ASSESSING THE READING‐WRITING RELATION IN ADULT LITERACY STUDENTS

Abstract

Although reading ability does not guarantee proficiency in writing, previous research conducted from an information processing perspective suggests links between children's reading comprehension and various writing skills. However, little is known about reading‐writing relationships in adult students. The current study investigated such relationships in health care workers who were attending an adult literacy program. Participants who read at levels 2, 3 and 4 on a 5‐point standardized adult literacy comprehension measure were compared on productivity, syntactic complexity, single‐word error type (base and function words, verbs, morphological suffixes, spelling), and use of apostrophes. The writing of the poorer readers showed a significantly lower level of syntactic complexity as measured by mean T‐unit length. It is possible that the poorer readers wrote in a less sophisticated manner because they had not had as much reading experience as the better readers. The poorer readers also made more single word errors, with a relative preponderance of inflectional suffix errors, which may be related to phonological awareness or speech patterns.