Scripts and Literacy: Reading and Learning to Read Alphabets, Syllabaries and Characters: v. 7 (Neuropsychology and Cognition)

Literacy is a concern of all nations of the world, whether they be classified as developed or undeveloped. A person must be able to read and write in order to function adequately in society, and reading and writing require a script. But what kinds of scripts are in use today, and how do they influence the acquisition, use and spread of literacy? Scripts and Literacy is the first book to systematically explore how the nature of a script affects how it is read and how one learns to read and write it. It reveals the similarities underlying the world's scripts and the features that distinguish how they are read.
Scholars from different parts of the world describe several different scripts, e.g. Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Indian Amerindian -- and how they are learned. Research data and theories are presented.
This book should be of primary interest to educators and researchers in reading and writing around the world.

David R. Olson is University Professor Emeritus of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto. He has written extensively on language, literacy, and cognition, including the widely anthologized article 'From Utterance to Text: The Bias of Language in Speech and Writing' (1977). His book The World on Paper (Cambridge University Press, 1994) has been translated into several languages. He is co-editor with Nancy Torrance of The Handbook of Education and Human Development (1996), co-editor with Michael Cole of Technology, Literacy and the Evolution of Society: Implications of the Work of Jack Goody (2006), co-editor with Janet Astington and Paul Harris of Developing Theories of Mind (Cambridge University Press, 1988), co-editor with Nancy Torrance of Literacy and Orality (Cambridge University Press, 1991), and co-editor with Nancy Torrance and Angela Hildyard of Literacy, Language and Learning (Cambridge University Press, 1985). His most recent authored book is Psychological Theory and Educational Reform: How School Remakes Mind and Society (Cambridge University Press, 2003).