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How specific is the connection between morphological awareness and spelling? A study of French children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 June 2011

S. CASALIS ,
S. H. DEACON  and
S. PACTON
S. CASALIS*
Affiliation:
University Charles de Gaulle-Lille Nord deFrance
S. H. DEACON
Affiliation:
Dalhousie University
S. PACTON
Affiliation:
Université Paris Descartes and CNRS FRE 3292
*
ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Severine Casalis, URECA, Universite de Charles de Gaulle Lille 3, BP 60 149, 59653 Villeneuve d'Ascq, France. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

This study examined the relationship between morphological awareness and spelling. We show that French children in Grades 3 and 4 appear to use morphological information in spelling; spelling of sounds for which there are several alternatives was more accurate in derived than in nonderived words. The link between morphological awareness and spelling seems to be general, given that morphological awareness correlated with multiple spelling scores, including those that did not involve morphology. Further, the relationship between spelling and morphological awareness seems to be affected by both the developmental level of the child and the phonological structure of the items in the morphological awareness task. We discuss the implications of this research for clarifying the relationship between morphological awareness and spelling.

Type
Articles
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , July 2011 , pp. 499 - 511
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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