Reading-writing Relationship Research Articles

Exploring the Effect of Extensive Reading on Young English Learners’ Second Language Writing Achievement in a Vietnamese Primary School Setting

Extensive reading (ER) provides young English language learners (YELLs) many benefits, including the sustainable development of writing (e.g., the reading-writing relationship). However, this area is under- researched. To address this, this quasi-experimental study investigated the effect of ER on YELLs' second language writing achievement using an enhanced ER treatment. Pre- and post-Cambridge Primary English Test (PET) samples were collected and evaluated via the PET analytic rubric total band and subscales scores (Content, Communicative Achievement, Organization, Language). The results indicated that the EG outperformed the CG in total band score and three subscale bands (Content, Organization, Language), and the EG and CG performed comparably well in the fourth (Communicative Achievement). As prior research specific to ER’s effect on YELLs’ writing achievement in the Vietnam context is noticeably understudied, this study offers a starting point for future investigations.

The Effects of Text Length on the Readability of Model Essays

Providing self-access libraries and the texts therein (anthologies of model essays) has long been cited as an essential part of university writing center services, as the reading of model essays has been found to positively affect the reading-writing relationship. When choosing such texts, readability is typically measured via quantitative readability formulae (e.g., the Lexile Readability Formula). However, this practice only measures two (i.e., semantic, syntactic) of the many features that influence readability, leaving others (e.g., text length) unexplored. To address this, this article reports the findings of an exploratory mixed-methods study conducted in an Asian university writing center setting which showed that the informants' ranking of ease and difficulty was significantly different than the Lexile Formula and that text length had a significant positive association with this ranking. It was further found that length was viewed as (a) a primary (i.e., an isolated feature), (b) a conjoined feature (i.e., comprising two or more associated entities where the second impacts the first: interest, vocabulary), and (c) a feature which impacts the influences of other features (interest, vocabulary, and vocabulary in context). The study also offers suggestions for writing studies professionals (teachers, writing center staff) and the publishing industry that text length be included in a hybrid (quantitative-qualitative) procedure when considering the difficulty of model essays found in anthologies.

Investigating the Reading-Writing Relationship of Advanced Korean EFL Learners

The current study examined the potential contribution of advanced Korean EFL learners’ writing abilities to their reading comprehension abilities. A total of 191 college students participated in this study and were tested on writing and reading comprehension abilities as well as other literacy-related measures including listening comprehension, textreading fluency, and knowledge of vocabulary to control for their effects. In order to account for different aspects of writing and reading comprehension abilities, multiple measures of reading and writing abilities were adopted. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analyses demonstrated that the advanced Korean EFL learners’ English writing abilities had a significant effect on their reading comprehension abilities when other relevant literacy skills were controlled for. Furthermore, their writing abilities mediated the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension abilities. These results highlight the important pedagogical implications on the critical role of writing abilities in enhancing the reading comprehension abilities of L2 learners.

Sharing Worlds through Words: Minor Cosmopolitics in Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being

This article reads Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being (2013) as a text that responds to the radical global interconnectedness of today’s world. In the first section I coin the term minor cosmopolitics and explain its indebtedness to, as well as differentiation from, “minority cosmopolitism” and “minor transnationalism,” with a view to conceiving the world-making potentials of minoritized individuals as illustrated in the novel. The second section deliberates on another minor dimension of cosmopolitics. Through a close analysis of the reading-writing relationship between the novel’s two protagonists Ruth and Nao, I highlight the importance of the energy and matter of small scale, in particular those embedded in the words of literary imagination, in an active engagement with a scale as large as the world. Specifically, A Tale for the Time Being resorts to quantum mechanics and takes words as quantum particles to illuminate the plasticity and multiplicity of space and time. Instead of aiming at a position of transcendence over the world, the novel tests out the possibilities to deliver, through words, worlds out of historical ignorance and amnesia in light of the quantum rules of randomness and undecidability.

Reading-writing relationships in first and second language academic literacy development

Reading and writing relations, as this concept applies to academic learning contexts, whether as a major way to learn language or academic content, is a pervasive issue in English for academic purposes (EAP) contexts. In many cases, this major link between reading/writing and academic learning is true even though explicit discussions of this relationship are commonly identified in other ways. For example, research on summarizing skills is an aspect of abilities that come under reading-writing relations. Similarly, topics including synthesis writing, note-taking, plagiarism, content-driven essay exams, term papers, theses, and dissertations, among other topics, are all aspects of reading-writing relations. These core academic skills become even more complex aspects of reading and writing together, when we add electronic texts, web page resources, and other media sources.

Write to Read: Investigating the Reading-Writing Relationship of Code-Level Early Literacy Skills

The purpose of this study was to examine whether the code-related features used in current methods of writing instruction in kindergarten classrooms transfer reading outcomes for kindergarten students. We randomly assigned kindergarten students to 3 instructional groups: a writing workshop group, an interactive writing group, and a control group. Results of this full-year experimental study show that code-based writing instruction can complement the acquisition of important early reading skills. We present the implications of these findings.

The Power of Photography as a Catalyst for Teaching Informational Writing

Writing and photography are composition processes that help develop children's linguistic and visual competencies, respectively. Using photography in teaching writing has been found to enhance students' literacy skills by naturally invoking their interest and motivation, and eventually strengthening the reading-writing relationship. Children can combine pictures and writing to tell real or imagined stories, containing personal meaning and looking at the world through their unique lenses. This article describes a 4th-grade photography and informational writing project. It discusses the positive outcomes of using students' own photographs as a stimulus for informational writing—a way of integrating literacy with other subjects and motivating students to write interesting, relevant, and creative texts. Complementing composition through words with composition through images can have a powerful impact on student motivation and learning.

Exploring the Reading-Writing Relationship in NES and EFL Students

A study investigated the relationship between reading and writing skills and their development in both native English-speakers (NES) and learners of English as a foreign language (EFL). Subjects were 150 NES students, English majors in American universities, and 150 EFL students enrolled in schools of education at four Egyptian universities. Data were gathered using standardized reading comprehension and writing tests designed for either native speakers or non-native speakers of English. Results indicate a statistically significant positive correlation between NES students' reading and writing scores, but no statistically significant correlation for EFL students. It is suggested that this difference between the two groups may be due to teaching methods of NES and EFL teachers, differences in language proficiency levels, or language use outside the classroom. Implications for instruction include the need for more integrated instruction of reading and writing, simultaneous teaching of reading and writing from the beginning of language instruction, better preparation of English teachers to read like writers and write like readers, and understanding of the gaps between receptive and productive skills.

Focus on Research: Questions for Research into Reading-Writing Relationships and Text Structure Knowledge

Focus on Research: Questions for Research into Reading-Writing Relationships and Text Structure Knowledge

Differing Reading-Writing Relationships in L1 and L2 Literacy Development?

0 The complex nature of L2 literacy has recently become an area of special concern to applied linguists and second language acquisition researchers. Carson, Carrell, Silberstein, Kroll, and Kuehn (1990), for example, studying reading and writing relationships for ESL students from two different L1 backgrounds, found that although measures of reading and writing proficiency were significantly related for their Japanese subjects in Japanese, a similar relationship held among Chinese subjects only in English. Likewise, Eisterhold (1990), in a theoretical comparison of L1 and L2 literacy development, noted two conceptual complexities in the case of the latter: Many L2 acquirers come to the task of second language literacy acquisition with well-developed L1 literacy skills; and L2 acquirers typically do not have full oral competence available in the second language to support acquisition of its literacy. Even without considering the question of spoken language influence, however, the process of L2 literacy development is a highly involved one. Studies of reading-writing relationships such as those mentioned above suggest that L2 literacy acquisition may result in varying outcomes depending on the nature of Li literacy and/or the extent to which it has been mastered (see, e.g., Alderson, 1984; Carrell, 1991; Carson, 1991). In this short report, we describe parallel studies of LI and L2 schoolbased literacy development in order to point out differences between study results which appear to highlight the complex nature of L2 literacy acquisition.

Reading and Writing Descriptive and Persuasive Texts

surge of research and pedagogical examination of reading-writing relationships in English as a first or native language (24; 26; 28; 31). The importance of reading-writing connections has recently become the focus of research in English as a second language (10; 11; 14; 15; 16; 17). Thus far, however, the ESL research on the reading-writing connection has examined the relationship at only a general level. For example, no studies have addressed the influence of specific aims of reading texts and writing tasks, e.g., persuasive vs. descriptive texts, and none has attempted to control either for the previous reading and writing experiences of students (e.g., undergraduate vs. graduate students) or overall proficiency in the second language. The present study was designed to determine the relationships of intermediate-level (Michigan 70-90) ESL students' reading and writing of both persuasive and descriptive texts.

Handbook of reading research

Contents: Preface. Part I: R. Barr, Society and Literacy. S.B. Heath, The Sense of Being Literate: Historical and Cross-Cultural Features. P. Foster, A. Purves, Literacy and Society with Particular Reference to the Non-Western World. R.L. Venezky, The Development of Literacy in the Industrialized Nations of the West. J.T. Guthrie, V. Greaney, Literacy Acts. R-M. Weber, Linguistic Diversity and Reading in American Society. J.S. Chall, J.R. Squire, The Publishing Industry and Textbooks. P. Shannon, Politics, Policy, and Reading Research. Part II: M.L. Kamil, Task and Format Variables in Reading Research. A. Graesser, J.M. Golding, D.L. Long, Narrative Representation and Comprehension. S. Bovair, D.E. Kieras, Toward a Model of Acquiring Procedures from Text. C.A. Weaver, III, W. Kintsch, Expository Text. R.J. Tierney, T. Shanahan, Research on the Reading-Writing Relationship: Interactions, Transactions, and Outcomes. R. Calfee, E. Hiebert, Classroom Assessment of Reading. D. Reinking, L. Bridwell-Bowles, Computers in Reading and Writing. R. Waller, Typography and Discourse. Part III: P.B. Mosenthal, Constructs of Reader Process. L.C. Ehri, Development of the Ability to Read Words. K.E. Stanovich, Word Recognition: Changing Perspectives. R. Beach, S. Hynds, Research on Response to Literature. T.P. McNamara, D.L. Miller, J.D. Bransford, Mental Models and Reading Comprehension. M. Daneman, Individual Differences in Reading Skills. K.K. Wixson, M.Y. Lipson, Perspectives on Reading Disability Research. F.R. Vellutino, M.B. Denckla, Cognitive and Neuropsychological Foundations of Word Identification in Poor and Normally Developing Readers. S.G. Paris, B.A. Wasik, J.C. Turner, The Development of Strategic Readers. M. Hegarty, P.A. Carpenter, M.A. Just, Diagrams in the Comprehension of Scientific Texts. L. Mikulecky, R. Drew, Basic Literacy Skills in the Workplace. R.C. Anderson, W.E. Nagy, Word Meanings. Part IV: P.D. Pearson, Literacy and Schooling. E. Sulzby, W. Teale, Emergent Literacy. C. Juel, Beginning Reading. I. Beck, M. McKeown, Conditions of Vocabulary Acquisition. P.D. Pearson, L. Fielding, Comprehension Instruction. L.R. Roehler, G.G. Duffy, Teachers' Instructional Actions. R. Barr, R. Dreeben, Grouping Students for Reading Instruction. J.V. Hoffman, Teacher and School Effects in Learning to Read. D.E. Alvermann, D.W. Moore, Secondary School Reading. P. Johnston, R. Allington, Remediation. Epilogue: P.B. Mosenthal, M.L. Kamil, Understanding Progress in Reading Research.

Reading-Writing Relationships in First and Second Language

The study reported in this article examined the first language and second language reading and writing abilities of adult ESL learners to determine the relationships across languages (L1 and L2) and across modalities (reading and writing) in the acquisition of L2 literacy skills. Specifically, we investigated relationships (a) between literacy skills in a first language and literacy development in a second language (i.e., between reading in L1 and L2, and between writing in L1 and L2), and (b) between reading and writing in L1 and L2 (i.e., between reading and writing in L1, and between reading and writing in L2). The subjects, Japanese and Chinese ESL students in academic settings, were asked to write an essay and to complete a cloze passage in both their first and second languages. The results indicate that literacy skills can transfer across languages, but that the pattern of this transfer varies for the two language groups. It also appears that reading ability transfers more easily from L1 to L2 than does writing ability, and that the relationship between reading and writing skills varies for the two language groups. These data suggest that L2 literacy development is a complex phenomenon for already literate adult second language learners involving variables such as L2 language proficiency, L1 and L2 educational experience, and cultural literacy practices that may be related to different patterns of L2 literacy acquisition.

A Developmental Comparison of Three Theoretical Models of the Reading-Writing Relationship

A Developmental Comparison of Three Theoretical Models of the Reading-Writing Relationship

Acquisition of Schema for Comprehension and Communication: A Study of the Reading-Writing Relationship in ESL

Acquisition of Schema for Comprehension and Communication: A Study of the Reading-Writing Relationship in ESL

An analysis and comparison of theoretical models of the reading-writing relationship.

An analysis and comparison of theoretical models of the reading-writing relationship.