About the authors

xv


Preface

xvii–xviii


Acknowledgements

xix

Introduction

1-18


Part I. Chinese

19–20


Spoken Chinese

21–36


Chinese characters: Hanzi

37–55


Meaning representation in characters

56–74


Sound representation by characters

75–84


History of education and literacy in China

85–111


Reforming spoken and written Chinese

112–129


School, and learning to read in Chinese

130–152


Summary and conclusions

153–154


Part II. Korean

155–156


Korean language

157–171


Hancha: Chinese characters

172–179


Han’g?l: Alphabetic syllabary

180–198


Learning and using Han’g?l

199–222


Why should Hancha be kept?

223–235


History of education and literacy in Korea

236–252


Summary and conclusions

253–254


Part III. Japanese

255–256


Japanese language

257–270


Kanji: Chinese characters

271–283


Kana: Japanese syllabary

284–293


R?maji: Roman letters

294–302


Why keep Kanji?

303–321


History of mass literacy in Japan

322–332


Learning and using Kanji and Kana

333–351


The Japanese educational system

352–360


Summary and conclusions

361–362


Part IV. Common issues

255


Eye movements and text writing in East Asia

365–379


Reading and the brain

380–394


East Asian students in international tests

395–404


Logographic characters vs phonetic scripts

405–420


Afterthoughts

421–422


Glossary

423–437


Bibliography

439–462


Name index

463–469


Subject index

471–487