Jui-min Tsai
tsai.139 [-at-] osu.edu
Ohio Condition College (Ohio, USA) Typically, teachers of British like a second or language have tended to educate studying and writing individually from one another. However, some specialists have contended that studying and writing are carefully connected and really should be trained together. In the following paragraphs, theories and research on studying/writing connection are briefly discussed, adopted by a number of suggested pedagogical applications and teaching activities for school EFL writing courses.

Introduction

British acquisition for EFL students is principally developed through studying and creating British texts. To assist students acquire abilities of studying and writing, curricula are often designed individually under the fact that both of these are completely different vocabulary skills. This division regrettably overlooks the interactive relationship between studying and writing and does not begin to see the contributions the connection of studying and writing could make on students’ language acquisition. To beat the shortcomings, therefore, it is essential to discuss the explanation and advantages of linking both of these facets of learning in British instruction and supply a far more concrete picture of methods to use these concepts in actual teaching situations. In the following paragraphs, theories and research on L1 and L2 studying and writing connections are briefly discussed, adopted by suggestions on pedagogical applying L2 studying/writing connection and a number of teaching activities for any college EFL writing class.

Connecting Studying and Writing

The studying/writing connection has its own origin in L1 or native language contexts.

Within the 80’s, some scholars had considered studying and writing as similar cognitive processes by which readers/authors communicate with the manuscripts. For instance, Tierney and Pearson (1983) thought that “in the centre of comprehending the studying/writing connection you have to start to view studying and writing as basically similar processes of meaning construction” (p. 568). Different color leaves, Petrosky (1982) noted that “studying, responding, and creating are facets of understanding, and theories that make an effort to take into account them outdoors of the interactions with one another run the intense chance of building reductive modules of human understanding” (p. 20).

In L2 literacy contexts, Krashen’s (1984) argument that “it’s studying that provides the author the ‘feel’ for that look and texture’ (p. 20, reported in Hirvela, 2004) makes way leading writing researchers and instructors towards the vision of studying/writing connection. He claims that studying, which builds the understanding base of written texts, helps L2 learners acquire necessary language constructs for example grammatical structures and discourse rules for writing, and facilitates the entire process of language acquisition. While Krashen’s viewpoints recognize the contributions that studying could make to writing, it’s readers-response theory which brings L2 literacy researchers to determine studying and writing both as processes of creating. Readers-response theory claims the meaning communicated through the texts is dependent upon the readers rather from the author.

With regards to studying/writing connection, readers-response theory “works as a valuable tool for privileging and investigating students’ creating processes as readers, processes that may both influence and overlap using their creating processes as authors” (Hirvela, 2004, p. 53).

Thinking about both studying and writing as processes by which students communicate with texts meaningfully, researchers recommended ESL or L2 teachers have to utilize proper techniques to integrate the idea into teaching. Studying to create and conntacting read would be the two facilitative techniques for instruction in L2 literacy classrooms.

First, studying to create is dependant on the concept studying supports and shapes L2 learners’ writing through purchase of language input when students are accomplishing studying tasks. Studying isn’t just useful for enhancing L2 learners’ writing ability inside a general sense. Also, through studying, students receive possibilities on paper classrooms to get understanding of vocabulary, grammatical structures, or rhetorical options that come with texts. Pedagogically, there are many teaching practices recommended for studying to create, including mining, writerly studying, rhetorical studying, and modeling approach, and extensive studying and free/voluntary studying.

However, conntacting read works as a technique which changes the goals of teachers’ instruction from helping students answer comprehension checks properly to encouraging students’ significant interaction with written texts, and supports students to see studying like a creating process. Writing in studying classrooms can occur in a number of forms for example underlining part of texts, making comments, raising questions, or perhaps scribbling some marks or pictures which are only understandable to readers themselves.

Applying the Studying/Writing Connection

The idea of the studying/writing connection could be manifested in lots of instructional activities. Within this section, an example course is brought to demonstrate practical applying studying/writing connection in EFL contexts. Particularly, it’s targeting university students in British writing classes in Taiwan.

The Context

University students in Taiwan are needed to consider British classes to build up British studying and writing ability. These courses are normally three-credit hour courses, with every class getting typically forty to fifty students. Generally, there’s a total of 30 sessions in each and every semester, with two sessions each one of the 15 days.

Course Objectives

Within the writing course, students is going to be uncovered to several text types to build up fundamental British studying and ability as a copywriter. They’ll also learn how to capitalize from the studying/writing link with enhance their language proficiency.

Studying Materials

In line with the goals of instruction, three kinds of texts, including literature, online texts from the web, and essays and articles from books, newspapers or magazines are suggested to make use of within the courses. By doing this, students can engage in a number of tasks from personal, pleasure studying to more specific academic literacy. The types of materials and cooking techniques are discussed at length the following:

• Within the first five days from the class, children’s literature for example “Charlotte’s Web” is assigned because the needed text to see. This sort of book is selected since it is filled with imagination and readable for EFL university students. Besides, it takes no cultural-bounded understanding to know the storyline. Also, the figures within the novel conversing in numerous tones, styles, and vivid expressions, so students can see diverse utilization of language within an interesting way. When students react to the tales, they’re participating in authentic communicative tasks through which students develop language abilities through trying to find appropriate vocabulary and syntactic structures to convey their ideas and feelings.
• Within the next five days from the course, texts from the web are employed as major teaching materials. In analysis of Taiwanese university students’ needs, such websites as individuals established by press &#8211 BBC World Service: Learning British world wide web.bbc.co.united kingdom/worldservice/learningenglish/ and also the New You are able to Occasions Learning Network world wide web.nytimes.com/learning/ ) &#8211 are discovered to be advantageous for student learning. It is because, most students already know what is incorporated in the news by studying newspapers in Chinese or watching television. Studying British news tales will make students feel more attached to the texts because the studying activity is based on students’ background understanding. Also, these types of websites provide simplified news tales, news summaries, training of learning grammar and vocabulary from news, in addition to interactive features for readers to reply to this news tales. Through with such websites, students are supplied possibilities to rehearse both studying and writing concurrently.
• Materials recommended to make use of within the last several days from the course are essays about specific topics or descriptive texts from books, newspapers, or magazines. The reason behind putting thematic essays and articles within the last couple of days would be to postpone students’ studying and writing for academic purposes until they’ve acquired sufficient literacy skills with the training in the previous stages. Through studying and covering novels an internet-based news tales while participating in various activities, students will be able to enhance their EFL literacy skills and be ready to see difficult articles with academic purposes.

Instructional Activities

There are many studying/writing pedagogical practices which may be used in EFL writing courses. It might be helpful to classify these practices into writing-to-read and studying-to-write activities/assignments according to general opening definitions and processes, though these activities may overlap for pedagogical purposes.

Writing-to-read

1. Writing-Before-You-Read (Spack, 1985). Activities of writing-before-you-read are recommended to become implemented within the initial stage of studying, so that they can solicit students’ encounters of studying various kinds of texts, their attitudes toward certain topics or issues, and also the writing difficulties they experience. For instance, students can talk about their experience with living on the farm, studying an British or Chinese novel, or their impressions in regards to a headline story in Taiwan or all over the world.

2. Keeping a Studying Journal. Students will keep a dual-entry or dialectical notebook which will help them become mindful of their reactions. During these notebooks, students copy passages which have particular importance to them in a single column, after which respond within the other (Zamel, 1992). The responses towards the passages may take such forms as summaries, marginal notations, reflective comments with regards to the passages, or expressions of scholars’ ideas.

3. Summarizing. Summarizing is an efficient technique making comprehension a far more significant process through constructing written texts in their own individual words. It may be used in different sessions, for example when students are requested to create summaries of chapters of the novel they read, news tales, and academic articles. Not simply will students’ writing proficiency be enhanced with the writing exercises, however their studying tricks of selecting information from the texts is going to be reinforced.

Studying-to-Write.

1. Mining – It’s a proper approach that digs out valuable language sources for example grammar, which assists student writing. While studying various kinds of texts, students are encouraged to concentrate on and discover consciously about grammatical and lexical options that come with the manuscripts, organization from the articles, and expressions that are unfamiliar towards the students. With the practice, students will enhance their studying skills, and, simultaneously, build the building blocks of future writing.

2. Free/Voluntary Studying – It encourages students to take part in studying activities outdoors the classroom and under less structured conditions compared to extensive studying (Hirvela, 2004). The primary reason for this method would be to help students develop enjoyable studying experience and be more motivated readers. For instance, after students have completely finished studying a manuscript and have acquired enough understanding about learning British by benefiting from online texts, other literary works and helpful websites are introduced. Students could possibly get extra points once they demonstrate their efforts on participating in studying activities outdoors the classroom. By doing this, students will fully familiarize studying and covering various texts based on their interests and therefore be positive about their British literacy.

Conclusion

Typically, teachers of British like a second or language have tended to educate studying and writing individually from one another. However, studying and writing do share similar qualities and students are more inclined to take advantage of the instruction which makes studying and writing activities go hands-in-hands and supplement one another. Employing this notion to actual teaching situations wouldn’t be a hard challenge when EFL writing teachers consider students’ needs, understand the the best-selling studying/writing connection, and thoroughly design teaching practices. Since separation of studying and writing instruction in EFL contexts makes students see studying like a decoding process and writing as merely a task of constructing grammatically correct essays, it’s especially vital for EFL teachers, with the studying/writing connection, to supply students with abundant possibilities and sources to assist them to become reflective readers and authors. More to the point, students have to be expected to understand that both studying and writing are functions with communicative purposes and therefore are inseparable. Only in so doing can students improve language proficiency through studying and writing activities, and develop both of these literacy skills inside a significant way.

Reference

• Hirvela, A. (2004). Connecting studying and writing in second language writing instruction. Ann Arbor, MI: College of Michigan Press.
• Petrosky, A. R. (1982). From story to essay: Studying and writing. College composition and Communication, 33, 19-36.
• Spack, R. (1985). Literature, studying, writing, and ESL: Bridging the gaps. TESOL Quarterly, 19, 703-725.
• Spack, R. (1993). Student meets text, text meets student: Locating a distance to
• Tierney, R. J. Pearson, P. D. (1983). Toward a creating type of studying. Language Arts, 60, 568-580.
• Zamel, V. (1992). Writing one’s distance to studying. TESOL Quarterly, 26, 463-485.

The Web TESL Journal, Vol. XII, No. 12, December 2006
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