Multiple Pathways by Which Compounding Morphological Awareness Is Related to Reading Comprehension: Evidence From Chinese Second Graders

Morphological awareness, or the knowledge and awareness of morphemes and morphological structures in a language, has been shown to be important to reading. The authors investigated multiple pathways by which compounding morphological awareness is related to reading comprehension: indirect pathways via vocabulary, word reading, and listening comprehension, as well as a direct relation. This question was addressed using data from 325 Chinese (Mandarin)-speaking second graders. The authors tested alternative structural equation models that compared variations of direct and indirect relations. Results revealed that the two predictors according to the simple view of reading, word reading and listening comprehension, explained 80% of the variance in reading comprehension. Importantly, compounding morphological awareness was directly related to reading comprehension, as well as indirectly via vocabulary, word reading, and listening comprehension. Together, they explained 87% of the total variance in reading comprehension. Moreover, the total effect of compounding morphological awareness on reading comprehension, after accounting for the direct effect (0.18) and indirect effects (0.32) via multiple pathways, was substantial (0.49 standardized regression weight). These results add to growing evidence on the important role of morphological awareness in reading comprehension and highlight the multiple ways that morphological awareness makes a contribution to reading comprehension in Chinese.