Testing African Orthographies

By Cathryn Bartram and Leila Schroeder

Effective orthographies which represent speech maximally yet efficiently are pivotal in giving literacy to millions of people. Testing their effectiveness can inform users, literacy personnel, and linguists of the relative importance of certain features, and any difficulties readers may face with comprehension, spelling or reading fluency.

The case studies address topics such as

under- and overrepresentation of a language's phonologydeveloping decoding skills and whole word recognitionchoosing optimal orthographic depthdiagnosing problems in comprehension, oral reading accuracy, and spellingstrategies to achieve maximum visual simplicity yet maximal comprehension of text

Testing African Orthographies will be of practical value for linguists and literacy specialists as they seek to strengthen orthography development.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1556715730
• ISBN13: 9781556715730
• Release Date: January 2026
• Publisher: Sil International, Global Publishing
• Length: 246 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"