Abstract

As reading and writing are both language processes, one can assume relationships between them, but the exact nature of these relationships has not yet been determined. While a large body of research has addressed reading comprehension and written production independently, very little investigation has examined the possible relationships between these two psycholinguistic processes, particularly from a discourse and cognitive perspective. Argumentative texts were analyzed in the present investigation on reading-writing connections. Four tests were designed and tested on 439 eighth graders. The tests assessed psycholinguistic variables that account for the microstructural, macrostructural and superstructural levels of comprehension/production processing. Correlation results showed significant coefficients between reading and writing of argumentative texts in all the psycholinguistic levels analyzed. These results suggest that the processes involved in both activities share some common knowledge-based strategies. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007.