Abstract: Bilinguals transfer orthographic processing skills from one language to another language, i.e., cross-language orthographic transfer. Previous studies showed that orthographic transfer significantly improves bilinguals’ reading performance. However, the specific orthography hypothesis and the conditional transfer hypothesis hold opposite points on bilinguals’ cross-language orthographic transfer. The former holds that orthography is specific for each language and orthographic processing skills cannot be transferred. On the contrary, the latter holds that when the writing systems are sufficiently related, orthographic processing skills can be transferred. To partially deal with this debate, the present paper innovatively proposed the role of the language system in the cross-language orthographic transfer. Specifically, alphabetical languages use graphemes to represent phonemes, whereas logographic languages use logograms to represent morphemes. Writing systems of alphabetical and logographic languages are distinct. However, previous studies did not consider it. This may cloud previous findings. To fill in this gap, the present study summarized previous findings according to language systems. Studies on alphabetical languages showed mixed results. Some studies did not reveal cross-language orthographic transfer, supporting the specific orthography hypothesis. Whereas other studies showed cross-language orthographic transfer both from the first language to the second language and vice versa, supporting the conditional transfer hypothesis. In contrast, cross-language orthographic transfer was not found between alphabetical and logographic languages, supporting the specific orthography hypothesis. Previous studies on knowledge transfer pointed out that the overlap between the original domain and the novel domain is critical for knowledge transfer. Inspired by this point, the present paper proposes an overlap hypothesis. These overlaps indicate that these languages share similar orthographies and their writing systems have similar relationships with phones and semantics. The degree of overlap determines the extent of cross-language orthographic transfers. This hypothesis can help interpret the debates of previous studies. As alphabetical and logographic languages have distinct writing systems, they have few overlaps, which resulted in the limited cross-language orthographic transfer. However, if two alphabetical or logographic languages have enough overlaps, cross-language orthographic transfers may appear. The overlap hypothesis also can predict the direction of orthographic transfer. When the first language has simple orthographies while the second language has complex orthographies, a cross-language orthographic transfer would appear from the first language to the second language, but not vice versa. This direction depends on the percentage of the overlap in one language’s orthographies. Future studies may focus on the following directions. First, future studies should investigate the cross-language orthographic transfer in logographic languages. Second, previous studies use different measurements for cross-language orthographic transfer. These divergent measurements may cloud previous findings. Third, the results of the cross-language orthographic transfer in adults and children are mixed. Fourth, neuroimaging methods are suggested to use to test the time course and neural underpinnings of the cross-language orthographic transfer in future studies. In summary, the present paper comprehensively reviewed the findings of bilinguals’ cross-language orthographic transfer and theoretically proposed a tentative solution for these debates. These would provide a new view for understanding the cross-language orthographic transfer and a potential solution to integrate some theoretical debates.

Key words: Bilingual, Orthographic Transfer, Alphabetical Language, Logographic Language

摘要： 正字法迁移对第二语言阅读具有重要影响。然而，现有研究对双语者跨语言正字法迁移存在着不同的理论观点和研究证据。本文从文字系统的角度出发，按照文字系统本质的不同，分别对涉及表音文字和语素文字的正字法迁移研究进行了系统归纳和综述。在此基础上，本文以重叠度为准则对以往理论进行拓展，从而为预测跨语言的正字法迁移提供了可能。因此，本综述为理解正字法迁移提供了新视角，也为解决部分理论之争提供了新思路。

关键词: 双语者, 正字法迁移, 表音文字, 语素文字