16.2685, Review: WritingSystems/LangAcquisition:Cook&Bassetti(2005)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-16-2685. Fri Sep 16 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.2685, Review: WritingSystems/LangAcquisition:Cook&Bassetti(2005)

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1)
Date: 13-Sep-2005
From: Gunna Funder Hansen < g.funder at hist.sdu.dk >
Subject: Second Language Writing Systems 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 16:29:21
From: Gunna Funder Hansen < g.funder at hist.sdu.dk >
Subject: Second Language Writing Systems 
 

EDITORS: Cook, Vivian J; Bassetti, Benedetta
TITLE: Second Language Writing Systems
SERIES: Second Language Acquisition
PUBLISHER: Multilingual Matters
YEAR: 2005
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-1644.html 

Gunna Funder Hansen, Centre for Contemporary Middle East 
Studies, University of Southern Denmark

INTRODUCTION

For those of us interested in foreign/second language (L2) acquisition 
across writing systems, a new book carrying this title is indeed good 
news: Established theories about reading in both native and foreign 
languages have been developed within a narrow European context 
and have traditionally been considered universal. However, recent 
research has revealed that reading processes take quite different 
courses according to the writing system applied. So far, research 
targeting this issue has been scattered and scarce. Likewise, the 
specific difficulties of learning to write a new script have received very 
limited attention, especially in terms of actual research based on 
empirical studies. Thus, a volume that brings these scattered efforts 
together is most welcome.

CONTENTS

The book starts out with a general introduction to researching second 
language writing systems followed by 16 research papers divided into 
four parts each dealing with their dimension of the subject: writing, 
reading, language awareness and teaching. These include 
contributions by some of the most highly esteemed researchers within 
the field of biliteracy across writing systems, e.g. Keiko Koda and 
Nobuhiko Akamatsu.

In the introductory chapter, the editors lay out the background and aim 
of the book and provide an overall view of a range of concepts 
relevant to the subject - for instance the central terms "writing 
system", "script" and "orthography", the different types of mapping 
principles (morphemic, syllabic, and phonemic), the concept of 
phonological regularity (orthographic depth), writing direction, and 
orthographic constraints. Next, the editors address cross-writing-
system differences in reading, writing and metalinguistic awareness. 
Before introducing the following 16 chapters of the book, Cook and 
Bassetti also present a list of relevant questions for future research.

In part one, the first chapter is by Nobuko Chikamatsu, who presents a 
study comparing Japanese kanji memory and retrieval in first 
language (L1) and L2 subjects using an innovatory "tip-of-the-pen" 
research technique inspired by the "tip-of-the-tongue" phenomenon 
used in psycholinguistics as an indicator of an intermediate state of 
lexical access. Next, Ans Van Berkel investigates Dutch learners' 
spelling in English, thus examining transfer of L1 spelling rules from a 
shallow/regular orthography to spelling in an L2 deep/irregular 
orthography. Based on a contrastive analysis of phonological spelling 
rules in Dutch and English, Van Berkel looks at the specific kinds of 
errors that occur in learners' writing in English the first years of 
secondary education, and with a comparison between first and 
second year students, she reveals some developmental issues. In the 
following chapter, Mick Randall looks at essentially the same 
phenomenon, but compares spelling in L2 English by learners with 
different L1 backgrounds, being Chinese or Malay - the latter being a 
language similar to Chinese regarding phonological and syntactic 
structures, but (in most cases) written in a highly shallow orthography 
using the Roman script. Interestingly, the logographic L1 group 
showed an advantage over the alphabetic L1 group regarding spelling 
accuracy in English. Harold Somers then treats a very different aspect 
of the matter: the question of handwriting. Based on a small corpus of 
handwritten L2 English by learners with Arabic L1 backgrounds, he 
discusses implications of using corpora for writing system research. 
Afterwards, Takeshi Okada presents a corpus-based study of spelling 
errors by Japanese learners of English. Okada argues that 
substitution errors in word-initial position and insertion errors in word-
final position are due to transfer from the Japanese Romanisation 
system, romaji. In the last chapter of part one, Stephan Schmid 
presents a study of Italian-Swiss German bilingual children's spelling 
and pronunciation in Italian, demonstrating a link between spelling 
errors and specific difficulties with the differences between voiced vs. 
unvoiced obstruents and single vs. geminate consonants in the 
subjects' phonological system. An interesting aspect of this study is 
that the important parameter of standard vs. dialectal phonology is 
also considered.

In part two, Phil Scholfield and Gloria Shu-Mei Chwo seek to explore 
the effect of the L1 writing system and the method used for reading 
instruction. This is done through a comparison of subjects from 
Taiwan - where English L2 reading instruction is conducted according 
to the phonics principle - and Hong Kong - where the whole word 
approach is predominant. Scholfield and Chwo find that reading 
instruction methods do result in different L2 word recognition 
processes. In the following chapter, Nobuhiko Akamatsu investigates 
Japanese learners' reading in L2 English at different proficiency 
levels. Akamatsu finds that the effect of the learners' L1 writing system 
on their L2 reading is persistent, as increased proficiency does not 
change the fact that Japanese learners tend to rely on direct lexical 
access in word recognition. A quite different kind of contribution to the 
subject comes from Walter Van Heuven who discusses the 
characteristics of visual word recognition in bilinguals within a 
theoretical framework. The discussion focuses on computational 
modelling and the ability of such simulation models to replicate 
bilingual readers' performance in the real world. In the last chapter of 
part two, Miho Sasaki attacks the question of transfer from L1 writing 
systems with different levels of orthographic depth, using subjects 
whose L1 is either Italian or Japanese, and who are reading in 
English. The study supports the view that the readers' L1 writing 
system affects reading processes in L2.

In part three, Keiko Koda, like Van Heuven, contributes with a 
theoretical discussion. She presents a model which seeks to explain 
how metalinguistic awareness developed for the L1 is transferred into 
L2 reading. Then, Bernadetta Bassetti presents a study comparing L2-
learners' and native speakers' word awareness in Chinese. The study 
indicates, that L2-learners, who are from English L1-backgrounds, 
have a quite different concept of Chinese words than the native 
speakers, and Bassetti argues that the difference stems from the L2-
learners' knowledge of more than one writing system. In the last 
chapter of part three, Lily Lau and Susan Rickard Liow examine 
children with different L1-backgrounds (English, Chinese and Malay) 
spelling in English. Focusing on the subjects' skills in spelling words 
pronounced with a flapped voiced /d/ but spelled with a <t>, they find 
that the unilingual English-speaking children are the best spellers, and 
while the Malay-English bilinguals tend to over-rely on phonology 
when spelling in English, the Chinese-English bilinguals show a 
general limited phonological awareness. 

In part four, Therese Dufresne and Diana Masny again bring us back 
to the theoretical level. They rightly make a general critique of the lack 
of ontological considerations when different kinds of methodology is 
applied in second language research and put forward a post-
structuralist perspective on second writing system acquisition. In this 
view, learning a new writing system destabilises the learners' system 
of how writing systems work, and this creates a process, where the 
learner tries to regain stability by continuously testing and modifying 
constructions according to the new experiences drawn. Following the 
general discussion, Dufresne and Masny use two case studies to 
illustrate, how the post-structuralist perspective puts process before 
product. Next, Tina Hickey presents a study on encouraging extensive 
reading in Irish (L2) among children who acquired their first literacy in 
English - a group of learners who generally show poor decoding skills, 
interference from English orthography and reluctance to read. By 
using Taped Book Flooding - a procedure involving easy access to a 
lot of suitable reading material with tape recordings of the relevant 
material being read aloud and class hours devoted to reading - the 
learners improved both fluency, accuracy in reading aloud and 
attitude towards the Irish language. In the last chapter, Vivian Cook 
looks at some general aspects of learning a second writing system 
and examines how a specimen of coursebooks for English, Italian and 
French target this issue. Cook argues that the role of written language 
is not given close to enough attention in language teaching, and that 
written language is often used merely as a tool for teaching spoken 
language or as a kind of meta-language used as a device for giving 
explanations, thus rarely recognisable as authentic text types.

CRITICAL EVALUATION

The book covers a wide range of interesting aspects of second 
language writing systems. The general introduction in Chapter 1 is of 
great importance, since the book covers research from a research 
field that is just emerging. Especially the attempt to state a set of 
definitions of the term "writing system" and related concepts is 
essential and valuable because - as the authors very rightly 
state: "Writing system researchers rarely agree on how these terms 
should be used". Although this reviewer almost entirely agrees with 
the final definitions stated, one could have hoped for more attention 
given to the very common confusions about the term "orthography" as 
discussed by e.g. Scheerer (1986). Many researchers tend to view 
orthography as the visual organisation of the writing system (e.g. 
Foorman 1994, p. 334) or as a broad concept covering all language 
specific aspects of the writing system (e.g. Seidenberg 1992, p. 85). 
And, as stated by Willows and Geva (1995, p. 356): "it is fairly 
common in the growing literature on orthographic processing for 
researchers to refer to orthographic processing  as 
"visual/orthographic" as though these two terms were essentially 
synonymous". 

In the presentation of the different types of writing systems, the 
reservation of the term "alphabet" for scripts representing all the 
phonemes in speech, thus excluding consonantal scripts, may be 
controversial among users of the Semitic (consonantal) scripts. Both 
Arabic and Hebrew speakers describe their sets of letters as 
alphabets, and it is in fact the first letters (Aleph-Bet) of a consonantal, 
Semitic script, that gave name to the alphabet. 

The discussion of cross-writing-system differences in reading, writing 
and metalinguistic awareness is equally crucial as it puts down a 
frame within which the book's research papers are positioned in 
different ways. However, this could have been done in a more clear-
cut way: A variety of research results is mentioned, and this gives a 
fine overview of the key issues at stake, but the motivation behind the 
selection of studies is not obvious. Furthermore, the theoretical 
framework laid out as a basis for explaining the presented results is 
quite narrow in focusing almost exclusively on the dual-route model. 
Connectionism is briefly mentioned as an alternative model for spelling 
only. Considering the status of connectionism and parallel distributed 
processing-models in today's research in both reading, spelling and 
language awareness, one could have hoped for an inclusion and 
discussion of this new theoretical approach related to the subject of 
the book - not the least because some of the chapters in this specific 
book (e.g. Van Heuven's) are actually presenting connectionist 
models.

The following 16 chapters are practically all relevant contributions to 
the research field and some of them provide very useful introductions 
to a specific writing system, a specific methodology, or specific 
theoretical aspects. The inclusion of the teaching perspective in the 
last part of the book is an appreciated initiative and a good point - 
much too often, the link between research and teaching in L2's is 
completely forgotten. 

The setup of the book separating chapters about writing, reading, 
language awareness and teaching is at first sight logical, but as one 
reads through the book it becomes less obvious why the editors chose 
this formula. Obviously, the four fields are intertwined, and some of 
the chapters touch very explicitly upon more than one of them. 
Especially the fact that the theoretical chapters are scattered around 
the book results in a somewhat confusing structure. On the other 
hand, a collection of research papers is rarely read from the beginning 
to the end, so this issue might not be of great importance.

In general, this book is an important contribution to the emerging field 
of research in second language writing systems. All chapters might not 
be of interest to the same group of people: Researchers within 
general L2 literacy will find some of the chapters important, while 
researchers dealing with literacy across different scripts will benefit 
from other chapters. Teachers could benefit from the last part of the 
book and chapters that might involve the language they teach. For 
future work, it would be nice to see more focus on target languages 
other than English - especially languages using other scripts than the 
Roman alphabet. Japanese and Chinese are included in this book, but 
there are so many other languages taught and so many language 
teachers out there who need research based advice on how to teach 
L2 literacy.

REFERENCES

Foorman, B. R. (1994). Phonological and orthographic processing: 
Separate but equal?, Kluwer.

Scheerer, E. (1986). Orthography and lexical access, Mouton de 
Gruyter.

Seidenberg, M. S. (1992). Beyond orthographic depth in reading: 
Equitable division of labour, Elsevier.

Willows, D. and E. Geva (1995). What is visual in orthographic 
processing?, Kluwer. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Gunna Funder Hansen is Assistant Professor at the Centre for 
Contemporary Middle East Studies, University of Southern Denmark. 
She holds a Ph.D. in foreign language acquisition and teaches Arabic 
as a foreign language. Her research interests are reading processes 
in different writing systems, especially writing systems using the 
Semitic scripts, and reading in Arabic as a foreign language.





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