Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-b6zl4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-06T16:05:59.714Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

18 - Growing Up with Multilingual Literacies and Implications for Spelling

from Part Four - Language(s) and Literacy of Multilingual Children through Schooling

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2022

By
Constanze Weth  and
Christoph Schroeder
Edited by
Anat Stavans  and
Ulrike Jessner
Anat Stavans
Affiliation:
Beit Berl College, Israel
Ulrike Jessner
Affiliation:
Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck, Austria
Get access

Summary

Growing up multilingually and in a multilingual social environment affects the acquisition of literacy. Many multilingual children learn to read and write in the language required by the institutional context. This is often a second, sometimes unfamiliar, language for them and it is the dominant language of the society they live in. However, these children might also learn, or be in contact with, other written languages used in their families and communities. The practices in all written languages vary, and family or community languages and literacies might be typologically close or distant from the language and literacy practices expected at school, which is the main institution for literacy acquisition. Unfolding the resources and needs of multilingual children’s literacy acquisition is at the center of this chapter. The contexts of literacy acquisition in multilingual societies is presented on three different levels: by defining literacy and literacies, by presenting different multilingual and multiliterate contexts, and by zooming in on one aspect of literacy, that is, spelling.

Keywords

acquisition of literacyliteracyorthographymultilingualismheritage speakersheritage languagesecond language acquisitionFrenchGermanTurkishArabic
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Childhood Multilingualism , pp. 415 - 440
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aro, M., & Wimmer, H. (2003). Learning to read: English in comparison to six more regular orthographies. Applied Psycholinguistics, 24, 621–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bahr, R. H., Silliman, E. R., Danzak, R. L., & Wilkinson, L. C. (2015). Bilingual spelling patterns in middle school: It is more than transfer. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 18 (1), 73–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bassetti, B., Escudero, P., & Hayes-Harb, R. (2015). Second language phonology at the interface between acoustic and orthographic input. Applied Psycholinguistics, 36(1), 1–6.Google Scholar
Cook, V., & Bassetti, B. (2005). An introduction to researching second language writing systems. In Cook, V. & Bassetti, B., eds., Second Language Writing Systems. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd., pp. 1–67.Google Scholar
Becker, T. (2011). Schriftspracherwerb in der Zweitsprache. Eine qualitative Längsschnittstudie. Hohengehren: Schneider.Google Scholar
Behling, G. (1996). La Transmission de la langue et de la culture occitanes. Deux études sur les motivations et les contradictions de la transmission culturelle dans la région Languedoc-Roussillon. Lengas, 41, 7–93.Google Scholar
Biber, D. (2006). University Language. A Corpus-Based Study of Spoken and Written Registers. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Biber, D., & Gray, B. (2010). Challenging stereotypes about academic writing: Complexity, elaboration, explicitness. Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 9(1), 2–20.Google Scholar
Böhm, M., Bunčić, D., & Weth, C., eds. (2020). Literacies in contact. Written Language and Literacy, 23(2).Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. (1966). L’École conservatrice: Les Inégalités devant l’école et devant la culture. Revue Française de Sociologie, 7(3), 325–47.Google Scholar
Brizić, K. (2006). Das geheime Leben der Sprachen. Eine unentdeckte migrantische Bildungsressource. Kurswechsel, 2, 32–43.Google Scholar
Bunčić, D. (2016). Biscriptality. A Sociolinguistic Typology. Heidelberg: Winter.Google Scholar
Carrillo, M. S., Alegría, J., & Marín, J. (2013). On the acquisition of some basic word spelling mechanisms in a deep (French) and a shallow (Spanish) system. Reading and Writing, 26(6), 799–819.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cenoz, J., & Gorter, D. (2011). Focus on multilingualism: A study of trilingual writing. The Modern Language Journal, 95(3), 356–69.Google Scholar
Chafe, W. (1985). Linguistic differences produced by differences between speaking and writing. In Olson, D. R., Torrance, N., & Hildyard, A., eds., Literacy, Language and Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 105–23.Google Scholar
Chung, S. C., Chen, X., & Geva, E. (2019). Deconstructing and reconstructing cross-language transfer in bilingual reading development: An interactive framework. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 50, 149–61.Google Scholar
Cohen, C. (2014). Relating input factors and dual language proficiency in French-English bilingual children. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 19(3), 296–313.Google Scholar
Cook, V. (2005). Written language and foreign language teaching. In Cook, V. & Bassetti, B., eds., Second Language Writing Systems. Cleveland: Multilingual Matters, pp. 424–41.Google Scholar
Cook, V., & Bassetti, B., eds. (2005). Second Language Writing Systems. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Coulmas, F. (2003). Writing Systems. An Introduction to Their Linguistic Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Coulmas, F. (2013). Writing and Society. An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University PressGoogle Scholar
Crawford, S. (1983). The origin and development of a concept: The information society. Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, 71(4), 380–85.Google Scholar
Dahmen, S., & Weth, C. (2018). Phonetik, Phonologie und Schrift. Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh.Google Scholar
DeFrancis, J. (1989). Visible Speech: The Diverse Oneness of Writing Systems. Honolulu: University of Honolulu.Google Scholar
de Ruiter, J. J. (2008). La France et les Pays-Bas, deux pays plurilingues. In de Ruiter, J. J., ed., Langues et cultures en contact. Le cas des langues et cultures arabes et turques en France et en Pays-Bas. Paris: L’Harmattan, pp. 7–17.Google Scholar
Durgunoğlu, A., Mir, M., & Arino-Marti, S. (2002). The relationship between bilingual children’s reading and writing in their two languages. In Ransdell, S. & Barbier, M. L., eds., Psycholinguistic Approaches to Understanding Second-Language Writing Dordrecht: Kluwer, pp. 81–100.Google Scholar
Ezzaki, A., Spratt, J. E., & Wagner, D. A. (1987). Childhood literacy acquisition in rural Morocco: Effects of language differences and Quranic preschooling. In Wagner, D. A., ed., The Future of Literacy in a Changing World. Oxford/New York: Pergamon Books. pp. 159–73.Google Scholar
Fayol, M. (2017). L’Acquisition de l’écrit. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, J., & Shanahan, T. (2000). Reading and writing relations and their development. Educational Psychologist, 35(1), 39–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flores, N., & Rosa, J. (2015). Undoing appropriateness: Raciolinguistic ideologies and language diversity in education. Harvard Educational Review 85(2), 149–71.Google Scholar
Fuhrhop, N. (2008). Das graphematische Wort (im Deutschen): Eine erste Annäherung. Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft, 27(2), 189–228.Google Scholar
Fuhrhop, N. (2018). Graphematik des Deutschen im europäischen Vergleich. In Wöllstein, A., Gallmann, P., Habermann, M., & Krifka, M., eds., Grammatiktheorie und Empirie in der germanistischen Linguistik. Berlin: de Gruyter, pp. 585–613.Google Scholar
Genesee, F. Geva, E., Dressler, C., & Kamil, M. (2008). Cross-linguistic relationships in second-language learners. In August, D. & Shanahan, T., eds., Developing Reading and Writing in Second-Language Learners. New York: Routledge, pp. 61–94.Google Scholar
Hall, J. L. (2015). Debating Darija: Language Ideology and the Written Representation of Moroccan Arabic. Doctoral dissertation, University of Michigan.Google Scholar
Heath, S. B. (1983). Ways with Words: Language, Life, and Work in Communities and Classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hornberger, N. H. (2007). Biliteracy, transnationalism, multimodality, and identity: Trajectories across time and space. Linguistics and Education, 8, 325–34.Google Scholar
Jørgensen, J. N. (2008). Polylingual languaging around and among children and adolescents. International Journal of Multilingualism, 5(3), 161–76.Google Scholar
Kabak, B., & Vogel, I. (2001). The phonological word and stress assignment in Turkish. Phonology 18, 315–60.Google Scholar
Kalkavan-Aydın, Z. (2012). Orthographische Markierungen des Deutschen in türkischsprachigen Lernertexten. In Grießhaber, W. & Kalkavan-Aydın, Z., eds., Orthographie- und Schriftspracherwerb bei mehrsprachigen Kindern. Freiburg: Fillibach, pp. 57–80.Google Scholar
Kurvers, J., van Hout, R., & Vallen, T. (2009). Print awareness of adult illiterates: A comparison with young pre-readers and low educated adult readers. Reading and Writing, 22, 863–87.Google Scholar
Laghzaoui, M. (2008). Développement de la langue académique chez des enfants marocains amazighes aux Pays-Bas. In de Ruiter, J. J., ed., Langues et cultures en contact. Le cas des langues et cultures arabes et turques en France et en Pays-Bas. Paris: L’Harmattan, pp. 125–47.Google Scholar
Lohndal, T, Rothman, J. Kupisch, T., & Westergaard, M. (2019). Heritage language acquisition: What it reveals and why it is important for formal linguistic theories. Language and Linguistics Compass, 36(3), e12357.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maas, U. (2008). Sprache und Sprachen in der Migrationsgesellschaft: die schriftkulturelle Dimension. Göttingen: V&R Unipress.Google Scholar
Marley, D. (2004). Language attitudes in Morocco following recent change in language policy. Language Policy, 3, 25–46.Google Scholar
Martin-Jones, M., & Jones, K. E. (2000). Multilingual Literacies: Reading and Writing in Different Worlds. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Mehlem, U. (2007). The graphematic representation of prepositional phrases in experimental writing of Tarifit Berber by Moroccan students in Germany and Morocco. Written Language & Literacy, 10(2), 195–218.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Menz, A., & Schroeder, C. (2015). Schrifterwerb in der Türkei (und türkischer Schriftspracherwerb in Deutschland). In Röber, C. & Olfert, H., eds., Schriftsprach- und Orthographieerwerb: Erstlesen, Erstschreiben. Baltmannsweiler: Schneider, pp. 55–68.Google Scholar
Merklinger, D. (2011). Frühe Zugänge zur Schriftlichkeit. Eine explorative Studie zum Diktieren. Freiburg: Fillibach.Google Scholar
Montrul, S. (2016). The Acquisition of Heritage Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Morin, O., Kelly, P., & Winters, J. (2018). Writing, graphic codes, and asynchronous communication. Topics in Cognitive Science, 12(2), 727–43.Google Scholar
New London Group (1996). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Designing social futures. Harvard Educational Review, 66, 60–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nimz, K., & Khattab, G. (2019). On the role of orthography in L2 vowel production: The case of Polish learners of German. Second Language Research, 36(4), 623–52.Google Scholar
Olson, D. R. (1994). The World on Paper. The Conceptual and Cognitive Implications of Writing and Reading. Cambridge: Cambridge: University Press.Google Scholar
Ravid, D. (2012). Spelling Morphology: The Psycholinguistics of Hebrew Spelling. New York: Springer.Google Scholar
Sampson, G. (1985). Writing Systems: A Linguistic Introduction. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Saenger, P. (1998). The Origins of Silent Reading. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Schleppegrell, M. (2004). The Language of Schooling: A Functional Linguistics Perspective. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schroeder, C. (2020). The later acquisition of orthography in heritage Turkish in Germany. Written Language and Literacy, 23(2), 251–71.Google Scholar
Schroeder, C., & Şimşek, Y. (2010). Die Entwicklung der Kategorie Wort im Türkisch-Deutsch bilingualen Schrifterwerb in Deutschland. IMIS Beiträge, 37, 55–79.Google Scholar
Sebba, M., Mahootian, S., & Jonsson, C., eds. (2012). Language Mixing and Code-Switching in Writing. Approaches to Mixed-Language Written Discourse. New York/London: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Silverstein, M. (2003). Indexical order and the dialectics of sociolinguistic life. Language & Communication, 23(3–4), 193–229.Google Scholar
Snyder, I. (2002). Silicon Literacies: Communication, Innovation and Education in the Electronic Age. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Steinig, W., Betzel, D., Geider, F. J., & Herbold, A. (2009). Schreiben von Kindern im diachronen Vergleich. Münster: Waxmann.Google Scholar
Street, B. V. (1995). Social Literacies: Critical Approaches to Literacy in Development, Ethnography and Education. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Sürig, I., Şimşek, Y., Schroeder, C., & Boneß, A. (2016). Literacy Acquisition in School in the Context of Migration and Multilingualism. A Binational Survey. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins.Google Scholar
Şahiner, P. (2018). Vokalschreibung bei bilingual deutsch-türkischen Grundschüler/innen. Eine Fallstudie. Berlin: Erich Schmidt.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tamura, N., Castles, A., & Nation, K. (2017). Orthographic learning, fast and slow: Lexical competition effects reveal the time course of word learning in developing readers. Cognition, 163, 93–102.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Treiman, R., & Kessler, B. (2005). Writing systems and spelling development. In Snowling, M. J. & Hulme, C., eds., The Science of Reading: A Handbook. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 120–34.Google Scholar
Trifonas, P. P., & Aravossitas, T., eds. (2018). Handbook of Research and Practice in Heritage Language Education. Cham: Springer.Google Scholar
van der Horst, J. (2018). The end of the standard language: The rise and fall of a European language culture. In Weth, C. & Juffermans, K., eds., Tyranny of Writing. Ideologies of the Written Word. London: Bloomsbury, pp. 47–61.Google Scholar
Verhoeven, L. (1994). Linguistic diversity and literacy development. In Verhoeven, L., ed., Functional Literacy. Theoretical Issues and Educational Implications. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 199–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verhoeven, L, Elbro, C., & Reitsma, P. (2002). Functional literacy in a developmental perspective. In Verhoeven, L., Elbro, C., & Reitsma, P., eds., Precursors of Functional Literacy. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins, pp. 3–13.Google Scholar
Wagner, D. A. (1998). Putting second language first: Language and literacy learning in Morocco. In Durgunoğlu, A. Y. & Verhoeven, L., eds., Literacy Development in a Multilingual Context. Cross-cultural Perspectives. London: Lawrence Erlbaum, pp. 169–83.Google Scholar
Walkenhorst, A. (2020). Der Erwerb der graphematischen Kennzeichnung der Vokale des Deutschen bei deutsch-einsprachigen und zweisprachigen Kindern: Verschriftungsstrategien statt phonologischer Interferenzen. Doctoral dissertation, Universität Bielefeld.Google Scholar
Weth, C. (2014). Le provençal/L’occitan. In Klump, A., Kramer, J., & Willems, A., eds., Manuel des langues romanes. Berlin, Boston: de Gruyter, pp. 491–509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weth, C. (2015). Orthographic competence among multilingual school children: Writing Moroccan Arabic in France. International Journal of Multilingualism, 12(2), 196–209.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weth, C., & Juffermans, K., eds. (2018). Tyranny of Writing. Ideologies of the Written Word. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Weth, C., & Wollschläger, R. (2020). Spelling patterns of German 4th graders in French vowels: insights into spelling solutions within and across two alphabetic writing systems. Writing Systems Research, 11(2), 124–41.Google Scholar
Zésiger, P. (1995). Écrire. Approches cognitive, neuropsychologique et développementale. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×