A Randomized Controlled Trial of Integrated Morphological and Orthographic Awareness Training for Chinese Children with Reading Difficulties

Purpose This study examined integrated morphological-orthographic awareness training (IMOAT) for Chinese children with reading difficulties.Method Participants were 240 Mandarin-speaking students in Grades 2–3 from 24 classrooms in 12 urban Chinese schools. Eligibility required reading comprehension at or below the grade-normed 25th percentile. Classrooms were randomized within schools to IMOAT or business-as-usual instruction. Following professional development, classroom teachers delivered the 16-week program. Outcomes were assessed before instruction, immediately afterward, and at an eight-week follow-up.Results Multilevel analyses indicated better performance in the IMOAT group across all measured outcomes. Posttest effect sizes were largest for morphological awareness (g = 1.23), followed by character recognition (g = 0.84), reading comprehension (g = 0.76), word reading fluency (g = 0.67), and vocabulary knowledge (g = 0.44). Effects remained significant at follow-up. The posttest reading comprehension effect was larger among students with lower initial comprehension scores.Conclusion The findings support the effectiveness of the combined instructional package for the sampled children when delivered by classroom teachers with professional development and research support.