Inflectional Performance and Early Reading Achievement

EXPLORES THE ABILITY of firstand second-grade children to supply the inflectional morphemes of English and investigates the relationship between inflectional performance and reading achievement. A two-way analysis of variance, based on the scores of 134 subjects on a revision of Berko's test of morphology revealed no significant sex or grade differences in inflectional performance. However, correlational analyses of the scores of 108 subjects did reveal a significant relationship, independent of intelligence, between inflectional performance and reading achievement as measured by the Primary Reading Profiles. This relationship was significant at the .01 level for first graders and at the .001 level for second-grade children. Moreover, the relationship was significantly higher at the second-grade level than at the first. Interpretations of the nature of the relationship between reading ability and morphology are suggested and problems for further study are identified.