Applying steve pehas approach to teaching l2 writing for the fourth year students of english russian department at ussh m a 60 14 10

LIST OF CHARTS Chart 4.1: The analysis of Organization Chart 4.2: The analysis of Ideas Chart 4.3: The analysis of Word Choice Chart 4.4: The analysis of Sentence Fluency Chart 4.5: The

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HOCHIMINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

- -

PHAN THỊ MAI TRANG

APPLYING STEVE PEHA’S APPROACH

TO TEACHING L2 WRITING FOR THE FOURTH-YEAR STUDENTS

OF ENGLISH – RUSSIAN DEPARTMENT

AT USSH

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the degree of Master of Arts in TESOL

Supervisor: NGUYỄN THỊ KIỀU THU, Ph.D

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP … ……… 4

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ………… ……… 5

LIST OF TABLES ……… 6

LIST OF CHARTS……… 7

LIST OF FIGURES ……… 8

ABBREVIATIONS……… … …… ……… 9

ABSTRACT ……… ……… 10

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ………11

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY ……… 11

1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ……… 18

1.3 IDENTIFICATION OF THE PROBLEM……… 20

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ……… 20

1.5 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY ……… 21

1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY……… …… ……… 22

1.7 ORGANOZATION OF THE STUDY… ……… 22

SUMMARY ……… 22

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ….……… 24

2.1 AN OVERVIEW OF WRITING SKILL ……….24

2.1.1 The nature of writing……….… ……… 24

2.1.1.1 Definition of writing ……… 24

2.1.1.2 The importance of teaching writing ……….… 25

2.1.2 Approaches to teaching writing……….……… 26

2.1.2.1 Exploring the difficulties in teaching writing….… ……… 26

2.2.2.2 Brief introduction of writing teaching Approaches…… …… 27

2.1.3 Criteria of w well-formed piece of writing……….……… 32

2.1.3.1 Ideas……… ……… 32

2.1.3.2 Organization……… 33

2.1.3.3 Voice……….……… 35

2.1.3.4 Word Choice……… ……….……… 36

2.1.3.5 Sentence Fluency……… 36

2.1.3.6 Convention……… 37

2.2 READING AND WRITING RELATIONSHIP….………37

2.2.1 A historical review of reading and writing connection 37

2.2.2 The influence of reading on writing ……….40

2.2.3 Studies focusing on the influence of controlled reading on L2 writing41

2.3 STEVE READ-LIKE_A_WRITER APPROACH………….………… 43

SUMMARY ………50

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY ……….…… 51

3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS……… 51

3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN ……… 51

3.2.1 The subjects ……… ……… ……… 51

3.2.1.1 Sampling……… ……… 51

3.2.1.2 The Participants…… ……… 52

3.2.1.2.1 The Students … ……… 52

3.2.1.2.2 The Teachers…….……… 53

3.2.2 The Instruments……… ……… ……… 54

3.2.2.1 The Experimental teaching……… ………… 54

3.2.2.1.1 Syllabus design ……… 54

3.2.2.1.2 Syllabus for 04A-controll group……… 56

3.2.2.1.3 Syllabus for 04B-controll Experimental group……… 58

3.2.2.2 The Pre-test and Post-test…… ……… 61

3.2.2.2.1 The Pre-test … ……… 61

3.2.2.2.2 The Post-test …….……… 62

3.2.2.2.3 Scoring …….……… 63

3.2.2.3 Two sets of survey questionnaires……… 65

3.2.2.3.1 The Students’ questionnaires……….……… 65

3.2.2.3.2 The Teachers’ questionnaires……… 68

3.3 DATA ANALYSIS ……… 68

SUMMARY ……… 68

CHAPTER FOUR: DISCUSSIONS OF FINDINGS ………70

4.1 DISCUSSION O THE WRITING TEST RESULTS…… ……… 70

4.1.1 The analysis of Writing test’s criteria……… 70

4.1.1.1 The analysis of Organization ……… 72

4.1.1.2 The analysis of Ideas ……… ……… 73

4.1.1.3 The analysis of Word Choice………… … ……….…… 74

4.1.1.4 The analysis of Sentence Fluency………… …… ………… 75

4.1.1.5 The analysis of Convention……… 76

4.1.2 The analysis of Writing test’s Scores……… 78

4.2 DISCUSSION OF THE SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES….………… 80

4.2.1 The importance of writing 80

4.2.2 Students’ frequency of writing practice……….……… 82

4.2.3 The difficult level of essay writing 83

4.2.4 Criteria for measuring how a good essay is ……… ……84

4.2.5 Difficulties encountered by the student writers……… ……85

4.2.6 Reasons why students are not good at writing……… ………87

4.2.7 Suggestions to improve the teaching and learning of essay writing 88

SUMMARY ……….……… 92

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATION ……….…94

5.1 CONCLUSION ……… 94

5.2 RECOMMENDATIONS.……….……95

5.2.1 To the Teachers ……… ……….…… 95

5.2.2 To the students ……… ……….97

5.3.3 To the Writing syllabus ……… 97

REFERENCES……… 99

APPENDIX 1 ESSAY WRITING RUBRIC ……….104

APPENDIX 2 PERFORMANCE OF 04A-CONTROL GROUP … 106

APPENDIX 3 PERFORMANCE OF 04B-EXPERIMENTAL GROUP….… 117

APPENDIX 4 TEST RESULTS OF 04A ……… ………… ………….128

APPENDIX 5 TEST RESULTS OF 04B ……… 129

APPENDIX 6 SAMPLE 1- PRE-TEST-04A……… 130

APPENDIX 7 SAMPLE 1- PRE-TEST-04B ……… 132

APPENDIX 8 SAMPLE 2- POST-TEST-04A ……….……….133

APPENDIX 9 SAMPLE 2- POST-TEST-04B ……… ……… 134

APPENDIX 10 STUDENT’S QUESTIONNAIRE IN VETNAMESE……… 135

APPENDIX 11 STUDENT’S QUESTIONNAIRE IN ENGLISH…… 138

APPENDIX 12 TEACHER’S QUESTIONNAIRE IN VETNAMESE ……….141

APPENDIX 13 TEACHER’S QUESTIONNAIRE IN VETNAMESE……… 144

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that this thesis entitled “APPLYING STEVE PEHA’S APPROACH to TEACHING L2 WRITING for THE FOURTH-YEAR STUDENTS of

ENGLISH-RUSSIAN DEPARTMENT AT USSH” is my own work

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree or diploma in any other institution

Ho Chi Minh City, May, 2011

Phan Thị Mai Trang

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would first like to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Dr Nguyễn Thị Kiều Thu, Dean of Department of English Literature and Linguistics (DELL) for her constant enthusiastic guidance, enormously helpful advice, unbounded patience and careful proof-reading on my writing Without her help, this M.A thesis would still be far from finished

My special thanks go to all of my professors and lecturers for their dedication and helpful instruction during the graduate course

I am also thankful to the teaching staff of University of Social Science and Humanities, in particular Ms Trần Thị Thanh Lan and Ms Phạm Thị Thùy Trang for their help and support I also owe sincere thanks to my students, who are an inspiration to me, for their enquiries into essay writing problems and participation in the study; without which my thesis would never have been accomplished

Finally, I am greatly indebted to my beloved family and close friend Ms Lê Thị Xuân Vũ for their warm love, unending help and support

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: Students’ age, gender, and time to start learning English 53

Table 4.1: The criteria analysis of the pre-test and post-test…… ……….71

Table 4.2: Reasons why writing is important 80

Table 4.3: Students’ frequency of writing practice 82

Table 4.4: Difficulty level of essay writing 83

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 4.1: The analysis of Organization

Chart 4.2: The analysis of Ideas

Chart 4.3: The analysis of Word Choice

Chart 4.4: The analysis of Sentence Fluency

Chart 4.5: The analysis of Convention

Chart 4.6: The pre-test result

Chart 4.7: The post-test result

Chart 4.8: Reasons given by students why writing is important

Chart 4.9: Reasons given by teachers why writing is important

Chart 4.10: Students’ frequency of writing practice

Chart 4.11: Teachers’ responses for students’ frequency of writing practice

Chart 4.12: Difficulty level of the essay writing

Chart 4.13: Students’ responses to criteria of a good essay

Chart 4.14: Teachers’ responses to criteria of a good essay

Chart 4.15: Degree of difficulties of essay writing responded by students

Chart 4.16: Degree of difficulties of essay writing responded by teachers

Chart 4.17: Reasons responded by students why the students are not good at writing Chart 4.18: Reasons responded by teachers why the students are not good at writing Chart 4.19: Students’ suggestions to improve students’ learning writing

Chart 4.20: Teachers’ suggestions to the students to improve the learning of writing Chart 4.21: Students’ suggestions to the teachers to improve students’ competence

in writing Chart 4.22: Teachers’ suggestions to improve their students’ competence in writing

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: The process genre model………32

ABBREVIATIONS

USSH : University of Social Sciences and Humanities

DELL : Department of English Linguistics and Literature

DERLL : Department of English-Russian Linguistics and Literature

ESL : English as Second Language

FL : Foreign Langue

L1 : First Language

L2 : Foreign / Second Language

ABSTRACT

The study done for this M.A thesis examines possible problems facing the fourth-year students of English-Russian Department (DERLL) at USSH in writing essays It then investigates whether the application of Steve Peha’s read-like-a-writer approach in writing classroom can help the students, the subjects of the research, solve their problems and thereby improve their proficiency as a writer

To conduct this study, two groups of students of DERLL were chosen, one of which received more critical analytic reading activity input than the other A careful investigation of the student subjects was done to justify the design of the syllabus for each group Then came a pre-test and post-test in writing being administrated in both groups as well as the two set of questionnaires to the students and the teachers

To ensure the validity and consistency of the scoring of writing test, students’ papers were computerized and marked twice basing on the writing rubric including five criteria 1) organization, 2) ideas, 3) word choice, 4) sentence fluency and 5) convention

The result shows that Steve Paha’ approach is effective, proven by the fact that more students in the experimental group improved their skills at the end of the course Even though the improvement was mostly from the low score range to the middle score, the fact that there was such improvement in only 9 weeks could be considered sufficient to confirm the hypothesis However, the same thing did not happen with the student of a higher score range

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

For year, writing has been taught unfairly for usually being left to the last stage of learning Hedge (1998, cited in Simpson, 2004) declared that this skill was often relegated to the status of “homework” due to limitation of time and syllabus outcomes, thus having no effects on the possibility of the teacher guidance As structuralists and audio linguists emphasized oral forms of communication and reading, according to Tribble (1996, cited in Simpson, 2004), writing was considered as a tool for the practice and reinforcement of specific grammatical and lexical patterns; accuracy being all important whereas content and self expression given little if any priority The students who were expected to produce an error-free coherent text without giving any prior thought to the meaning of the finished product encountered numerous seemingly insurmountable obstacles as Trible (1996) stated that they were basically “writing to learn” and not “learning to write”

as instructed by this traditional product-oriented approach

This perspective, however, has changed considerably along with the development of the communicative language teaching since 1980s because there was a widespread recognition that writing was a process which involves several steps in creating a piece of work According to Silva (1990:15), this tendency, namely the process-oriented approach, needed step-by-step developments, one of which was the integration of reading and writing

As far as we have concerned, reading and writing have a mutual effect Reading builds the knowledge of diverse kinds to write on or to employ in writing; writing reinforces knowledge in a way that builds schemata to read with Reading and writing interact with each other, possibly making use of the same cognitive structures to create a text world (Kucer, 1985)

Despite the correlation between reading and writing in the construction of knowledge, at the Department of English-Russian Linguistics and Literature (DERLL) of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (USSH), the program designed for the writing class to primarily focus on language rather than acquiring it In other words, the concentration is on the product-oriented approach rather than the process-oriented one Students in a writing class were taught

“formulaic” theory to perform certain type of paragraphs or essays, and then they were given topics to practice those types (like a kind of drilling) The result was that after 4 years of skill training, most of them had a hollow feeling of writing because they do not how to express their ideas

Then an important system reform was implemented which changed the existing system into the credit one and required a reform of curriculum design as well as teaching methodology Reading and writing skills should now be taught in unison in DERLL with intent to constitute the appropriate writing teaching and learning methodology

Therefore, basically, because there will appear an integrated classroom, the possible promising method is to use critical and analytic oriented-writing reading activities as an effective way to help the students of DERLL improve not only their reading skill but their writing as well This is where Steve Peha’s approach comes to play The students will read not for their sake in reading alone but for acquiring the language items that help to improve their writing skills Accordingly, students will not only write because this is a reading-writing class Therefore, it is apparent that

an integrated-skill classroom is an ideal environment to apply Steve Peha’ approach- “Read like writer”

It is insufficient if there is not an introduction about Steve Peha and his like-a-writer approach, which is theoretical framework for the study

read-AN INTRODUCTION ABOUT STEVE PEHA

After a career as a software developer and high-tech entrepreneur, Steve Peha started Teaching That Makes Sense (TTMS), an education consultancy specializing in literacy, assessment, and educational leadership, in 1995 His goal was to find or to develop the most effective educational practices and get that information to as many educators as possible

Since starting TTMS, he has written extensively on education including over

300 articles for The Seattle Times' Effective Learning Series for which he won the

2001 Innovators in Education Award from the Newspaper Association of America His book, "Be a Better Writer," co-written with his wife, and journalist, Margot Carmichael Lester, won the 2006 Gold Medal for Young Adult Non-Fiction from the Independent Publishers Association All told, he has written over 1000 articles

on education and half a dozen books

Peha strongly believes that to understand education one must practice extensively in a wide variety of school situations To that end, he has worked across the curriculum with children of all grade and ability levels at more than 200 schools

in the United States and Canada From this vantage point, he was able to see exactly how new policies affect current practices

Steve Peha is the President of Teaching That Makes Sense, an education consultancy based in Carrboro, NC He writes regularly on education policy

on The National Journal Education Experts Blog His work has also been featured

in The Washington Post, DropoutNation, EdNews, and The Carborro Citizen He is the author of three books on teaching: Be a Writer, Be a Better Writer, and Reading

Allowed

“Steve Peha is a professional educator whose dedication to his profession extends far beyond the typical to countless hours as a volunteer as well as a busy schedule of paid professional commitments Certified by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory as a trainer in Six Traits writing assessment and instruction, Steve has led dozens of workshops in Washington and in many other states as well

Totally committed to making available his expertise to the educational community and to children in ways that go far beyond what he is contracted to deliver, Steve follows up workshops for teachers with free materials and on-going services like unlimited e-mail support His work includes teaching model lessons in classrooms, developing curriculum for schools and school districts, and coordinating observations of model classrooms he has worked in For each day’s contracted training, Steve volunteers at least one day of free guest teaching or classroom observation as requested As an on-going classroom volunteer, Steve spends an average of 10-15 hours per week providing instruction and support to teachers in reading, writing, math, social studies and science.”

(Judith Strosahl, 3rd Grade Teacher, Whittier Elementary School, Seattle,

WA)

STEVE PEHA’S READ-LIKE-A-WRITER APPROACH

Peha (2003) raises a question: What do readers do when they read?

Sounds like a strange question, doesn’t it? After all, readers just read, don’t they?

Actually, the whole question turns on what you think reading is Your mind

is very active while you are processing text You may think you are just saying words to yourself and hearing them somewhere inside your head, but chances are there is more going on — a lot more Becoming aware of what your mind is doing when you read helps you become a better reader

Nobody knows for sure what goes on in the mind of a reader Frankly, there

is no way to tell and no two readers read exactly the same way So, we have to propose a theory about it He likes to think that there are two different ways to read:

• Reading like a reader We might think of this as the “normal” way of reading

where we try to discover what a piece of writing means by understanding the words

a writer is using But even this “normal” way is more complicated than it seems

• Reading like a writer When we read from the perspective of a writer, we focus

less on what the writer is trying to say and more on how the writer is saying it

Specifically, we look at the techniques the writer is using to make his or her

message understandable and the extent to which those techniques affect us as we experience the text

These certainly are not the only ways to read Nevertheless, it is thought that they represent interesting and valuable ways of thinking about a text The bottom line of all those methods is to help us enjoy reading more by making it a more active and interactive process

When we read actively, we do not just wait for the meaning to come to us, we go after it — aggressively We look deeply into the text hunting in certain specific ways searching for clues as to what the writer is trying to say When we read interactively, we ask questions about the text and our reactions to it, and we use the answers in an attempt to develop a sense of how the text works It is as if we start a conversation between the writer, the writing, and our self

Read Like a Reader

What is going on here? Personally, he finds teaching reading to be rather

intimidating because he can never really know for sure how students are doing it

He can look across a classroom and see a group of kids with their faces buried in between the pages of their books, but he has no way of knowing what’s really going

on For all, he can tell, they could be sitting quietly, thinking about nothing, and turning pages just to make me feel good

There is no way to know for sure what goes on in a reader’s head And every reader probably reads in a slightly different way However, here is a list of six things he think all readers do, things that make them more successful, and make reading more fun He calls this “reading like a reader”:

1 Question Readers ask good questions about the things they read What

kinds of questions do they ask? Just about anything that comes to mind: why something is happening or not happening, why a character feels or acts a certain way, things we wonder about or are confused by, words we may not know the meanings of, etc Questions help readers clarify their understanding

2 Predict Readers make guesses about what is coming up next No reader, it

seems, can resist thinking about what a writer is going to say next It is just part of human nature to anticipate things Predicting helps readers sort out important information from unimportant information, it helps them organize their thinking as they encounter new material

3 Infer Readers figure out things about what they read that are not actually

written in the text There is almost always more a story than just words on the page Often, writers leave “clues” that good readers can use to discover important information

4 Connect Readers think about what their reading reminds them of We can’t

help but be reminded of our own lives as we read We’re also reminded of similar things we’ve read in other texts and other parts of the same text we are reading at the time

5 Feel Readers have feelings while they read, they express emotions

Sometimes, it seems like we have a direct connection to what we’re reading: sad parts make us feel sad, happy parts make us feel happy, scary parts scare

us, and so on But often, the feelings we have are more subtle, we may feel them only slightly, for example, when we read with more expression Much

of the meaning we get from a piece of writing comes from the emotions we feel while reading it

6 Evaluate Readers make judgments while reading “Is this good? If so,

what’s good about it? Do I like it? Why? Should I keep reading or should I put this down and get something else?” Readers are finicky, impatient, and judgmental The evaluations that they make help them decide whether or not what they are reading is valuable and, if so, how they might use it

Read Like a Writer

There is another way to read? Normally, when we read, we focus on what

the writer is trying to say When we read like a writer, however, we focus on how

the writer is saying it Because we are writers ourselves, we pay close attention to

the techniques a writer is using and how those techniques contribute to the meaning

of the piece and improve its quality We may even borrow the techniques we learn for our own writing He calls this “reading like a writer.” When we read like this, there are six things we pay attention to:

1 Ideas Ideas are the heart of the piece — what the writer is writing about and

the information her or she chooses to reveal about it When we read like a writer, we try to answer questions like these: How does the writer reveal the main idea? What types of details does the writer use? How does the writer achieve his or her purpose? How does the writer’s choice of ideas affect the reader?

2 Organization Organization refers to the order of ideas and the way the

writer moves from one idea to the next When we read like a writer, we try to answer questions like these: What kinds of leads does the writer use and how

do they pull us in and make us want to read more? What kinds of endings does the writer use and how do they work to make the writing feel finished and to give us something important to think about? How does the writer handle transitions? What techniques does the writer use for sequencing? How does the writer control pacing?

3 Voice Voice is how the writing feels to someone when they read it; it is the

expression of the writer’s individual personality through words When we read like a writer, we try to answer questions like these: How does the writer demonstrate passion for the topic? How does the writer reveal emotions? How does the writer put personality into the piece?

4 Word Choice Word Choice refers to writer’s selection of particular words

and phrases to express ideas When we read like a writer, we try to answer questions like these: What techniques (simile, metaphor, strong verbs, etc.) does the writer use to make the word choice more specific, more memorable, and more effective?

5 Sentence Fluency Sentence Fluency is the rhythm and flow of the language

as we read it; it is how the writing sounds when read aloud When we read

like a writer, we try to answer questions like these: What kinds of sentence constructions does the writer use? How does the writer vary the length and construction of his or her sentences? How does the writer use “sound” effects like alliteration, rhyme, and rhythm?

6 Conventions Conventions are the ways we agree to use punctuation,

spelling, grammar, and other things that make writing consistent and easy to read When we read like a writer, we try to answer questions like these: How does the writer use conventions to make the writing easy to read and more meaningful? Does the author use conventions in unusual ways that are successful?

Hopefully, the study aims to check whether the application of Steve Peha’ like-a-writer can help to find out the teach L2 writing methodology for the fourth-year students of DERLL at USSH in the course of essay writing

read-1.2 IDENTIFICATION OF THE PROBLEMS

The Department of English-Russian Linguistics and Literature (DERLL), as its name, is the combination of two different language majors: English language and Russian language Therefore, there are two kinds of syllabus which are suitable for each of the majors Students, the subject of the study, are those who have to study the two languages at the same time

Nevertheless, the students of DERLL appear to pay considerable attention to studying the Russian language for after five years, they can get a University Degree whereas, if they can finish all English required courses, they can get only a College Degree

Moreover, because their first expectation of the University Entrance Examination is not to learn English, they have several goals of studying other majors; but unfortunately, they could not pass to study at the University with their first expectation, thus, attend to DERLL is their second choice It is so understandable that learning and mastering English is not their all attempts

The students’ English backgrounds of DERLL are not quite as good as the majored-English students of DELL (Department of English Literature and Linguistics) at USSH, however, they are officially required to finish all the academic subjects which are similar to majored-English students of DELL such as essay writing, syntax, semantics, translation, phonology, and so on

And in order to balance the time table for the two majors of these students in DERLL, the period teaching of each English subject is shortened than in DELL at USSH For example, the Essay Writing Course in DELL lasts for 60 periods (5 periods per week) in 15 weeks while the Essay Writing Course in DERLL lasts for

45 periods (5 periods per week) in 9 weeks More importantly, DERLL just suggests the list of the textbooks for teaching; that is, it depends much on the teachers, who are in charge of teaching such subjects, in designing the syllabus as long as the outcomes can meet the given requirements Consequently, the syllabuses for DERLL will not be consistent If there are two classes that are taught by the two different teachers, they will study with the two different syllabuses with two different approaches As a result, the quality of the learning and teaching can be said not to be equal

There comes to the need that the syllabus of English subjects, especially Essay Writing Course must be redesigned based on the unified textbooks, timetables and outcomes so that it can ensure the students can benefit the equal quality It is more essential for comparing and diminishing experience to better teaching and learning methodology

According to the requirements of the whole writing course of DERLL, in the first year, the students learn grammar and how to write sentences correctly and employ various sentence structures to express their ideas In the second year, the students are trained to write in various genres: formal and informal letters, business letters and memos, reports In the third year, the students learn the process of writing and how to develop a paragraph in different types (narrative, descriptive, expository) In the fourth year, they are taught different kinds of essays: the

exemplification, the comparison and contrast, and the classification, the process analysis, the cause and effect, and the argumentative

Writing skill is one of the most concerned skills in learning a language Most

of the time, this is the skill that is hard to be taught and most of the time, this is among the most desired yet least achieved skill Therefore, designing a syllabus to enhance writing skill is an arduous task The study mentioned above, which employs Steve Peha’ read-like-a-writer approach, is to provide a useful guideline for a good course on writing skill

1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Although the question whether writing teachers utilise reading activities in pre-writing phase in their composition class has been raised for a long time, there has not been a consensus among the researchers Advocators in teaching intuitively make pedagogical use of reading texts since when and how to use them is not unanimously supported among writing researchers and instructors The general purpose of this study was to examine the effects of read-like-a-writer approach in pre-writing stage on writing A study made to determine which writing teaching methodology was effective after a survey to identify fourth-year students of DERLL’s problems in essay writing was conducted

Hopefully, the study’s findings concerning possible problems facing year students of DERLL in how to write essays and its teaching implications and recommendations may help composition instructors and the student subjects in approaching satisfactory solutions to the problems

four-1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The objectives of this study are to investigate the extent to which Steve Peha’s read-like-a-writer approach is beneficial to EFL learners and thereby to attain a better way to teach integrated reading and writing courses

To conduct this study, two classes of the fourth-year students of DERLL are needed and two different syllabuses for two groups (experimental group and control

group) should be designed There is a need to make sure that the requirements of the course (the number of chapters to cover and the objectives to fulfill) must be met in both groups; the only difference will be the amount of read-like-a-writer activities provided to deal with those requirements

Then a pre-test and post-test will be administered at the beginning and at the end of the course to measure the progress the students in the two groups made

The study aims at answering the following questions:

(1) What are the possible problems facing fourth-year students of DERLL in writing essays?

(2) Can the application of Steve Peha’s read-like-a-writer approach related to critical and analytic reading activities in pre-writing stage have effects on the students’ writing ability in essay writing?

For the result of this study to be more convincing, it is assumed that the language level of these students is intermediate level It is also assumed that, the students sat the pre-test and post-test honestly and that the students of the experimental group adhered to the class requirements

1.5 LIMITATION

Two limitations to the study done for the thesis are unavoidable

First, the number of the student subjects in each of the two different groups divided on their level of proficiency in writing was not always sufficient to be representatives That is because the purpose of the study focuses on the problems facing the fourth-year students of DERLL at USSH only in essay writing and the solutions for such problems It is certain that the writing for the fourth-year students

is academic essay writing As a result, the researcher decided to choose the mentioned fourth-year students as the study subjects with the total number of 63 And it is so understandable that the total amount of the students of DERLL of each year is only from about 60 to below 100, which is not higher than that of DELL at USSH

above-Second, the duration of the experiment was short, which was in fact regulated in the curriculum within 9 weeks, 45 periods

1.6 SCOPE

This study is limited to DERLL students only Even though these students were provided with a comprehensive linguistic knowledge in high school, they were not provided with enough authentic input

Also, this study will only observe the students’ general improvement in terms of meeting the objectives of the Academic Essay Writing course

1.7 ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS

The study is organized in five chapters

Chapter one introduces the context of the problem, the significance of the problem, as well as the scope and limitation of the study

Chapter two is concerned the review of related literature, including the overview of writing skill, the teaching of writing skill, the read-like-a-writer approach

Chapter three investigates the methodology used in this study This chapter acts a foundation for the findings in the next chapter

Chapter four presents the results and findings drawn from the data analysis in the light of the research literature This chapter is divided into two sections: the results of pre-tests and post-tests and the responses to the two sets of questionnaires

Chapter five concludes the study with the answers to research questions and implication for teaching pedagogy, to the teachers and the students

Summary

This chapter describes the problems with writing learning and teaching at DERLL The study is limited by research questions This chapter gives the significance of the study From that, teachers as well as students can improve the

ways to teach and to learn writing in order to fulfil their competence of teaching and learning a foreign language

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

Chapter 2 is the review of literature relevant to the study including (1) the overview of writing skill, (2) reading and writing relationship, (3) Read-like-a-writer approach

Language consists of oral-aural symbols of communication, arbitrary in their association to particular meanings and units and arbitrary in their particular shape for a given language (Lado, 1964:3)

In contrast to the former view of writing, writing, as stated by Turner, “is a special, careful, elaborated, shuffled, pruned and tidied form of language, very different form everyday, spontaneous, pre carious adventures of speech which make

up, and have up, most of the world’s linguistic activities and are in that sense

“normal language” (as quoted in Jones, 1986:23)

Writing is indeed a process, not being a “product which has been far being new Also, writing is a complex process of exploring one’s thought, discovering ideas and generating meaning (Emig, 1971; Perl, 1979; Flower and Hayes, 1980; Sommers, 1980) In this way, the writing process is a sharp tool to discover meaning, to perfect a piece of writing both in thoughts and in grammatical accuracy and to bring intelligence to the writing So, Byrne (1988) declares writing is a process of encoding (putting your message into words) carried out with the reader’s expectations; or, as confirmed by David Nunan (1999:273), “a complex, cognitive process that required sustained intellectual effort over a considerable period of time”

2.1.1.2 The importance of teaching writing

Of the four English skills, writing is the least decisive one within the framework of a foreign language course to support arguments that have been put forward for not teaching students to write since it is felt that a command of spoken language and reading is superior Nevertheless, in terms of students’ needs, writing may be seen to have as an important role as the other linguistic skills because it is able to help students enhance and draw on the language they have learned as Byrne (1988:7) affirms “written works serves to provide the learners with some tangible evidence that they are making progress in the language”

Most authors on linguistics and teaching methodology regard writing a necessary skill Harmer (1991:79) puts it that “the reasons for teaching writing to students of English as a foreign language include reinforcement, language development, learning style and, most importantly, wiring as a skill of its own right”

Considering the fact that stated by Raimes (1983:1), “writing helps our students to learn,” writing is usually used as an aid to reinforce the teaching of new vocabulary or grammatical structures in many of the integrated syllabus, especially

at lower level Accordingly, he indicates that “writing and the process of struggling with the language to get ideas on paper is a valuable aid to the whole learning process.” (Raimes, 1983:12)

Harmer(1991:79) modifies that writing is especially valuable to learners because “the visual exhibition of language construction is invaluable for both our understanding of how it all fits together and as an aid to committing the new language to memory” and “students often find it useful to write sentences using new language shortly after they have studied it”

Regarding to testing, writing can be utilized as an indispensable device with highly statistical validity Students’ written paper shows evidence whether they are qualified enough for a high academic course as well as it helps the teachers recognize the students’ weaknesses by discovering confusions and errors in order to adopt appropriate lessons or give feedback to what students have learned

2.1.2 Approaches to teaching Writing

2.1.2.1 Exploring the difficulties in teaching and learning writing

In terms of skills, producing a coherent, fluent, extended piece of writing is probably the most difficult thing there is to do in language It is something most native speakers never master For second language learners, the challenges are enormous.” (Nunan, 1992:271)

From Nunan’s, we are able to understand why writing identification is often regarded as a “painful” subject for both teachers and learners

There are three possible problems caused by writing as indicated by Byrne (1988: 4) On the subject of the psycho-logical problems, he suggests that while writing, the writer does not have “the possibility of interaction or the benefit of feedback” because of lacking physical presence and he has to write on his own As for linguistic problems, Byrne explains that while speaking to other people, “we can repeat, backtrack, expand and so on, depending on how people react to what we say;” however, “in writing, we have to compensate for the absence of these features” and we can just transmit our meaning by the only way “through our choice

of sentence structure and by the way our sentences are linked and sequenced” Finally, mentioning the cognitive problems, Byrne trusts that we learn to speak naturally through circumstances but we have to learn how to write “through a process”

In order to make it more detailed, Raimes (1983:6) estimates that the difficulties in writing related to syntax, grammar, mechanics, organization, word choice, writers’ purposes, process, audience, and content

Therefore, in the language learning process, it is so essential that the student writers need to learn certain structures and conventions of written language in order

to link their sentences for effective communication However, the mastery of vocabulary and grammar structures do not ensure that they can that they can produce a meaningful piece of writing, as indicated by Raimes (1983:12)

When students complain about how difficult it is to write in a second language, they are talking not only about the difficulties of “finding” the right

words and using the correct grammar but about the difficulty of finding and expressing ideas in a new language For them, the problem is with communicating and not just with writing

Students need to learn not only how to say but what to say since the writing process is considered “being at loss of ideas is a familiar experience to most of us when we are obliged to write” (Byrne, 1988:5)

2.1.2.2 A brief introduction of teaching approaches relating to

writing skill

There is an assertion that writing is often too difficult for ESL students to accomplish Throughout the years, different writing approaches have been developed to help them compose a coherent and fluent piece of writing

2.1.2.2.1 The controlled-to-free approach The controlled-to-free approach was so popular in the 1950s and early 1960s

and coincided largely with the audio-lingual method which emphasized speech and writing by mastering grammatical and syntactic forms In this approach, “students are first given sentence exercises, then paragraphs to copy or manipulate grammatically by, for instance, changing questions to statements, present to past, or plural to singular They might also change words or clauses or combine sentences” (Raimes, 1983: 6) When students are able to master these kinds of exercises, typically at an advanced level of proficiency, they are allowed to take on in autonomous writing On the whole, this approach spotlights on grammar, syntax, mechanics and accuracy rather than fluency

2.1.2.2.2 The free writing approach The free writing approach emphasizes quantity rather than quality in order to

achieve fluency: students “write freely on any topic without worrying about grammar and spelling for five or ten minutes The teachers do not correct these short pieces of free writing; they simply read them and perhaps comment on the ideas the writer expressed” (Raimes, 1983: 7) Advocators of this approach consider that grammatical accuracy will be improved over time

2.1.2.2.3 The paragraph-pattern approach

Organization of the paragraph was mainly recognized point in this approach, which discusses that in different cultures people create and organize communication with each other in different ways As a result, organization must be taught in accordance with particular cultures and appropriate formats by letting “students copy paragraphs, analyze the form of model paragraphs, and imitate model passages” (Raimes, 1983: 8)

2.1.2.2.4 The grammar-syntax-organization approach

The fact that writing cannot be noticed as composed of separate skills which are learned sequentially, the grammar-syntax-organization approach requires students focus on several features of writing at once The writing tasks are designed

to make students pay attention to grammar and syntax as well as organization As a consequence, the purpose of writing is referred to the forms needed to convey message (Raimes, 1983)

2.1.2.2.5 The communicative approach

The purpose and the audience of a piece of writing are the focal points of this approach Students are motivated to think as if they are the writers to ask

themselves key questions regarding to their audience and purpose of writing: Why

am I writing this and Who will read it Communicative drills are designed to give

students the chance to express the formality and content appropriately in connection with for whom they are writing and what type of writing they are going to produce For example, instead of asking students to simply write about their favorite animal, the teacher asks the students to write to their pen pal about their favorite animal (Raimes, 1983)

2.1.2.2.6 The product approach

“What will a final piece of writing look like?” is an always-in-mind question when accessing the product approach At first, students are required to do various exercises (i.e completing sentences, adding logical connections…), exploiting considerable attention to relevant features of a model text, and then make use of their own information as guiding ideas to individually write parallel texts either in

class or outside class Students’ papers are later collected and marked based on the criteria of “vocabulary use, grammatical use, and mechanical considerations such as spelling and punctuation” (Brown, 1994: 320) Students’ errors are marked with corrections or correction symbols and sometimes comments about their papers’ logic and clarity are added on the margins (Raimes, 1983; Parson, 1985)

The product approach is said to be useful in improving students’ vocabulary, structure and mechanics, encouraging students to produce an error-free writing However, this approach seems willing to sacrifice students’ motivation at the altar

of this “correctness” (Silva, 1990; Eschholz, 1980; White, 1988; Jordan, 1997) It has criticized for it ignores the actual process to produce a piece of writing and considers the writing process a linear one which the writer can determine before starting to write (Hairston, 1982), which leads to the results in “mindless copies of a particular organization plan or style” (Eschholz, 1980: 24) and the entire activity of writing is seen as “an exercise in habit formation” (Silva, 1990: 13) The inevitable consequence is that students’ ideas and meanings conveyed in their works are undervalued (Raimes, 1983)

2.1.2.2.7 The process approach

The product approach in the mid-1970s is replaced by the process approach, usually called “the cognitive process of composing” which spotlights on attention from the finished product to the whole process of writing Students accomplish their papers through a series of stages: pre-writing, composing/drafting, revising, and editing (Tribble, 1996; Badger and White, 2000) In the pre-writing stage, students collect ideas through numerous prewriting activities Then, students produce their rough piece of writing in the drafting stage by making use of these ideas They then read it again and discuss it with peers or teacher The next stage is the one in which they make modifications to it The last stage consists of editing, correcting mechanical errors like spelling or punctuation These stages are sconsidered a

“cyclical process during which writers move back and forth on a continuum, discovering, analyzing, and synthesizing ideas” (Hughey, et al., 1983: 28)

The process approach has been gradually accepted for not being a linear, one-step process the writer not only write down their thoughts on paper but rather a complex process of discovery and invention which requires many drafts and revisions Therefore, this approach is “interpretational, learner-centered” (Pennington, 1995: 707), and “students to be responsible for making improvements themselves” (Jordan, 1997: 168) and developing their abilities to plan, define a rhetorical problem, propose and evaluate solutions (Hyland, 2003)

The process approach has its own drawbacks (Bazerman, 1980), however:

- All writings are viewed as being produced by the same set of process regardless of what is being written and who is doing the writing;

- The purpose and social context of a writing piece are not appreciated;

- Students, especially those who are short of both knowledge and experience are not provided enough with sufficient input, particularly, linguistic knowledge to help them write productively (Badger and White, 2000);

- It relies closely on teacher and peer feedback in every stage of the writing process, leaving students with unrealistic view of their own abilities and with a false impression that successful writers always get feedback on their writing as well as how university writing will be evaluated (Horowitz, 1986)

2.1.2.2.8 The genre approach

The genre approach argues that knowledge of language is thoroughly linked

to a social purpose and that more focus is on the readers’ viewpoints rather than the writers’ Hammond (1992, as cited in Burns, 2001: 202-204) offers “a teaching-learning cycle having three phases: modeling, joint negotiation of text by learners and teacher, and the independent construction of texts by learners.” At the modeling phase, the teacher gives the introduction to the target genre that through a model text, students should construct and perform a discussion focused on the purpose, the text structure and language of the genre At the joint negotiation phase, the teachers require students to complete exercises which operate relevant language forms and write collaboratively about a given topic At the independent construction phase, students apply their built-up knowledge to plan and write all by themselves All in

all, students move towards the deeper understanding and the greater control of the chosen genre

Also from the genre approach, that writing varying with the social context in which it is produced enables the teacher to give students “clear direction in how/what/why to write” (cited in Cope, Kalantzis, Kress and Martin, 1993: 242) In other words, genre analysis can provide vocabulary and concepts associated with the particular genres Writing can be further mentioned “as the analysis and imitation of input” which causes the students’ passiveness (Badger and White, 2000: 156-57), or the limitation of students’ creativity (Badger and White, 2000) Since the genre approach concentrates much on the language features of writing and underrates the process as a need for producing a text, this approach neglects the important aspect of how students generate ideas relevant to the topic (Badger and White, 2000)

2.1.2.2.9 The integrated approach

At the present learning and teaching situation, there appears a trend in which many writing teachers recognize that more than one approach are adopted in the writing classroom In some circumstances, combining approaches results in a new way of writing teaching and learning methodology Some synthesizes of different approaches have been proposed

 A synthesis of process and product approaches

Based on “theoretical positions and beliefs about the nature of language, the nature of language learning, and the applicability of both to pedagogical methods” (Brown, 1987: 51) help to create an effective writing classroom as “the process encourages students to develop their thinking about a topic” while “the product approach, relying heavily on student essays as models, helps writing students meet the expectations of educated native speakers of English” (Smalzer, 1996: v)

 A synthesis of process and genre approach

The combination of the process and product approaches (Badger and White, 2000) lets students to revise the connection between the purpose and the form of a particular genre as they use the recursive processes of pre-writing, drafting, revision

and editing Classically, the teaching procedure for the process-genre approach falls into six steps: preparation, modeling and reinforcing, planning, joint constructing, independent constructing, and revising These steps interact in a recursive way with themselves and with others (Yan, 2005: 21)

Figure 1: The process genre model

2.1.3 Criteria of a well-formed piece of writing

They are ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and conventions (Kendall and Khuon, 2006: 43) that are the fundamental criteria of a well-formed piece of writing

2.1.3.1 Ideas

According to writing theory any good writing consists of a central idea and strong supporting ideas The central idea should be significant to the writer and small enough to handle in the paper It should stand out from the supporting details which could be provided through facts, anecdotes, detailed description, etc Therefore, it is no doubt that ideas are the heart of a piece of writing which hold the reader's attention all the way through (Gardiner and Long, 1999)

2.1.3.2 Organization

Organization is the internal structure of a piece of writing, like a skeleton or the framework of a building, including three distinct parts: Introduction, Body and Conclusion

2.1.3.2.1 Introduction

The fundamental function of the introduction of a paper is to introduce the topic the writer has chosen To fulfill its duty, it must perform four main roles: attracting the reader’s interest, supplying background information, presenting a thesis statement and indicating a plan of development (Langan, 2008: 90)

There are several common ways for the writer to start any writing paper introduction in which a subject will be revealed to the reader by following one of the interesting ways (Langan, 2008: 90-92):

 Begin with a broad, general statement of a topic and narrow it down

to the thesis statement;

 Start with an idea or a situation that is the opposite of the one that the writer will develop;

 Explain the importance of the topic to the reader;

 Use an incident or a brief story;

 Ask one or more questions;

 Use a quotation

To rightly evaluate the level of the study’s student subjects, the very first way of introduction is applied: starting with a few general statements which aim at giving background information on the selected topic and capturing the reader’s attention and interest, and next comes the thesis statement to state the topic and central idea of the essay (Oshima and Hogue, 1998: 101)

(Topic) has obvious advantages (Central idea 1) for both the workers

and management although it may not be practical (Central idea 2) in all types of businesses

(Oshima and Hogue, 1991: 86)

2.1.3.2.2 Body

The body is the obliged second part of a paper which aims at providing the supporting details (also called subtopics) which the writer must make to prove or explain the thesis The introduction are now more detailedly discussed by those supporting details that help build towards the conclusion, attracting the reader’s attention from the beginning to the end with the help of good transitions

II BODY:

 Supporting topic sentence 1:

The first advantage IS increased production per work hour (Subtopic

1)

 Supporting topic sentence 2:

A second advantage IS that factory workers are happier (Subtopic 2)

 Supporting topic sentence 3:

In addition to increased output and worker satisfaction, factory

managers report that absenteeism has declined (Subtopic 3)

 Supporting topic sentence 4: Although flextime (Topic)

has produced these three positive results (Central idea 1) in some

industries,

It (Topic) is not so advantageous (Central idea 2) in all types of businesses

(Oshima and Hogue, 1991: 87)

2.1.3.2.3 Conclusion

The paper cannot be sufficient if there lack of the last part, the conclusion of

a paper which aims at reminding the reader of the writer’s thesis idea and bringing the paper to a natural and graceful end Either any of the methods below or a combination of two methods can be used to end a paper (Langan, 2008: 93-94):

 End with a summary and final thought;

 Include a thought-provoking question or short series of questions;

 End with a prediction or recommendation

Again to suit the level of the study’s student subjects, the very first way of conclusion is applied: first comes the restatement of the topic and central idea of the essay, and last comes the writer’s final thought

III CONCLUSION:

To summarize, flextime (Restated topic) has resulted in increased

production and happier workers who are less likely to miss work (Restated subtopics), and it works well (Restated central idea 1) in

manufacturing and retail industries It works less well (Restated central

idea 2) in service industries such as the restaurant and health care

Here are three voice examples:

Example 1: I love the heady cruelty of spring The cloud shows in the first

weeks of the season are wonderfully adolescent: "I'm happy!" "I'm mad, I'm brooding." "I'm happy now I'm going to cry ." The skies and the weather toy with us, refusing to let us settle back down into the steady sleepy days and nights of winter

Example 2: I believe I have some idea of how the refugee feels, or the

immigrant Once, I was thus, or nearly so And all the while I carried around inside me an elsewhere, a place of which I could not speak because

no one would know what I was talking about I was a displaced person, of a kind, in the jargon of the day And displaced persons are displaced not just in space but in time; they have been cut off from their own pasts If you cannot revisit your own origins reach out and touch them from time to time you are for ever in some crucial sense untethered

Example 3: Privacy in the workplace is one of the more troubling personal

and professional issues of our time But privacy cannot be adequately addressed without considering a basic foundation of ethics We cannot reach

a meaningful normative conclusion about workplace privacy rights and obligations without a fundamental and common understanding of the ethical basis of justice and a thorough understanding of individual and organizational concerns and motivations

< http://www.write101.com/lethamfind.htm>

2.1.3.4 Word choice

Word choice is often defined as the precision in the use of words Writers choose just the right word or phrase to make the meaning clear or to create a particular mood or feeling for a piece of writing Good word choice helps the writer catch the reader’s eyes and paint memorable pictures in their mind However, “good word choice does not mean using big, fancy unusual words It means using the right words to say the right thing in just the right way” (Peha, 2003: 12)

Before: I ran quickly to the board where the results would be posted, with

many curious people standing around waiting anxiously to see their scores

After: I rushed to the board to find people crowded around muttering prayers

to themselves as they awaited the dean’s arrival with their score results

<http://www.petersons.com>

2.1.3.5 Sentence fluency

Sentence fluency is “the way individual words and phrases sound together within a sentence and how groups of sentences sound when read one after the other” (Peha, 2003: 13) A good writing piece should have rhythm and flow smoothly from sentence to sentence which vary in length and begin in a variety of ways

In Chores, the writer does a pretty good job of varying the beginnings of her

sentences Almost every sentence begins differently than the one before it

Chores! Chores! Chores! Chores are boring! Scrubbing toilets, cleaning sinks, and washing bathtubs take up a lot of my time and are not fun at all Toilets! When you’re scrubbing toilets make sure they are not stinky I’ve scrubbed one before and I was lucky it didn’t stink I think toilets are one of the hardest things to scrub in the bathroom because it is hard to get up around the rim

Sinks are one of the easiest things to clean in the bathroom because they have no rims and they are small I have cleaned one before and it was pretty easy

Bathtubs, ever washed one? They are big, they are deep, and it is hard to get up around the sides The bathtub is the hardest, I think, to wash in the bathroom

All chores are boring, especially making my bed Cleaning my room is OK because I have to organize, and I like organizing Dusting is the worst: dust, set down, pick up, dust, set down There are so many things to dust, and it’s

In summary, a good piece of writing should (1) be clear and focused and convey relevant details enriching its central idea, (2) be organized in a way that enhances meaning and develops the central idea, (3) express the personality of the writer, (4) contain well-chosen words, (5) have an easy flow and rhythm, and (6) demonstrate a good grasp of standard writing conventions

2.2 READING AND WRITING RELATIONSHIP

2.2.1 A historical overview of reading and writing connection

Historically, the two skills- reading and writing were treated as distinct areas

of exploration, and the relationship between them was not regarded as a topic of either theoretical or pragmatic concern While a number of research were carried

out to conceptualize the reading process and to explore substitute approaches to the growth of reading skill, very little research in reading investigated the influence of writing schooling or writing activity on the development of reading comprehension Similarly, while a large body of theoretical and experimental research in writing focused on methodological issues, very little research in writing examined the influences of reading instruction or reading experience on the development of writing ability

Until 1980s, theorists, researchers and practitioners examined reading and writing as similar cognitive process, the connection between reading and writing received considerable attention Tierney and Pearson (1983: 568) concluded that “at the heart of understanding reading/writing connection one must begin to view reading and writing as essentially similar processes of meaning construction.” Since 1980s, many researchers have investigated the association between reading and writing which has been served for the conclusion that those who read well write well That is because both reader and writer are active participants in the making or construction of meaning as they interact with text

In order to reinforce the concept that reading and writing are cognitive similar: both the writer and the reader construct meaning form the text and interpret meaning form texts (Johnson P., 1986) Furthermore, reading and writing are complicated, complex, interactive processes that entail many sub-skill, and both rely

on individual past experience (Spivey, 1990; Sternglass, 1986)

Not only are writing and reading cognitive but also the processes of social communication between the reader and the writer Consequently, there exists a mutual relationship between reading and writing: good readers are often good writers, and good writers are often good readers (Flower & Hayes, 1980)

Regarding to L2 literacy context, Krashen’s (1984) has an argument “it is reading that gives the writer the “feel” for the look and texture” (cited in Hirvela, 2004:20) paves the way leading writing researches and instructors to the vision of reading and writing connection He asserts it is reading that builds the knowledge base of written texts, helps L2 learners acquire necessary language requirements

such as grammatical structures and discourse rules for writing, and facilitates the process of language acquisition While Krashen’s viewpoint identifies the contributions that reading can make to writing, it is reader-response theory that brings L2 literacy researchers to see reading and writing both as processes of composing According to reader-response theory, the meaning conveyed by the texts is determined by the reader instead of the author Hirvela (2004:53) modifies reader-response theory “serves as a valuable tool for privileging and investigating students’ composing process as readers, processes that can both influence and overlap with their composing processes as writer.”

Both reading and writing have been viewed as processes in which students interact with texts meaningfully, researchers suggested ESL or L2 teachers need to utilize strategic methods to integrate the concept into teaching Therefore, reading to write and writing to read are the two facilitative strategies for instruction in L2 literacy classrooms

First, reading-to-write strategy is formed by the belief that reading supports and characterize L2 learners’ writing through gaining of language input when students are performing reading tasks Accordingly, reading is not merely cooperative for improving L2 learners’ writing capability in a broad sense Also, through reading, students are given opportunities in writing classroom to acquire knowledge of vocabulary, grammatical structures, or rhetorical features of the texts Pedagogically, the “reading-to-write strategy is suggested by numerous teaching practices, including mining, writerly reading, rhetorical reading, and modeling approach, and extensive reading and free reading As concluded by Block (1992), the readers should be helped to plan their written papers with reading and analyzing texts for successful communication patterns, that is, for what makes a passage unified and meaningful for readers in particular discourse or interpretive community

On the other hand, writing-to-read strategy supplies a technique which changes the goals of teachers’ instruction from helping students answer comprehension checks correctly to encouraging students’ meaningful interaction