Morphological awareness in the reading comprehension ability of a dyslexic adolescent / Gan Shew Hsia

This is a case study on morphological awareness in reading comprehension ability of a 14:6 year-old Chinese dyslexic adolescent with a reading age of 12:1 years. The purpose of this study is to examine whether awareness of morphological knowledge helps to improve the reading comprehension ability of the ESL dyslexic adolescent. It also examines the effectiveness of a remedial intervention programme that focuses on morphological awareness training. The first objective of the study is to compare the morphological knowledge of the subject before and after the morphological awareness training. The second objective is to compare the reading comprehension ability of the subject before and after the morphological awareness training. The researcher conducted questionnaires with the subject, his parents and teacher before carrying out the remedial intervention programme (morphological awareness training). Morphological awareness tests were adapted from Carlisle’s (2000) and adopted from Stanfa’s (2010) studies. Three types of Morphological Awareness Tests were used; the Word Reading Test (WRT), Test of Morphological Structure (TMS) and Dynamic Assessment Task of Morphological Analysis (DATMA). TMS was divided into derivation and decomposition task. The Reading Comprehension Test was adapted from a Form 2 textbook from the Ministry of Education, Malaysia. The data collected was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. The findings indicated that the morphological awareness training affects the morphological knowledge of the ESL dyslexic adolescent. However, the morphological awareness training does not affect the reading comprehension ability of the subject. The lack of effect on the reading comprehension ability could be due to the limitation of the use of taught morphologically complex words in the reading comprehension test. This study recommends that further research on awareness of morphological knowledge could be conducted using bigger sample in Malaysian classrooms. More research can also be done on the use of computer and information technology programs in morphological awareness training