Introduction
Writing is the most challenging skill of the four basic skills. Writing shows the amount of language the learners have acquired. According to Nunan (2003), writing is a medium by which an individual can express his/their thoughts in the form of sentences and paragraphs. Writing demonstrates writers’ both knowledge and skill. Writing and reading have a great place in a learner’s academic career. Reading provides great writing support. The main purpose of reading is to get the message and develop ideas about various subject matters. Dechant (2013) states that reading is a decoding process of the written text. Reading helps the readers to recognize the style, structure, and grammar. It will contribute to writing. The students who want to develop writing skills will have to read varieties of texts because it will allow students to have command of it. Celik (2019) reported that reading has a positive effect on writing. It is a great source of information for writing. Reading consists of feelings, thoughts, imagination, and everyday languages (Elhabiri, 2012). Reading broadens the thought and concepts that can be translated into writing. Reading gives learners about how to write in a logical order, it will support the learner to understand how vocabulary and structures function in the written text as it generates new and creative ideas. Reading inspires the learners and makes them independent learners.
According to Hudson (2007), good reading results in effective writing. Reading enhances the grammatical power and skill of creative writing. It enables the learners to put the ideas clearly and directly. Both skills are related to each other because they both represent the written text, not the spoken words. Students overcome the problems of integrating the ideas and summarizing the texts. When readers read different types of text, they can generalize the reading text experience with their personal experience (Horning &Kraemer 2013). The in-depth reading is effective, positive, and productive.
Objectives
This paper aims to find out how reading can be conceptualized in the classroom while teaching writing. It finds the positive impact of reading on the teaching writing ability of the students. This paper attempts to achieve the following objectives
- To evaluate the role of reading in improving students’ writing ability.
Previous Studies
Reading and writing are related to each other. Reading provides information that the learners translate at the time of writing. Plakans and Gebril (2012) reported that reading helps students to gain ideas about the related topic and it shapes the learners’ opinions. Bailey (2003), mentioned that reading helps the learners to put the ideas critically and logically. Reading encourages the students to express the ideas they read in an article as reading awares the learners about the linguistic problems and assists to complete the writing journey. Li and Yang (2014) reported that teaching reading and writing together is beneficiary for improving the writing skill of the students. There is a significant correlation between reading and writing. Aa reading facilitates writing development, these two skills need to be given sufficient attention in teaching languages. It is quite difficult to develop students’ writing ability without integrating reading skills into teaching writing. Joliffe (2007) mentioned that students must be involved in reading for developing their concepts and enhancing their writing ability. The reading skill can be used as an effective method to teach writing skills in ELT classrooms.
Study Methods
To achieve the objective of this study, an extensive review of existing literature was used as a technique to suggest ideas to implement in classroom teaching. The review of already existing research and findings can be applied as a significant technique to carry out the study successfully (Fraenkel, Wallen, & Hyun, 1993). This paper aims to evaluate and provide the knowledge and ideas shared by other studies on this problem. For this study too, the researcher used a literature review as a technique to address the research objectives of this study.
Discussion
Improves Vocabulary
One of the significant benefits of reading is that it improves the vocabulary of the students. Reading texts allow readers to predict, guess, and define the meaning of unfamiliar words through context and clues. There is a strong relationship between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension (Matsuoka & Hirsh, 2010). These activities empower the students to use the words in new contexts. They further mention that reading provides breadth and depth of knowledge of vocabulary.
Strengthens grammatical skills.
Reading texts familiarizes the students with rules and structures of grammar. It enables the learners to obtain grammatical knowledge sub-consciously. Reading text provides a key platform to investigate grammatical construction and it develops the concepts of internal and external grammatical systems (Bygate et al, 2001).
Enhances Critical Thinking Skills.
Reading is a mental activity. John Dewey (1993) defines critical thinking as ‘reflective…..active, persistent, and careful consideration of a belief or supposed form of knowledge in light of the grounds which support it and the further conclusion to which it trends’’ (p.99-116). When readers read the texts, they think critically about people, books, places, characters, plot, and themes. They have critical perspectives about the facts and opinions of the writer and the contexts. For this, the teacher should introduce a cooperative learning environment and create a challenging environment in the class (Elder &Paul, 2001).
Conclusion
Various researches have shown that reading and writing are interconnected with each other. Writing is and difficult task that demands the appropriate use of words, grammar, syntax, and organization of ideas in proper order. To overcome these issues, students need to read the text critically. Reading develops expressive ideas and opinions and improves textual cohesion and coherence ( Apsari 2018). This study revealed that there are lots of advantages of reading for developing the writing ability of the students.
Teachers need to select appropriate reading texts. Students are much. Students are much more likely to read the texts if the texts are of their interest. Reading activities provide a lot of ideas as a result students develop writing habits that can help them to produce good writing. In this context, they will be confident to write on any topic.
References
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Celik, B. (2019) Developing Writing through Reading. International Journal of Social Science and Educational Studies. Vol. 6, 1s
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