Reading competence and its impact on writing: an approach towards mental representation in literacy tasks

Background Reading and writing are both fundamental activities for successful learning. However, little is known about the effect of reading comprehension performance on writing, as well as the pedagogical guidelines that can be drawn from this influence. Method Thus, the purpose of the present investigation was to examine the influence of performance in reading comprehension, distinguishing between poor and proficient readers (N = 105), who were enrolled in four eighth‐grade classes between the ages of 12 and 14, on the writing of narrative and expository texts. Results Results revealed that proficient readers outperformed poor readers on objective measures of text production and informative/expository texts. Additionally, regression models demonstrated that proficient readers relied more on deeper aspects of reading and writing such as inferential skills, whereas poor readers tended to focus on superficial aspects of texts, or what Kintsch referred to as text‐base, and appeared to perform better in reading and writing tasks related to narratives compared to information‐based, expository texts. Conclusion These results support the theoretical perspectives of Kintsch's construction–integration model and Otero's regulation model regarding the relation between reading, writing and mental representations. Highlights What is already known about this topic Little is known about the relation between aspects of reading and writing. Effective readers and writers need to slow their processing to develop a clear mental model of texts. Clear mental models of texts allow readers to invoke prior knowledge to fill comprehension gaps in their reading and writing process. What this paper adds Reading and writing are related processes to the extent that effective readers also tend to be effective writers. Poor and proficient readers exhibit distinct writing profiles when producing narrative or expository texts. Implications for theory, policy or practice Proficient readers and writers rely on deeper, higher order processes during reading and text production than poor readers, who rely on superficial aspects. Educational interventions should focus on both reading comprehension and writing production to be most effective.