32.1472, Review: Neurolinguistics; Psycholinguistics; Writing Systems: Verhoeven, Perfetti (2020)
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LINGUIST List: Vol-32-1472. Tue Apr 27 2021. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.
Subject: 32.1472, Review: Neurolinguistics; Psycholinguistics; Writing Systems: Verhoeven, Perfetti (2020)
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Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2021 16:30:43
From: Pamela Villar González [pamela.villar.gonzalez at psych.uw.edu.pl]
Subject: Learning to Read across Languages and Writing Systems
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36637137
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2021 16:30:44
From: Pamela Villar González [pamela.villar.gonzalez at psych.uw.edu.pl]
Subject: Learning to Read across Languages and Writing Systems
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36637137
Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/31/31-1587.html
EDITOR: Ludo Verhoeven
EDITOR: Charles Perfetti
TITLE: Learning to Read across Languages and Writing Systems
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press
YEAR: 2020
REVIEWER: Pamela Villar González
SUMMARY
The book under review edited by Ludo Verhoeven and Charles Perfetti presents a
comprehensible study of how to learn to read in seventeen different languages
from four different families of languages. Each chapter presents a language
and its main features regarding the structure of the language and the writing
system and how it is learned.
The text starts with a List of Figures, a List of Tables, a List of
Contributors, and a Classification of Written Languages. This classification
in four families of written languages structure the content of the book,
separating the addressed Written Languages in Asian Syllabic and
Morphosyllabic Languages, West Semitic Abjad Languages, Indo-European
Alphabetic Languages, and Non-Indo-European Alphabetic Languages. According to
the authors, the seventeen chosen languages represent “the world different
major writing systems” and allow to give information about the process of
learning to read alphabetic, syllabic, or logographic writing.
After the aforementioned sections appears an introduction by the editors which
provides a theoretical background about the learning process, among other key
concepts that will appear in the book, detailed for every one of the seventeen
languages that are studied in the text.
The languages are ordered by families: family of Asian Syllabic and
Morphosylabic languages (4 languages): Chinese (by Xi Chen and Adrian
Pasquarella), Japanese (by Keiko Koda), Korean (by Min Wang, Jeung-Ryeul Cho,
and Chuchu Li) and South Asian alphasyllabaries (by Sonali Nag); in the family
of West Semitic Abjad Languages (2 languages): Arabic (by Elinor
Saiegh-Haddad), and Hebrew (by David L. Share); Family of Indo-European
Alphabetic Languages (9 languages): Greek (by Athanassios Protopapas), Italian
(by Cristina Burani, Anna M. Thornton, and Pierluigi Zoccolotti), French (by
S. Hélène Deacon, Alain Desrochers, and Kyle Levesque), Spanish (by Sylvia
Defior and Francisca Serrano), German (by Karin Landerl), Dutch (by Ludo
Verhoeven), English (by Charles Perfetti and Lindsay Harris), Czech and Slovak
(by Markéta Caravolas), and Russian (by Natalia Rkhilin, Sergey A. Kornilov,
and Elena L. Grigorenko); family of Non-Indo-European Alphabetic Languages (2
languages): Finnish (by Mikko Aro), and Turkish (by Aydin Yücesan Durgunoglu).
The structure of every chapter devoted to the different languages is the same
with slight differences depending on the structure of the language; for
example, in Chinese there is no section of inflectional morphology and word
formation process but there is a section of noun and verb formation.
At the beginning of every chapter, we have an Introduction section with the
subsections of Orthography, Synchronic and Diachronic characterization, and
Literacy and Schooling. In this section, we have information regarding the
language itself, varieties (with information about dialects, diglossia),
general information from a historical and sociological point of view such as
the number of speakers of the language and legislation and institutions
regulating the “use of the language”. Furthermore, in this section is
presented a brief explanation about how children learn to write the language:
where (kindergarten, primary school) and when (in which grade at which age),
the approach to the process of learning, and in some cases examples of the
different assignments and typical homework. To sum up, this section provides
general information about the language and the approach used to teach it.
The next section is dedicated to the description of the language and its
written forms. With a subsection about linguistic systems, including epigraphs
about Phonology and Morphology, another subsection about Script and
punctuation, and a final Conclusion. In this section it is presented how
speech is encoded into print, the inventory of sounds (how and where are they
produced), letters, and/or symbols. Different data about inflections,
distribution of sounds, and word formation among others are displayed here. In
a nutshell, this section presents the information about the language from a
formal theoretical perspective, going into linguistic details and not intended
for a “broad audience”.
The next Section is Acquisition of Reading and Spelling and includes the
subsections of Becoming Linguistically Aware, Development of Word
Identification, Reading Comprehension, and a Conclusion section. Inside these
sections there are many subsections; inside Becoming Linguistically Aware we
find two fixed subsections, Phonological Development and Phonological
Awareness. And in several languages, we find a subsection on Developing of
Orthographic processing skills. In the next subsection, the one about
Developing Word Identification we find Word Decoding Development, Word
Spelling Development, and Reading and Spelling difficulties. In the next
subsection about Reading Comprehension, depending on the language we can have
some extra parts (Predictors of Reading Comprehension and Word-Level Effects
in Comprehending Texts). In short, this section based on the theoretical
content from the previous sections presents a piece of more detailed
information about linguistic characteristics of the language (phonetics and
phonology, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics) but always focused on the
process of acquisition of writing and reading the language.
The next section is Discussion, with subsections about Challenges in learning
and Implications for Instruction. Succinctly, this section puts together the
main challenges that children learning to write the language will face and
what those challenges imply for the process of instruction. This is a core
section for the understanding of the process of learning to read and how to
address the complications of the specific learning process of the target
language. This section is short and clear, easily understandable for
non-experts in the linguistics audience.
Every chapter finishes with a Final Conclusion section that works as a brief
summary, an optional section of Acknowledgements, and a wide list of
references.
After all the information presented about every language and its writing
system, there is a section that serves as a summary by the editors, it is
entitled Epilogue: Universals and Particulars in Learning to Read across
Seventeen Orthographies. The different subsections are: Writing Systems and
Languages, Reading development across Languages and Orthographies, with the
subsections of Universals in Reading, Operating principles in Learning to Read
(with many different subparts ), Educational Implications (with the
subsections of Stimulations Linguistic Awareness, Instructing Word
Identification, and Fostering Reading Comprehension). This chapter ends with a
Final Conclusion section and references. In this section, as announced on the
back cover of the book, there is compiled information needed to extract
universal trends of the seventeen languages, their writing, the process of
learning to read, and the challenges that this process present.
The last section before the Index is an Appendix. This is a chart with a
summary of the main information regarding every language. Every row contains
one of the seventeen languages presented in the book with the name written in
English and in the language itself (for example Spanish, español). The table
has five columns, the first one with the name of the language, the second with
Phonology and morphology, the third one with Writing system and orthography,
the fourth one with Predictors of learning to read, and the last one with
Reading development. This table is presented in landscape page orientation and
takes thirteen pages.
EVALUATION
The book under review edited by Ludo Verhoeven and Charles Perfetti presents a
comprehensible study of how to learn to read in seventeen different languages
from four different families of languages.
The book is well organized helping to digest all the content presented and
making it easy to find the required information. Apart from all the detailed
information that forms the core of the book, several conclusion sections allow
recapitulating the information given. Moreover, the abundant lists of
references at the end of every chapter make it uncomplicated to expand the
information about a concrete section, language, and/or writing system.
The different sections inside the chapters devoted to each language help not
just in the better understanding of the subject but in the straightforward
comparison among languages and even families of languages.
The seventeen chosen languages give a good overview of the process of reading;
however, I hope that this publication is part of a project on the process and
the following languages will be added in future editions. From my standpoint,
once that so many “major languages” have been analysed, it would be very
fruitful to study other minority languages. On the other hand, it would be
appealing to compare in more detail how the reading process varies across
countries.
To sum up in my opinion this book provides invaluable and concise information
about the process of reading across different languages. Due to the rich
reference list, it is a great option for scholars and due to the clarity of
the information presented it will be a help for students in every stage of
formation, from undergraduate programs to Ph.D. students. Besides, some
sections are completely accessible for a broad audience with non-academic
purposes. The subsection about “Literacy and Schooling” gives very valuable
information about the different teaching approaches in different countries
giving information not just about the process itself, but about the culture
and education system.
The process of reading and for extension, this book should be in-depth study
by linguists, primary teachers, language teachers, psychologists, speech
therapists, and even parents. I will strongly recommend this book to every
single person that deals with children or adults learning how to read and
improve the reading skills, not just in their mother tongues but also in L2.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Pamela Villar González is a fellow researcher and Ph.D. Candidate at the
University of Warsaw, she has a B.A. in English Studies from the University of
Oviedo (Spain) and a M. Sc. in Cognitive Science from the Ruhr University
Bochum (Germany). Her previous works are in diverse fields like neuroscience
(memory, study of biomarkers in healthy aging and dementia, sleep) and
psycholinguistics (brain lateralization of language, whistled languages).
Apart from research, she has taught Spanish language (Ruhr Universität Bochum,
and University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany) and trained medical students (Ruhr
Universität Bochum). Her research interests include as well language
pathologies, speech science, bilingualism, communication, literature, culture,
machine learning, in vivo-imaging methods and science communication.
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