On Reading-Writing Relationships in First and Foreign Languages

Page No.: 
198
Writer(s): 
Ahmad Abu-Akel, University of California, Los Angeles

Reading and writing are related. Inasmuch as reading and writing are both
language processes, we can assume relationships between them. More specifically,
since both involve the visual processing of language (as compared, for example,
with oraVaural processing of language) we may even postulate certain mediumdependent
relationships. However the exact nature of these relationships, as
well as the implications of these relationships for teaching methods and materials,
remain unclear. Research in the last decade has begun to yield insights into
various aspects of the nature of the relationships. This paper first characterizes
ways one might conceptualize reading-writing relationships, then discusses
general findings from first, second, and foreign language research on the nature
of reading-writing relationships, and finally, reports the results of a foreignlanguage
reading-writing relationships study conducted for college Arabic and
Hebrew native speakers studying English as a foreign language in Israel.

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