Abstract This study examined the relationship between morphological awareness
and reading comprehension in English among Spanish-speaking English language
learners (ELLs) followed from fourth through fifth grade. Students’ ability to
decompose derived words while reading was assessed using an experimental task.
Multiple regression analyses were used to investigate the contribution of performance
on this task to reading comprehension above and beyond word reading skills,
phonological awareness, and breadth of vocabulary knowledge. The relationship
between morphological awareness and reading comprehension was found to
strengthen between fourth and fifth grade, and in fifth grade, morphological
awareness was found to be a significant predictor of reading comprehension. The
findings were robust across two measures of reading comprehension and two
methods of scoring the experimental task of morphological awareness, and thus
support the inclusion of derivational morphology in a model of the English reading
comprehension of Spanish-speaking ELLs.