Assessing affix knowledge using both pseudoword and real-word measures

Document Type

Article

Date of Original Version

1-1-2014

Abstract

PURPOSE: Growth in morphological skills has been documented during mid-elementary grades, but little research has examined knowledge of affix morphemes separate from whole words. This study evaluated affix knowledge using a combination of real-word and pseudoword tasks. METHODS: Forty-five third-grade and 32 fifth-grade students participated. Students were assessed on word identification, vocabulary knowledge, and affix proficiency. Sixteen prefixes and 16 suffixes were studied using real-word and pseudoword stimuli. RESULTS: Analyses indicated variability in which affixes were known. Vocabulary and word-reading abilities accounted for substantial variance in affix knowledge. On almost half of the pairs of real-word and pseudoword items, students' performed significantly differently, accurately responding on only one. CONCLUSIONS: Performance on the 2 types of morphology tasks (real-word and pseudoword) varied for a noteworthy portion of the affixes studied. These results indicate that using both types of measures may be important for investigations of morpheme knowledge. Copyright © 2014 Wolters Kluwer Health | Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Publication Title, e.g., Journal

Topics in Language Disorders

Volume

34

Issue

3

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