Nous étudions l’implication des aspects idiomatiques et morphologiques du langage dans l’activité de lecture chez l’enfant. Des tâches d’explication orale d’expressions idiomatiques avec contexte associé, de segmentation morphémique, de lecture (identification des mots et compréhension), ainsi que des tâches contrôles (phonémique, syntaxique, vocabulaire) ont été proposées à 69 élèves de CE1 (moyenne : 7 ans 8 mois) et 67 élèves de CM1 (moyenne : 9 ans 11 mois). Les résultats montrent que les compétences idiomatiques et morphémiques sont corrélées entre elles et qu’elles contribuent à l’efficience en lecture, particulièrement au CE1. L’examen des profils individuels de performance montre qu’elles peuvent être source de difficultés mais aussi, ensemble ou séparément, des vecteurs de « meilleure réussite » pour un nombre non négligeable d’élèves en difficulté de lecture (décodage et/ou compréhension). Elles peuvent ainsi constituer des points d’appui complémentaires ou l’objet d’interventions ciblées pour la prise en charge des difficultés de lecture.

To our knowledge, no research has so far associated idiomatic (or figurative) and morphological aspects of language in children reading and in examining the various skills involved. This study aims to: (1) specify, at two levels of reading ability, the implication of these two dimensions of language in decoding-word identification and comprehension and their possible correlation: idiom comprehension and morphemic skills have in common the need to pay attention to the meaning and play with the different levels of language analysis (literal vs figurative and sublexical vs lexical representations); (2) examine individual performance profiles of children with reading difficulties, in the light of these idiomatic and morphological skills.

Tasks of oral explanation of idioms with related context, of morphemic segmentation (to give the smallest meaningful units in words orally), of reading (word identification and reading comprehension) as well as control tasks (phonemic, syntactic, vocabulary) were administered in Grade 2 (69 children, mean age: 7.8 years) and in Grade 4 (67 children, mean age: 9.11 years).

Results show (a) correlations between idiomatic and morphemic skills and reading abilities with second and fourth graders; (b) a correlation between idiomatic and morphological tasks in Grade 2; (c) a significant contribution, both complementary and specific, of idiomatic and morphemic skills with reading comprehension, particularly with second graders. For lexical age, the contribution is marginal; (d) the individual profiles reveal that, together or separately, morphemic skills and idiom comprehension could be weak points but vectors of “improved success” too for many children with reading difficulties (decoding and/or comprehension).

Idiomatic and morphemic skills are related to reading abilities, so they can constitute complementary supports for helping children to progress in learning to read accurately. The possible educational implications of our findings are then discussed and encourage the development of a range of varied activities from which children early could be implicated or “remobilized” in learning to read.