ABSTRACT
Until about two decades ago, the study of writing systems and their relationship to literacy acquisition was sparse and generally modeled after studies of English language learners. This situation is now changing. As the worldwide demand for literacy continues to grow, researchers from different countries with different language backgrounds have begun examining the connection between their writing systems and literacy acquisition. This text, which derives from a NATO sponsored conference on orthography and literacy, brings together the research of 70 scholars from across the world--the largest assemblage of such experts to date. Their findings are grouped into three parts, as follows:
Part I, Literacy Acquisition in Different Writing Systems, describes the relationship between orthography and literacy in twenty-five orthographic systems. This section serves as a handy reference source for understanding the orthographies of languages as diverse as Arabic, Chinese, English, Icelandic, Kannada, and Kishwahili.
Part II, Literacy Acquisition From a Cross-Linguistic Perspective, makes direct comparisons of literacy acquisition in English and other orthographic systems. The overall conclusion that emerges from these eight chapters is that the depth of an orthographic system does influence literacy acquisition primarily by slowing down the acquisition of reading skills. Even so, studies show that dyslexic readers can be found across all orthographic systems whether shallow or deep, which shows that dyslexia also has internal cognitive and biological components.
Part III, Literacy Acquisition: Instructional Perspectives, explores literacy acquisition from developmental and instructional perspectives and ends with a look into the future of literacy research.
This Handbook is appropriate for scholars, researchers, and graduate students in such diverse fields as cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, literacy education, English as a second language, and communication disorders.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |2 pages
LITERACY ACQUISITION IN DIFFERENT WRITING SYSTEMS
chapter |12 pages
Evolution of an Alphabetic Writing System: The Case of Icelandic
chapter |16 pages
Literacy Acquisition in Norwegian
chapter |24 pages
Orthography and Literacy in French
chapter |16 pages
The Acquisition of Literacy in Italian
chapter |14 pages
Reading and Spelling Acquisition and Dyslexia in German
chapter |20 pages
Literacy Acquisition in Spanish
chapter |18 pages
Beginning Reading Acquisition in Brazilian Portuguese
chapter |18 pages
The Acquisition of Written Morphology in Greek
chapter |12 pages
How Language Characteristics Influence Turkish Literacy Development
chapter |18 pages
Literacy Acquisition and Dyslexia in Hungarian Vale´ria Cse´pe
chapter |26 pages
Developmental Dyslexia: Evidence from Polish
chapter |16 pages
Word Reading in Bulgarian Children and Adults
chapter |18 pages
If John Were Ivan, Would He Fail in Reading?
chapter |26 pages
Hebrew Orthography and Literacy
chapter |12 pages
Persian Orthography and Its Relation to Literacy
chapter |16 pages
Literacy in Kiswahili
chapter |18 pages
Reading Chinese
part |2 pages
LITERACY ACQUISITION FROM CROSS-LINGUISTIC PERSPECTIVES
chapter |16 pages
Literacy Acquisition in Japanese–English Bilinguals
chapter |20 pages
Learning to Read: The Effect of Orthography
chapter |10 pages
Learning to Spell by Ear and by Eye: A Cross-Linguistic Comparison
part |2 pages
LITERACY ACQUISITION: INSTRUCTIONAL PERSPECTIVES