C.K. Leong - Böcker

It was during a pleasant and warm (both literally and figuratively) two- week period in October, 1991 that a number of researchers, scholars and c1inicians from diverse lands gathered at the beautiful Chateau de Bonas, near Toulouse, France to discuss psychological, neuropsychological and neurolinguistic aspects of reading and writing disorders. The occasion for the serious disputations of theories, research findings and c1inical appli- cations was the Advanced Study Institute (ASI) under the auspices of the Scientific Affairs Division of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). There was much sharing of mutual experiences, and considerable debate on some issues. There were also friendly exchanges, 'international' ping-pong, tennis matches, and bicyc1e races, and even some convivial- ity akin to that of a c1ass reunion with members telling their stories of yesterday and visions of tomorrow. All these serious scientific disputations and the friendly exchanges would not have been possible without the major assistance from NATO and other institutions and individuals. We wish to express our deep appre- ciation to Dr. L. v. da Cunha ofNATO Scientific Affairs Division, Dr.Tilo Kester and Mrs. Barbara Kester of the International Transfer of Science and Technology (ITST) for their active support and substantial assistance throughout the Advanced Study Institute; Mr. Charles Stockman and his staff of the Chateau de Bonas for looking after our stay there; Christi Martin and Xi-Wu Feng of Oklahoma State University, and the University of Saskatchewan generally for facilitating our work.

This volume contains 20 chapters, grouped by languages (English, German, Dutch, Nordic and Chinese), on phonologic and orthographic processing in learning to read and spell in a cross-language perspective. The integrating theme is the importance of metalinguistic awareness and also orthographic factors in learning to read and spell in alphabetic language systems. Phonological processing reinforces orthographic processing and is in turn bolstered by the latter in emergent literacy. The interplay of these factors is stressed in the various chapters. Areas such as phonological processing subserving metalinguistic awareness are viewed as being worth further investigation. Audience: Researchers, clinicians and postgraduate students interested in the psychology of reading and spelling within the broad cross-language framework.

The main aim of this book is to find out the similarities and differences in processing the morphosyllabic Chinese and Japanese syllabary as compared with alphabetic language systems. Topics under the processing of Chinese include: the use of phonological codes in visual identification of Chinese words, the constraint on such phonological activation, recognition of Chinese homophones, Chinese sentence comprehension and children's errors in writing Chinese characters. Topics under the processing of Japanese include: the automatic recognition of kanji within an interactive-activation framework, On-reading and Kun-reading of kanji characters, processing differences between hiragana and kanji, the effect of polysemy on katakana script, and the writing behaviour of Japanese and non-Japanese speakers.

These were some of the questions that a small number of psychologists, educators, and computer scientists attempted to answer when they gathered for the Symposium Literacy and Cognition, which was held at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada from 29th to 31st October, 1987.

It was during a pleasant and warm (both literally and figuratively) two- week period in October, 1991 that a number of researchers, scholars and c1inicians from diverse lands gathered at the beautiful Chateau de Bonas, near Toulouse, France to discuss psychological, neuropsychological and neurolinguistic aspects of reading and writing disorders. The occasion for the serious disputations of theories, research findings and c1inical appli- cations was the Advanced Study Institute (ASI) under the auspices of the Scientific Affairs Division of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). There was much sharing of mutual experiences, and considerable debate on some issues. There were also friendly exchanges, 'international' ping-pong, tennis matches, and bicyc1e races, and even some convivial- ity akin to that of a c1ass reunion with members telling their stories of yesterday and visions of tomorrow. All these serious scientific disputations and the friendly exchanges would not have been possible without the major assistance from NATO and other institutions and individuals. We wish to express our deep appre- ciation to Dr. L. v. da Cunha ofNATO Scientific Affairs Division, Dr.Tilo Kester and Mrs. Barbara Kester of the International Transfer of Science and Technology (ITST) for their active support and substantial assistance throughout the Advanced Study Institute; Mr. Charles Stockman and his staff of the Chateau de Bonas for looking after our stay there; Christi Martin and Xi-Wu Feng of Oklahoma State University, and the University of Saskatchewan generally for facilitating our work.

This volume contains 20 chapters, grouped by languages (English, German, Dutch, Nordic and Chinese), on phonologic and orthographic processing in learning to read and spell in a cross-language perspective. The integrating theme is the importance of metalinguistic awareness and also orthographic factors in learning to read and spell in alphabetic language systems. Phonological processing reinforces orthographic processing and is in turn bolstered by the latter in emergent literacy. The interplay of these factors is stressed in the various chapters. Areas such as phonological processing subserving metalinguistic awareness are viewed as being worth further investigation. Audience: Researchers, clinicians and postgraduate students interested in the psychology of reading and spelling within the broad cross-language framework.

The area of cognitive processing of Chinese and Japanese is currently attracting a great deal of attention by leading cognitive psychologists. They aim to find out the similarities and differences in processing the morphosyllabic Chinese and Japanese syllabary as compared with alphabetic language systems. Topics under the processing of Chinese include: the use of phonological codes in visual identification of Chinese words, the constraint on such phonological activation, recognition of Chinese homophones, Chinese sentence comprehension and children's errors in writing Chinese characters. Topics under the processing of Japanese include: the automatic recognition of kanji within an interactive-activation framework, On-reading and Kun-reading of kanji characters, processing differences between hiragana and kanji, the effect of polysemy on katakana script, and the writing behavior of Japanese and non-Japanese speakers. The interactive-activation model provides the phonologic-orthographic links in processing both language systems. The present volume should add greatly to our understanding of this topic. Many of the contributors are internationally known for their experimental psychological work.