Time 2 did not significantly predict compounding morphological awareness and word structure awareness at Time 3. Overall, the developmental interplay among compounding morphological awareness, word structure awareness, and vocabulary knowledge during grades 3 to 5 exhibited dynamic characteristics with distinct stages. The study findings addressed a gap in prior research by incorporating the grammatical aspects of words into the exploration of Chinese morphological awareness. This investigation elucidated the developmental patterns of morphological awareness at the word level, offering a nuanced comprehension of its relationship with vocabulary knowledge. Moreover, the results hold implications for enhancing vocabulary instruction among elementary school students in the middle and upper grades, thus contributing to pedagogical practices in language education.
