Direct and Indirect Contributions of Three Aspects of Morphological Knowledge to Second Language Reading Comprehension

Abstract

Growing attention has been devoted to the contribution of morphological knowledge to reading comprehension. Because of the complex nature of morphological knowledge, more fine-grained approaches are sought on this topic by exploring multiple aspects of morphological knowledge and multiple pathways through which each aspect contributes to reading comprehension. This study measured three aspects of affix knowledge (form, meaning, and use) and vocabulary breadth and examined how each aspect contributes to EFL (English as a foreign language) reading comprehension by modeling direct and indirect effects with vocabulary as a mediator. The participants were 211 Japanese university students. All variables were measured using standardized tests. Direct effects of meaning, use, and vocabulary and indirect effects of meaning and use via vocabulary were significant. However, form displayed no significant effect. The lack of significant effects for form may be due to the design of this study, which did not include word reading (a variable that may mediate form’s effect). In sum, although the form aspect did not show any effect, semantic and syntactic aspects demonstrated direct and indirect contributions. Overall, this study endorsed the criticality of a more fine-grained approach, shedding light on what and how morphological knowledge supports L2 reading comprehension.