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Morphological knowledge as a predictor of receptive vocabulary for Swedish L1 and L2 school-aged children

Hällström, Elin ; Sahlén, Birgitta LU orcid ; von Koss Torkildsen, Janne ; Hallenbrant, Kristina ; Tamakloe, Angela ; Lyxell, Björn and Wass, Malin (2025) In Language Awareness
Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess to what extent receptive vocabulary could be explained by morphological knowledge, language majority/minority background and socioeconomic status (SES) for Swedish 8–11-year-old children. A total of 89 children participated, of whom n = 47 were L1 speakers (language majority) and n = 42 were L2 speakers (language minority). Morphological knowledge (MK) was assessed in a cloze test where children chose appropriate derivational affixes (suffixes and prefixes) for gap sentences presented in picture contexts. Receptive vocabulary was assessed using a norm-referenced standardized multiple choice-test. The results showed that morphological knowledge and receptive vocabulary were strongly correlated, and... (More)

The aim of this study was to assess to what extent receptive vocabulary could be explained by morphological knowledge, language majority/minority background and socioeconomic status (SES) for Swedish 8–11-year-old children. A total of 89 children participated, of whom n = 47 were L1 speakers (language majority) and n = 42 were L2 speakers (language minority). Morphological knowledge (MK) was assessed in a cloze test where children chose appropriate derivational affixes (suffixes and prefixes) for gap sentences presented in picture contexts. Receptive vocabulary was assessed using a norm-referenced standardized multiple choice-test. The results showed that morphological knowledge and receptive vocabulary were strongly correlated, and that MK significantly predicted receptive vocabulary outcomes, even when controlling for SES and L1/L2. The results indicated that SES could better explain the variance in receptive vocabulary than L1/L2 background. L2 students from higher SES outperformed L2 students from lower SES in both MK and receptive vocabulary, indicating that SES was more strongly associated with morphological knowledge and receptive vocabulary than L1/L2 background.

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author
; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
epub
subject
keywords
L2, Morphological knowledge, receptive vocabulary, school-age, socioeconomic status
in
Language Awareness
publisher
Taylor & Francis
external identifiers
  • scopus:105019064211
ISSN
0965-8416
DOI
10.1080/09658416.2025.2565316
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
id
1024de0c-5e2f-456a-a3d6-fa65324196cd
date added to LUP
2026-01-22 11:10:17
date last changed
2026-01-22 11:10:44
@article{1024de0c-5e2f-456a-a3d6-fa65324196cd,
  abstract     = {{<p>The aim of this study was to assess to what extent receptive vocabulary could be explained by morphological knowledge, language majority/minority background and socioeconomic status (SES) for Swedish 8–11-year-old children. A total of 89 children participated, of whom n = 47 were L1 speakers (language majority) and n = 42 were L2 speakers (language minority). Morphological knowledge (MK) was assessed in a cloze test where children chose appropriate derivational affixes (suffixes and prefixes) for gap sentences presented in picture contexts. Receptive vocabulary was assessed using a norm-referenced standardized multiple choice-test. The results showed that morphological knowledge and receptive vocabulary were strongly correlated, and that MK significantly predicted receptive vocabulary outcomes, even when controlling for SES and L1/L2. The results indicated that SES could better explain the variance in receptive vocabulary than L1/L2 background. L2 students from higher SES outperformed L2 students from lower SES in both MK and receptive vocabulary, indicating that SES was more strongly associated with morphological knowledge and receptive vocabulary than L1/L2 background.</p>}},
  author       = {{Hällström, Elin and Sahlén, Birgitta and von Koss Torkildsen, Janne and Hallenbrant, Kristina and Tamakloe, Angela and Lyxell, Björn and Wass, Malin}},
  issn         = {{0965-8416}},
  keywords     = {{L2; Morphological knowledge; receptive vocabulary; school-age; socioeconomic status}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Taylor & Francis}},
  series       = {{Language Awareness}},
  title        = {{Morphological knowledge as a predictor of receptive vocabulary for Swedish L1 and L2 school-aged children}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09658416.2025.2565316}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/09658416.2025.2565316}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}