Ghoti: Orthographic Literacy in Focus: Introduction by Samejon (2015)

Orthography is rendered in varying conventions across cultures.  It may not be culturally dependent but certainly carries cryptic and linguistic characteristics. How an outsider breaks through and gain access to another orthography has been the fascination that brought this paper to be. We may then say that gaining literacy in another language is actually a cross-linguistic endeavor with challenges attached. This same fascination, however, is not novel yet still to be fully understood. Orthographic development and processing had long propelled scholars on studies, which led to insights for accessing literacy in another orthography.

Following this brief introduction, this paper focuses on reviewing orthographic convention variances and orthography acquisition hypotheses, which will culminate in this paper’s discussion and conclusion.