Morphological processing of academic vocabulary in French secondary school students with and without dyslexia – VocACol

The conclusions of the French consensus conference CNESCO published in 2016 are clear: ‘C’est à partir des textes informatifs, notamment ceux contenus dans les manuels, que les élèves peuvent accéder aux savoirs délivrés dans les différentes disciplines scolaires’ [students can access knowledge about different disciplines from informational texts, including those contained in textbooks](CNESCO, 2016, p23). Access to academic knowledge is therefore closely related to written language skills. Most of the studies conducted to date have focused on the development of written language in primary school. Still, ‘le passage du primaire au secondaire est souvent considéré comme une rupture entre des modes de transmission de connaissances centrés : au primaire, sur l’oralité […], au secondaire, sur l’utilisation d’écrits multiples qui revêtent un caractère disciplinaire’ [the transition from primary to secondary education is a major shift between two modes of knowledge transmission: oral transmission in primary school vs written transmission of knowledge that is disciplinary in nature in secondary school] (CNESCO, 2016, p10). Therefore, written language skills are an important pathway to academic success in secondary school.
The general aim of the VocaCol project is to study how academic vocabulary develops in secondary school. Academic vocabulary refers to the words frequently occurring in written academic texts but not in other kinds of texts. For example, the word ‘evaporation’ is generally not part of students’ vocabulary when they enter secondary school. However, its acquisition is necessary to guarantee success in Sciences.
Much of the academic vocabulary consists of morphologically complex words, i.e., words built with at least two morphemes (‘e-vapor-ation’). Sensitivity to the morphological structure of words predicts literacy acquisition in primary school. However, the influence of morphological processing in secondary school literacy has been far less studied than in primary school literacy.
VocACol tests the hypothesis that the development of academic vocabulary is supported by students’ processing of the morphological structure of words (‘evaporation’ comes from ‘vapour’). This hypothesis will be tested in typically-developing adolescents as well as in adolescents with dyslexia. We expect that students’ representation of morphological information within the lexicon increases the quality of lexical representations and supports academic literacy and academic success. We also assume that dyslexic students rely on the morphological structure of words to increase their vocabulary and improve their reading and writing skills.
The project will be conducted over a period of 36 months and will be broken down into three work packages (WPs). First (WP1, Vocabulary analysis), we will identify the morphological complexity of academic vocabulary in French secondary school. Then we will examine the influence of students’ processing of the morphological constituents of academic vocabulary on reading and writing in their first two years of secondary school (WP2, Morphological processing). Finally, we will examine the acquisition of academic vocabulary of adolescents with dyslexia in comparison to their peers and test the effect of morphological training on the development of academic vocabulary (WP3, Dyslexics’ academic vocabulary).
VocACol will allow for better understanding of adolescent literacy. It will also shed light on the influence of morphology in the acquisition of reading and writing in secondary school. Likewise, VocACol will provide information on the influence of written language skills on the acquisition of academic vocabulary in dyslexics. At the technological level, a database will list the academic vocabulary of the secondary school and its morphological structure. VocACol contributes to the promotion of student success at the beginning of secondary school, where the strong dropout rate is central to the debate today.