Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm The use and the effectiveness of using reading in teaching writing at Vinh Cuu high school

 SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO ĐỒNG NAI
 TRƯỜNG THPT VĨNH CỬU
 Mã số: ................................
 SÁNG KIẾN
 Người thực hiện: Lê Thị Ngọc Thiện 
 Lĩnh vực nghiên cứu:
 - Quản lý giáo dục
 - Phương pháp dạy học bộ môn: Anh Văn
 - Lĩnh vực khác:
Có đính kèm: Các sản phẩm không thể hiện trong bản in SKKN
  Mô hình  Đĩa CD (DVD)  Phim ảnh Hiện vật khác
 Năm học: 2019-2020 MỤC LỤC
 Trang
INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................1
 1. Context of the solution.....................................................................................1
 2. Reasons for choosing the topic ........................................................................1
 3. Study scope and study subjects........................................................................1
 4. Objectives of the research................................................................................1
CONTENTS..............................................................................................................2
 I. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND REALITY ........................................2
 1. Theoretical background...................................................................................2
 2. Reality.............................................................................................................2
 II. CONTENTS OF INVENTION..........................................................................3
 1. Implementation ................................................................................................3
 2. Advantages and disadvantages.........................................................................7
 3. Evaluation ........................................................................................................8
 a) New points...................................................................................................8
 b) Effects..........................................................................................................8
 c) Application and results ..............................................................................11
CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................11
 1. Experiences drawn from the process of applying the invention.............Error!
 Bookmark not defined.
 2. Recommendation for implementing and applying the invention 
 intoreality.Error! Bookmark not defined.
 3. Declaration.....................................................Error! Bookmark not defined.
APPENDICES ..........................................................................................................1
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................1 THÔNG TIN CHUNG VỀ SÁNG KIẾN
1. Tên sáng kiến: The use and the effectiveness of using reading in teaching 
writing at Vinh Cuu high school
2. Lĩnh vực áp dụng sáng kiến: Giảng dạy Tiếng Anh
3. Tác giả:
- Họ và tên: Lê Thị Ngọc Thiện Nam (nữ): Nữ
- Trình độ chuyên môn: Cử nhân Anh Văn
- Chức vụ, đơn vị công tác: Giáo viên, THPT Vĩnh Cửu
- Điện thoại: 079 2826 815. Email:
Tỷ lệ đóng góp tạo ra sáng kiến (%): 100%. 2
 CONTENTS
 I. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND REALITY
 1. Theoretical background
 Eisterhold (1990, as cited in AlOmrani, 2014) interpreted the connection 
between reading and writing by using three hypotheses, which are “directional 
hypothesis, non-directional hypothesis, and bidirectional hypothesis” (Eisterhold, 
1990, as cited in AlOmrani, 2014, p. 102). Directional hypothesis claimed that 
information/knowledge obtained from reading materials will be used in writing, 
which means that the use of reading is supporting writing (AlOmrani, 2014). 
Meanwhile, non-directional hypothesis means that information/knowledge learned 
from writing can be used in reading and vice versa, which means reading is used to 
assist writing and vice versa (AlOmrani, 2014). Bidirectional hypothesis stated that 
“reading and writing are both interactive and interdependent” (AlOmrani, 2014, p. 
103). This means that the change in students’ language proficiency may lead to the 
change in their writing abilities or reading abilities, which can be understood that if 
their writing abilities develop, their reading abilities will develop and vice versa 
(AlOmrani, 2014).
 Although the relationship between receptive skills and productive skills did 
not state that students need to become good readers to be good writers, it did 
interpret the reason for integrating reading skills and writing skills in teaching. 
Meanwhile, the hypotheses of Eisterhold (1990, as cited in AlOmrani, 2014) 
explained specifically the positive impact of reading and writing on each other. 
The researcher claimed that the proficiency in students’ writing skills have the 
influence on the proficiency in students’ reading skills and vice versa. However, 
the connection between reading and writing in this technique can be interpreted by 
directional hypothesis, because this technique was made to teach writing skills 
with reading as the main support of writing (AlOmrani, 2014).
 The hypotheses of Eisterhold (1990, as cited in AlOmrani, 2014) explained 
specifically the positive impact of reading and writing on each other. The 
researchers claimed that the proficiency in students’ writing skills have the 
influence on the proficiency in students’ reading skills and vice versa. However, 
the connection between reading and writing in this technique can be interpreted by 
directional hypothesis, because this technique was made to teach writing skills 
with reading as the main support of writing (AlOmrani, 2014). The use of reading 
is suggested as an effective technique to improve EFL students’ writing skills 
(AlOmrani, 2014; Grabe & Zhang, 2013 & Habibi et al., 2015). Hence, in order to 
be aware of the feasibility and effectiveness of the use of reading in teaching 
writing, many researchers and teachers started to do more research on applying this 
technique in teaching writing as well as apply it in their classes.
 2. Reality
 Grabe and Zhang (2013) almost all students have to face to many difficulties in 
learning English writing skill such as “less exposure to English texts, and much 4
 Methodology
 Participants: The surveys were carried out at the two classes the writer has 
taught: 11A2, 11A10 with eighty participants who are in the second term of the 
school and 23 other teachers were chosen randomly to take part in this research. 
The participants are graduate students who are learning the first stage of Master of 
TESOL course at Ho Chi Minh City Open University. There are 5 teachers who are 
teaching at English language centers, while there are 13 teachers from state schools 
in Ho Chi Minh city. Another 5 teachers are teaching at private schools. In 
addition, around 30% of them have over 5 years teaching experience.
 Data collection
 Teachers were given questionnaires to elicit information on the respondents. 
Two questionnaires were designed to collect teachers’ opinions in order to answer 
two research questions. The first questionnaire includes 7 questions. The first and 
second questions are used to ask teachers’ teaching experience and institution. The 
next 5 questions are used to find out teachers’ acknowledgment of this technique 
and the use of it in their classes. Meanwhile, the second questionnaire has 6 
questions, which is used to elicit the effectiveness of this technique by asking 
teachers who applied it.
 Findings and discussion
 Research question 1: Do English teachers in Vietnam use reading to improve 
students’ writing skills?
 The data of chart 1 was collected from the questionnaire 1. According to the 
chart, there were 5 teachers who confirmed that they did not know this technique, 
because of their old universities, TESOL training courses or the current Master of 
TESOL did not teach them. Hence, they could not apply this technique in their 
classes. 6
 Research question 2: Does the use of reading in teaching writing improve 
Vietnamese students’ English writing skills?
 In order to answer this question, 13 teachers, who used this technique, were 
asked to answer questionnaire 2 in order to elicit their evaluation of this technique. 
Considering answers collected, 5 teachers stated that their students’ writing skills 
were improved after using reading to support and enhance students’ writing 
abilities. The chart 4 below displays these 5 teachers’ evaluation of advantages that 
this technique brought to their students.
 Regarding the chart 4, after applying this technique in their classes, all 5 
teachers believed that their students’ accuracy of using grammar and punctuation 
was developed as well as their ability of arranging logically their writing’s ideas. 
In addition, 4 of them confirmed the development in their students’ writing content 
as well as the improvement in writing’s coherence and cohesion of their students. 
Meanwhile, they realized that their students could not use complex grammar 
structures fluently even after using this technique. Considering these figures, it can 
be claimed that the use of reading did have a positive impact on students’ writing 
skills, especially improving the use of grammar and punctuation and the 
organization of writing’s ideas. This is a basis of the development in writing’s 
content and writing’s coherence and cohesion. However, considering the fact that 
students were not able to use complex grammatical structures, teachers need to pay 
more attention to students’ grammar.
 The rest of them (8 teachers) claimed that this technique is ineffective, 
because they had to cope with some obstacles. 8
topic sentence and the thesis sentence or had the improvement in organizing 
writing’s ideas.
 b) Disadvantages
 The first limitation of this writing is that the limited number of teachers who 
took part in the survey. The second limitation is that the lack of students’ opinions 
of the effectiveness of the use of reading in teaching writing. The use of reading 
had some obstacles, which led to the ineffectiveness of this technique. They were 
the lack of reading comprehension skill, students did not read assigned reading 
materials, and students did not know how to use information/knowledge obtained 
from assigned reading materials in their writing. If the teacher pays more attention 
to improve students reading comprehension skill, these obstacles can be overcome. 
This will lead to the effectiveness of this technique.
 3. Evaluation
 a) New points
 The rearcher has also found out some considerations for teachers when using 
reading to improve EFL students’ writing skills. AlOmrani (2014) stated that 
because the reading materials are used “as a source for improving writing abilities” 
(p. 102); therefore, the reading materials must relate with the writing assignments. 
In addition, it is claimed that EFL teachers also need to focus on improving 
students’ reading skills (AlOmrani, 2014), because “if a learner has low level of 
proficiency in reading skills this will lead to low level of competence, performance 
and proficiency in writing skills as well” (Bhatt & Lilian, 2016, p. 635). However, 
enhancing students’ writing skills is necessary, teachers should not pay more 
attention to developing students’ reading skills than students’ writing skills 
(Morrow, 1997, as cited in AlOmrani, 2014, p. 106), because the aim of integrating 
reading into writing instruction is using reading materials as resources to improve 
and assist students with their writing skills (AlOmrani, 2014).
 b) Effects
 As mentioned above, the use of reading is suggested as an effective technique 
to improve EFL students’ writing skills (AlOmrani, 2014; Grabe & Zhang, 2013 & 
Habibi et al., 2015). Hence, in order to be aware of the feasibility and effectiveness 
of the use of reading in teaching writing, the researcher began to do more research 
on applying this technique in teaching writing as well as apply it in her classes. 
The result shows that almost all students make great progress in writing skill and 
they feel more confident in writing period, which is obviously shown in chart 6
Chart 6: Students’ view about the benefits of using reading in learning writing