he problem of how to represent spoken language in writing has historically been solved in different ways (Daniels & Bright, 1996;Gaur, 1992). One distinction is whether to "write what you mean" or "write what you say." Logographic systems such as Chinese and Japanese kanji use symbols to represent meaning directly and have no or comparatively few cues to pronunciation. Other writing systems represent speech sounds. The characters of syllabic systems such as the Japanese kana correspond with spoken syllables, whereas those of alphabetic systems correspond with separate phonemes. However, alphabetic orthographies vary in the degree to which they are regular in their representation of sound. The writing systems of Serbo-Croatian, Finnish, Welsh, Spanish, Dutch, Turkish, and German are on the whole much more regular in symbol-sound correspondences than those of English and French. The former are referred to as transparent or shallow orthographies in which sound-symbol correspondences are highly consistent, while the latter are referred to as opaque or deep orthographies that are less consistent because each letter or group of letters may represent different sounds in different words.Do these different writing systems affect the ways in which children learn to read? What, if any, are the effects of a written language's writing system on rate of literacy acquisition? The orthographic depth hypothesis (Katz & Frost, 1992) speaks to these questions because it postulates that shallow orthographies should be easier to read using word-recognition processes that involve the language's phonology. T 438 439THIS STUDY investigated the effects of orthographic depth on reading acquisition in alphabetic, syllabic, and logographic scripts. Children between 6 and 15 years old read aloud in transparent syllabic Japanese hiragana, alphabets of increasing orthographic depth (Albanian, Greek, English), and orthographically opaque Japanese kanji ideograms, with items being matched cross-linguistically for word frequency. This study analyzed response accuracy, latency, and error types. Accuracy correlated with depth: Hiragana was read more accurately than, in turn, Albanian, Greek, English, and kanji. The deeper the orthography, the less latency was a function of word length, the greater the proportion of errors that were no-responses, and the more the substantive errors tended to be whole-word substitutions rather than nonword mispronunciations. Orthographic depth thus affected both rate and strategy of reading.The effects of orthographic depth on learning to read alphabetic, syllabic, and logographic scripts ESTE ESTUDIO investigó los efectos de la profundidad ortográfica en la adquisición de la lectura en sistemas de escritura alfabético, silábico y logográfico. Niños entre 6 y 15 años leyeron en voz alta en el sistema transparente silábico japonés hiragana, en sistemas alfabéticos de opacidad creciente (albanés, griego, inglés) y en el sistema ortográficamente opaco de los ideogramas japoneses kanji. Los ítem fueron apareados según la...

The present study reports on the construction of a research instrument developed to examine preschool teachers' beliefs and practices in relation to emergent literacy. A 130-item survey (Preschool Literacy Survey, PLS) was completed by a total of 90 preschool teachers in Norway. Items were grouped into homogenous scales, and the relationship between beliefs and practices was examined using structural equation modelling. The structural model for all preschool teachers was compared in a qualitative way with the structural model for a random group of preschool teachers (n ¼ 54), who had not participated in literacy-awareness training to look at whether the effects of literacy-awareness training could be assessed with the PLS. The main results show that teachers who took part in the literacy-awareness training were more homogeneous in respect of their beliefs and practices, that their beliefs were strongly underpinned by their beliefs about the specific role of the preschool teacher and by their beliefs about practices consistent with current research. Finally, it seems that the literacy-awareness programme affected the beliefs rather than the practices of preschool teachers. How a PLS can further contribute to research on early literacy in preschools and preschool teacher training is discussed.

Because multimedia computer programs may provide promising opportunities for the training of initial reading and spelling skills, two small-scale pilot studies have been conducted with a recently-developed program to examine its efficacy and impact on the motivation of the users. The first study is concerned with the use of the program in kindergarten children (K2). As there is no curriculum for these children, a computer program that is fully adaptive may well boost their independence in learning to read and spell. The main finding in this study was that kindergarten readers learned in up to 16 hours of computer practice as much as is normally attained in the first 3 months of formal reading instruction in the classroom. In the second study, reading-disabled students with low levels of motivation engaged in computer-based spelling practice. The most important finding in this study was that the amount of non-task directed behaviour of those who had practised with the computer significantly decreased during both computer sessions and classroom sessions. In the discussion the way in which computers can be used most efficiently for the instruction of reading and spelling is analysed and suggestions for further research and development are presented.

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To examine the effects of computer-based reading and spelling practice on the development of reading and spelling skills, a pretest-training-posttest experiment was conducted in The Netherlands. Eleven girls and 17 boys with written language disorders (on the average, 9 years, 7 months old and performing 2 grades below age expectancy) practiced hard-to-read words under three conditions: reading from the computer screen, copying from the screen, and writing from memory after presentation on the screen. For all words, whole-word sound was available on call during practice. To assess learning effects, both a dictation and a read-aloud task were administered in which nonpracticed control words were also presented. During training, the computer kept record of several aspects of the pupils' learning behavior. It was found that copying words from the screen resulted in significantly fewer spelling errors on the posttest than writing words from memory, and that both forms of spelling practice led to fewer spelling errors than only reading words during practice. All three forms of practice improved to the same degree both the accuracy and fluency of reading the practiced words aloud. The way in which spelling and reading practice, in combination with speech feedback, support the development of phonological skills in children with written language disorders is highlighted in the discussion.