The Role of Vocabulary Knowledge, Morphological Awareness, and Working Memory in Reading Comprehension

A growing number of studies have focused on uncovering linguistic and cognitive skills predictive of reading comprehension. Vocabulary knowledge (VK) and morphological awareness (MA) are two important linguistic variables for reading comprehension. In contrast, working memory (WM) is an essential cognitive variable for reading comprehension. The current study mainly aims to examine the role of VK, MA, and WM in English as a foreign language (EFL) reading comprehension. A total of 396 learners in a foreign language context took a TOEIC reading test, a battery of three MA tests, two VK tests, and two WM tests. We found that (a) the Pearson correlation coefficients obtained for the variables of VK, MA, WM, and EFL reading comprehension were all positive and significant; and (b) the structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis revealed that VK was a stronger predictor than MA of EFL reading performance. Relevant implications are discussed based on the results.