Orthographic consistency influences morphological processing in reading aloud: Evidence from a cross-linguistic study

The present study investigated whether morphological processing in reading is influenced by the orthographic consistency of a language or its morphological complexity. Developing readers in Grade 3 and skilled adult readers participated in a reading aloud task in four alphabetic orthographies (English, French, German, Italian), which differ in terms of both orthographic consistency and morphological complexity. English is the least consistent, in terms of its spelling-to-sound relationships, as well as the most morphologically sparse, compared to the other three. Two opposing hypotheses were formulated. If orthographic consistency modulates the use of morphology in reading, readers of English should show more robust morphological processing than readers of the other three languages, because morphological units increase the reliability of spelling-to-sound mappings in the English language. In contrast, if the use of morphology in reading depends on the morphological complexity of a language, readers of French, German, and Italian should process morphological units in printed letter strings more efficiently than readers of English. Both developing and skilled readers of English showed greater morphological processing than readers of the other three languages. These results support the idea that the orthographic consistency of a language, rather than its morphological complexity, influences the extent to which morphology is used during reading. We explain our findings within the remit of extant theories of reading acquisition and outline their theoretical and educational implications.

本研究旨在探讨阅读过程中的形态学处理是否受到语言正字法一致性或其形态学复杂性的影响。三年级正在发育的读者以及熟练的成人读者参与了在四种字母正字法（英语、法语、德语、意大利语）下的朗读任务，这四种语言在正字法一致性和形态学复杂度方面存在差异。英语在拼写与发音关系方面的一致性最低，同时与其它三种语言相比，在形态学上也最为贫乏。提出了两种对立的假设。如果正字法一致性调节了阅读中形态学的使用，那么英语读者的形态学处理能力应该比其他三种语言的读者更为稳健，因为形态学单元能够提高英语中拼写与发音映射的可靠性。相反，如果阅读中形态学的使用取决于语言的形态学复杂度，那么法语、德语和意大利语的读者在处理印刷字母字符串中的形态学单元时应该比英语读者更为高效。无论是正在发育的读者还是熟练的英语读者，他们的形态学处理都显著优于其他三种语言的读者。这些结果支持了这样一个观点：语言的正字法一致性，而非其形态学复杂度，影响了阅读过程中形态学使用的程度。我们在阅读习得现有理论的框架内解释了我们的发现，并概述了它们的理论和教育意义。