The collective volume brings together the linguistic and didactic findings on the structure and acquisition of the German writing system. Based on current research on the German written language it is shown that its structures can be systematically described in the core area. The book discusses whether these insights can be used for didactic conceptions on written language acquisition. Concrete examples from German instruction illustrate the acquisition problems and discuss effective learning measures based on learning by discovery.

This volume is a collection of articles reconstructing the connections between the German writing system and its acquisition, beginning with the individual letters of the alphabet and proceeding from there to syllable- and morpheme-based spelling rules and the syntactic regularities underlying capitalization (or otherwise), separation, and non-separation. The consequences for modern spelling instruction deriving from these analyses are outlined in some of the articles. There are a number of historically motivated complications that have bedeviled the systematic coverage of the orthographic system and its acquisition. These have had a detrimental effect on systematic spelling instruction, and various articles take a closer look at them.

Punctuation is normally perceived as a system of handed-down norms that is complicated and difficult to manage. This study shows that it is actually a simple, transparent system that serves the reader more than the writer. This study orients itself on formal features of individual characters and the situations in which they appear. Through doing so, it provides a new and manageable classification of the entire system and its functions as well as offers a number of applications for punctuation instruction.