ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains a representational approach to word knowledge, in contrast to P. Laberge and S. J. Samuels' automaticity approach. It shows that quality is enhanced by the redundancy of the representation system, where words have graphemic and phonetic representations and are composed of letters, orthographic patterns, and phonemes. The book suggests that coupling the longitudinal-training approach with matching children on the basis of reading level rather than mental age. It explores phonological awareness as important to the acquisition of children's Japanese orthography because children must be able to separate the sound from the rest of a word in order to see its relationship to the kana symbol. The book argues that different educational systems have adaptive value in different cultures. The causal link between phonological awareness and reading acquisition has been well established.
