TY - JOUR
T1 - Development of morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge in Spanish-speaking language minority learners
T2 - A parallel process latent growth curve model
AU - Kieffer, Michael J.
AU - Lesaux, Nonie K.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by a Spencer Dissertation Fellowship and a Jeanne S. Chall Research Fellowship from the International Reading Association (to M.J.K.). The collection of data used in this study was supported by grants awarded (to N.K.L.) from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R03 HD049674–01), the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Milton Fund at Harvard Medical School. We thank John Willett and Daniel Koretz for their methodological guidance and Catherine Snow, Daniel Berry, and Jeannette Mancilla-Martinez for their feedback on earlier drafts of this manuscript. We also thank Amy Crosson, Cara Wells, Breeanna Murphy, Megan Bankard, Edoho Awaih, Carol Barry, and Terry Walter for their contributions to this research. Finally, we thank the administrators, teachers, and students whose participation made this work possible.
PY - 2012/1
Y1 - 2012/1
N2 - Despite acknowledgement of the limited English vocabularies demonstrated by many language minority (LM) learners, few studies have identified skills that relate to variation in vocabulary growth in this population. This study investigated the concurrent development of morphological awareness (i.e., students'understanding of complex words as combinations of meaningful smaller units) and vocabulary for LM learners in early adolescence. A cohort of Spanish-speaking LM learners (n = 90) was followed from fourth through seventh grade and assessed annually. Latent growth modeling results indicated a strong relationship between rates of growth in the two skills, such that learners with rapid growth in derivational morphological awareness also demonstrated rapid growth in vocabulary. Despite positive vocabulary growth during this period, the learners remained far below national norms. Findings highlight the need for language-focused instructional intervention for this population and suggest that morphological awareness may be a promising point of leverage for such instruction.
AB - Despite acknowledgement of the limited English vocabularies demonstrated by many language minority (LM) learners, few studies have identified skills that relate to variation in vocabulary growth in this population. This study investigated the concurrent development of morphological awareness (i.e., students'understanding of complex words as combinations of meaningful smaller units) and vocabulary for LM learners in early adolescence. A cohort of Spanish-speaking LM learners (n = 90) was followed from fourth through seventh grade and assessed annually. Latent growth modeling results indicated a strong relationship between rates of growth in the two skills, such that learners with rapid growth in derivational morphological awareness also demonstrated rapid growth in vocabulary. Despite positive vocabulary growth during this period, the learners remained far below national norms. Findings highlight the need for language-focused instructional intervention for this population and suggest that morphological awareness may be a promising point of leverage for such instruction.
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U2 - 10.1017/S0142716411000099
DO - 10.1017/S0142716411000099
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84858865810
SN - 0142-7164
VL - 33
SP - 23
EP - 54
JO - Applied Psycholinguistics
JF - Applied Psycholinguistics
IS - 1
ER -