Spelling Across Orthographies

The ability to spell words correctly is a cornerstone of literacy. Despite the substantial amount of research into this process, a large part of the empirical findings come from English-speaking populations. Given the distinctive features of the varying orthographic systems worldwide, more research into spelling across orthographies seems warranted. To stimulate this was the main goal of this Research Topic, which contains two review plus 14 research articles tapping 11 orthographies (viz., Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, English, French, Hebrew, Malay, Portuguese, Spanish, Tamil, and Welsh), from first graders to undergraduates. These articles were organized into three sections focusing on (1) the type of misspellings produced, (2) the role of non-phonological knowledge in spelling, and (3) the view of spelling as a basic writing process. Together, the findings from the studies included in the Research Topic showed that the type of misspellings produced is influenced by writing systems, writers' characteristics, and spelling tasks; that morphological, orthographic, morpho-orthographic, and syntactical knowledge are important sources of information to produce accurate spellings in varying orthographic systems; and that spelling is a fundamental writing process intertwined with handwriting. In sum, this Research Topic provides an up-to-date view on spelling across orthographies, which will contribute to increase our understanding of this process and instigate further research into it.