The Relationship between Reading and Writing: An Overview

From Talking to Writing: Teaching Oral, Reading, and Writing Skills Simultaneously through Understanding the Relationship between Reading and Writing

From Talking to Writing: Teaching Oral, Reading, and Writing Skills Simultaneously through Understanding the Relationship between Reading and Writing

Spoken linguistic communication mastery is essential for reading and writing. Some of the well-nigh influential cognitive abilities that provide a foundation for speaking, reading and writing are: attending, verbal working memory, executive functioning and processing speed. These cognitive abilities are closely related and share mutual functions.  For example, students need to pay sustained attention to speech sounds equally well equally recognize and manipulate oral communication sounds in words.  Learners demonstrate this ability in reading while decoding words whereas in writing, this ability is revealed through spelling.  Some other example is verbal working memory.  This cognitive skill is limited to the corporeality of material working memory tin can concur and in the length of time the manipulation of language tin can be expressed. When students are reading text, they often agree a completed sentence in working retention and then reread the preceding sentence to enhance their agreement.  During writing while composing phrases, sentences and paragraphs, writers are using exact working retentiveness.  A third cognitive ability is executive functioning whereby students need to programme, cocky-monitor and alter plans during linguistic communication tasks.  For instance, both readers and writers need to self-monitor for visually similar words (of/off) and homonyms (sail/auction). Last but not least is processing speed, the rate at which learners are able to retrieve data and execute plans.  Proficient readers and writers are able to rapidly name several elements of a given category while students with slower processing speed may be accurate in their responses, merely their production is almost always very slow.  In club for students to develop fluent reading or written expression, they need structured teaching too every bit enough practise using their reading and writing skills.

Reading

Reading and writing are non identical skills but exercise share the cognitive abilities mentioned previously.  Before actual reading begins and as an assistance to comprehension, two pre-reading exercises tin can help to support the reader's ability to focus attention on the reading material.  One such exercise is to recall background noesis, internalized from life experience near a topic, and so match that knowledge to the text.  Another is to place new and unfamiliar words from the assigned text and acquire their meanings from the words and phrases effectually them.  Once this is completed, the actual reading begins.  A competent reader engages in the following:

  • activates phonological awareness skills (how letters and sounds correspond)
  • recognizes how the sounds alloy together to form words
  • decodes the words printed on the folio
  • realizes word recognition
  • attaches meaning to those words
  • reads with fluency
  • comprehends what has only been read

A principal component of fluent reading is word recognition, the ability to recognize written words correctly and automatically. This ability helps to ensure writing words correctly equally students learn to represent letter of the alphabet forms in memory as well as the strategies for their automatic retrieval from memory.  Students who read effortlessly over fourth dimension enjoy successful wide-reading experiences.  Every bit a issue, they are at an advantage for being exposed to learning more than words and growing their vocabulary.  This word exposure not simply enhances their reading comprehension just also creates meliorate spellers.  In addition, children who develop good understanding of what they read may display a greater interest in writing.  They become aware of the word relationships in a multifariousness of judgement patterns and how authors structure text along with the rules that govern it.

Writing

When looking at the human relationship between reading and writing, writing is the act of scribing words and sentences on paper.  Therefore, it is necessary to have facts and experiences to share.  Prior to writing both at the judgement and paragraph levels, the writer needs to consider the topic and summon background cognition and ideas in back up of that topic.  Following that, students should exhibit a clear understanding of judgement construction as well every bit the rules for correct grammer.  Additionally, it is important for writers to construct a plan that structures and organizes their paragraph-level writing.

Such a plan ensures that each sentence links logically with the preceding sentence to produce a smooth menses or cohesion.  Writing, which incorporates word recognition and reading comprehension, places the greatest need on exact working retention and relies on the skills that follow:

  • mechanics: handwriting
  • phonology: speech sounds that make up words (due east.g., bit = "b"+"i"+"t")
  • semantics: discussion meanings and concepts
  • morphology: meaningful parts of words (roots, affixes, and inflections such as -ed verb endings that betoken past action)
  • syntax: rules for the club of words in sentences (simple to complex) and grammar rules
  • discourse: narrative structure versus expository structure

In consideration of the relationship betwixt reading and writing, even more than reading, writing depends on the mastery of the most basic skills such every bit spelling and hand- writing. Through straight and explicit teaching, teachers need to systematically teach a hierarchy of formal spelling rules that transition from short and long vowel patterns to irregular word spelling. Without this teaching, writers who struggle with spelling may lose track of their thoughts as they effort to spell a specific word used in context or process sound-symbol relationships (phonology and morphology).  In addition, it is of import and necessary for students to receive handwriting pedagogy. The development of legible handwriting enhances spelling, aids writing fluency and frees mental energy for college order cerebral skills, especially at the multi-sentence or paragraph level.

In endmost this article on the relationship between reading and writing, the underlying cognitive abilities, attending, verbal working memory, executive operation and processing speed are critical in their support of learning to read and write and need to be considered as linguistic skills are taught. Although it appears plausible that the features of reading and writing are the same, information technology is axiomatic that they are non totally equal.  What is most important to think is that the automatization of reading and writing skills is essential.  Students benefit most when instruction is straight and explicit, and sufficient review and practise are provided.

Author: Terrill Jennings She has taught and directed language arts programs for children with dyslexia for more than forty years. She has authored 2 books on writing with her colleague Dr. Charles Haynes and is an accomplished presenter who has given workshops nationally and internationally.