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Benedetta BASSETTI

Professore Associato
Dipartimento Educazione e Scienze Umane

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Pubblicazioni

2023 - Effects of Orthography on Second Language Phonology: Learning, Awareness, Perception and Production [Monografia/Trattato scientifico]
Bassetti, Benedetta
abstract

This is the first book devoted to the effects of orthographic forms (spellings) on second language phonology. Written by one of the pioneer researchers in the field, the book provides an authoritative overview of the effects of spellings on the perception, production, awareness, learning and teaching of sounds and spoken words in a second language. Using the findings and implications from a large-scale research project at its centre, the book reveals that English consonants spelled with double letters lead Italian learners and users of English as a second language to perceive, produce, classify, and learn English consonants as geminates (long consonants). Presenting a narrative of a second language research project, and discussing its implications, the book will be of interest to scholars and researchers in the fields of orthography, phonology, and speech and language perception. Language teaching practitioners will also find the book useful.

2023 - Learning Sanskrit as a sacred language in the West: A narrative study [Articolo su rivista]
Bassetti, Benedetta; Reinboldt, Rosicler
abstract

Aims and objectives: This exploratory study investigates experiences and perceptions of Sanskrit language learning in Western non-heritage learners by analysing their language learning narratives. Methodology: Sanskrit language learning narratives were elicited through unstructured interviews. Data and analysis: Four Italian adults at a Sanskrit language Saturday class in Italy volunteered to participate: The teacher and three students, all yoga practitioners. Narratives were analysed using a combination of structured, thematic, and discursive approaches based on Riesman’s dialogic/ performance approach. Findings: Sanskrit appears to be a sacred language to these learners, as it is the language of ancient philosophical or spiritual texts, and its sound has special effects on the mind and body. They learn Sanskrit to access texts in the original language and appear to have internalised Sanskritic views of perfection of the sounds of Sanskrit, their effects, and the joy of Sanskrit. Their approach to learning Sanskrit is at the interface of Western and Sanskritic traditions, as they embrace Western grammar translation and Sanskritic teacher-disciple oral transmission and ignore the Western communicative approach and Sanskritic rote memorisation. Originality: This is the first investigation of Sanskrit learning in non-heritage Western settings and one of the first to investigate the learning of a sacred language. Yoga practitioners are a hitherto unexplored population in language learning research. A narrative approach facilitates the exploration of participants’ meaning-making and understanding. Significance: The study contributes to the emerging field of research on the learning of sacred languages, revealing some similarities and differences between learners of Sanskrit and other sacred languages. It shows that narratives provide suitable data for researching sacred language learning.

2023 - The learning of sacred languages [Capitolo/Saggio]
Bassetti, Bene
abstract

2022 - Language and counterfactual reasoning in Chinese, English and Chinese L1 -English L2 reasoners [Articolo su rivista]
Bassetti, Bene
abstract

Aims: No recent studies have investigated language effects on counterfactual reasoning in bilinguals. This paper investigates the impact of bilinguals' native language and language of testing on counterfactual reasoning, addressing two questions: (1) Do older Chinese reasoners, educated before English became a school subject, draw different inferences, or use different cues to draw inferences, compared with English peers and younger Chinese(L1) reasoners? Does knowing English affect their reasoning? and (2) Do Chinese reasoners draw different inferences, or use different cues, when tested in Chinese and when tested in English? Design: Experiment 1: The explanatory variables are first language (between-group: Chinese, English), age cohort (between-group: young, older), inferential chain length (within-group: short, long). Experiment 2: The explanatory variables are language of testing (between-group: Chinese, English) and inferential chain length (within-group: short, long). The outcome is the consequent probability rating. Open questions investigate cues used to draw inferences. Analysis: The sample comprised 188 participants. Generalised linear mixed-effects models were used for quantitative data, thematic analysis for qualitative data. Findings: Older Chinese speakers rate long-chain consequents as more probable than English peers. Chinese and English reasoners use different cues to make inferences, as do Chinese reasoners tested in Chinese L1 or English L2. Originality: This is the first paper to compare Chinese reasoners educated before and after English entered the school curriculum, and to investigate inferential chain length effects on Chinese counterfactual reasoning. It introduces a novel task (consequent evaluation), and adopts a mixed-method approach to investigate both the product and process of reasoning, using quantitative and qualitative data respectively. Significance: The study provides new evidence and interpretation for the old debate about language effects on counterfactual reasoning in cognitive psychology; shows that conditional reasoning is a fruitful topic for linguistic relativity and bilingual cognition research; and testifies that qualitative data allows detection of differences in thinking processes.

2022 - Researching language and cognition in bilinguals [Articolo su rivista]
Bassetti, Bene; Filipovi??, Luna
abstract

2022 - The efficacy of grapheme-phoneme correspondence instruction in reducing the effect of orthographic forms on second language phonology [Articolo su rivista]
Bassetti, Benedetta; Cerni, Tania; Masterson, Jackie
abstract

The orthographic forms (spellings) of second language (L2) words and sounds affect the pronunciation and awareness of L2 sounds, even after lengthy naturalistic exposure. This study investigated whether instruction could reduce the effects of English orthographic forms on Italian native speakers' pronunciation and awareness of L2 English sounds. Italians perceive, produce, and judge the same sound as a short sound if it is spelled with one letter and as a long sound if it is spelled with a digraph, due to L1 Italian grapheme-phoneme correspondence (GPC) rules whereby double consonant letters represent long consonants. Totally, 100 Italian learners of English were allocated to two conditions (final n = 88). The participants in the explicit GPC (EGPC) condition discovered English GPC rules relating to sound length through reflection, explicit teaching, and practice; the participants in the passive exposure condition practiced the same words as the EGPC participants, but with no mention of GPCs. Pre- and postintervention production (delayed word repetition) and phonological awareness (rhyme judgment) tasks revealed no positive effects of the instruction. GPC instruction appears to be ineffective in reducing orthographic effects on L2 phonology. Orthographic effects may be impervious to change, whether by naturalistic exposure or by instruction.

2021 - Orthographic forms affect speech perception in a second language: Consonant and vowel length in L2 English [Articolo su rivista]
Bassetti, Bene; Masterson, Jackie; Cerni, Tania; Mairano, Paolo
abstract

Italian(L1) speakers of English(L2) produce the same English sound as longer if spelled with two than with one letter, following Italian grapheme-phoneme conversion rules. Do Italian listeners perceive short and long sounds in English homophonic word pairs that are spelled with a single letter or a digraph (finish-Finnish; morning-mourning)? In Experiment 1, 50 Italian(L1)-English(L2) bilinguals and 50 English controls performed a Consonant Perception task and a Vowel Perception Task. They heard English homophonic word pairs containing a target sound spelled with one or two letters and indicated whether the two words contained the same sounds or not. For half of the listeners a picture was used to activate target words (Auditory-Visual Input group). Bilinguals in this group perceived different sounds in homophonic pairs. Experiment 2 tested whether naturalistic exposure reduces orthographic effects on speech perception by comparing learners, sequential bilinguals, and English controls (all n = 30) with Auditory-Visual Input. Orthographic form (spelling) affected consonant perception in both of the second language listener groups. Learners were less affected than bilinguals. Analyses indicated that this was because of the learners' high proficiency. It appears that Italian(L1) speakers of English(L2) make a long-short contrast for consonants-unattested in English-and illusorily perceive it in spoken English homophonous words.Public Significance Statement The findings strongly suggest that spelling affects speech perception in a second language. Italian native speakers listened to pairs of English homophonic words (having the same sound) where a sound was spelled with one letter in one word and two letters in the other. The number of letters (one or two) in English spelling leads second language listeners to perceive an illusory contrast between short and long sounds in spoken English that does not exist in the English language. The findings highlight the importance of orthographic input in establishing mental representations of the phonological form (sound) of second language words. Findings also indicate that large amounts of naturalistic exposure do not reduce the effects of orthographic forms on second language speakers' speech perception.

2020 - Effects of Orthographic Forms on Second Language Speech Production and Phonological Awareness, With Consideration of Speaker‐Level Predictors [Articolo su rivista]
Bassetti, Benedetta; Mairano, Paolo; Masterson, Jackie; Cerni, Tania
abstract

Orthographic forms (spellings) can affect pronunciation in a second language (L2); however, it is not known whether the same orthographic form can affect both L2 pronunciation and metalinguistic awareness. To test this, we asked 260 speakers of English-first-language (L1) English speakers, L1 Italian and L2 English sequential bilinguals, and L1 Italian learners of L2 English-to perform word repetition tasks and rhyme judgment tasks for word pairs containing the same consonant or vowel spelled with a letter or a digraph. L1 Italian speakers established a long-short contrast and used consonant and vowel length contrastively in their L2 English, both in production and in an awareness task. This provides evidence for a direct link between the effects of the same orthographic phenomenon on speech production and on metalinguistic awareness. Results were strengthened by combining experimental and qualitative data in the study of orthographic effects. Finally, the results show that proficiency predicts orthographic effects, and that orthographic effect predictors vary in naturalistic and instructed contexts.

2020 - English orthographic forms affect L2 English speech production in native users of a non-alphabetic writing system [Articolo su rivista]
Sokolović-Perović, Mirjana; Bassetti, Bene; Dillon, Susannah
abstract

There is growing evidence that the orthographic forms (spellings) of second language words affect second language (L2) speech production, but it is not known whether orthography affects L2 phonology in native users of a non-alphabetic writing system. To answer this question, this study tested the effects of number of letters on the duration of consonants and vowels in the English(L2) speech production of Japanese-English sequential bilinguals. Japanese(L1)-English(L2) bilinguals and English native speakers (both n = 16) performed a delayed word repetition task, producing 16 English word pairs in which the same consonant or vowel was spelled either with a single letter or with double letters, as in city-kitty. The bilinguals produced the same English sound as longer or shorter depending on the number of letters in its spelling, confirming that L2 orthographic forms affect L2 speakers' phonological representations of L2 words even when their L1 writing system is not alphabetical.

2019 - Effects of Orthographic Forms on the Acquisition of Novel Spoken Words in a Second Language [Articolo su rivista]
Cerni, Tania; Bassetti, Benedetta; Masterson, Jackie
abstract

The orthographic forms of words (spellings) can affect word production in speakers of second languages. This study tested whether presenting orthographic forms during L2 word learning can lead speakers to learn non-nativelike phonological forms of L2 words, as reflected in production and metalinguistic awareness. Italian(L1) learners of English as a Second Language (English(L2)) were exposed to English(L2) novel spoken words (pseudowords) and real words in association with pictures either from auditory input only (Phonology group), or from both auditory and orthographic input (Phonology & Orthography group, both groups n = 24). Pseudowords and words were designed to obtain 30 semi-minimal pairs, each consisting of a word and a pseudoword that contained the same target consonant, spelled with one letter or with double letters. In Italian double consonant letters represent a long consonant, whereas the English language does not contrast short and long consonants. After the learning phase, participants performed a production task (picture naming), a metalinguistic awareness task (rhyme judgment) and a spelling task. Results showed that the Phonology & Orthography group produced the same consonant as longer in double-letter than in single-letter lexical items, while this was not the case for the Phonology group. The former group also rejected spoken rhymes that contained the same consonant spelled with a single letter in one word and double letters in the other, because they considered these as two different phonological categories. Finally, the Phonology & Orthography group learned more novel words than the Phonology group, showing that orthographic input results in more word learning, in line with previous findings from native speakers.

2018 - Effects of L1 orthography and L1 phonology on L2 english pronunciation [Articolo su rivista]
Mairano, P.; Bassetti, B.; Sokolovic-Perovic, M.; Cerni, T.
abstract

2018 - Orthography-Induced Length Contrasts in the Second Language Phonological Systems of L2 Speakers of English: Evidence from Minimal Pairs [Articolo su rivista]
Bassetti, Bene; Sokolović-Perović, Mirjana; Mairano, Paolo; Cerni, Tania
abstract

Research shows that the orthographic forms ("spellings") of second language (L2) words affect speech production in L2 speakers. This study investigated whether English orthographic forms lead L2 speakers to produce English homophonic word pairs as phonological minimal pairs. Targets were 33 orthographic minimal pairs, that is to say homophonic words that would be pronounced as phonological minimal pairs if orthography affects pronunciation. Word pairs contained the same target sound spelled with one letter or two, such as the /n/ in finish and Finnish (both /|f?n??/ in Standard British English). To test for effects of length and type of L2 exposure, we compared Italian instructed learners of English, Italian-English late bilinguals with lengthy naturalistic exposure, and English natives. A reading-aloud task revealed that Italian speakers of English(L2) produce two English homophonic words as a minimal pair distinguished by different consonant or vowel length, for instance producing the target /|f?n??/ with a short [n] or a long [nMODIFIER LETTER TRIANGULAR COLON] to reflect the number of consonant letters in the spelling of the words finish and Finnish. Similar effects were found on the pronunciation of vowels, for instance in the orthographic pair scene-seen (both /siMODIFIER LETTER TRIANGULAR COLONn/). Naturalistic exposure did not reduce orthographic effects, as effects were found both in learners and in late bilinguals living in an English-speaking environment. It appears that the orthographic form of L2 words can result in the establishment of a phonological contrast that does not exist in the target language. Results have implications for models of L2 phonological development.

2018 - The linguistic transparency of first language calendar terms affects calendar calculations in a second language [Articolo su rivista]
Bassetti, Bene; Clarke, Annie; Trenkic, Danijela
abstract

Calendar calculations e.g., calculating the nth month after a certain month are an important component of temporal cognition, and can vary cross-linguistically. English speakers rely on a verbal list representation-processing system. Chinese speakers whose calendar terms are numerically transparent rely on a more efficient numerical system. Does knowing a numerically transparent calendar lexicon facilitate calendar calculations in an opaque second language? Late Chinese-English bilinguals and English native speakers performed a Month and a Weekday Calculation Task in English. Directionality (forward/backward) and boundary-crossing (within/across the year/week boundary) were manipulated. English speakers relied on verbal list processing, and were slower in backward than forward calculations. In spite of the English calendar system's opaqueness, bilinguals relied on numerical processing, were slower in across- than within-boundary trials, and under some conditions had faster RTs than the native speakers. Results have implications for research on temporal cognition, linguistic relativity and bilingual cognition.

2017 - Orthography affects second language speech: Double letters and geminate production in English [Articolo su rivista]
Bassetti, Bene
abstract

Second languages (L2s) are often learned through spoken and written input, and L2 orthographic forms (spellings) can lead to non-native-like pronunciation. The present study investigated whether orthography can lead experienced learners of EnglishL2 to make a phonological contrast in their speech production that does not exist in English. Double consonants represent geminate (long) consonants in Italian but not in English. In Experiment 1, native English speakers and EnglishL2 speakers (Italians) were asked to read aloud English words spelled with a single or double target consonant letter, and consonant duration was compared. The EnglishL2 speakers produced the same consonant as shorter when it was spelled with a single letter, and longer when spelled with a double letter. Spelling did not affect consonant duration in native English speakers. In Experiment 2, effects of orthographic input were investigated by comparing 2 groups of EnglishL2 speakers (Italians) performing a delayed word repetition task with or without orthographic input; the same orthographic effects were found in both groups. These results provide arguably the first evidence that L2 orthographic forms can lead experienced L2 speakers to make a contrast in their L2 production that does not exist in the language. The effect arises because L2 speakers are affected by the interaction between the L2 orthographic form (number of letters), and their native orthography-phonology mappings, whereby double consonant letters represent geminate consonants. These results have important implications for future studies investigating the effects of orthography on native phonology and for L2 phonological development models.

2016 - Effects of interword spacing on native English readers of Chinese as a second language [Articolo su rivista]
Bassetti, B; Lu, Mh
abstract

Interword spacing facilitates English native readers but not native readers of Chinese, a writing system that does not mark word boundaries. L1-English readers of Chinese as a Second Language (CSL) could then be facilitated if spacing is added between words in Chinese materials. However, previous studies produced inconsistent results. This study tested the hypothesis that interword spacing facilitates L1-English CSL readers. We used an online multiple-choice gap-filling task to test 12 English CSL readers and 12 Chinese natives reading a series of eight texts of suitable difficulty, written with or without interword spacing. The CSL readers read faster with interword spacing than without, while Chinese native readers were not affected. The interword spacing effect was negatively correlated with measures of reading proficiency. It is argued that interword spacing facilitates CSL readers reading materials of sufficient complexity by facilitating their lexical parsing. Pedagogical implications are discussed.

2015 - Effects of orthographic forms on pronunciation in experienced instructed second language learners [Articolo su rivista]
Bassetti, Benedetta; Atkinson, Nathan
abstract

In spite of burgeoning evidence that the orthographic forms ("spellings") of second language (L2) words affect L2 learners' pronunciation, little is known about the pronunciation of known words in experienced learners. In a series of four studies, we investigated various orthographic effects on the pronunciation of L2 English words in instructed learners with 10 years' experience of learning English. Participants were native users of the phonologically transparent Italian writing system. Study 1 investigated the pronunciation of "silent letters," using a word-reading task and a word-repetition task. Study 2 examined the effects of vowel spelling on vowel duration, namely, whether L2 speakers produce the same target vowel as longer when it is spelled with a vowel digraph than with a singleton letter. Study 3 explored the effects of the morphemic spelling of the past tense marker using a verb paradigm production task. Study 4 tested whether L2 speakers produce homophonic words differently when they are spelled differently. Results confirmed that orthographic forms affect experienced instructed learners' pronunciation of known words, albeit less so in immediate word repetition than in reading-aloud tasks.

2015 - Research on grammatical gender and thought in early and emergent bilinguals [Articolo su rivista]
Bassetti, Benedetta; Nicoladis, Elena
abstract

Aims and objectives/purpose/research questions: This article reviews recent research on how speaking a language that marks gender grammatically might affect thinking, and on the relationship between grammatical gender knowledge of more than one language, and thinking, in both early and emergent bilinguals.Design/methodology/approach: The paper provides a comprehensive review of previous research, as well as an introduction to, and an evaluation of, the articles in this special issue.Findings/conclusions: Several themes emerge in the research on grammatical gender and thinking in bilinguals. First, knowledge of more than one language could reduce the effects of grammatical gender on thinking. Second, these effects may depend on the combination of languages being acquired. Third, researchers are starting to identify other variables that might affect when and how grammatical gender influences thinking, including proficiency and the choice of tasks.Originality: This manuscript synthesises the previously scattered research on grammatical gender and thinking in bilinguals.Significance/implications: This is the first full-length overview paper about the relationship between grammatical gender and thinking in speakers of more than one language.

2015 - Second language phonology at the interface between acoustic and orthographic input [Articolo su rivista]
Bassetti, Benedetta; Escudero, Paola; HAYES-HARB, Rachel
abstract

2014 - Is grammatical gender considered arbitrary or semantically motivated? Evidence from young adult monolinguals, second language learners, and early bilinguals [Articolo su rivista]
Bassetti, Bene
abstract

It is generally assumed that speakers of grammatical gender languages consider grammatical gender arbitrary, but this assumption has never been tested. Research shows that the grammatical gender of nouns can affect perceptions of the masculinity or femininity of the noun's referent in speakers of languages with masculine and feminine noun classes. However, bilingualism facilitates the development of lexical arbitrariness awareness, and could therefore affect awareness of grammatical gender arbitrariness. This study then compared three groups of young adult speakers of a grammatical gender language: monolinguals, early bilinguals, and instructed second language learners. Participants evaluated the gender assignments of 25 nouns of entities (animals, abstract concepts, natural kinds, and artefacts), and answered open and closed questions about grammatical gender. Participants considered grammatical gender as semantically motivated and mostly related gender assignments to perceived masculine or feminine connotations of referents. Knowledge of an additional grammatical gender language was linked to increased awareness of the arbitrariness of first language gender assignments in both early bilinguals and later instructed learners. It is argued that grammatical gender awareness deserves further investigation. Knowing more than one grammatical gender language can increase awareness of grammatical gender arbitrariness. Implications are discussed for language teaching and language reform.

2012 - Bilingualism and Writing Systems [Capitolo/Saggio]
Bassetti, B.
abstract

Each language is written with its own writing system. Users of different writing systems differ in reading, writing, literacy acquisition, metalinguistic awareness, and nonlinguistic cognition. This leads to the question of how knowledge of more than one writing system affects biliterate bilinguals, that is, speakers of more than one language who are literate in more than one language. This chapter introduces some basic concepts and then overviews three topics: first, bilinguals' reading, writing, and learning of writing systems; second, how biliterates differ from monoliterates; and finally the metalinguistic and cognitive consequences of biliteracy. The main idea behind the chapter is that knowledge of two writing systems changes bilinguals' minds, and that biliterates differ from monoliterates. © 2013 Blackwell Publishing, Ltd.

2012 - Effects of removing morphemic information and adding interword spacing on reading in Chinese experienced and inexperienced readers [Articolo su rivista]
Bassetti, B; Masterson, J
abstract

Two experiments tested the role of morphemic information and interword spacing in reading in experienced and inexperienced Chinese readers. Chinese is normally written in hanzi, or characters, which mostly represent monosyllabic morphemes, but it can also be written in pinyin, or romanised Chinese, which represents phonemes and is word-spaced. While previous research has shown that Chinese readers are slower with pinyin than hanzi materials, this has mostly been explained in terms of lack of proficiency in pinyin reading. The present study aimed at testing whether pinyin reading may be slow because morphemic information is needed for fluent Chinese reading, and phonemic information alone is not sufficient; for this purpose, the study included not only adults but also primary school students, who are experienced pinyin readers and unproficient hanzi readers. Participants performed a sentence-picture verification task. Sentences were written with morphemic or phonemic information (in hanzi or pinyin, respectively), and with interword or inter-morpheme spacing. Removing morphemic information had strong negative effects on all readers, including children. Adding interword spacing had no facilitative effects, and had some negative effects, especially with children. Results reveal the important role of morphemic information in Chinese reading, and fail to support the universality of the facilitative effects of interword spacing.

2009 - Effects of adding interword spacing on Chinese reading: A comparison of Chinese native readers and English readers of Chinese as a second language [Articolo su rivista]
Bassetti, Benedetta
abstract

English is written with interword spacing, and eliminating it negatively affects English readers. Chinese is written without interword spacing, and adding it does not facilitate Chinese readers. Pinyin (romanized Chinese) is written with interword spacing. This study investigated whether adding interword spacing facilitates reading in Chinese native readers and English readers of Chinese as a second language. Participants performed two sentence-picture verification tasks with sentences written with pinyin or hanzi (characters). Interword spacing facilitated pinyin reading in English readers but not in Chinese readers; it did not affect hanzi reading in either group. The effects of interword spacing on second language reading appear to be determined by characteristics of both readers' first language writing system and the writing system being read.

2008 - Orthographic Input and Second Language Phonology [Capitolo/Saggio]
Bassetti, Benedetta
abstract

2007 - Bilingualism and thought: Grammatical gender and concepts of objects in Italian-German bilingual children [Articolo su rivista]
Bassetti, Benedetta
abstract

This paper investigates whether bilinguals' and monolinguals' concepts of entities differ when the bilinguals' two languages provide two different representations of the same entity. Previous research shows that speakers of languages that have a grammatical gender system think of objects as being masculine or feminine in line with the grammatical gender of the objects' nouns. The present study investigates the effects of grammatical gender on concepts of objects in bilingual speakers of two languages that assign opposite gender to the same object. Italian-German bilingual children and Italian monolingual controls performed an on-line voice attribution task. All children were native speakers of Italian and living in Italy. Results show that Italian monolingual children attribute more female voices to objects whose noun is grammatically feminine in Italian. Monolinguals also show a preference for attributing voices consistently with Italian grammatical gender assignment. Italian-German bilingual children are not affected by Italian grammatical gender. It is argued that when the two languages of a bilingual represent a specific aspect of reality differently, the bilingual may develop different concepts from a monolingual. This is due to the knowledge of two specific languages rather than to bilingualism per se, and to linguistic rather than cultural factors.

2007 - Bilingualism, biliteracy and metalinguistic awareness: Word awareness in English and Japanese users of Chinese as a Second Language [Capitolo/Saggio]
Bassetti, Bene
abstract

2006 - Do bilinguals have different concepts? The case of shape and material in Japanese L2 users of English [Articolo su rivista]
Cook, Vivian; Bassetti, Benedetta; Kasai, Chise; Sasaki, Miho; Arata Takahashi, Jun
abstract

2006 - Orthographic input and phonological representations in learners of chinese as a foreign language [Articolo su rivista]
Bassetti, B.
abstract

2005 - Second language writing systems [Curatela]
Cook, V.; Bassetti, B.
abstract

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.