Working memory in foreign language reading comprehension: Examining mediation through morphological awareness

Abstract

Drawing on the lexical quality perspective and recent pathway-based accounts of morphology, the present study employed regression-based parallel mediation analysis to examine (1) interrelationships among morphological awareness (MA), working memory (WM), and reading performance, and (2) MA’s mediating role between WM and comprehension. The focus is on the cognitive-linguistic interplay between WM and MA in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) reading comprehension among Chinese undergraduates (N = 396). Participants completed standardized assessments of Phonological WM (PWM; nonword repetition task) and Executive WM (EWM; reading span task), MA (Morpheme Sensitivity Test), and TOEIC-based reading comprehension. Results revealed three key findings. First, significant correlations emerged among all variables. Second, PWM demonstrated a significant total effect on reading comprehension (c = .35), and the linguistic mediators (MA) partially mediated this relationship, accounting for approximately 31.4– 31.7% of the total effect. Third, the mediating role of MA was task-dependent: syntactic category tasks showed significant indirect effects, whereas derivational relatedness (Relatedness Task) did not. These findings underscore the importance of assessing discrete MA dimensions when examining cognitive contributions to reading comprehension.