Reading in Arabic: The Relationship between Bilingual Children’s Morphological Awareness and Arabic Word Decoding

Research Abstract

Considering the richness of Arabic morphology, and the unique nature of Arabic reading especially for bilingual children, the current study seeks to investigate the relationship between morphological awareness (MA) and word decoding (WD) in Arabic – German bilingual children, identifying which morphological awareness skills are more related to word decoding, and the path of correlation between morphological awareness and word decoding through development. 91 children of five levels from the Arabic schools in Münster Germany were tested in morphological awareness, and word decoding. Results showed MA was uniquely associated with WD, the derivational morphological awareness was correlated to Word Decoding but somewhat less than derivational morphological awareness, and there is no clear relationship depending on the level. The findings shed light on the Arabic bilingual instruction practice by postulated morphological awareness as an independent domain of word reading in Arabic, in addition to the importance of explicit and systematic teaching for morphological awareness in the classroom

Research Keywords

Morphological awareness. Word decoding. Arabic – German. Bilingual.