Morphological Awareness and its Impact on the Development of Reading Comprehension in Primary School Students

Morphological awareness, a core component of metalinguistic awareness, refers to the ability to analyze the internal structure of words (roots, patterns, affixes) and to establish the link between lexical form and meaning. This skill, particularly crucial in Arabic due to the complexity of its derivational and inflectional system, contributes to the development of reading and writing abilities (Bouanani & Rbiaa, 2015). Previous studies have shown that it enhances vocabulary growth, strengthens semantic reasoning, and maintains a significant correlation with reading comprehension (Nagy, Berninger & Abbott, 2006; Ruan et al., 2023). The present study, conducted with 100 primary school students at Oulad Tayeb School in Fès (Morocco), employed two instruments adapted to the Moroccan educational context to assess morphological awareness and reading comprehension, measuring learners’ ability to apply morphological rules beyond simple memorization. The findings reveal a statistically significant correlation between the three dimensions of morphological awareness (inflection, derivation, and pseudo-word formation) and reading comprehension, underscoring the importance of integrating targeted morphological activities into reading instruction to strengthen comprehension skills.