Discovering the Literacy Gap: A Systematic Review of Reading and Writing Theories in Research

• In Event: 14.038 - Connection Between Theory and Practice: Systematic Reviews of Articles in Literacy Journals Published for Teachers

Abstract

Purpose
Presently, few reading and writing theories exist which support connecting reading and writing instruction; however, the prevalence of these theories in published research articles has not been explored. The purpose of this systematic literature review is to determine the major reading and writing theories used in articles published for The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, which was chosen for its high impact factor and focus for practitioners. Specifically, we focused on answering the research question: What theories are guiding research focused on the connection between reading and writing?

Results
Ninety-four articles published between 2004 and 2014 were identified. Each included article (n = 38) was independently coded by the first author and the two co-authors. A subset of the articles (n = 28) were independently coded twice by another author. Consistency in coding of 9 dimensions of each article reached 93.36% inter-rater reliability. After completing the coding procedures, we found three trends in our final data set: (1) two primary theories, sociocultural (n = 22) and sociocognitive (n = 15), emerged, (2) one secondary theory, reading motivation (n = 9), was consistent in the research, and (3) some disagreement existed among the coders in regards to the two primary theories. Sociocultural theory represents the current leading theory in writing research (Prior, 2006), and sociocognitive theory explains that reading and writing activities are commonly social and rely on classroom settings.
According to the results of the systematic review, there are several findings on reading and writing instruction in classroom: (1) social theories play a major role on guiding recent studies focusing on the connection between reading and writing; (2) the results showed that motivation theory was mostly coded as a secondary theory; (3) a small amount of sample articles were coded for other reading theories but focused more heavily on writing instruction; (4) the relationship between reading and writing should be emphasized, because this relationship is bidirectional and reciprocal (Abbott, Berninger, & Fayol, 2010; Ehri, 2000); and (5) a limited number of theories were used to inform research regarding writing, reading, and the link between the two constructs.

Scholarly Significance
As writing and reading are commonly taught in unison, there should be a logical connection between reading theories and writing theories. However, less research is being conducted on writing, and fewer studies are focusing on the theories relating to writing instruction in classrooms. Writing continues to fall behind reading as the “neglected R” due to the lack of specific theories relating to writing (see National Commission on Writing, 2003). Therefore, researchers must often rely on theories stemming from psychology and sociology to explain the complexities of writing. Unfortunately, this indicates that theories explaining the connection between writing and reading are equally overlooked.
Through our review, several areas for future research that emerged include: (1) clarification of the differences between sociocultural and sociocognitive theory, (2) increased emphasis on reading and writing’s impact on each other, and (3) more diversity in theories used to guide instructions for reading and writing.

Authors

• Tracey S. Hodges, University of Alabama

• Luxi Feng, Texas A&M University - College Station

• Jiacheng Lu, Texas A&M University - College Station