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Background: The present study aimed to examine and compare the relative contributions of three facets of metalinguistic awareness (phonological awareness, orthographic awareness and morphological awareness) and lexical inferencing ability to Chinese reading comprehension across upper elementary grades. Method: Fifty-three third graders, 79 fourth graders and 108 fifth graders were administered a battery of tests including non-verbal intelligence, phonological awareness, morphological awareness, orthographic awareness, lexical inference and reading comprehension. Results: The multivariate analyses across grade groups revealed the continued progress in children's performances on morphological awareness but not on phonological and orthographic awareness. More important, hierarchical regressions exhibited the same pattern across grades, suggesting that morphological awareness was the sole consistent indicator of reading comprehension in all grades. Finally, lexical inferencing ability contributed to reading comprehension only in fifth-grade students after accounting for the effects of metalinguistic awareness. Conclusion: Our findings highlight the importance of morphological awareness as the most potent meaning-building metalinguistic skill that can consistently predict Chinese reading comprehension in upper elementary children and indicate that the contribution of lexical inferencing ability differs as a function of children's reading skills. Results were discussed in relation to the Reading Systems Framework and implications for educational instruction were provided.

This study explored the role of word knowledge dimensions in second language (L2) word-meaning inference. College-level L2 learners (N = 121) participated in this study and completed a series of word knowledge tests including vocabulary size, word associates, morpheme-form knowledge, morpheme-meaning knowledge, morpheme discrimination, and morpheme recognition. Two modules of lexical inferencing tasks (pseudoword inference and real-word inference) were also administered to the participants. Through multivariate path analysis, the findings demonstrated that word-knowledge dimensions made a collective contribution to L2 lexical inference after text comprehension ability was controlled for. More critically, the study found that word associates and morpheme-form knowledge had the strongest predicting power among all word-knowledge components. Theoretical justifications were provided to discuss the mechanism of word knowledge and lexical inference. In addition, applied implications were discussed to shed light on L2 vocabulary instruction and learning.

This study explored the role of early oral language in reading development among adult heritage language (HL) learners to provide insights into the possible developmental pattern of HL reading development. One hundred and ninety-five English-speaking Chinese HL (CHL) students participated in this study. They completed a language background survey pertaining to their early language use in different social contexts and a series of measurements including oral vocabulary knowledge, print vocabulary knowledge, morphological awareness, lexical inferencing ability, and reading comprehension. Drawing upon multivariate path analysis, the study found that oral vocabulary knowledge, as an indicator of the benefit stemming from oral language experiences, contributed to print vocabulary knowledge and morphological awareness directly. However, there was no significant direct effect of oral vocabulary knowledge on higher-level reading skills (lexical inference and reading comprehension). As well, oral vocabulary contributed to higher-level reading skills only through the mediation of word-knowledge skills (print vocabulary and morphological awareness). The results suggest that oral language capacity (indexed by oral vocabulary knowledge) alone is insufficient for higher-level reading ability, but it serves as an intermediary resource to enhance higher-level inferencing and comprehension abilities among HL students. Pedagogical implications were provided to inform HL reading instruction based on the multiple diversities of HL language experiences.

The study aimed to explore cross-linguistic contributions of morphological awareness to Chinese reading acquisition among Chinese heritage language (CHL) learners who had grown up speaking Chinese at home, received English medium education throughout schooling, and were studying Chinese at the time of the study. The sample thus represents a growing number of heritage-language (HL) speakers in US schools whose literacy development is not yet well documented. Little is known, to date, as to how HL literacy development benefits from the linguistic and metalinguistic resources gained through early oral language exposure. In the study, college-level CHL students (N = 195) completed a series of reading measures in their dominant language (English) and heritage language (Chinese). Path analysis was employed to test the cross-linguistic relationships in morphological awareness and lexical inference ability. The findings showed that dominant-language morphological awareness was significantly related to lexical inference skills in two languages. More critically, the current study tested the direct and indirect contributions of dominant-language morphological awareness to HL lexical inference. The results showed that dominant-language morphological awareness contributed only indirectly to HL lexical inference through HL morphological awareness and dominant-language lexical inference. Based on the findings, four tentative conclusions can be drawn: morphological awareness and lexical inference skills transfer across languages; cross-linguistic interaction only occurs between corresponding subskills; transferred subskills are modified to accommodate the target language properties; and the benefits of transferred subskills are realized only through their corresponding subskills in the target language. Practical implications of the findings are also discussed regarding HL instruction and learning.

The study explored the longitudinal relationship between multicultural awareness and language development among collegiate English as a foreign language (EFL) students. Sixty-five first-year college students participated in the study. Drawing on the Multicultural Awareness-Knowledge-Skills Survey (MAKSS) [D'Andrea, M., Daniels, J., & Heck, R. (1991). Evaluating the impact of multicultural counseling training. "Journal of Counseling & Development," 70(1), 143-150; Perkins, R. M. (2012). "The multicultural awareness, knowledge, skills and attitudes of prospective teachers: A quantitative and heuristic phenomenological study" (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Missouri, Kansas City] and a series of proficiency measurements (vocabulary, reading and writing abilities), the study found that the participating EFL students generally had positive attitudes toward multicultural differences, however they did not seem to be confident about dealing with multicultural situations in real life. More important, the results showed that multicultural awareness measurements did not contribute to foreign language skills within a short period of time while the contribution was substantial over one academic year. Discussion and implications centred on the uniqueness of language development in the foreign language context and the indirect utilities of multicultural awareness in second or foreign language development.

The study aimed to examine the relationship between morphological knowledge and reading comprehension ability among college-level English as a foreign language (EFL) students. One hundred and twenty-one students participated in this study and they completed two morphological knowledge measures (morpheme-form knowledge and morpheme-meaning knowledge), reading vocabulary knowledge, lexical inference and reading comprehension. Drawing upon hierarchical regression and path analysis, the study found that morphological knowledge explained a unique proportion of variance in reading comprehension after word-meaning knowledge was accounted for. In addition, morphological knowledge had direct and indirect effects on EFL reading comprehension via reading vocabulary breadth and lexical inference ability. To be more specific, the mediating effect of morpheme-meaning knowledge seemed to be salient in EFL reading comprehension. Conceptual and methodological interpretations were discussed based on the findings.

The present study aims to explore the reciprocal relationship between multidimensional lexical knowledge (reading vocabulary and morphological awareness) and reading comprehension among early elementary-age Chinese students. Using data from second-grade students (N = 288, M[subscript age]=7.8), the study drew upon a cross-lagged panel design to test the bidirectionality of the two constructs. Results showed lexical knowledge, indicated by reading vocabulary and morphological awareness, had a significant effect on the development of reading comprehension skill among young Chinese readers. However, the relationship was unidirectional in nature based on the cross-lagged paths. Implications of this study centered on the conceptualization and operationalization of lexical knowledge, the uniqueness of morphological awareness as a component of lexical knowledge, and variations in instructional practices.

The study explored the relationship between teacher assessments of students' general language-cognitive and social-emotional abilities and Chinese children's reading development over an academic year. A series of reading measures (including reading vocabulary, reading comprehension, and lexical inferencing ability) were administered to Chinese-speaking second graders (N = 123) across time. Meanwhile, their six head teachers and assistant head teachers were asked to complete assessments of their language-cognitive and social-emotional abilities prior to the first data collection. By utilizing multivariate analyses, the results demonstrated that teacher-assessed linguistic and social abilities contributed to children's reading abilities within and across time after autoregressive effects were controlled for. More specifically, language and cognitive abilities made a more salient contribution to reading performance over time. The study suggests that teacher assessments could have diagnostic and preventive functions for enhancing sustainable reading development among Chinese elementary-age students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study aimed to explore the effect of first language (L1) orthography on second language (L2) Chinese morphological awareness. One hundred and twenty-nine students (61 L1 English readers and 68 L1 Thai readers) who studied Chinese as a second language participated in this study. They completed four tasks of morphological awareness (morpheme segmentation, morpheme discrimination, compound structure discrimination, compound structure analysis) and two control measures (reading vocabulary tasks). Drawing upon MANCOVA analysis, the study revealed that Thai readers outperformed English readers on compound awareness after the effect of L2 reading vocabulary was accounted for. The study suggests that L1 orthographic differences and similarities (e.g. interword boundary) may affect word identification, thus contributing to morphological processing of Chinese compound words. The study provided empirical evidence to support cross-language influence in morphological processing of a non-alphabetic language.

The present study investigated the direct and indirect contributions of morphological awareness to vocabulary knowledge among a group of Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) students in a university in China. Using multiple regression analysis and structural equation modeling analysis, the study found that morphological awareness made significant contributions to vocabulary knowledge after lexical inferencing was controlled for. To be more specific, the prediction of morphological awareness on vocabulary depth was stronger than its prediction on vocabulary breadth. The direct effects of morphological awareness were stronger than its indirect effects on vocabulary. More importantly, the study revealed that the relationships between morphological awareness (morpheme recognition and morpheme discrimination) and vocabulary knowledge were mediated by discourse clues rather than grammar clues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examined the role of Chinese-Japanese cognate awareness in Japanese vocabulary acquisition among college Chinese learners of Japanese. Thirty-seven college-level students participated in this study and they completed a bilingual cognate awareness test which covered both crosslinguistic similarities and differences. In addition, vocabulary learning measurements including vocabulary knowledge and lexical inference ability were also administered to them. The results showed that Chinese-Japanese cognate awareness in general predicted vocabulary knowledge and lexical inference. More critically, the awareness of false cognates was found to systematically predict all the tested vocabulary measurements. The discussion emphasised the cognitive demands and language specificity underlying the cognate facilitation of vocabulary acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This exploratory study aimed to examine whether early exposure to Chinese as a heritage language (CHL) provides facilitation in word-knowledge development in collegiate CHL learners by comparing word-level subskills, including oral vocabulary knowledge, print vocabulary knowledge, morphological awareness, and lexical inferencing ability, between CHL learners and non-CHL learners. Sixty-two collegiate intermediate-level Chinese learners including 37 CHL learners and 25 non-CHL learners participated in this study. Drawing on multivariate analyses, the study found that CHL learners outperformed non-CHL learners on oral vocabulary knowledge, morphological awareness, and lexical inferencing ability, but not on print vocabulary knowledge. In both groups of learners, print vocabulary knowledge was the strongest predictor of lexical inferencing ability. While oral vocabulary knowledge and print vocabulary knowledge were highly correlated in non-CHL learners, they were more distinct constructs in CHL learners. These findings seem to suggest that early exposure to spoken Chinese enhances the development of oral vocabulary knowledge and morphological awareness in CHL learners. Importantly, the latter appears to enhance the formation of the connection between oral vocabulary knowledge and print knowledge.

Based on the dynamic and emerging nature of language aptitude, the paper reports an empirical study investigating the relationship between multilingual learning experiences and language aptitude through comparative analyses of language aptitude between second language (L2) and third language (L3) learners. Eighty-seven Chinese students who majored in English participated in this study. Among them, 41 participants were L2 English learners without additional foreign language learning experiences and 46 participants were L2 English learners with additional French or Japanese learning experiences. The findings showed that L3 learners outperformed L2 learners on the language aptitude measure and significant differences were found on explicit language analytical abilities. Furthermore, within-group analyses of the L3 learners found that L3 Japanese learners performed better on the vocabulary learning task and cross-linguistic similarities may help to interpret the finding. Further investigations of students' perceived language interaction indicated that students' perceptions of cross-linguistic interaction were consistent with the hypothesised interaction. Future research directions are also discussed in accordance with the current research findings.

This study explored the role of vocabulary knowledge and morphological awareness in reading comprehension ability of Chinese as a heritage language (CHL) learners. One hundred ninety five CHL students participated in this study and completed a series of measures including two sets of vocabulary knowledge (one consisting of items pertaining to early exposure to spoken Chinese and the other comprised of items selected from a pool of words in Chinese as a foreign language classrooms), morphological awareness (structural awareness and functional awareness), and reading comprehension ability (lexical inference and passage comprehension). Drawing upon structural equation modeling with a bootstrap estimation method, the study found that vocabulary knowledge and morphological awareness both contributed to reading comprehension among CHL learners. More critically, the results indicated that morphological awareness mediated the relation between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension in CHL learners. Furthermore, multiple regression analyses probed the relative contributions of vocabulary knowledge measures to morphological awareness and reading comprehension, and found that vocabulary knowledge acquired in formal Chinese instruction contributed to morphological awareness and reading comprehension, to a greater extent, than that gained through early exposure to spoken Chinese.

The present study aimed to investigate second language (L2) word-level and sentence-level automatic processing among English as a foreign language students through a comparative analysis of students with different proficiency levels. As a multidimensional and dynamic construct, automaticity is conceptualized as processing speed, stability, and accuracy which are indexed by reaction time, coefficient variation and accuracy rate. Sixty students (39 undergraduate students and 21 graduate students) who majored in English participated in this study. They completed the lexical semantic classification task, the sentence construction task, the sentence verification task under two different modalities (visually- and aurally-presented situations). Multivariate analyses were conducted to examine the differences between the students with different proficiency levels pertaining to their L2 performance. The results indicated that the processing speed was not found to be a good indicator of automatic language processing. Moreover, both levels of students appeared to reach a plateau in word-level processing but there were some variations in students' sentential processing. Finally, the findings showed that automatic language processing seemed to be module-specific and non-sharable across different modalities and skills.

The current study reported an empirical investigation that tested the collective and individual effects of morphological awareness and cognate awareness on Japanese word learning among Chinese learners of Japanese. 131 Chinese learners of Japanese participated in this study. They completed morphological awareness measurements (morpheme segmentation, morpheme analysis and homophone awareness), cognate awareness measurements that tapped into three different types of bilingual cognates, as well as two word-learning measurements (definitional knowledge and lexical inference). Drawing upon multivariate regression analysis, the study demonstrated that cognate awareness contributed to L2 Japanese word learning. Awareness of false cognates yielded stronger predictions in both outcome measurements. Regarding morphological awareness, the study indicated that morphological awareness had a unique contribution to L2 Japanese word learning above and beyond cognate awareness. More specifically, the findings underscored the importance of morpheme analysis and homophone awareness in Japanese word learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]