Introduction to this special issue: Reading morphologically complex words in a second language

Abstract

In this age of globalisation, the need for communication in a second or foreign language has dramatically increased. Second language (L2) reading and literacy education has become one of the most important components of our educational system. Learning to read is essentially learning to map between phonological, orthographic and semantic information in written words. The key development in learning to read is the improvement of the qualities of orthographic, phonological and semantic representations of given words, and learning to read in L2 is no exception. This Special Issue is focused on one important specific aspect of L2 reading, namely, reading morphologically complex L2 words. Morphology represents an important interface between phonology, orthography and semantics. Previous L2 reading research has been largely devoted to phonological processes in reading single-morpheme words. Relatively fewer studies have investigated reading of morphologically complex words in L2. How morphologically complex words are represented and processed has been one of the central questions in first language (L1) reading literature. Recent research has shown support for interactive models that propose a direct lexical route involving access to full-form representations of the complex words along with a parsing route that allows decomposition of constituent morphemes. According to those interactive models, the mental lexicon is the storehouse for both complex words and their constituent morphemes. The meaning of a complex word can be accessed either directly or by an analysis of the meanings of its constituent morphemes. The analysis approach is affected by the features of an individual complex word and its constituent morphemes, such as frequency of both the whole word and its constituent morphemes and semantic transparency in terms of the relation between the whole word and its constituent morphemes. Individual differences in reading skill have recently been shown to play a role in the reliance of morpho-orthographic information in reading. Research to date has focused heavily on reading morphologically complex words in monolingual populations, while less is known about reading complex words by L2 readers, both in developing children and adults. Within the very limited literature on L2 reading of morphologically complex words, there is some debate on whether L2 learners are able to represent and process morphological information as much as L1 readers.