The relationship between morphological awareness and word reading in Brazilian Portuguese: a longitudinal study

Studies have provided evidence that morphological awareness contributes to word reading in opaque languages such as English. However, this relationship is not yet established for Brazilian Portuguese, a much less opaque language. The present study performed a longitudinal investigation of the relationship between morphological awareness and word reading in 162 children from 2nd to 5th grades of elementary school. The children were evaluated in the final quarter of the respective school year (time 1) and 1 year later (time 2). Hierarchical regression analyses controlling for intelligence, phonological awareness, and phonological working memory were conducted. The hierarchical regression analyses were followed up by cross-lagged panel correlations, and both results converged to word reading measured in the 2nd and 3rd grades contributing to morphological awareness 1 year later. In addition, morphological awareness measured in the 4th grade contributed to word reading 1 year later. The greater transparency of Brazilian Portuguese may make morphological awareness less important for word reading in the early grades; however, in older children, morphological awareness is important for word reading performance.