An investigation into the impact of reading on writing skills implications for efl teaching at binh thuan community college

The study aims at investigating the difficulties second year English majored students encounter in writing skills, finding out the ways in which the reading course can help to improve th

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY - HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE IMPACT OF READING ON WRITING SKILLS:

IMPLICATIONS FOR EFL TEACHING AT

BINH THUAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT

OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

MASTER OF ARTS (TESOL)

RESEARCHER NGUYỄN THỊ NGỌC HẠNH

SUPERVISOR

LÊ THỊ ANH PHƯƠNG, Ph.D

HO CHI MINH CITY, DECEMBER 2009

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I certify my authorship of this thesis entitled “An Investigation into the Impact

of Reading on Writing Skills: Implications for EFL Teaching at Binh Thuan Community College” in terms of the requirements for Masters’ theses stated by the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University of Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City, December 2009

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hanh

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS

Accepting the requirements of the University for the Retention and Use of Masters’ theses deposited in the library, I agree that my thesis can be used as a reference for studying and researching

Ho Chi Minh City, December 2009

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hanh

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, I would like to show my great gratitude to my supervisor, Dr Le Thi Anh Phuong, who played an extremely important role in guiding, encouraging and helping me to plan, write and complete this thesis Thanks to her sharp and interesting questions and comments, I could understand the problems investigated and find out the appropriate solutions to these problems in the course of conducting my study

In addition, I would like to express my profound thanks to all the teachers who taught me in the course of TESOL The knowledge I acquired through their teaching also contributed to helping me generate good ideas to write this thesis

Also, I am thankful to all my willing colleagues and students at Binh Thuan Community College, who, with their informative and truthful responses to the questionnaires, their keen collaboration, and their sincere support, also helped me a lot

in data collection for my thesis Especially, I would like to show my deep appreciation

to Mr Trépanier, who contributed ideas and proofread my thesis

Furthermore, I would also like to show my honest thanks to all the staff of the Department of Postgraduate Studies as well as of the Department of English Linguistics and Literature of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City, who created favorable conditions for the fulfillment of my thesis

Finally, I am really grateful to my family and my best friends for their love, sympathy and support, without which I could hardly address a lot of difficulties to finish my thesis

ABSTRACT

This thesis is an investigation into the impact of teaching reading on students’ writing skills and its implications in the teaching and learning of reading and writing skills at Binh Thuan Community College The study aims at investigating the difficulties second year English majored students encounter in writing skills, finding out the ways in which the reading course can help to improve these students’ writing skills to draw implications for teaching Reading and Writing courses The results of the study were gained from an experiment with an experimental class and a control one and student and teacher questionnaires This experiment consisted of three stages: pre-experiment, experiment and post-experiment In the experiment, the students’ difficulties in writing were investigated, and a series of supplementary passages and exercises was provided to the students in the experimental class in the reading course The results of the whole study indicated that the students usually had problems with vocabulary, grammar, coherence and content in writing and that providing the students with the supplementary passages and exercises in the reading course could help them improve their reading and writing skills

Based on these results, this thesis suggests (1) Providing students with supplementary reading passages and exercises in the reading course to address the difficulties they encounter in writing, (2) Integrating the syllabus of the reading course with that of the writing course, (3) Teaching reading and writing by the same teacher, and (4) Building and boosting students’ awareness of the positive impact of reading on writing These suggestions and recommendations can be applied in Binh Thuan Community College, where the impact of reading on writing skills has not been taken into account in enhancing learners’ immediate as well as long-term significant improvements in their reading and writing skills in particular and in their language competence in general

ABBREVIATIONS

BTCC Binh Thuan Community College

EAP English for Academic Purposes

EFL English as a Foreign Language

ELL English Language Learner

L1 First language/ Mother tongue

L2 Second language/ Foreign language

LSBF London School of Business and Finance

M.A Master of Arts

TESOL Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

LISTS OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS

List of tables

Table 3.1 Study design……… 22

Table 4.1 Writing is difficult ……… ……… 29

Table 4.2 Difficult aspects in writing……… 30

Table 4.3 Difficult genres of writing ……… 31

Table 4.4 Difficult topics ……….….32

Table 4.5 Difficult grammar points ……… 32

Table 4.6 The ten control students’ pretest and posttest scores ……….…… 40

Table 4.7 The ten experimental students’ pretest and posttest scores ……… 41

Table 4.8 Improvements in an experimental student (Y 4)’s writing ……….……… 46

Table 4.9 Helpfulness of the Reading course on writing as perceived by the students ………51

Table 4.10 Specific influence of the Reading course on writing as perceived by the students ……….52

Table 4.11 Usefulness of the Reading course as perceived by the teachers ……… …….…….53

Table 4.12 Specific influence of the Reading course as perceived by the teachers ………54

Table 4.13 Improvements in the experimental students’ writing skills …… …… 57

List of charts Chart 4.1 Writing is difficult ……….……… 30

Chart 4.2 Difficult aspects in writing ………….……… ……31

Chart 4.3 Helpfulness of the Reading course on writing as perceived by the students……… 51

Chart 4.4 Specific influence of the Reading course on writing as perceived by the

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY i

RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS ……… ii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ……… iii

ABSTRACT ……… iv

ABBREVIATIONS ……… v

LISTS OF FIGURES, TABLES AND CHARTS ……… vi

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 1

1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 3

1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PURPOSE 4

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 4

1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS 4

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 6

2.1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 6

2.1.1 WRITING CRITERIA 6

2.1.2 WRITING CHALLENGES 7

2.1.3 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN READING AND WRITING 10

2.1.4 IMPACT OF READING ON WRITING 12

2.1.4.1 READING AND VOCABULARY 12

2.1.4.2 READING AND GRAMMAR 12

2.1.4.3 READING AND IDEAS 13

2.1.4.4 READING AND EDITING 13

2.2 EMPIRICAL FINDINGS 14

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 21

3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS 21

3.2 METHODOLOGY 21

3.2.1 SUBJECTS 23

3.2.1.1 THE STUDENTS 23

3.2.1.2 THE TEACHERS 24

3.2.2 INSTRUMENTS 24

3.2.2.1 DESCRIPTION OF THE STUDENT QUESTIONNAIRES 24

3.2.2.2 DESCRIPTION OF THE TEACHER QUESTIONNAIRES 25

3.2.2.3 DESCRIPTION OF THE EXPERIMENTAL PROCESS 26

CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 29

4.1 DATA ANALYSIS 29

4.1.1 STUDENTS’ DIFFICULTIES IN WRITING 29

4.1.1.1 STUDENTS’ IDEAS 29

4.1.1.2 TEACHERS’ IDEAS 33

4.1.1.3 PRE-TREATMENT TEST 34

4.1.2 IMPACT OF THE TREATMENT ON THE STUDENTS’ WRITING SKILLS 39

4.1.2.1 THE SCORES 39

4.1.2.2 THE WRITINGS 41

4.1.2.3 STUDENTS’ OPINIONS 50

4.1.2.4 TEACHERS’ OPINIONS 53

4.2 FINDINGS 57

CHAPTER 5 IMPLICATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 60

5.1 PROVIDING STUDENTS WITH SUPPLEMENTARY READING PASSAGES AND EXERCISES 60

5.2 INTEGRATING THE SYLLABUS OF THE READING COURSE WITH THAT OF THE WRITING COURSE 63

5.3 TEACHING READING AND WRITING BY THE SAME TEACHER 63

5.4 BUILDING AND BOOSTING STUDENTS’ AWARENESS OF THE POSITIVE IMPACT OF READING ON WRITING 64

CONCLUSION 66

BIBLIOGRAPHY 70

APPENDIX 1 76

APPENDIX 2 78

APPENDIX 3 79

APPENDIX 4 81

APPENDIX 5 82

APPENDIX 6 82

APPENDIX 7 83

APPENDIX 8 89

APPENDIX 9 97

APPENDIX 10 98

APPENDIX 11 100

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

As a teacher of English for eight years, I find that writing is not an easy task for most of students According to many students at Binh Thuan Community College (BTCC), it is difficult to write a piece of text because they do not grasp a wide range of vocabulary, enough grammatical structures and a good way to organize or link their ideas In addition, a lack of ideas is also one of the primary causes for their difficulties

in learning the English writing skills As a result, most of them are not very successful with writing in English Their writings usually show lexical and grammatical errors as well as a lack of ideas and coherence And finally, the results of their English writing tests are usually not good Therefore, their ability to communicate through the medium

of writing is not effective Students’ difficulties in writing can be seen in their opinions and their teachers’ opinions as shown in the questionnaires (ref pages 29-34) These are also revealed in the pretests (ref pages 34-39) in chapter 4

At BTCC, not only the course books of reading and writing but also the teaching and learning of these two subjects show that the impact of reading on writing is not recognized or is not taken into consideration

The Reading and Writing courses, two of the subjects that second-year majored students of BTCC have to learn in the first semester last for 45 periods (6 chapters) each The course book chosen for the Reading course is Kirn, E and

English-Hartmann, P 2002 Interactions 2 – Reading New York: McGraw- Hill and the one for the Writing course is Pavlik, C., Segal, K M and Blass, L 2002 Interaction 2-

Writing New York: McGraw- Hill The Writing course book consists of twelve

chapters which focus on various genres, namely description, letters, narration, and

argument Each genre is often illustrated by one or two samples before practice tasks are given The Reading course book also consists of twelve chapters in which very few

or no reading passages can be used as samples to illustrate the genres in the Writing course book because most of these reading passages focus on exposition Therefore, the number of these reading samples is not enough to help second year English-majored students at BTCC to have a necessary understanding of the genres to produce good pieces of writing of the required genres

Also, these two courses are taught by two different teachers who do not often share their experience about teaching with each other In addition, most students as well as teachers do not identify or pay important attention to the positive impact of reading on writing As a result, this has created a lack of a positive impact of the Reading course on students’ writing skills

According to the literature and research findings, both in Vietnam and in the world, reading has a great influence on writing Many researchers claim that reading not only can improve learners’ vocabulary and grammar but also can provide them with ideas for writing Indeed, Harmer (2007) writes that reading has a positive effect

on language acquisition in general and on vocabulary, grammar and writing in particular In addition, Perera (1984) and Rosemary and Roskos (2002) argue that the language features and organizational aspects of written texts can be learnt through reading so reading can improve writing Lancia (1997) also supposes that learners can spontaneously and temporarily borrow ideas from reading to develop their writing skills To clarify the impact of reading on writing, Escribano (1999) states that good reading is important for good writing Krashen (1989) also considers reading exposure

as the primary means of developing reading comprehension, vocabulary, grammar and writing skills Moreover, a study conducted by Wai-King Tsang (1996) shows that reading provides important linguistic input for the acquisition of writing abilities Like

the researchers mentioned above, Corden (2007) also argues that reading can have a positive impact on the quality of independent writing

In addition, research findings in Vietnam (Vo Thi Nu Anh, 2004, Le Hoang Dung, 2004) also confirm that the teaching of reading has positive effects on students’ writing skills However, their results came mainly from questionnaires

As few studies explore the impact of reading on writing in Vietnam, I seek to fill this gap by investigating the influence that the teaching of reading has on the development of students’ writing skills by using the experimental method

1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

There are many reasons why it is important to pay attention to the links between reading and writing courses because reading and writing skills share certain similarities with each other

First of all, writing skills and reading skills are two factors of literacy, which are very important for each person’s development and success Harmer (2004) writes

“education (including numeracy as well as literacy) was desirable for the whole population, not just for the efficient running of society, but also for the fulfillment and advancement of individuals” (p 3)

Besides, both reading and writing are the activities concerned with the messages of written texts, so reading can improve writing Writing can help us communicate with readers or convey messages to readers when they are not physically present and reading can help us understand writers’ messages Byrne (1988) writes that writing is for a reader He points out that to write is to encode a message or translate our thoughts into language while to read is to decode or to interpret this message In addition, to understand the message expressed in a reading text, a reader has to analyze the vocabulary, grammar, and logic organization used by the writer of that text Thus,

to communicate successfully with a reader, a writer must consider himself or herself as

a reader and to understand a reading text, a reader has to consider himself or herself as

a writer

Finally, the English reading and writing skills should be developed because of the important role that they play in helping students study English better Obviously, reading and writing can provide students with chances to contact, use and widen their knowledge of lexical, grammatical and logical devices Understanding reading texts and knowing how to convey messages, ideas, thoughts or feelings better through the medium of writing can clearly motivate students’ interest in learning the English reading and writing skills in particular and the English language in general

1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PURPOSE

The purposes of this study are to investigate the specific effects of the reading course on the development of writing skills for second year English-majored students

at BTCC and to suggest ways to enhance EFL teaching, especially with reading and writing courses at this college

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

My research aims at answering the following questions:

1 What difficulties do second year students have in learning writing skills?

2 In what ways can the Reading course help to improve these students’ writing skills?

3 What implications can be drawn to improve Reading and Writing courses?

1.5 ORGANIZATION OF THE THESIS

Apart from the peripheral sections, this thesis consists of five chapters and the conclusion First, Chapter 1 demonstrates the description of the students’ writing difficulties, of the reading and writing syllabuses at BTCC, of the significance of the

study, of the study purposes and of the research questions Second, Chapter 2 presents

a review of the literature and research related to the study Third, Chapter 3 mentions the methodology of the study which is associated with the questionnaires for teachers and students, and the experiment In the experiment, the students of the experimental class were provided with the supplementary passages and exercises in the reading course Next, Chapter 4 deals with the analysis of the data collected and the findings of the study Then, Chapter 5 suggests some implications and recommendations to improve students’ writing skills in the relationship with reading skills Finally, a concise conclusion is stated to emphasize the main ideas and the core of the thesis

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW

There is a considerable amount of literature on the strong relationship between reading and writing and reading can create a positive impact on writing efficiency (Kennedy and Bolitho, 1985; Krashen, 1989; Wai-King Tsang, 1996; Madrid, 1999; Harmer, 2007; Olson and Land, 2007; Corden, 2007)

2.1 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1.1 Writing criteria

The writing evaluation criteria should be clarified because they contribute to helping evaluate how reading influences writing Many criteria of a good piece of writing have been emphasized by many researchers (Lalande, 1982; Semke, 1984; Zamel, 1985; Robb, Ross, and Shortreed, 1986; Colomb and colleagues, 1991; Lee and Vanpatten, 1995; Olson and Land, 2007) Yet, most of them place a lot of importance

on the four elements of content, vocabulary, grammar and coherence when evaluating a piece of written text (Lee and Paulson, 1992; Brown, 1994; Lee and Vanpatten, 1995; Steve Peha, 1995-2003; Carl-Georg Bank, 2006) This can be clearly exposed through the following ideas and opinions about the criteria of a good piece of writing

First of all, Brown (1994) supposes that this list of criteria includes content, organization, vocabulary use and grammatical use

Moreover, according to Carl-Georg Bank (2006), students and instructors can evaluate a piece of writing using the “four Cs”: content, clarity, coherence, and craft

He explains: Content is the information of a text Clarity is obtained by carefully selecting words Coherence is constructed by logical flow of information, and how sentences are linked Craft includes punctuation, spelling and grammar (Bank, 2006)

In addition, according to Teitelbaum (2003), coherence can be achieved in many ways, including:

• Use of transitional words or phrases

• Repetition of key thoughts and lexical items

• Partial restatement of ideas

• Use of synonyms, parallel grammatical structure and the same point of view

• Logical organization

Also, Steve Peha (1995-2003) states that a good writing has interesting and important ideas, logical and effective organization, individual and appropriate voice (formal or casual, friendly or reserved), specific and memorable word choice, smooth and expressive sentence fluency and correct and communicative conventions (punctuation, spelling, grammar)

Lastly and perhaps most concretely, Lee and Paulson (1992)’ s evaluation criteria for compositions specify the order of importance of content, organization, vocabulary and language through their scores of 30, 25, 25 and 20 points respectively out of a total score of 100 The requirements for these criteria are classified as content being complete, and relevant, organization being logically and effectively ordered with main points and details well connected, as well as a wide range of vocabulary used effectively and very few grammatical errors (Lee and Paulson, 1992) According to Lee and Vanpatten (1995), it is important to teach learners how to apply these criteria

to evaluate their own as well as their peers’ pieces of writings Obviously, when learners know how their compositions will be evaluated, they can write more carefully with the criteria in mind

Indeed, Byrne (1988) states that writing is usually the skill many learners can

be least proficient in even after they have much practice Byrne (1988) points out three kinds of difficulties which we usually encounter when writing, psychological, linguistic and cognitive problems First, as for the psychological difficulties of writing, Byrne (1988) supposes that while speaking can take the advantages of interaction and feedback of someone physically present, writing cannot as it is a solitary activity and

we are required to write alone Second, when stating the linguistic problems of writing, Byrne (1988) explains that since speaking is a spontaneous and automatic activity and is supported by a process of interaction, we have little time as well as do not need to pay much attention to organizing our sentence structures or to linking our sentences, whereas in writing, we have to try to choose sentence structures or link sentences carefully so that the text we write can be interpreted and understood on its own That is, it is not so easy to keep the channel of written communication as that of oral communication open and successful Third, we can face cognitive problems when writing because it requires us a great deal of conscious effort and a process of learning whereas speaking does not appear to Byrne (1988) writes that we seem to speak without much conscious effort or thought and we usually talk because we want to, about matters which are socially or professionally relevant to us On the other hand, to

be able to write, we have to learn and master the written language form, structures as well as how to organize our ideas in order that our piece of writing can be understood

by a reader who is not physically present (Byrne, 1988) Besides, Byrne (1988) also emphasizes that one of the most common and popular difficulties that we encounter is

a lack of ideas Byrne (1988) states a lack of ideas is a familiar experience to most of

us when we are required to write In addition, Celce- Murcia (2000) points out that writing is not an easy task because students are usually afraid that they cannot think of what to write about, cannot know how to express their ideas properly, and cannot compose successfully Furthermore, Aly and Abdul-Sadeq (2006) carried out an

analytic study on the postgraduate students’ difficulties in writing abstracts in English and this study revealed that many students encountered the grammatical, educational terminology and technical writing and lexical difficulties

Among the difficulties that can inhibit writing development, Dr Levine (2002)

also identifies such problems as the sequential ordering problem that may appear in a writing as poor narrative sequencing, and the lack of transitions, the memory problem

as poor vocabulary, many misspelled words, and grammar errors, the language or

language ability problem as poor vocabulary, award phrasing and unconventional grammar, the difficulty with sentence structures and word order, the trouble of reading back what is written, and the difficulty with word sounds, spelling and meaning

Levine (2002) also mentions the higher-order cognition problem as the trouble of

generating ideas or elaborating (explaining) on them, the difficulty of developing and organizing ideas, the lack of opinion or sense of audience, and the difficulty with writing tasks that require creativity and/or critical thinking Besides, according to a general survey conducted by Athabasca University, Canada’s Open University from

1997 till 2009, poorly developed skills in decoding, and reading are among the difficulties that may interfere with students’ acquisition of writing skills

In brief, writing is really difficult because it requires not only the knowledge of language such as vocabulary and grammar but also developed reading skills and higher-order cognition such as producing and explaining on ideas, developing and organizing ideas, having sense of audience, creativity and critical thinking Therefore,

it is not easy for students to learn how to write so that their compositions can completely match the evaluation criteria mentioned above Also, it is not easy for them

to communicate successfully through the medium of writing not only during the course but also at a later stage in their future

In summary, there are a lot of reasons causing difficulties in writing In the scope of my thesis, some of the main writing difficulties in terms of vocabulary, grammar, ideas, and coherence will be dealt with in the reading course to improve writing skills

2.1.3 Relationship between reading and writing

Understanding the connections between reading and writing plays an important role in helping the researcher master the impact of reading on writing It has traditionally been thought that reading and writing are distinctly separate processes, with reading considered as receptive and writing as productive process (Tompkins, 1997) More and more researchers have recognized the connections between reading and writing and identified them as the processes of meaning construction (Paris, Wasik

& Turner, 1991; Tierney & Pearson, 1983)

Firstly, there is a link between reading and writing because both of them are considered as the meaning construction processes Indeed, it can be said that writing is

to construct the meaning or message in a written text for a reader to read and interpret whereas reading is a process of constructing or interpreting the meaning or message from the written text Byrne (1988) writes writing involves encoding a message or translating our thought into language while reading involves decoding or interpreting this message Also, Nuttal (1982) states that the writer or the encoder puts a message in his mind into words or encodes it and when the message reaches the mind of the reader, the reader or the decoder interprets or decodes that message

Secondly, another connection between reading and writing can be shown through the fact that a reader and a writer should share certain assumptions or background knowledge in common to carry out the processes of reading as well as writing successfully According to Nuttal (1982), these shared assumptions include certain knowledge of language, attitudes, beliefs, values or anything shared by two people brought up in the same society As a result, a good writer has to be able to share

or predict the intended reader’s background knowledge and especially how the reader will interpret his choice of language, and his specific words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs That is, good writers can read their own written texts from the mind of the targeted reader to make them readable (Brown, 1994) Also, to become a good reader the reader has to share certain prior knowledge or schemata about the language as well

as about the world with the writer Different background knowledge may create difficulties for a reader to decode texts in a way which corresponds with a writer’s schema (Wallace, 1992) Therefore, a good reader needs not only to consider written words as context clues but also to activate his assumptions with a writer to infer, interpret and understand a writer’s intended message between the lines

Finally, there are connections between reading and writing because of the interrelationship of these skills, which show that being good at reading can lead to being good at writing and vice versa In fact, reading can positively influence writing because reading many various relevant texts helps students gain important insights about how they should write and about the subjects that may become the topics of their writing (Brown, 1994) He supposes that we can learn to write by carefully observing

or examining what we can read Byrne (1988) also states that when students have more opportunities to read interesting and naturally written texts, their writing skills can be improved In addition, according to Kroll (1990), reading is considered as the appropriate input for writing skill acquisition because reading passages can function as models from which writing skills can be learned Furthermore, Stotsky (1983), in his studies, also emphasizes the correlations between reading achievement and writing ability Having the same opinion with Stotsky (1983), Kroll (1990) argues that better writers can be better readers, better writers read more than poorer writers and better readers can produce more syntactically complex writings than poorer readers

To sum up briefly, reading and writing share some certain connections with each other and the exposure to one can be beneficial to the other and vice versa

However, in the scope of this study, only the benefits of reading on writing are examined and how reading influences writing efficiency can be shown in the part below

2.1.4 Impact of reading on writing

Many experts have studied the influence of reading on writing and their studies demonstrate a number of benefits of reading on writing (Krashen, 1989; Kroll, 1990; Brown, 1994; Escribano, 1999; Harmer, 2007; Coxhead and Byrd, 2007; Corden, 2007) Some main advantages of reading on solving writing challenges and on improving the acquisition of writing can be stated below

2.1.4.1 Reading and vocabulary

Reading not only enlarges students’ vocabulary but also shows them how to use lexical items in appropriate contexts Harmer (2007) states that if students read more, they can expand their vocabulary that can be useful for developing their writing skills Harmer believes that reading has a positive effect on students’ vocabulary and on their writing (Harmer, 2007) Krashen (1989) also supports the view that reading increases vocabulary acquisition However, to write well, students need to know not only the meaning of words but also the way to choose and use these words in a particular context and it is reading, that can best show them this knowledge In fact, Escribano (1999) supposes that one of the primary ways in which students experience and learn how a writer selects and uses words to convey his message is reading Moreover, Coxhead and Byrd (2007) also confirm that students, by reading texts of authentic length and language, can learn strategies for not only recognizing but also dealing with and using new lexical items found in reading materials

2.1.4.2 Reading and grammar

Another benefit of reading on writing is that reading good written texts provides students with a model of good grammar and sentence structures that will promote their writing skills efficiently According to Harmer (2007), the way sentences, paragraphs

and whole texts are constructed can be demonstrated through reading texts and this can help students have access to good models for their own writing Escribano (1999) also supports Harmer’s viewpoint and concludes that reading can be the basis for writing proficiency as it puts the learner in touch with the writer’s mind so that he can experience how that writer has organized information, chosen words and structured arguments In addition, Perera (1984) and Rosemary & Roskos (2002) also confirm that students can learn about the language features and organizational aspects of a written text through reading Also, Byrne (1988) admits students can find all the

“rhetorical devices- logical, grammatical and lexical” that they need to master to develop their writing skills by reading texts

2.1.4.3 Reading and ideas

Many studies have shown that reading significantly raises students’ potential for ideas that they can use in their own writing (Lancia, 1997; Corden, 2007; Coxhead and Byrd, 2007; Harmer, 2007) In fact, good reading texts can involve interesting topics (Harmer, 2007) Besides, Coxhead and Byrd (2007) state that learners have opportunities to develop their language as well as meaning and ideas in their own writing thanks to reading Corden (2007) also states that the teacher’s explicit instruction and students’ discussion about a reading text allow students’ personal response and encourage them to transfer the ideas of that text to their own writing Similarly, Lancia (1997) also points out that learners spontaneously or automatically borrow ideas from reading to develop their own writing craft

2.1.4.4 Reading and editing

In addition, reading is also part of an important stage in the writing process – reflecting and revising (Harmer, 2007) Harmer (2007) states that a writer usually revises his or her writing to see whether it is not clear, ambiguous or confusing According to Harmer (2007), skilled writers usually read their drafts again to check the general meaning and the whole structure first and then the detailed features such as

particular ideas, lexical items or grammatical points As a result of this, if a writer is good at reading skills, he or she can revise his or her drafts better and this plays a significant role in helping him or her make appropriate changes in order to produce a better final version In other words, it is extremely important for efficient writers to master the skills of reading

To conclude, reading, with its important benefits on writing that are highlighted above, is one of the keys to the efficient acquisition of writing skills Clearly, without the knowledge of the second language vocabulary, grammar and ideas, learners can encounter difficulties in writing Furthermore, being skilled at reading can make editing, one of the most important stages of the writing process, more efficient and this also plays a significant role in improving writing skills In other words, it is proved that reading can provide students with necessary and important knowledge for their development of writing skills Thus, it is not strange that more and more researchers have confirmed that reading can improve craft and artistry in writing (Cullinan, 1987; Harwayne, 1992; Kress, 1986; Short & Pierce, 1990) Overall, no one can deny the fact that reading can offer valuable benefits on writing and that a good reader can take a lot

of advantages of reading to overcome the difficulties he faces in the process of writing

to become a good writer

2.2 EMPIRICAL FINDINGS

A great number of researchers in foreign countries (Stotsky, 1983; Perera, 1984; Cullinan, 1987; Kress, 1986; Byrne, 1988; Krashen, 1989; Kroll, 1990; Short & Pierce, 1990; Harwayne, 1992; Brown, 1994; Lancia, 1997; Escribano, 1999; Rosemary & Roskos, 2002; Harmer, 2007; Coxhead and Byrd, 2007; Corden, 2007) and a few in Vietnam (Le Hoang Dung, 2004; Vo Thi Nu Anh, 2004) have conducted their studies

on the influence of reading on writing and the results of their studies all show that being good at reading, analyzing and interpreting written texts can lead to writing efficiency It is because through reading, we have the opportunity to be exposed to

well-written pieces of writing that help us not only to get familiarized with the conventions in written communication, to increase reading comprehension and vocabulary acquisition, but also to promote grammatical development and to improve writing style Following are the main findings of their studies

In order to develop the connection between reading and writing as well as the impact of reading on writing, many researchers in foreign countries and few in Vietnam have paid much attention to integrating these two skills in the English language teaching

For instance, Wong Fillmore (1986), Anderson and Roit (1994), and the members of the Education Alliance (Coady et al., 2003) place a lot of importance on integrating reading and writing teaching using a cognitive strategies approach In addition, many other researchers also pay much attention to finding out the teaching as well as learning strategies to integrate reading and writing skills (Olson, 2003; Flower and Hayes, 1981; Langer, 1989; Paris, Wasik and Turner, 1991; Tierney and Pearson, 1983; and Tompkins, 1997) Besides, Olson and Land (2007) also conducted a study to investigate the ways to integrate reading and writing to develop learners’ interest, confidence and competence as independent readers and writers

Similarly, after conducting a questionnaire-based study on how reading skills can assist the teaching and learning of L2 writing skills at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University- Ho Chi Minh City, Le Hoang Dung (2004), depending on an important finding of his study that there are some mutual relationships between reading skills and writing skills, emphasizes the need and urgency to integrate these two skills in the process of teaching and learning Like Brown (1994), Le Hoang Dung (1994) also suggests adopting an integration of the process approach and the product approach, a form of the integration of reading and writing, into the teaching and leaning of writing In the process approach, he insists that students should be trained to reread or revise their own drafts of writing on a reader’s

opinion or perspective In the product approach, he supposes that students should be given models of good writings and should know the criteria of a good piece of writing which the teacher may expect them to achieve Le Hoang Dung (2004) also highlights the importance of raising students’ awareness of “the decisive influence” of reading on writing skills

Like Le Hoang Dung and other foreign researchers, Vo Thi Nu Anh (2004), who conducted a questionnaire-based study on the effects of reading on writing to solve the problems with writing skills that the second-year students majoring in English at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University- Ho Chi Minh City faced, also supports the idea to integrate the reading and writing skills in teaching and learning writing She found that both L1 and L2 reading influenced on writing proficiency and that students who had positive reading habits tended to be more proficient writers Vo Thi Nu Anh (2004)

Many language researchers argue that students benefit from the integration and demonstrate significant progress in reading and in writing achievement (Olson, 2003; Flower and Hayes, 1981; Langer, 1989; Paris, Wasik and Turner, 1991; Tierney and Pearson, 1983; and Tompkins, 1997) First, Vo Thi Nu Anh (2004) and Le Hoang Dung (2004) state that the integration of reading and writing is a useful remedy to overcome student writers’ obstacles and to drive students’ attention to the features and characteristics of writing pieces in order to produce “beautiful natural written English” Second, Wai-King Tsang (1996) writes that the integration plays an important role in promoting students’ linguistic input and in improving the acquisition of writing skills effectively Third, the integration can be effective for improving learners’ acquisition and competence of the two skills, reading and writing, in various contexts, and help them to become independent, autonomous, active and successful readers and writers (Flower & Hayes 1981a; Paris et al., 1991; Pressley, 1991) Jimenez, Garcia, Pearson (1994), Vaugh and Klinger (2004), Lee and Vanpatten (1995) and Brown (1994) also

argue that integrating reading and writing skills can help English language learners (ELLs) develop academic literacy Therefore, it is said that the integration can develop students’ confidence and competence as independent readers and writers to succeed in advanced educational contexts (Olson and Land, 2007) In short, when communication has been defined as expressing, interpreting, and negotiating meaning, such an integrated approach to teaching the two skills, reading and writing, can actually help learners more successfully interpret a message in reading as well as more effectively develop and communicate an idea in writing (Lee and Vanpatten, 1995)

Many language researchers also claim that teachers’ good ability of and close attention to analyzing texts in reading play an important role in building learners’ schemata for writing and developing learners’ sense of audience in writing because text analysis makes learners familiarized with how writers organize information, choose words and structure texts to communicate with readers through the medium of writing (Escribano, 1999; Coxhead and Byrd, 2007; Roy, 2007; Hyland, 2007)

For example, Escribano (1999), in his research, points out the relevance of teaching reading and writing skills at Madrid Polytechnique University He assumes learning tasks based on text-type analysis are appropriate activities to build schemata

for writing and this can help to achieve a synthesis of teaching objectives of both

English reading and writing courses (Escribano, 1999) Based on Carrell & Carson’s (1997) point of view that reading must be taught to enable learners to comprehend the text in a way that will allow them to produce an appropriate essay, Escribano (1999) argues that experienced readers have to be able to find clues in a text to understand the writer’s thought and predict what the author is going to say next Thus, teachers should try their best to train students to interpret texts and to practise predicting skills in order

to develop their logical thinking and communication ability with writers through the medium of texts

Stating that reading is concerned with the recognition of the aspects of the written text while writing is with the production of the text, Kennedy & Bolitho (1985: 85), like Escribano, also regard reading as a necessary precondition for a writing task since the writer must recognize the structure of a particular type of writing before he can produce it

In addition, according to Coxhead and Byrd (2007), the development of reading and analyzing pieces of academic writing can help students identify the nature of the vocabulary and grammar they need to master to become fluent and academic writers Therefore, teachers should create many opportunities for students to focus on, to pay attention to, and to produce these items in class Among the new words that students can learn through reading to use in their own writing, they especially draw much attention to the items which consist of words that usually appear together These items are called lexicogrammatical sequences - characteristic extended sets of words occurring in relatively fixed sequences and likely stored in memory as sets rather than

created word-by-word when being used (Coxhead and Byrd, 2007) Some examples of

these sequences introduced by Coxhead and Byrd (2007) and Biber et al (2004) are

four-word sequences such as as a result of, at the end of, the extent to which, it is

possible to , phrasal verbs and prepositions verbs such as look up, agree to, noun phrases followed by of such as the number of, noun phrases with other types of post- modifiers such as the fact that, passive verb followed by a preposition requiring a noun phrase for completion such as are shown in and copula be followed by a noun or adjective phrase for completion such as is a matter of, is similar to These phrases or

sequences are useful for students because they make writing easier and they are the signals of fluent and academic writing (Coxhead and Byrd, 2007)

Also, Corden (2007) conducted a collaborative schools-university study

to investigate how teachers’ drawing attention to analyzing the literary devices such as word choice, sentence variety, simile, metaphor, or personification used by

professional writers in texts could improve the quality of children’s narrative writing It

is also said that discussing how authors craft texts can evoke emotional responses from the reader (Rosentblatt, 1995) Teachers themselves, therefore, need to be “artists” modeling the creative process in order that learners can see how people structure, think, re-read and revise as they write (Grainger, Grooch, & Lambirth, 2005)

Depending on the theory of genre-based writing instruction, which draws teachers’ attention to considering how texts actually work as communication, Hyland, (2007), like Escribano (1999), Coxhead and Byrd (2007) and Corden (2007), also insists that teachers of writing need to focus on teaching students to analyze how texts are grammatically structured so that they can codify meanings in recognizable ways

As a result of examining the researchers’ opinions mentioned above, teachers of writing also need to understand how texts are typically structured and understood in order to engage students in analyzing how a writer structures and organizes a text in relation to the expectation that his intended audience or readers can easily and successfully interpret his purpose and message coded in that text Thus, it can be concluded that being good at reading, analyzing and understanding texts can make it easier for learners to become good at writing and that teachers of writing can teach writing better if they have better reading competence

In short, it can be said that the integrated approach of the teaching and learning

of reading and writing skills and analyzing texts can help students to improve reading and writing skills and become independent, autonomous, active, critical and successful readers and writers It is because the skill integration and text analyses can activate and build students’ schemata for writing Clearly, this impressively and practically supports the theory concerned with the reading and writing connections and with the positive impact of reading on writing

In summary, reviewing the literature demonstrates that reading can influence and improve the writing skills effectively and many language researchers all over the

world conducted many studies related to the interrelationship of reading and writing and to the significant impact of reading on writing skills However, this impact has not been studied in a different context of teaching and learning at BTCC yet My study is similar to Le Hoang Dung (2004)’s and Vo Thi Nu Anh (2004)’s but their research results are primarily associated with analyzing the data collected from the questionnaires, not from an experiment Therefore, I decided to carry out an experimental study about the impact of reading on writing on the second year English-majored students at BTCC in the first term of this school year to draw out empirical findings and effective ways of teaching and learning in order to improve the students’ reading and writing skills in particular and language competence in general

CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY

In chapter 1 and chapter 2, students’ difficulties in writing, the real context of teaching writing and reading at BTCC as well as the review of some important theories and studies related to the impact of reading on writing are discussed In this chapter, the methodology to study the impact of reading on writing skills at BTCC is presented

3.1 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

My research aims at answering the following questions:

1 What difficulties do second year students have in learning writing skills?

2 In what ways can the Reading course help to improve these students’ writing skills?

3 What implications can be drawn to improve Reading and Writing courses?

3.2 METHODOLOGY

A number of research instruments were adopted to answer the research questions raised in the study These instruments included an experiment conducted in teaching Reading, preceded by a pretest and followed by a posttest in writing for the students Also, questionnaires were adopted to measure the students’ and teachers’ opinions about the students’ difficulties in writing as well as their progress

First, a pretest was done by the students and two questionnaires were conducted with the students and the teachers to identify the difficulties that the students often faced in learning to write in English Then, on the basis of the difficulties found, the researcher designed a set of additional texts and exercises conducted in the Reading course with an aim to promote the students’ writing skills The process of trying out these texts and exercises constituted an experimental research which was the main part

of the study This experiment involved two groups of students who were studying English as a Foreign Language in the second year at BTCC, with one class being the experimental subjects and the other class being the control group The main aim of this experiment was to determine whether the teaching of Reading could help to improve

the students’ writing skills The researcher who was the teacher of Reading of these two separate classes gave the treatment to one class, the experimental class but she gave no such treatment to the other class, the control class Apart from the comparison between the pretests and posttests of the control class and the experimental class, this research also made use of questionnaires to inform the researcher of the impacts of teaching Reading on the students’ writing skills

Table 3.1 Study design

Questionnaire T1 8 English teachers

Identify students’

difficulties in writing

1 What difficulties do second year students have in learning writing skills?

Control group: 41 students (class X)

Experiment Treatment:

Experiment group was provided with more reading texts and exercises Experiment group:

41 students (class Y)

Examine the possible impact of the Reading course on the students’

writing skills Post-treatment

test

82 students Questionnaire S2 82 students

Post-experiment

Questionnaire T2 8 English teachers

Identify specific impacts that the teaching

of Reading has on the students’

writing skills

2 Can the Reading course help to improve these students’ writing skills?

3 What implications can

be drawn to improve Reading and Writing courses?

At the beginning of the treatment, a pretest in writing (Appendix 5) was conducted to identify the students’ difficulties in writing which served as a basis for the treatment and to evaluate the writing skills of the students in the two groups

Afterwards, in the experiment, the experimental group received the treatment materials (additional reading passages and exercises) in the 45- period reading course while the control group did not The treatment materials (Appendices 7 & 8) given were designed based on the difficulties faced by the students in their pretests, the students’ opinions about their difficulties in writing through their questionnaires and their teachers’ ideas about these students’ challenges in writing skills

After the treatment, a posttest (Appendix 6) was conducted to measure if there were any differences between the control and experimental groups These results were measured according to the scores given by the Writing teacher of these students The impacts of the treatment were measured via the score differences between the pre-test and the post-test, via the progress made in the students’ writing themselves and via the perceptions of the students and the teachers as shown in their questionnaires

Students’ writing were examined according to 1) variety of vocabulary used, 2) correct use of linking words, 3) correct use of verb tenses and 4) transfer of ideas from added passages into their posttest writings These criteria were also used to mark the writings both in the pretest and the posttest

3.2.1 Subjects

3.2.1.1 The students

The subjects of my research were 82 college students who majored in English from two classes in the second year The study was conducted in the first semester of their second year at BTCC and by this time, the students had already taken two courses

of Writing and two courses of Reading in their first year so they had some experience with Reading and Writing in English The control group consisted of 41 students in one class and the experimental group also consisted of 41 students in the other class All these students were of similar ages (between 19 and 20) One Class (X) was chosen as

the control class and the other (Y) as the experimental class How these two groups were chosen was discussed in Chapter 4

3.2.1.2 The teachers

All the eight teachers (7 females and 1 male) at the college participated in the study as respondents for the questionnaires Most of them (7/8) had over ten years of English teaching experience and over half of them (5/8) were holders of M.A in TESOL or taking M.A courses in TESOL at the time to study

3.2.2 Instruments

The instruments of my study include an experiment, and four questionnaires, two of which were for the students and another two for the teachers

3.2.2.1 Description of the student questionnaires

The students were asked to answer two questionnaires called S1 and S2 based

on a five-point Likert Scale (Likert, 1932)

The questionnaires aimed at identifying the type of the treatment conducted in the Reading course and at investigating the influence of teaching Reading on writing skills

Questionnaire S1 (Appendix 1) consisted of 5 questions to elicit the students’ opinions about their own difficulties regarding ideas, vocabulary, grammar, coherence, and tenses in writing Questionnaire S2 (Appendix 2) of 2 questions was designed to examine the impact of teaching Reading on their writing skills

Questionnaire S1 was answered by the students two weeks before the experiment was carried out Meanwhile, Questionnaire S2 was answered by the students one week after the experiment

The questions were simple and brief so that they did not take much of students’ time All the questions in the questionnaires were orally explained in Vietnamese by the researcher so that the students could understand the questions easily The questionnaires were given to 82 students to complete All the information obtained from the questionnaires was changed into numerical values to be analyzed in the next chapter

3.2.2.2 Description of the teacher questionnaires

Two questionnaires called T1 and T2 were given to the teacher informants to provide further information about the students’ difficulties in writing skills and to find out the ways to improve the students’ writing skills through the teaching of Reading

Questionnaire T1(Appendix 3) consisted of 6 questions which the teachers

answered before the experiment was carried out to find out the students’ difficulties in writing as well as what a teacher could do in the reading course to help improve the students’ writing skills Question 1 aims at finding out what difficulties and errors the second year English -majored students usually have when they do writing tasks Question 2 serves as a base to construct the ways in which the reading course can help these students to overcome their difficulties in writing skills Question 3 deals with whether or not the reading and writing course should be taught in one integrated syllabus Question 4 is to investigate whether or not the reading skills and writing skills should be taught by the same teacher Questions 5 and 6 explore the way the Reading course can help with the students’ writing skills

Questionnaire T2 (Appendix 4) of 2 questions was answered by the teachers after the experiment Questions 1 and 2 aim at examining what extent the Reading course in the third semester this year has helped students improve their writing skills,

in terms of content, vocabulary, grammar, tenses and coherence The means of the

respondents' responses were used to show their ideas which were from 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest (not at all) and 5 being the highest ( a lot)

3.2.2.3 Description of the experimental process

Pretest of writing: First, before the Reading course and the Writing course

started, a pretest of writing which I composed (Appendix 5) was given to both the experimental class and control class to identify the difficulties that these students faced

in writing and to evaluate the levels of writing of all the subjects Next, I marked this pretest The subjects’ writings and scores in this pre-test, together with the responses from the first questionnaires for the teachers and the students, were analyzed to discover the students’ real problems with writing These writing difficulties faced by the students were used as the basis for the selection of the additional texts and exercises

to be included in the Reading course

The treatment: Then, during 45 periods of the reading course, the experimental

class (class Y) was provided with more reading texts and more reading exercises (Appendices 7 & 8) while the control class (class X) was not

Posttest: Finally, right after the Reading and Writing courses ended, a

post-treatment test (Appendix 6) was given to both the experimental class and the control one This writing test was marked by another teacher who was teaching Writing at the college and was doing an M.A in TESOL so that the scores of this posttest could be more reliable and objective

The experimental and control subjects’ scores and writings of the pretest and posttest, together with the responses from the questionnaires for the students and teachers, were analyzed to examine the impact of the Reading course on the experimental students’ improvement in writing skills The results and the findings are presented in the next chapter

The choice of the texts and the design of the tasks used in the treatment

This part helps to explain how the additional reading texts and the tasks were chosen or designed for the experimental class

First, the subjects’ (students’ and teachers’) responses for the questionnaires S1 and T1 as well as the students’ pretests informed the researcher of the students’ problems in writing These problems included a lack of appropriate vocabulary and ideas for the writing tasks, as well as an inadequate use of tenses and linking devices Based on this information, the criteria to select additional passages for the Reading course for the experimental class were formed Reading passages about similar topics

as in the Writing course (i.e., Education and Student Life, City Life, Business and Money, Jobs and Professions, Lifestyles around the World, and Global Connections) were chosen Also, texts of the same genres as in the Writing course (i.e., argument, description, letter and narration) were selected to provide the students Some of these passages are collected from the materials of Greenwich Community College and London School of Business and Finance, the United Kingdom Most of these passages

are extracted from 326 Selected Essays & Writings (Srinivasan, 2004)

On a similar principle, the researcher developed a series of additional exercises

(Appendices 7 & 8) for the Reading passages in the Reading course book, Interactions

2 Reading, and exercises for the additional passages to help them overcome these

that the students in these groups did not take any additional classes in writing or reading in any other language center or private classes Third, the students were not told in advance that they would do a pretest and a posttest This was aimed at avoiding the risk of the research participants becoming test-wise Fourth, both groups were taught Reading and Writing by the same teachers (The researcher taught Reading and another teacher taught Writing)

CHAPTER 4 DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

In this chapter, the responses of the questionnaires and the result of the experiment are analyzed and synthesized The data analyses are expected to help find out the answers to the following questions:

1 What difficulties do second year students have in learning writing skills?

2 In what ways can the Reading course help to improve these students’ writing skills?

3 What implications can be drawn to improve Reading and Writing courses?

4.1 DATA ANALYSIS

4.1.1 Students’ difficulties in writing

The student’s difficulties in writing came from their own perspectives and their teachers’ opinions as stated in their questionnaire data These difficulties were also found in the pretest that the students did before the treatment

4.1.1.1 Students’ ideas

The responses for Questionnaires S1 and S2 came from 80 students because two students were absent and the answers for Questionnaires T1 and T2 came from 8 English teachers

According to Table 4.1, most students considered Writing subject “very difficult” (63/80 or 78.8%) or “difficult” (12/80 or 15%) No students regarded this subject as being an easy one or “not difficult at all” These statistics showed that Writing was a very challenging subject to these students

Table 4.1 Writing is difficult Question 1

Difficulty degree of the writing