Knowledge about the smallest meaningful units of language, morphemes, is crucial for vocabulary and reading comprehension. This meta-analysis of 43 studies examined differences in morphological knowledge in the societal language between language-minority and language-majority children. There was a moderate to large mean group difference in morphological knowledge in favor of the language-majority children. Studies that examined inflectional knowledge (walk–walked, rose–roses) reported larger differences than studies that examined knowledge of derivations (coexist, serious) and compounds (bluebird, highlight). Studies that used oral tests and tests of expressive language reported larger differences than studies that used written tests and tests of receptive language. These findings show that morphology is an area of weakness in language-minority children. Paired with the evidence that morphological instruction improves general language ability and reading comprehension, the results suggest that morphology could be an essential component in language interventions for language-minority children.

关于最小的有意义的语言单位，语素的知识对于词汇和阅读理解至关重要。这项对 43 项研究的荟萃分析检查了语言少数和语言占多数的儿童在社会语言中的形态学知识差异。语言占多数的儿童在形态学知识方面存在中到大的平均组差异。检查屈折变化知识（walk-walked、rose-roses）的研究报告的差异大于检查派生知识（共存、严重）和复合知识（bluebird、highlight）的研究。使用口头测试和表达性语言测试的研究报告的差异大于使用书面测试和接受性语言测试的研究。这些发现表明，形态是少数语言儿童的一个薄弱环节。结合形态学教学提高一般语言能力和阅读理解的证据，结果表明形态学可能是语言少数儿童语言干预的重要组成部分。