The effect of working memory on morphological awareness among primary school students

Objectives: This study aims to achieve a general objective, which is to determine the nature of the correlational relationship between working memory and morphological awareness. From this main objective stem several sub-goals: first, to examine whether there is a statistically significant correlation between working memory and morphological knowledge (inflection), working memory and morphological knowledge (derivation), and working memory and morphological knowledge in relation to pseudoword derivation through knowledge of patterns and templates; second, to identify the nature of the influence of working memory on morphological awareness by analyzing the results of these correlational relationships. Methodology: The researchers applied a set of tests that form part of a broader battery within an international collaborative project involving Morocco, Canada, Switzerland, and France. This battery consists of eleven tests distributed across morphological awareness, reading comprehension, non-verbal intelligence, and working memory. The battery was adapted to the specificities of the Moroccan educational context and administered to a sample of 100 fourth-grade primary school pupils, equally divided between boys and girls, enrolled at Oulad Tayeb Al Olya Primary School in Fez. The purpose was to determine the relationship between morphological awareness and reading comprehension. Within this broader international project, we chose to focus in this paper on the relationship between working memory and certain components of morphological awareness, and its effect on them within the sample. To achieve the objectives of this research, the descriptive- analytical method was employed. Results: The findings revealed statistically significant correlations between working memory and the components of morphological awareness (morphological knowledge of inflection, derivation, and pseudowords through knowledge of patterns and templates). The results further confirmed the influence of working memory on morphological awareness. Conclusion: The study’s tests demonstrated that understanding the relationship between working memory and the components of morphological awareness, as well as recognizing how this relationship manifests, can provide a sound foundation for designing curricula and educational programs. It also helps establish appropriate and effective strategies within school textbooks, in line with cognitive-linguistic approaches, in order to foster stronger morphological awareness and healthy memory development among primary school pupils in Moroccan schools.