关键词: 复合词构词意识, 构词意识的运用, 阅读理解

Abstract: This study examined children's awareness of the morphology of compound words and its relationship with reading development. The first section explored the children's understanding of the morphology of compound words. Children were asked to pass judgements on the wordlike tendency of non-compound words and pseudo compound words. The second section explored whether children were able to utilize an awareness to understand new compound words. Children were asked to select a correct explanation from four options of the new compounds. In these new compounds, the two constituents were familiar to children but the compound was never taught. At last, children's reading comprehension was examined. The results showed that (1) Second year elementary children had been aware of the morphology of compound words. They could find the differences between the non-words and pseudo compounds. (2) The children who had a high ability could utilize an awareness to understand new compounds as soon as they acquired the awareness. However, the children who had a low ability could not. (3) According to the fix-order regression analysis in which the outcome was the correct ratio of reading comprehension, children's awareness had a contribution ratio of 4% at grade 2, but this role disappeared as the children grew up. Children's active utilization of their awareness to understand new compounds had a steady contribution ratio of 16-18% throughout their elementary years.

Key words: Morphological awareness, Compound words, Reading comprehension