Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc.

(TESOL)

The Relationship of Pleasure Reading and Second Language Writing Proficiency

Author(s): Michael Janopoulos
Source: TESOL Quarterly, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Dec., 1986), pp. 763-768
Published by: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Inc. (TESOL)
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REFERENCES
MA:Newbury
Bowen,J.D.(1975).Patterns
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Rowley,
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in languageteaching.Rowley,
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Michigan.
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Authors'Address:c/o Brown,Departmentof ESL, University
of Hawaii at
Manoa,1890East-West
Road,Honolulu,HI 96822

The Relationship of Pleasure Reading and

Second Language WritingProficiency
MICHAEL JANOPOULOS
Ohio StateUniversity

E Researchresultssupporting
a strongcorrelation
betweenamountof
and
are oftencitedto demonstrate
pleasurereading
writing
proficiency
the importanceof readingin developingotherlanguageskills.Such
evidenceincludesFader and McNeil's(1968) studyof pleasurereading
done withinthe framework
of "sustainedsilentreading"(SSR), as well
as Thorndike's(1973) investigation
of thelifelongreadinghabitsof 17and 18-year-oldhigh school studentsaround the world. In both
instances,subjectswho were reportedto have read morein theirfirst
languagewere identifiedas generallysuperiorin overallLi language
to thosewhoreadless.
proficiency,
including
writing
proficiency,
However,as Krashen(1984) pointsout, thereis littleevidence to
existsin the second
supportthe assumptionthata similarrelationship
language.The main source of data concerningthe link between L2
is providedby Elley and Mangubhai
readingand writingproficiency
(1983), who investigatedthe effectof systematicexposure to L2
of Fiji Island
pleasurereadinguponthegeneralL2 languageproficiency
school children.They concludedthatL2 compositionwas
elementary
positivelyinfluencedby pleasurereadingin the second language,but
BRIEF REPORTS AND SUMMARIES

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763

sincethe mainemphasisof theirstudywas upon generallanguage

thanwriting
rather
proficiency
proficiency
perse,theymakelittlemore
thanpassing
toL2 writing
reference
proficiency.
Thepurposeofthestudyreported
herewastodetermine
ifa positive
exists
correlation
between
L2 pleasure
andL2 writing
reading
L1 and/or
inadultsubjects.
proficiency
THE STUDY
Subjects
The 79 subjects,
all foreign
students
to OhioState
admitted
graduate
of Chinese
University
(OSU) fortheFall 1985term,includedspeakers
(27); Korean(15); Indian-thatis, Hindi,Maradhi,
Telugu,and Tamil
(9); otherAsianlanguages(7); Spanish(6); otherEuropeanlanguages
(9); and MiddleEasternlanguages-that
is,Arabic,Hebrew,Farsi,and
Turkish
(6).
Allincoming
students
at OSU areobligedtoproducea 1-hour
foreign
Thisis generally
sampleforanalysis
writing
by theESL Department.
doneat thebeginning
oftheorientation
butmakeupsessions
are
session,
Of the372 foreign
who
providedforlatecomers.
graduatestudents
enrolledthatquarter,the 79 who participated
in makeupsessions
thesubjects
usedinthisstudy.
comprised
Procedures
Aftersubjectsin each makeupsessionhad provideda written
responseto one of threeopen-ended
composition
topics,theywere
theamountof timethey
askingthemto estimate
givena questionnaire
spenteach weekreadingforpleasurein theirnativelanguageand in
English.Pleasurereadingwas definedas readingdonesolelyforone's
withschool
anddidnotincludereading
doneinconjunction
enjoyment
wereimposedas to typeofmaterial
orwork.No restrictions
read,be it
in magazine,
or bookform.Pleasure
fiction
or nonfiction,
newspaper,
in thiswayso as to be consistent
withthe
readingwas operationalized
laiddownforSSRbyMcCracken
(1971).
guidelines
also solicited
The questionnaire,
developedby the researcher,
information
concerningsubject age, sex, native language,and years

wereusedfor
butonlydataon pleasure
reading
spentstudying
English,

thisstudy.
on a 4-pointscale by a
Writingsampleswere evaluatedholistically
couldnotbe
uponwhichagreement
pairof trainedraters.Compositions
reachedwere submittedto a thirdraterforevaluation.If a consensus

in theESL
thefinaldecision
couldnotbe reached,
placement
regarding
sequencewas made by the ProgramDirector.Writing
composition

were both coded by studentidentification

samplesand questionnaires
numbers.Afterthe writingsamples had been evaluated,they were
matched withthe appropriatequestionnaires.

764

TESOL QUARTERLY

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Analysis
DesignandStatistical
matrixwas utilizedto accommodatea threeA 3 x 3 x 2 correlation
Both Variable A (amountof L1
variable,hierarchicalarrangement.
pleasure reading) and Variable B (amountof L2 pleasurereading)
consistedof three levels, high, moderate,and low, in which high
equaled more than 5 hours,moderateequaled 1-5 hours,and low
equaled less than 1 hour per week. Variable C, English writing
was comprisedof two levels:yes (placed directlyintothe
proficiency,
and no (placed intotheESL composition
curriculum)
regularuniversity
coursesequence).
Since the data obtained were qualitative in nature,they were
subjected to loglinear contingencytable analysis. Loglinear is a
considerarelativelynew systemof analysisthatpermitssimultaneous
tion of two or more categoricalvariables(Kennedy,1983). Withthis
in qualitative
technique,it is now possibleto sortout suchinteractions
of
data, in much the same way that main effectsand interactions
data can be determined
analysis
by meansof three-factor
quantitative
4F
of variance.Loglinearanalyseswere performed
usingsubprogram
containedwithintheBMDP statistical
package.
RESULTS
existsbetweenL1 and/or
The researchquestionaskedif a correlation
L2 pleasure reading and L2 writingproficiency.Table 1 presents
table containing
descriptivestatisticsin the formof a contingency
observedfrequencies.
TABLE1
Statistics
Descriptive
Amount
ofpleasurereading
L2writing
proficiency
Yes

No

L1
High

Moderate

Low

Total

High
Moderate
Low
Total

4
1
1
6

2
5
1
8

4
2
0
6

10
8
2
20

High
Moderate
Low
Total
TOTAL

4
16
8
28

3
18
5
26

0
4
1
5

7
38
14
59
79

L2

BRIEF REPORTS AND SUMMARIES

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765

Examination
of bothresidualand componentchi-squarevaluespoints
to the AB, AC, BC model as being the most acceptable in that it
providesthe best fitbetweenthe observedand expectedvalues (see
Table 2). Acceptanceof thismodel indicatesthepresenceof a positive
correlation
betweenVariablesB and C. Moreover,even aftertheeffects
ofVariableA are takenintoaccount,VariablesB and C areassociated.
TABLE2
ofL2Writing
ofSymmetrical
Analysis
Proficiency
by
Summary
Amount
inL1 andL2
ofPleasureReading
Residual

Component

Source

Model

X2

df

X2

df

Total/null
L1 reading
L2 reading

AB,C
AB,AC
AB,AC,
BC

16.95
11.65

8
6

.03
.07

5.30

.07

1.96

.74

9.69

.008*

1.96

.74

x L2
L1 reading
reading

ABC

Note:A = amountof L1 pleasurereading; B = amountof L2 pleasurereading;C =

Englishwriting
proficiency.
* p < .05.

of Kennedy(1983),post-hocfollowFollowingtherecommendations
of therelationship
up procedureswereexecutedto measurethestrength
between L2 readingand writing.The resultsof these measuresof
associationadd weight to the argumentthat a significantpositive
existsbetweenreadingand writingin the secondlanguage.
correlation
In Table 3, whichfocuseson thisassociation,values obtainedforodds
ratiosindicatethatthe heavy L2 pleasurereadersin thisstudywere
in L2 writing
thansubjectswho were
muchmorelikelyto be proficient
of the Yule's Q statistic
not heavy L2 readers.Similarly,examination
reveals a strong(.76) positive correlationbetween amount of L2
proficiency.
pleasurereadingand levelofL2 writing
TABLE3
of
OddsRatios/Yule's
Q forAmount
inL2
andWriting
PleasureReading
Proficiency
proficiency
Writing
ofreading
Amount

Yes

No

Oddsratios

Yule'sQ

> 5 hours/week
? 5 hours/week

10
10

7
52

1.43
.19

.76

766

TESOL QUARTERLY

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DISCUSSION
In brief,thosesubjectswho reportedbeingheavypleasurereadersin
writersin English,whilesubjects
Englishtendedto be moreproficient
who reportedbeing heavy pleasurereadersin theirnativelanguage
correlation
showedno suchtendency.
No significant
was foundbetween
totalpleasurereading(L1 plusL2) and L2 writing
proficiency.
These data provideevidencethatproficiency
levels for L2 reading
and writingare closelyassociated.However,the questionof whether
this can be interpreted
to mean that exposureto L2 printfeatures
throughreadingfacilitatesthe acquisitionof L2 writingproficiency
cannotbe answeredby thisstudy.A symmetrical
researchdesignwas
purposelychosenbecause it was feltthatthedata base was insufficient
to warrantstatinga directional
Hence,resultsmustbe stated
hypothesis.
in termsofcorrelation
insteadofcausation.
It is plausiblethatL2 readingsatisfiesthesame learningconditions
of
in the secondlanguagethat
and sensitivity
demonstration,
engagement,
Smith (1982) posits as being necessaryfor developing Li writing
the L2 reading-writing
associationwas so
proficiency.Nevertheless,
pronouncedthat the hypothesisthat exposureto L2 printfeatures
throughreading facilitatesthe acquisitionof L2 writingproficiency
shouldbe testedinfuture
research.
ThatL2 readingwas foundto be positively
correlated
withL2 writing
is not surprising.
Whatis striking,
of the
however,is both the strength
association(p = .008)and thefactthatLi writing
apparently
playedno
role in the L2 writingprocess,eitheras a maineffector in
significant
interactionwith L2 reading. The apparent absence of Li reading
influenceis more difficultto explain,especiallybecause some Li
readingimpactwas expectedon the basis of the Elley & Mangubhai
(1983) findings.Their subjectswho engaged in SSR or "sharedbook
experience"not onlyscoredhigheron measuresof Englishproficiency,
butalso did significantly
betteron thosepartsof a testbatterydesigned
to measurelanguageproficiency
inFiji.
the
of
betweenLi and L2 playsa partin
Perhaps
degree similarity
thisequation.A majorityof the subjectsin thisstudywere Asian (n =
58). It is conceivable that in a sample of foreignstudentswhose
theamountof L1 readingwould
languagesweremostlyIndo-European,
indeed show a significant
positivecorrelationwith English writing
More researchin theseareas is needed beforewe can do
proficiency.
morethanspeculate.
Practical implicationsof this researchcan be seen on both the
evaluativeand instructional
levels.Resultsindicatethatthe amountof
pleasurereadinga foreignstudentdoes in Englishmay be used as a
reliablepredictorof his/herEnglishwritingproficiency.
For purposes
of placementwithinan ESL compositionsequence, the amountof
Englishpleasurereadingmightwell be a factorto considerin deciding
at whichinstructional
levelto place borderline
students.
BRIEF REPORTS AND SUMMARIES

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767

of such
Finally,effortsshouldbe made to explorethe effectiveness
pleasurereadingprogramsas SSR in developingthe Englishwriting
proficiencyof foreignstudentsof all ages. If SSR proves to be as
in L2 as it seemsto be in L1, it could become an integralpart
effective
ofESL classesin generaland ESL composition
classesinparticular.
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Elley,W., & Mangubhai,F. (1983). The impactof readingon secondlanguage
19,53-67.
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(International
Address:1550E. Dublin-Granville
Author's
Road,Columbus,OH 43229

768

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