Morphological awareness and spelling in Spanish heritage language learners

•This study investigates morphological awareness in Spanish heritage language learners.•Morphological awareness is analyzed in terms of two components: analysis and control.•Control played a bigger role in the morphological awareness tasks than analysis did.•Spelling strategies are shown in terms of conflicting graphomorphophonological requirements.•Results evidence the interaction between morphological awareness and spelling.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of morphological awareness (MA) in Spanish heritage language speakers in terms of two cognitive processing components-analysis of linguistic knowledge and control of linguistic processes-as well as the effects of these two components in the processing of orthography. Forty-one Spanish heritage language college students participated in the study. Participants completed two MA tasks and one spelling task. The results show that the control component played a bigger role in the MA tasks than analysis did. The results also identify some strategies employed by the participants when facing conflicting phonemic, morphemic, and graphemic demands. Finally, results evidence the interaction between morphological awareness and spelling, supported by the correlation found between the MA and the spelling task.