Second Language Writing Systems

Second Language Writing Systems looks at how people learn and use a second language writing system, arguing that they are affected by characteristics of the first and second writing systems, to a certain extent independently of the languages involved. This book presents for the first time the effects of writing systems on language reading and writing and on language awareness, and provides a new platform for discussing bilingualism, biliteracy and writing systems. The approach is interdisciplinary, with contributions not only from applied linguists and psychologists but also corpus linguists, educators and phoneticians. A variety of topics are covered, from handwriting to spelling, word recognition to the mental lexicon, and language textbooks to metalinguistic awareness. Though most of the studies concern adult L2 learners and users, other populations covered include minority children, immersion students and bilingual children. While the emphasis is on English as the L2 writing system, many other writing systems are analysed as L1 or L2: Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, Gujarati, Indonesian, Irish, Italian and Japanese. Approaches that are represented include contrastive analysis, transfer, poststructuralism, connectionism and corpus analysis. The readership is SLA and bilingualism researchers, students and teachers around the world; language teachers will also find much food for thought.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Contributors 1. Vivian Cook and Benedetta Bassetti: An Introduction to Researching Second Language Writing Systems Part 1: Writing a Second Language Writing System 2. Nobuko Chikamatsu: L2 Japanese Kanji Memory and Retrieval: An Experiment on the Tip-of-the-pen (TOP) Phenomenon 3. Ans Van Berkel: The Role of the Phonological Strategy in Learning to Spell in English as a Second Language 4. Mick Randall: Orthographic Knowledge and First Language Reading: Evidence from Single Word Dictation from Chinese and Malaysian Users of English as a Foreign Language 5. Harold Somers: Learner Corpora and Handwriting 6. Takeshi Okada: A Corpus-based Study of Spelling Errors of Japanese EFL Writers with Reference to Errors Occurring in Word-initial and Word-final Positions 7. Stephan Schmid: Spelling and Pronunciation in Migrant Children: The Case of Italian-Swiss German Bilinguals Part 2: Reading a Second Language Writing System 8. Phil Scholfield and Gloria Shu-Mei Chwo: Are the L1 and L2 Word Reading Processes Affected More by Writing System or Instruction? 9. Nobuhiko Akamatsu: Effects of Second Language Reading Proficiency and First Language Orthography on Second Language Word Recognition 10. Walter J.B. Van Heuven: Bilingual Interactive Activation Models of Word Recognition in a Second Language 11. Miho Sasaki: The Effect of L1 Reading Processes on L2: A Crosslinguistic Comparison of Italian and Japanese Users of English Part 3: Awareness of Language and Second Language Writing Systems 12. Keiko Koda: Learning to Read Across Writing Systems: Transfer, Metalinguistic Awareness, and Second-language Reading Development 13. Benedetta Bassetti: Effects of Writing Systems on Second Language Awareness: Word Awareness in English Learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language 14. Lily H.-S. Lau and Susan J. Rickard Liow: Phonological Awareness and Spelling Skill Development in Bilingual Biscriptal Children Part 4: Teaching a Second Language Writing System 15. Therese Dufresne and Diana Masny: Different and Differing Views on Conceptualising Writing System Research and Education 16. Tina Hickey: Second Language Writing Systems: Minority Languages and Reluctant Readers 17. Vivian Cook: Written Language and Foreign Language Teaching Index