Effects of Orthographic Depth on Morphological Awareness among Silozi–English Bilingual 6th Graders in Zambian Primary Schools

Previous research has shown that the transparency of the language used for instruction influences how quickly learners acquire reading skills. Children who are immersed in languages with transparent orthographies tend to acquire reading skills faster and encounter fewer difficulties compared to those learning to read in languages with opaque orthographies. The goal of this study was to examine how the depth of orthography affects the acquisition of morphological awareness skills among Silozi-English bilingual students in the 6th grade. Given that Silozi orthography is more transparent than English orthography, it was expected that 6th graders would have significantly stronger morphological awareness skills in Silozi compared to English, as seen in other aspects of the reading process. In a quasi-experimental design, we assessed the derivational and decomposition skills of 120 participants using equivalent Silozi and English measures of morphological awareness in a primary school located in the Mongu District of Zambia’s western province. The results reveal statistically significant differences in derivational and decomposition achievement between Silozi and English morphological awareness tasks, contradicting our expectations, as learners performed better in English compared to Silozi.