Vocabulary and morphological awareness and their relationship to reading comprehension in Chinese literacy development: conceptual and methodological issues

Abstract The past few decades have witnessed a notable surge in research pertaining to the development of Chinese literacy, particularly in the relationship between vocabulary, morphological awareness, and reading comprehension. This body of work has been originally inspired by and grounded in the theoretical paradigms established through literacy research conducted on English and other alphabetic languages. While significant strides have been made in identifying the unique morphological features of Chinese, persistent conceptual and methodological issues remain. By analyzing representative approaches and drawing insights from corpus linguistics and developmental psycholinguistic research, this review critically evaluates the applicability of presumed paradigms in understanding vocabulary, morphological awareness, and their relationship to reading comprehension in Chinese literacy development. Throughout this exploration, conceptual and methodological issues related to the assessment of vocabulary and morphological awareness and the research designs for studying their relationship with reading comprehension in Chinese are identified and addressed. Directions for future research endeavors are proposed for a more comprehensive understanding of the pivotal and unique role played by vocabulary and morphological awareness and their intricate relationship with reading comprehension in Chinese literacy development.