Teste de Conhecimento Morfológico - Pré-escolar

Description

Morphological knowledge, which includes processing and awareness, is a fundamental component of literacy development, linking linguistic competencies to reading and writing. The research underscores its independent role in word recognition and reading comprehension, even when accounting for phonological awareness and vocabulary. However, morphological influences on early literacy remain underexplored in languages like European Portuguese, characterized by semi-transparent orthography, particularly in preschool-aged children.

The Teste de Conhecimento Morfológico – Pré-escolar (TCM-P) addresses this gap by assessing inflectional and derivational morphology in children aged 5–6.

1. Inflectional Morphology (two tasks):
• Pluralization: Evaluates productivity in applying plural rules using pseudowords.
• Verb Conjugation: Assesses the ability to conjugate pseudoverbs across different tenses, modes, and persons.

2. Derivational Morphology (three tasks):
• Base Morpheme Identification: Requires recognizing root morphemes in derived words.
• Word Analogy: Involves generalizing morphological patterns to form new words.
• Interpretation of Novel Words: Tests the ability to infer the meaning of non-existent words based on familiar morphemes.

To evaluate the productivity of pluralization and verb conjugation, pseudoword-based tasks are employed, minimizing lexical bias. To ensure ecological validity, real words are used for other tasks, such as base morpheme identification and word analogy. Stimuli are linguistically controlled for syllabic complexity, semantic transparency, and word frequency.

Administered to 55 preschoolers by trained speech therapists, the TCM-P demonstrated excellent reliability (Cronbach’s α = 0.90) and effectively differentiated skill levels. Educators recognized its relevance and practicality for literacy intervention. By creating detailed morphological profiles, the TCM-P supports the early identification of reading-related risks and strengths, offering a robust framework for targeted educational strategies.

Future work will focus on refining test items, expanding its age range, and establishing national norms to improve its diagnostic precision for European Portuguese-speaking populations.

Period	17 May 2024
Event title	IV Encontro em Linguística Aplicada
Event type	Conference
Location	Aveiro, PortugalShow on map
Degree of Recognition	Local