VOCABULARY AT THE CENTRE: SHARED LINGUISTIC RESOURCES, READING COMPREHENSION AND WRITING COMPETENCE AMONG PAKISTANI UNDERGRADUATE EFL LEARNERS

Abstract

Reading comprehension and writing competence are increasingly viewed as interdependent literacy skills that draw upon a shared pool of linguistic resources, although evidence on how these resources connect the two skills among adult foreign language learners remains limited (Kim, 2020; Shanahan, 2016). Guided by the Interactive Dynamic Literacy (IDL) Model (Kim, 2020), this study examined the relationship between reading comprehension and writing competence among Pakistani undergraduate EFL learners and the contribution of three shared linguistic components, namely vocabulary knowledge, sentence structure and spelling. A quantitative, cross-sectional correlational design was adopted, and 150 sixth- and eighth-semester English majors at a public sector university in Punjab completed tests of vocabulary, sentence structure, spelling and reading comprehension (literal, inferential and text-structure subskills), together with a timed composition scored on a four-dimension analytic rubric. The data were analysed through Pearson correlation, simultaneous multiple regression and component-specific bootstrap mediation. All constructs were positively and significantly intercorrelated, and reading comprehension and writing competence were moderately correlated (r = .46). Vocabulary emerged as the strongest correlate and predictor of both skills; vocabulary and sentence structure uniquely predicted overall reading comprehension, whereas vocabulary alone uniquely predicted writing competence (β = .69, R² = .62). The mediation analyses indicated that the effect of vocabulary on writing was direct, whereas the effects of sentence structure and spelling were partially mediated by reading comprehension (approximately 23% and 25% of the total effects). The dominance of vocabulary persisted when the vocabulary dimension was removed from the writing composite. It is argued that the shared-resource architecture of the IDL Model is weighted towards vocabulary and differentiated by pathway in this population, and that integrated, vocabulary-centered literacy instruction is warranted in Pakistani higher education.