The effects of morphological instruction on literacy outcomes for children in English-speaking countries: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Danielle Colenbrander*, Alexa von Hagen, Saskia Kohnen, Signy Wegener, Katherine Ko, Elisabeth Beyersmann, Ali Behzadnia, Rauno Parrila, Anne Castles

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

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Abstract

In this pre-registered meta-analysis, we investigated the effectiveness of morphology instruction on literacy outcomes for primary school children in English-speaking countries. We were interested in overall reading and spelling outcomes, but we also looked separately at results for trained and untrained words in order to determine whether there was evidence of transfer to untrained words. Further, we were interested in whether results transferred beyond the word level to reading comprehension outcomes. Our screening process revealed 28 eligible studies, which contributed 177 effect sizes to the analyses. Robust variance estimation methods were used to account for dependence between effect sizes. Overall, effect sizes on reading and spelling outcomes were small to moderate. Effect sizes were larger for trained words than untrained words. There was evidence of transfer to untrained words for spelling outcomes, but not for reading outcomes. There was also no clear evidence of effects on reading comprehension outcomes. In general, the evidence was characterised by large amounts of heterogeneity and imprecision, which was reflective of the wide variety within and between studies in terms of intervention content, outcome measures, intervention dosage and type of control group. We discuss the limitations of the current literature and make recommendations for future research and practice in the field of morphology instruction. (207 words – max 250).

Original languageEnglish
Article number119
Pages (from-to)1-37
Number of pages37
JournalEducational Psychology Review
Volume36
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2024

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Author(s) 2024. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

Keywords

  • meta-analysis
  • morphology
  • reading
  • reading comprehension
  • spelling

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