Virginia W. Berninger

Contributions of morphology beyond phonology to literacy outcomes of upper elementary and middle-school students

Using structural equation modeling the authors evaluated the contribution of morphological awareness, phonological memory, and phonological decoding to reading comprehension, reading vocabulary, spelling, and accuracy and rate of decoding morphologically complex words for 182 4th- and 5th-grade students, 218 6th- and 7th-grade students, and 207 8th- and 9th-grade students in a suburban school district. Morphological awareness made a significant unique contribution to reading comprehension, reading vocabulary, and spelling for all 3 groups, to all measures of decoding rate for the 8th/9th-grade students, and to some measures of decoding accuracy for the 4th/5th-grade and 8th/9th-grade students. Morphological awareness also made a significant contribution to reading comprehension above and beyond that of reading vocabulary for all 3 groups.

Role of mechanics in composing of elementary school students : A new methodological approach

The authors used multiple-group structural equation modeling to analyze structural relationships between latent factors underlying separate measures of handwriting, spelling, and composing in Grades 1-6. For compositional fluency, the paths from both handwriting and spelling were significant in the primary grades, but only the path from handwriting was significant in the intermediate grades. For compositional quality, only the path from handwriting was significant at the primary and intermediate grades. The contribution of spelling to compositional quality was indirect through its correlation with handwriting. Handwriting and spelling accounted for a sizable proportion of the variance in compositional fluency (41% to 66%) and compositional quality (25% to 42%). These findings show that the mechanical skills of writing may exert constraints on amount and quality of composing. Theoretical and educational implications of the findings are discussed.

Treatment of Handwriting Problems in Beginning Writers: Transfer from Handwriting to Composition.

Almost 700 children were screened to identify 144 1st graders at risk for handwriting problems who were randomly assigned to 1 of 6 treatment conditions. Treatment was delivered to groups of 3 that met twice a week in 20-min sessions until they completed 24 lessons. Five groups received 10 min of different kinds of handwriting instruction. The contact control group received 10 min of phonological awareness training. All 6 groups composed and shared their writing for 10 min. Converging evidence across multiple measures showed that combining numbered arrows and memory retrieval was the most effective treatment for improving both handwriting and compositional fluency (composing with time limits). Thus instruction aimed at improving transcription transfers to improved text generation in beginning writers.

Relationship of Morphology and Other Language Skills to Literacy Skills in At-Risk Second-Grade Readers and At-Risk Fourth-Grade Writers.

Structural equation modeling evaluated the contribution of phonological, orthographic, morphological, and oral vocabulary factors to word reading, spelling, and reading comprehension outcomes in 98 2nd graders at risk for passing state standards in reading and to those same outcomes plus composing in 97 4th graders at risk for passing state standards in writing. For 2nd-grade children, morphology contributed uniquely to reading comprehension, and oral vocabulary and orthography contributed uniquely to word reading. For 4th-grade children, morphology and oral vocabulary did not contribute uniquely to any outcomes, but morphology and word reading were correlated, and orthography and phonology contributed uniquely to decoding words with affixes. Fourth graders are still learning to coordinate orthographic, phonological, and morphological cues in written words. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)

Structural equation modeling of relationships among developmental skills and writing skills in primary- and intermediate-grade writers.

We used multiple-group structural equation modeling to analyze structural relationships between latent factors underlying writing-related developmental skills and component writing skills in Grades 1-6. For handwriting, both motor skills and orthographic coding contributed to the model fit, but only the path from orthographic coding was significant at all grade levels. For spelling, only the path from orthographic coding was significant in the primary grades, but both that path and the path from phonological coding were significant in the intermediate grades. For compositional quality, both reading and oral language contributed in the primary grades but the model was unclear in the intermediate grades because of high covariance between those factors

Lower-Level Developmental Skills in Beginning Writing.

A battery of predictor measures (neuromotor, orthographic, visual-motor integration, syllable and phoneme segmentation, word finding, sentence syntax, reading, and verbal intelligence) and of writing criterion measures (handwriting, spelling, and composition) was administered to an equal number of girls and boys in the first, second, and third grades (N=30) to study the developmental skills children bring to the task of learning to write. This developmental approach is an important complement to the prevailing process and product approaches to writing research. Multiple regression and canonical correlation results supported thehypothesis that lower-level developmental variables are related to beginning writing skills. Rapid, automatic production of alphabet letters, rapid coding of orthographic information, and speed of sequential finger movement were the best predictors of handwriting and composition skills. Orthographic-phonological mappings and visual-motor integration were the best predictors of spelling. Canonical correlation analysis identified anorthographic-linguistic dimension and anautomaticity dimension in the battery of developmental skills and of writing products. Results also supported the hypothesis that the translation component in process models of writing has two separable sub-components — text generation and transcription. Lower-level developmental skills are thought to constrain the transcription sub-component.

Writing and Reading Connections Between Language by Hand and Language by Eye

Four approaches to the investigation of connections between language by hand and language by eye are described and illustrated with studies from a decade-long research program. In the first approach, multigroup structural equation modeling is applied to reading and writing measures given to typically developing writers to examine unidirectional and bidirectional relationships between specific components of the reading and writing systems. In the second approach, structural equation modeling is applied to a multivariate set of language measures given to children and adults with reading and writing disabilities to examine how the same set of language processes is orchestrated differently to accomplish specific reading or writing goals, and correlations between factors are evaluated to examine the level at which the language-by-hand system and the language-by-eye system communicate most easily. In the third approach, mode of instruction and mode of response are systematically varied in evaluating effectiveness of treating reading disability with and without a writing component. In the fourth approach, functional brain imaging is used to investigate residual spelling problems in students whose problems with word decoding have been remediated. The four approaches support a model in which language by hand and language by eye are separate systems that interact in predictable ways.

Coordinating Transcription and Text Generation in Working Memory during Composing: Automatic and Constructive Processes

Research evidence is reviewed to show (a) that transcription and working memory processes constrain the development of composition skills in students with and without learning disabilities; and (b) that in turn other processes constrain the development of transcription and working memory skills. The view of working memory as a resource-limited process is contrasted with a view of working memory as a resource-coordination process that integrates transcription and constructive processes, which may be on different time scales, in real time. Theory-driven, research-validated interventions for transcription are discussed with a focus on how training transcription transfers to improved composition. Five theoretical explanations for why the spelling component of transcription is more difficult to learn than the word recognition component of reviewing are also considered with a focus on the instructional implications of each for improving spelling. Finally, a rationale is presented for directing writing instruction to the simultaneous goals of (a) automaticity of low-level transcription and (b) high-level construction or meaning for purposeful communication.

Instructional treatment associated with changes in brain activation in children with dyslexia

Objective: To assess the effects of reading instruction on fMRI brain activation in children with dyslexia. Background: fMRI differences between dyslexic and control subjects have most often involved phonologic processing tasks. However, a growing body of research documents the role of morphologic awareness in reading and reading disability. Methods: The authors developed tasks to probe brain activation during phoneme mapping (assigning sounds to letters) and morpheme mapping (understanding the relationship of suffixed words to their roots). Ten children with dyslexia and 11 normal readers performed these tasks during fMRI scanning. Children with dyslexia then completed 28 hours of comprehensive reading instruction. Scans were repeated on both dyslexic and control subjects using the same tasks. Results: Before treatment, children with dyslexia showed less activation than controls in left middle and inferior frontal gyri, right superior frontal gyrus, left middle and inferior temporal gyri, and bilateral superior parietal regions for phoneme mapping. Activation was significantly reduced for children with dyslexia on the initial morpheme mapping scan in left middle frontal gyrus, right superior parietal, and fusiform/occipital region. Treatment was associated with improved reading scores and increased brain activation during both tasks, such that quantity and pattern of activation for children with dyslexia after treatment closely resembled that of controls. The elimination of group differences at follow-up was due to both increased activation for the children with dyslexia and decreased activation for controls, presumably reflecting practice effects. Conclusion: These results suggest that behavioral gains from comprehensive reading instruction are associated with changes in brain function during performance of language tasks. Furthermore, these brain changes are specific to different language processes and closely resemble patterns of neural processing characteristic of normal readers.

Growth in Phonological, Orthographic, and Morphological Awareness in Grades 1 to 6.

Growth curve analyses showed that (a) word-level phonological and orthographic awareness show greatest growth during the primary grades but some additional growth thereafter, and (b) three kinds of morphological awareness show greatest growth in the first three or four grades but one—derivation—continues to show substantial growth after fourth grade. Implications of the findings for the role of three kinds of linguistic awareness—phonological, orthographic, and morphological—in learning to read and spell words are discussed. A case is made that phonological awareness, while necessary, is not sufficient for learning to read English—all three kinds of linguistic awareness that are growing during the primary grades need to be coordinated and applied to literacy learning. This finding and a review of the research on linguistic awareness support the conclusion that the recommendations of the National Reading Panel need to be amended so that the research evidence supporting the importance of both orthographic and morphological awareness, and not only phonological awareness, is acknowledged. Moreover, evidence-based strategies for teaching each of these kinds of linguistic awareness and their interrelationships need to be disseminated to educational practitioners.