Changing models across cultures: Associations of phonological awareness and morphological structure awareness with vocabulary and word recognition in second graders from Beijing, Hong Kong, Korea, and the United States

Using data provided by approximately 100 second graders each from Beijing, Hong Kong, Korea, and the United States, we investigated relations among phonological awareness, morphological structure awareness, vocabulary, and word recognition. Our results indicate that across languages, phonological awareness and morphological structure awareness are similarly associated with one another and with vocabulary knowledge; however, phonological awareness and morphological structure awareness have different associations with word recognition in different scripts among second graders. Specifically, phonological awareness may be more important for reading in English and Korean than for reading in Chinese. In contrast, morphological structure awareness may be more important for reading in Chinese and Korean than for reading in English at this grade level.