Second Language Learning and Language Teaching

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5
Acquiring and teaching 
a new writing system
Chapter 1 points out how both SLA research and language teaching have assumed
that writing depends on speech rather than being another mode of language. This
has led to the unique skills of written language being undervalued and to a lack of
attention to the demands that writing places on the student in a second language.
A spelling mistake is as important as a pronunciation mistake; indeed it is more
so, in that bad spelling carries overtones of illiteracy and stupidity which bad pro-
nunciation does not.
Just as pronunciation involves both lower-level skills and higher-order structures,
so writing goes from physical skills involving forming letters, to higher-level skills
such as spelling, to the highest level of discourse skills involved in writing essays, and
so on. The present chapter provides more background information than the other
chapters because of the lack of information about writing systems in most teachers’
backgrounds. More information on the English writing system can be found in Cook
(2004), and on writing systems in general in Cook and Bassetti (2005).
5.1 Writing systems
●
Which words do you have trouble spelling? Why? What do you do to
improve your spelling?
●
What spelling mistakes do your students make? Why? What do you do to
improve your students’ spelling?
Focusing questions
meaning-based writing system: a form of writing in which the written sign
(character) connects directly to the meaning, as in Chinese characters
sound-based writing system: a form of writing in which the written sign con-
nects to the spoken form, whether through syllables (Japanese, Korean) or
consonant phonemes alone (Arabic, Hebrew), or both vowels and conso-
nants (alphabetic languages like Greek, Urdu or English)