The relationship between L1 Chinese reading and writing ability and L2 English integrated writing ability

Abstract

Integrated writing requires learners to produce written output based on the comprehension and utilization of reading or listening sources. This type of task is widely implemented in both first language (L1) and second language (L2) teaching and assessment at the secondary and tertiary levels. This paper reviews research on the transfer effects of L1 (Chinese) reading and writing ability on L2 (English) integrated writing ability. Overall, L1 reading and writing ability could support L2 integrated writing, though the effect is constrained by the learner’s L2 proficiency threshold and the cognitive complexity of specific sub-skills. Regarding specific sub-skills, higher-order cognitive skills such as intertextual inference, multi-text connection and argumentation present greater transfer challenges. These findings extend Cummins’ Linguistic Interdependence Hypothesis and Threshold Hypothesis. Based on these insights, the paper offers pedagogical implications such as bilingual collaborative instruction, and reading-writing integrated instruction. In light of emerging trends in investigating individual differences and multimodal literacy, future research directions are discussed from both methodological and content-related perspectives. 综合写作指在理解、运用阅读或听力材料后完成书面作文，这一任务形式经常出现在中学及大学的一语、二语教学与评估实践中。本文述评一语（中文）读写能力对二语（英文）综合写作能力迁移效应的研究成果。总体而言，一语读写能力能够支持二语综合写作，但前者对后者的迁移效应受二语水平阈限与能力细项的认知复杂度制约。就综合写作能力细项而言，跨文本推理、多文本关联、观点论证等高阶能力的迁移难度较大。相关发现拓展了Cummins的“共同底层能力假说”和“阈限假说”。基于此，文章提出“双语协同教学”“读写整合”等教学启示，并结合个体差异与多模态阅读研究的发展趋势，从方法与内容两个层面展望未来研究方向。