26. Bilingualism and Writing Systems

Summary

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.