The relationship among morphological awareness, character recognition and vocabulary knowledge in elementary school children: A cross-lagged model

doi:10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.00905

Abstract

Abstract:

The present study aims to examine the relationship among morphological awareness, Chinese character recognition and vocabulary knowledge of elementary school students. Numerous studies on the language development of Chinese children show that as language learning progresses, an individual’s language system gradually develops and matures. Morphological awareness, Chinese character recognition and vocabulary knowledge play an important role in children’s language development. There is a solid one-to-one correspondence between syllables, morphemes and characters in Chinese. It is necessary to consider along with morphological awareness, Chinese character recognition and vocabulary knowledge simultaneously in the language development among elementary school children.
Three follow-up tests were administered to 146 first-grade elementary school children over a 2-year period to examine changes in the developmental relationships between morphological awareness, Chinese character recognition, and vocabulary knowledge in elementary school children in grades 1 through 3. In addition, phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming of digits, orthographic awareness and intelligence were all measured as control variables at Time 1 (spring semester of Grade 1). A cross-lagged model was conducted to explore the relationship among children’s morphological awareness, character recognition and vocabulary knowledge at different time points.
The results showed that the relationship among morphological awareness, Chinese character recognition and vocabulary knowledge varied across developmental stages after controlling the aforementioned control variables. (1) Chinese character recognition at Time 1 significantly predicted the homophone and homograph awareness at Time 2; (2) Vocabulary knowledge at Time 1 significantly predicted compounding awareness and Chinese character recognition at Time 2; (3) Chinese character recognition and vocabulary knowledge at Time 2 significantly predicted homophone, homograph and compounding awareness at Time 3. (4) Homograph awareness at Time 2 significantly predicted vocabulary knowledge at Time 3. The specific results are as follows.
Table 1 presented means, standard deviations, and repeated measures ANOVA results of all measures used in this study. As seen in Table 1, elementary school children’s vocabulary knowledge, homophone awareness, homograph awareness, compounding awareness and Chinese character recognition all increased significantly over time: vocabulary knowledge F(2, 396) = 14.55, p < 0.001, η² = 0.68, homophone awareness F(2, 396) = 14.12, p < 0.001, η² = 0.63, homograph awareness F(2, 396) = 13.36, p < 0.001, η² = 0.48, compounding awareness F(2, 396) = 15.55, p < 0.001, η² = 0.88, and character recognition F(2, 396) = 25.33, p < 0.001, η² = 0.92.
Table 2 presents the Pearson correlation matrix for all variables. As shown in Table 2, vocabulary knowledge, Chinese character recognition, homophone awareness, homograph awareness, and compounding awareness showed moderate stability between the three tests. Among the control variables IQ, rapid automatized naming, phonological awareness, and orthographic awareness were associated with some of the tests.
The cross-lagged models were tested with good fit indices of χ² / df = 1.22, RMSEA = 0.04, SRMR = 0.03, CFI = 0.99, TLI = 0.97. The specific results are shown in Figure1. Vocabulary knowledge at T1 can predict Chinese character recognition at T2 (β = 0.12, p < 0.05). Vocabulary knowledge at T1 can predict compounding awareness at T2 (β = 0.17, p < 0.05). Chinese character recognition at T1can predict homophone awareness and homograph awareness at T2 (β = 0.20, p < 0.05; β = 0.24, p < 0.01). Chinese character recognition at T2 predicted compounding awareness, homophone awareness, and homograph awareness at T3 (β = 0.18, p < 0.05 ; β = 0.35, p < 0.001; β = 0.28, p < 0.001). Vocabulary knowledge of T2 predicted compounding awareness, homophone awareness, and homograph awareness of T3 (β = 0.16, p < 0.05; β = 0.15, p < 0.1; β = 0.36, p < 0.001). Homograph awareness of T2 predicted vocabulary knowledge of T3 (β = 0.13, p < 0.1). In addition, T1’s morphological awareness had no significant predictive effect on T2’s vocabulary knowledge and Chinese character recognition. T2’s morphological awareness also had no significant predictive effect on T3’s Chinese character recognition.
The results indicated that the relationship among different levels of morphological awareness, Chinese character recognition and vocabulary knowledge in Chinese elementary children has been changed over time. From Grade 1 to Grade 3, Chinese character recognition and vocabulary knowledge had stable predictive effects on morphological awareness, while the predictive effects of morphological awareness on Chinese character recognition and vocabulary knowledge changed with age.

Key words: morphological awareness, Chinese character recognition, vocabulary knowledge, cross-lagged study, Chinese children

XIA Yue, XIE Ruibo, WANG Zhenliang, NGUYEN Thi Phuong, WU Xinchun. (2022). The relationship among morphological awareness, character recognition and vocabulary knowledge in elementary school children: A cross-lagged model. Acta Psychologica Sinica, 54(8), 905-916.

Variables	T1 (M ± SD)	T2 (M ± SD)	T3 (M ± SD)	F	η²
Vocabulary knowledge	10.69 ± 5.74	13.51 ± 6.36	19.86 ± 6.62	14.55^***	0.68
Homophone awareness	8.68 ± 4.57	13.39 ± 4.61	15.97 ± 6.22	14.12^***	0.63
Homograph awareness	9.26 ± 3.16	10.67 ± 2.94	12.53 ± 3.47	13.36^***	0.48
Compounding awareness	15.36 ±11.64	20.84 ± 10.81	28.75 ± 10.91	15.55^***	0.88
Character recognition	44.72 ± 24.96	59.65 ± 23.51	88.28 ± 18.66	25.33^***	0.92
IQ	28.06 ± 9.31
Rapid automatized naming	12.52 ± 2.78
Phonological awareness	8.86 ± 2.92
Orthographic awareness	67.86 ± 8.33

Variables	T1 (M ± SD)	T2 (M ± SD)	T3 (M ± SD)	F	η²
Vocabulary knowledge	10.69 ± 5.74	13.51 ± 6.36	19.86 ± 6.62	14.55^***	0.68
Homophone awareness	8.68 ± 4.57	13.39 ± 4.61	15.97 ± 6.22	14.12^***	0.63
Homograph awareness	9.26 ± 3.16	10.67 ± 2.94	12.53 ± 3.47	13.36^***	0.48
Compounding awareness	15.36 ±11.64	20.84 ± 10.81	28.75 ± 10.91	15.55^***	0.88
Character recognition	44.72 ± 24.96	59.65 ± 23.51	88.28 ± 18.66	25.33^***	0.92
IQ	28.06 ± 9.31
Rapid automatized naming	12.52 ± 2.78
Phonological awareness	8.86 ± 2.92
Orthographic awareness	67.86 ± 8.33

Variables	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
Vocabulary knowledge T1	1
Vocabulary knowledge T2	0.64^**	1
Vocabulary knowledge T3	0.55^**	0.65^**	1
Homophone awareness T1	0.48^**	0.36^**	0.38^**	1
Homophone awareness T2	0.37^**	0.38^**	0.38^**	0.53^**	1
Homophone awareness T3	0.35^**	0.36^**	0.55^**	0.42^**	0.47^**	1
Homograph awareness T1	0.60^**	0.36^**	0.47^**	0.42^**	0.26^**	0.38^**	1
Homograph awareness T2	0.39^**	0.52^**	0.53^**	0.41^**	0.46^**	0.39^**	0.42^**	1
Homograph awareness T3	0.48^**	0.53^**	0.63^**	0.32^**	0.39^**	0.61^**	0.37^**	0.48^**	1
Compounding awareness T1	0.50^**	0.41^**	0.37^**	0.41^**	0.24^**	0.28^**	0.38^**	0.35^**	0.37^**	1
Compounding awareness T2	0.49^**	0.54^**	0.52^**	0.34^**	0.37^**	0.34^**	0.32^**	0.50^**	0.43^**	0.60^**	1
Compounding awareness T3	0.41^**	0.47^**	0.62^**	0.34^**	0.33^**	0.52^**	0.34^**	0.43^**	0.54^**	0.49^**	0.60^**	1
Character recognition T1	0.34^**	0.20^*	0.29^**	0.34^**	0.39^**	0.41^**	0.30^**	0.36^**	0.38^**	0.44^**	0.36^**	0.38^**	1
Character recognition T2	0.39^**	0.30^**	0.39^**	0.29^**	0.41^**	0.51^**	0.27^**	0.37^**	0.47^**	0.35^**	0.43^**	0.44^**	0.83^**	1
Character recognition T3	0.45^**	0.39^**	0.46^**	0.32^**	0.38^**	0.52^**	0.31^**	0.42^**	0.47^**	0.34^**	0.49^**	0.50^**	0.71^**	0.86^**	1
IQ	0.37^**	0.32^**	0.33^**	0.27^**	0.19^*	0.15	0.36^**	0.21^**	0.17^*	0.30^**	0.26^**	0.30^**	0.30^**	0.22^**	0.31^**	1
Rapid automatized naming	−0.25^**	−0.15	−0.27^**	−0.21^*	−0.26^**	−0.28^**	−0.11	−0.15	−0.21^*	−0.11	−0.24^**	−0.22^**	−0.27^**	−0.30^**	−0.34^**	−0.14	1
Phonological awareness	0.27^**	0.16	0.25^**	0.17^*	0.32^**	0.23^**	0.29^**	0.18^*	0.27^**	0.24^**	0.29^**	0.32^**	0.16	0.20^*	0.20^*	0.08	−0.14	1
Orthographic awareness	0.20^*	0.13	0.02	0.07	0.15	0.03	0.07	0.07	0.14	−0.03	0.11	0.11	0.19^*	0.19^*	0.17^*	0.19^*	−0.06	0.14	1

Variables	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19
Vocabulary knowledge T1	1
Vocabulary knowledge T2	0.64^**	1
Vocabulary knowledge T3	0.55^**	0.65^**	1
Homophone awareness T1	0.48^**	0.36^**	0.38^**	1
Homophone awareness T2	0.37^**	0.38^**	0.38^**	0.53^**	1
Homophone awareness T3	0.35^**	0.36^**	0.55^**	0.42^**	0.47^**	1
Homograph awareness T1	0.60^**	0.36^**	0.47^**	0.42^**	0.26^**	0.38^**	1
Homograph awareness T2	0.39^**	0.52^**	0.53^**	0.41^**	0.46^**	0.39^**	0.42^**	1
Homograph awareness T3	0.48^**	0.53^**	0.63^**	0.32^**	0.39^**	0.61^**	0.37^**	0.48^**	1
Compounding awareness T1	0.50^**	0.41^**	0.37^**	0.41^**	0.24^**	0.28^**	0.38^**	0.35^**	0.37^**	1
Compounding awareness T2	0.49^**	0.54^**	0.52^**	0.34^**	0.37^**	0.34^**	0.32^**	0.50^**	0.43^**	0.60^**	1
Compounding awareness T3	0.41^**	0.47^**	0.62^**	0.34^**	0.33^**	0.52^**	0.34^**	0.43^**	0.54^**	0.49^**	0.60^**	1
Character recognition T1	0.34^**	0.20^*	0.29^**	0.34^**	0.39^**	0.41^**	0.30^**	0.36^**	0.38^**	0.44^**	0.36^**	0.38^**	1
Character recognition T2	0.39^**	0.30^**	0.39^**	0.29^**	0.41^**	0.51^**	0.27^**	0.37^**	0.47^**	0.35^**	0.43^**	0.44^**	0.83^**	1
Character recognition T3	0.45^**	0.39^**	0.46^**	0.32^**	0.38^**	0.52^**	0.31^**	0.42^**	0.47^**	0.34^**	0.49^**	0.50^**	0.71^**	0.86^**	1
IQ	0.37^**	0.32^**	0.33^**	0.27^**	0.19^*	0.15	0.36^**	0.21^**	0.17^*	0.30^**	0.26^**	0.30^**	0.30^**	0.22^**	0.31^**	1
Rapid automatized naming	−0.25^**	−0.15	−0.27^**	−0.21^*	−0.26^**	−0.28^**	−0.11	−0.15	−0.21^*	−0.11	−0.24^**	−0.22^**	−0.27^**	−0.30^**	−0.34^**	−0.14	1
Phonological awareness	0.27^**	0.16	0.25^**	0.17^*	0.32^**	0.23^**	0.29^**	0.18^*	0.27^**	0.24^**	0.29^**	0.32^**	0.16	0.20^*	0.20^*	0.08	−0.14	1
Orthographic awareness	0.20^*	0.13	0.02	0.07	0.15	0.03	0.07	0.07	0.14	−0.03	0.11	0.11	0.19^*	0.19^*	0.17^*	0.19^*	−0.06	0.14	1

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The relationship among morphological awareness, character recognition and vocabulary knowledge in elementary school children: A cross-lagged model

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