Abstract
According to UNESCO, at least 2500 languages are vulnerable. Chinese, English, Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, Portuguese, Bengali, Russian, Japanese, French are “hegemons” - each having at least 100 million native speakers and accounting for over 51 percent of the global population. Half of the hegemons are written with an alphabet. For the non-alphabetic group, native speakers may read and write in logographic (e.g. Chinese) or syllabic writing systems (e.g. Devanagari) or both (e.g. Japanese). In languages that are spoken by less than one million people, Latin, Arabic and Chinese writing systems dominate but they do not always map to local dialects transparently. Multi-literacy is a growing global phenomenon particularly in Asia. In the 21st century, access to electronic literacy will include multi-literate speakers. However, multi-literacy brings questions. Multi-literacy is as old as civilization due to spoken language contact in commerce, ideology and religion. Literacy adapts to new technology via codification of symbols allowing multi-literacy to grow. Documentation of writing has a history but it is not prominent in global policy making. Programmes to develop literacy are reserved for monolingual ‘hegascripts’ (dominant languages) e.g. English. However, neglecting diversity in writing systems in developing countries risks more inequalities if indigenous language speakers are taught literacy in their non-native language only.
Highlights
A person who habitually speaks more than one language can be called a bilingual or multilingual whereas a person who writes in more than one script is bi-literate or multi-literate
One goal of this paper is to introduce a conceptual framework to motivate research into the effects of multiliteracy on neurocognitive processing and ergo on healthy aging and levels of educational attainment in multiliterate environments
What is most intriguing about multi-literacy are questions about how our neural systems have adapted the mechanisms used to process more than one language in the brain (CHEE et al, 1999; 2000; WEEKES, 2005; 2012) and whether this enhances cognitive reserve that is vital for healthy aging (ABUTALEBI et al 2014, 2015a, 2015b, 2016) as well as educational policy (ASFAHA e KROON, 2011)
Summary
A person who habitually speaks more than one language can be called a bilingual or multilingual whereas a person who writes in more than one script is bi-literate or multi-literate. What is most intriguing about multi-literacy are questions about how our neural systems have adapted the mechanisms used to process more than one language (each with their own idiosyncrasies) in the brain (CHEE et al, 1999; 2000; WEEKES, 2005; 2012) and whether this enhances cognitive reserve that is vital for healthy aging (ABUTALEBI et al 2014, 2015a, 2015b, 2016) as well as educational policy (ASFAHA e KROON, 2011) Another goal of the paper is a re-conceptualisation of multi-literacy from a neurocognitive perspective in order to distinguish between bi-scriptal (different scripts learned) and di-scriptal (same script learned) bilingual speakers (who use different languages) and monolinguals who speak the same language and read the same script but may be bi-scriptal within their own language e.g. in Japanese. The key conclusion for policy purposes is that instruction in a non-native script as the medium of instruction creates difficulty for learning to read and write if their native language at home (or school) is taught in an opaque script e.g. learning to read and write Chinese characters when the home dialect is Hakka or Hokkien or even a language like Nepali
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