الفهرس 
Literature Review and Theoretical BackgroundOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 294 |  |  |
| | | from | 294 | | |
Abstract
Developing an effective approach to teaching English writing has been the focus of the present study. Effective writing characterized by certain standards like accuracy, fluency, flexibility, novelty, is the ultimate objective of all those involved in teaching and learning. To clarify, good writing is usually characterized by certain grammatical and lexical features involving syntactic structure, reference, substitution, conjunction, synonymy, etc., all of which may exert a great influence on a reader’s understanding of a text. The present study has aimed to teaching writing by integrating reading and writing for developing writing skills through using a “reading-to-write method” in comparison with the traditional methods of teaching writing. To accomplish the mission, a quasi-experimental research design was adopted. The ultimate goal is to estimate the effect of integrating reading and writing on the development of writing skills.
The present quasi-experimental research design involved a survey questionnaire and a pre-test/post-test control group. It made use of two procedures for data collection: a survey questionnaire and a pre-test/post-test in essay writing. The study was carried out in ten weeks during the first semester of the academic year 2014-2015, which started in September 2014 and ended in January 2015. The sample involved two groups of the third-level students of English in the Faculty of Education- University of Aden. The experimental group (30 students) was taught by a reading-to-write method, whereas the control group (30 students) was taught by the traditional way of teaching without any additional treatment or extra reading materials.
The results of the survey questionnaire suggested that the teachers of English are fully aware of the importance of reading-writing integration in developing students’ writing skills. Again, the results of the survey questionnaire showed that the students encounter problems in writing coherent texts in English. The results also suggested that the learners of English tend to engage in reading-writing connection and reading before writing for developing their writing skills. With regard to the teachers’ and the students’ opinions about integrating reading and writing, the results showed a positive attitude towards the importance of reading-writing integration as a means for developing writing skills.
Prior to the treatment, the two groups were matched to equivalence in which the pre-test results reflected similar or equal writing performance as is shown by the pre-test’s scores. The two groups were taught the same prescribed course (Advanced Composition) by the same teacher for one semester and only the experimental group was exposed to extra reading passages followed by comprehension questions and a variety of activities for ten weeks. After each passage, the students also were requested to write a paragraph or an essay as an assignment for the next week on the same topic of the reading passage.
After ten weeks of treatment, the two groups were evaluated by a post-test, which was corrected, processed and compared with the pre-test’s results. Like the pre-test, the two sets of scores were compared to find out the variations between the two groups’ writing performance. The results showed that the students of the experimental group had higher scores in the post test, or achieved better performance than their peers in the control group. Such results revealed that the reading-to-write method had some impact on students’ writing skills of the experimental group. Basing on the results of the survey questionnaire and the findings of the pre-test and the post-test, the researcher suggested some pedagogical implications to improve the process of teaching and learning English as a foreign language and developing writing skills in particular.
This dissertation is organized into four Chapters starting with an introduction, which provides an overview of the study including the background of the study, statement of the problem, the aim and significance of the study, the independent/ dependent variables, and the definition of frequently used terms in the study. Chapter One offers an exclusive review of related literature on reading, writing, and reading-writing connections which helps in answering the research questions. Chapter Two provides an overview of the methodological design of the study, including the description of the participants, teaching/learning situation, data collection instruments, the rationale behind data collection and data analysis procedures. It also presents the quantitative and qualitative analyses of data elicited through the questionnaire, the pre-test and post-test. Chapter Three interprets and discusses the results of the research findings of the study. Chapter Four presents a summary for the study. It summarizes the main findings of the study in response to the research questions posted from the very start, establishing the pedagogical implications of the results and their limitations. By the end of chapter four, some recommendations and suggestions for further research in the field of reading-writing connection are outlined.