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Integrating morphological and contextual cues in lexical inferencing of Chinese fourth graders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2022

Huan Zhang Open the ORCID record for Huan Zhang [Opens in a new window] ,
Jie Zhang Open the ORCID record for Jie Zhang [Opens in a new window] ,
Chunxiang Han ,
Xuelian Zhou ,
Yongqiang Su Open the ORCID record for Yongqiang Su [Opens in a new window]  and
Hong Li Open the ORCID record for Hong Li [Opens in a new window]
Huan Zhang
Affiliation:
Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
Jie Zhang
Affiliation:
Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
Chunxiang Han
Affiliation:
Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education (Beijing Normal University), Institute of Children’s Reading and Learning, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Xuelian Zhou
Affiliation:
Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education (Beijing Normal University), Institute of Children’s Reading and Learning, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Yongqiang Su
Affiliation:
Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education (Beijing Normal University), Institute of Children’s Reading and Learning, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
Hong Li*
Affiliation:
Beijing Key Laboratory of Applied Experimental Psychology, National Demonstration Center for Experimental Psychology Education (Beijing Normal University), Institute of Children’s Reading and Learning, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

The study investigated the strategies used by Chinese students in inferring meanings of unfamiliar words and the influential factors of successful use of different lexical inferencing strategies. A total of 104 fourth graders inferred 36 unfamiliar semitransparent compound words in three conditions: word in isolation, contextual information only, and both word and context. Results revealed that students were more likely to obtain the correct meaning of words when both morphological information and contextual information were available. The likelihood of using a morpheme-based or context-based lexical inferencing strategy was strongly influenced by the presentation condition of target words and precursors. Students with higher vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension ability were more sensitive to morphological and contextual information and were able to synthesize multiple sources of information, whereas children with lower vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension ability showed difficulties in integration and tended to overly rely on morphological information. The findings reveal the interactions between available source information and individual differences in vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension in predicting lexical inferencing and have implications for vocabulary and reading instruction.

Keywords

Lexical inferencingvocabulary knowledgereading comprehensionChinese learners
Type
Original Article
Information
Applied Psycholinguistics , Volume 43 , Issue 4 , July 2022 , pp. 805 - 827
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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