University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Graduate School
Doi
Abstract
The current study aims to investigate the causal correlation between Chinese morphological awareness and word segmentation among intermediate adult speakers who learn Chinese as their second language (L2). In particular, we intend to determine the role of a potential mediator, vocabulary knowledge in this relationship. A total of 45 intermediate adult L2 Chinese speakers participated in the experiment and finished three separate tasks on Chinese morphological awareness, Chinese word segmentation, and vocabulary size. The logistic regression on the results of Chinese morphological awareness task fails to prove that the L2 Chinese speakers are sensitive to the degree of compositionally of Chinese compounds. Multi-linear regressions were conducted to test the mediation effects, and the results demonstrate that: (1) Chinese morphological awareness didn’t directly predict participants performance in word segmentation; (2) Chinese morphological awareness didn’t indirectly exert a strong effect on word segmentation via vocabulary knowledge. Although the current study didn’t find evidence to verify the relationship between morphological awareness and word segmentation nor the mediation effects of vocabulary knowledge, it establishes a foundation for future research design and implementation.Master of Art
