The impact of L1 morphology on morphological awareness and word reading in English as an L2

Thesis

Morphological awareness can be understood as the ability to reflect upon and manipulate morphemes and employ word formation rules in one’s language. Morphological awareness has been identified as an important factor in word reading and reading comprehension, as it allows individuals to decompose words into the smallest possible units of meaning, thereby allowing them to access words faster. Literature in the field has also suggested the possibility of crosslinguistic transfer of morphological awareness from an individual’s L1 to their L1 and the impact of this transfer on reading comprehension and word reading in the L1. However, literature on this subject has been limited to languages within the Germanic and Romance language families (with the exception of Korean and Chinese). This study examines the possibility of a crosslinguistic transfer of morphological awareness from a morphologically complex L1 to English and the possible impact L1 morphology would have on word reading in English. This study is focused on two under-explored languages: Tamil and Hindi, with a sample of 99 participants, who are university students currently enrolled in various Indian universities. This study employs a mixed methods approach, and qualitative and quantitative data is triangulated wherever necessary in order to provide a picture of the impact of L1 morphology on morphological awareness and word reading in English.

The first part of the research consists of two proficiency tests: in English and in the respective L1s (Tamil or Hindi). This was followed by a series of morphological awareness tests and word reading tests (with real and pseudowords). Finally, a stimulated recall was conducted with interested participants to understand the strategies used by participants to complete the tasks. The data from the proficiency tests were used to ensure that participants were equally distributed in both groups. Data from the morphological awareness and word reading tests were then analyzed for potential differences in group performance. Finally, data from the stimulated recalls were analyzed to understand whether there were significant differences in the strategies used by each group. Qualitative data was also used to supplement the quantitative findings whenever necessary.

Authors: Balaji, J

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-gw1n9qzd1
• Type of award: MSc taught course
• Level of award: Masters
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: word reading; morphological awareness tasks; Tamil; ALSLA; morphology; mixed methods study; L1 morphology; L2 reading; Hindi; morphological awareness; quantitative tests; ALSLA2024; qualitative research; crosslinguistic transfer; English morphology; L2 English
• Subjects: Qualitative research; Applied linguistics; Reading; Mixed methods research; Morphology; Second language acquisition; English