Contributions of L1 reading sub-skills to L2 reading development in English as a Foreign Language among school aged learners
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25170/ijelt.v4i1.1578Keywords:
cross-linguistic relationship, morphological awareness, morphological constituents, theory of transferAbstract
This study examined the cross-linguistic relationship in morphological awareness in two typologically diverse languages, Chinese and English and their relative contributions to L2 reading comprehension among Grades 5 and 6 students in China. Morphological awareness refers to the ability to analyze and identify a word’s morphological constituents. As such, this ability is believed to play a critical role in reading comprehension. Previous research suggests that the acquisition of morphological awareness necessitates substantial print exposure and experience. This implies that EFL learners may have difficulty in acquiring morphological awareness to its fullest extent. Theory of transfer posits, however, that once developed in one language, reading sub-skills, including morphological awareness, become available in learning to read in another language. This being the case, L1 morphological awareness, in principle, may compensate for restricted L2 print exposure in promoting L2 morphological awareness. Based on these insights, we hypothesized that (1) L2 morphological awareness would be closely related to L2 morphological awareness; (2) L1 morphological awareness is a stronger predictor of L2 morphological awareness than L2 print exposure; and (3) L1 morphological awareness facilitates L2 reading comprehension both directly and indirectly through L2 morphological awareness. These hypotheses were tested by measuring and comparing L1 and L2 morphological awareness and L2 reading comprehension. The results provide strong empirical support for the hypotheses. Their implications for EFL pedagogy are discussed.
References
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Gholamain, M., & Geva, E. (1999). The concurrent development of word recognition skills in English and Farsi. Language Learning, 49, 183-217.
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Ku, Y.-M., & Anderson, R. C. (2003). Development of morphological awareness in Chinese and English. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 16, 399-422.
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Perfetti. C. A., & Liu, Y. (2005). Orthography to phonology and meaning: Comparisons across and within writing systems. Reading and Writing, 18, 193-210.
Riches, C., & Genesee, F. (2006). Cross-linguistic and cross-modal aspects of literacy development. In F. Genesee, K. Lindholm-Leary, W. Saunders, & D. Christian (Eds.), Educating English language learners: A synthesis of research evidence (pp. 64-108). NY: Cambridge University Press.
Shu, H., & Anderson, R. C. (1999). Learning to read Chinese: The development of metalinguistic awareness. In A. Inhoff, J. Wang & H. C. Chen (Eds.), Reading Chinese scripts: A Cognitive analysis (pp. 1-18). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Shu, H., Li, W., Anderson, R. C., Ku, Y.-M., & Yue, X. (2002). The role of home-literacy environment in learning to reading Chinese. In W. Li, J. S. Gaffney, & J. L. Packard (Eds.), Chinese children’s reading acquisition: Theoretical and pedagogical issues (pp. 207-224). Boston: Kluwer.
Stolz, J. A., & Feldman, L. B. (1995). The role of orthographic and semantic transparency of the base morpheme in morphological processing. In L. B. Feldman (Ed.), Morphological Aspects of Language Processing (pp. 109-129). Hillsdale, N. J.: Erlbaum.
Taft, M. (1991). Reading and the Mental Lexicon. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Taft, M., & Zhu, X. (1995). The representation of bound morphemes in the lexicon: A Chinese study. In L. B. Feldman (Ed.), Morphological Aspects of Language Processing (pp. 109-129). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Tyler, A., & Nagy, W. (1989). The acquisition of English derivational morphology. Journal of Memory and Language, 28, 649-667.
Tyler, A. & Nagy, W. (1990). Use of English derivational morphology during reading. Cognition, 36, 17-34.
Wade-Woolley, L & Geva, E. (2000). Processing novel phonemic contrasts in the acquisition of L2 word reading. Scientific Studies of Reading, 4, 295-311.
Wang, M., Perfetti, C. A., & Liu, Y. (2005). Chinese-English biliteracy acquisition: Cross-language and writing system transfer. Cognition, 97, 67-88.
Abu-Rabia, S. (1997). Reading in Arabic orthography: The effect of vowels and context on reading accuracy of poor and skilled native Arabic readers in reading paragraphs, sentences, and isolated words. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 26, 465-482.
August, D., & Shanahan, T. (Eds.) (2006). Developing literacy in second-language learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on language-minority children and youth. Mahwah, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Bear, D. R., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (1996). Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill.
Berko, J. (1958). The child's learning of English morphology. Word, 14, 150-177.
Bialystok, E., McBride-Chang, C., & Luk, G. (2005). Bilingualism, language proficiency, and learning to read in two writing systems. Journal of Educational Psychology, 97 (4), 580-590.
Branum-Martin, L., Mehta, P. D., Fletcher, J.M., Carlson, C. D., Ortiz, A., Carlo, M., & Francis, D. J. (2006). Bilingual phonological awareness: Multilevel construct validation among Spanish-speaking kindergarteners in traditional bilingual education classrooms. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98 (1), 170-181.
Carlisle, J. F. (2003). Morphology matters in learning to read: A commentary. Reading Psychology, 24, 291-322.
Carr, T., & Levy, B. (1990). Writing system background and second language reading: A component skills analysis of English reading by native speaker-readers of Chinese. In T. Carr & B. Levy (Eds.), Reading and its development: Component skills approaches (pp. 375-421). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
Chilant, D., & Caramazza, A. (1995). Where is morphology and how is it processed? The case of written word recognition. In L. B. Feldman (Ed.), Morphological aspects of language processing (pp. 55-76). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Cummins, J. (1979). Linguistic interdependence and the educational development of bilingual children. Review of Educational Research, 49 (2), 222-251.
Cummins, J. (1991). Interdependence of first- and second-language proficiency in bilingual children. In E. Bialystok (Ed.), Language processing in bilingual children (pp. 70-89). New York: Cambridge University Press.
Da Fontoura, H. A., & Siegel, L. S. (1995). Reading, syntactic and working memory skills of bilingual Portuguese-English Canadian children. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 7, 139–153.
Durgunoglu, A. Y., Nagy, W. E., & Hancin, B. J. (1993). Cross-language transfer of phonemic awareness. Journal of Educational Psychology, 85, 453-465.
Gass, S., & Selinker, L. (Eds.) (1983). Language transfer in language learning. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Genesee, F., Lindholm-Leary, K., Saunders, W., & Christian, D. (Eds.) (2006). Educating English language learners: A synthesis of research evidence. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Geva, E., & Siegel, L. (2000). Orthographic and cognitive factors in the concurrent development of basic reading skills in two languages. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 12, 1-30.
Gholamain, M., & Geva, E. (1999). The concurrent development of word recognition skills in English and Farsi. Language Learning, 49, 183-217.
Koda, K. (2000). Cross-linguistic variations in L2 morphological awareness. Applied Psycholinguistics, 21 (3), 297-320.
Koda, K. (2005). Insights into Second Language Reading: A Cross-linguistic Approach. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Koda, K. (2007). Reading and language learning: Crosslinguistic constraints on second language reading development. Language Learning, 57 (1), 1-44.
Koda, K. (2008). Contributions of prior literacy experience to learning to read in a second language. In K. Koda & A. M. Zehler (Eds.), Learning to read across languages: Cross-linguistic relationships in first- and second-language literacy development (pp. 68-96). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Krashen, S. D. (1983). Newmark’s “ignorance hypothesis” and current second language acquisition theory. In S. Gass & L. Selinker (Eds.), Language transfer in language learning (pp. 135-153). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.
Ku, Y.-M., & Anderson, R. C. (2003). Development of morphological awareness in Chinese and English. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 16, 399-422.
Kuo, L., & Anderson, R. C. (2008). Conceptual and methodological issues in comparing metalinguistic awareness across languages. In K. Koda & A. Zehler (Eds.), Learning to read across languages (pp. 39-67). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Ministry of Education. (2001). English language curriculum standards. Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press.
Nagy, W. E., & Anderson, R. C. (1999). Metalinguistic awareness and literacy acquisition in different languages. In D. A. Wagner, R. C. Venezky, & B. V. Street (Eds.), Literacy: An International Handbook (pp. 155-160). Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
Odlin, T. (1989). Language Transfer: Cross-linguistic influences in language learning. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Perfetti, C. A. (2003). The Universal Grammar of reading. Scientific Studies of Reading, 7 (1), 3-24.
Perfetti. C. A., & Liu, Y. (2005). Orthography to phonology and meaning: Comparisons across and within writing systems. Reading and Writing, 18, 193-210.
Riches, C., & Genesee, F. (2006). Cross-linguistic and cross-modal aspects of literacy development. In F. Genesee, K. Lindholm-Leary, W. Saunders, & D. Christian (Eds.), Educating English language learners: A synthesis of research evidence (pp. 64-108). NY: Cambridge University Press.
Shu, H., & Anderson, R. C. (1999). Learning to read Chinese: The development of metalinguistic awareness. In A. Inhoff, J. Wang & H. C. Chen (Eds.), Reading Chinese scripts: A Cognitive analysis (pp. 1-18). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Shu, H., Li, W., Anderson, R. C., Ku, Y.-M., & Yue, X. (2002). The role of home-literacy environment in learning to reading Chinese. In W. Li, J. S. Gaffney, & J. L. Packard (Eds.), Chinese children’s reading acquisition: Theoretical and pedagogical issues (pp. 207-224). Boston: Kluwer.
Stolz, J. A., & Feldman, L. B. (1995). The role of orthographic and semantic transparency of the base morpheme in morphological processing. In L. B. Feldman (Ed.), Morphological Aspects of Language Processing (pp. 109-129). Hillsdale, N. J.: Erlbaum.
Taft, M. (1991). Reading and the Mental Lexicon. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Taft, M., & Zhu, X. (1995). The representation of bound morphemes in the lexicon: A Chinese study. In L. B. Feldman (Ed.), Morphological Aspects of Language Processing (pp. 109-129). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Tyler, A., & Nagy, W. (1989). The acquisition of English derivational morphology. Journal of Memory and Language, 28, 649-667.
Tyler, A. & Nagy, W. (1990). Use of English derivational morphology during reading. Cognition, 36, 17-34.
Wade-Woolley, L & Geva, E. (2000). Processing novel phonemic contrasts in the acquisition of L2 word reading. Scientific Studies of Reading, 4, 295-311.
Wang, M., Perfetti, C. A., & Liu, Y. (2005). Chinese-English biliteracy acquisition: Cross-language and writing system transfer. Cognition, 97, 67-88.
Published
2008-05-31
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