L2 Reading and the Acquisition of Derivational Morphemes : Focusing on the Good Reader Poor Speller Type

Abstract

The present study attempts to explore the relationship between reading comprehension and morphological development with specific reference to a unique type of learners called "Good Readers Poor Spellers (R+S-)." R+S- are learners who are good at reading comprehension (well above average), but are extraordinarily poor at spelling (below average). In previous studies, it was found that R+S- were poor decoders. Then, how could they be good readers? It is said that reading comprehension is closely related with morphological development. Therefore, this study investigated correlations between reading comprehension and morphological development (both the meanings of base words and their morphological forms) in terms of the three extreme types: R+S+, R+S- and R-S-. The results showed that R+S- acquired word meanings as well as R+S+, and their knowledge of morphological forms was in the middle between R+S+ and R-S-. The results indicated the strong relationship between reading comprehension and morphological development.