The Influence of Pleasure Reading upon L2 Writing Proficiency

Abstract

This study assessed whether the amount of pleasure reading done by 31 Dutch students of English language and culture had any positive effects upon their writing proficiency. This proficiency was measured using the Common European Framework of Reference for Language (Council of Europe, n.d.), or CEFR, on size of vocabulary, complexity of syntax, degree of cohesion and overall skill. Many previous studies had already shown a positive relationship between reading and writing. However, the current study did not find any evidence for such a relationship, possibly due to the incompleteness of the corpus that was used, as it held relatively little information on the participants’ reading habits.