Examining the Relationship between Reading and Writing of Advanced Korean EFL Learners

Abstract

Although there have been numerous research attempts to discover the connection between reading and writing skills, most of them have provided only partial pictures, as they focused on either form or content in evaluating writing, without considerations for both. Also, despite the widely held notion that language proficiency may have a potential role in accounting for the reading-writing relationship, not many studies have utilized appropriate measurements for the participants’ proficiency level to control for its effects. Thus, this study aimed to examine the relationship between reading and writing abilities of advanced Korean EFL learners in relation to their English proficiency by considering both form and content of their writings, measured by an e-rater and Toulmin model, respectively, as well as their language proficiency measured by vocabulary knowledge. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analyses revealed significant direct effects of reading comprehension abilities on Korean EFL learners’ writing performance, while their English proficiency was taken into consideration. In addition, while vocabulary knowledge had significant direct effects on reading comprehension abilities, it only showed significant indirect effects on writing performance. The findings from this study have important pedagogical implications for language and literacy instruction in Korean EFL contexts.