This short contribution aims at
provoking discussion; I explore
the possibility of looking at
reading and writing as essentially
one communicative language
activity: namely making use of
written language. The first section
gives a brief outline of different
ways of modelling language skills
and competences. I then argue
that viewing reading and writing
as an ensemble is at least very
plausible and, in fact, part of what
we do with language every day. In
the third section I take academic
literacy as a case in point and
rely on recent teaching experience
to show how this approach could
be put into practice in the
classroom.