Is there such a thing as a wrong way to learn English?

One adult student I had thought there was – and that he was learning English the wrong way for a long time, before finally ‘cracking’ it. Just before he went on to finally pass the TOEFL test after about 5 or more tries, he blurted out his realization in class one day. “Miss, I think I was learning (English) the wrong way.” And at that point, I couldn’t have agreed with him more.

So in case you are one of those who feel like you are “stuck” in your learning of the English language, or have been at your nth try at TOEFL or any other standardized test of English, stay on. I might have a solution for you!

If you’re a teacher of English and is finding some solutions for your students who seem unable to fully master English for exams or to pass standardized test of English like the TOEFL, the IELTS, etc, stay on. I probably have a solution for you.

So what is the wrong way of learning English?

From many readings I’ve done over the years, from my own experiences learning English as a second language, and from my teaching experiences the last 15 years of my career in international education, I am of the opinion that still, many teachers and learning institutions advocate rote memorization as a way of learning vocabulary (and learning English).

In international schools in Thailand, many of our Japanese and Korean students go to cram school right after school, 5 times a week if they are near their graduation time. The reason? They have to “cram”, literally, for university entrance examination in their home countries. The general practice includes a long list of words, which the students have to memorize. According to the kids, this is a way that they are prepared for TOEFL as well as for entrance tests to universities.

However, looking back into what, to me, were ‘effective’ ways to learn English, memorization of long lists of words just does not pave the way to success. At least, not in what most of the students I’ve had experienced.

What does work?

One important method, which is also advocated by many English language teaching practitioners is learning vocabulary through context. Now, while many of us in the field of teaching may know this like the back of our hand, sometimes, it takes some time for our students to fully grasp its meaning.

While exposing our learners to skills books that teach vocabulary through context, I have always felt there has to be an even better way to it. First, for instance, our students have to OWN their learning. And that their learning of English vocabulary has to be a constant companion, even in their sleep, when it is necessary. As was the case with that adult student I had who was ‘learning English the wrong way’.

The key is in a very simple 3-step program that involves the student’s choice, a manual task, and an environment where the student can “share” his choices and where he gets feedback for his efforts. Once this 3-step program is followed, the learning of English takes on a new meaning for the student. And based on experience, paves the way to more success and towards “owning” one’s learning of the language.

On Friday, we shall give you this 3-step program, which could help you in your learning of the English language, or help your students find the right way to master English! Stay tuned!

I look at the first week of school from a ‘make-or-break’ perspective.

In a seminar by Hal Urban (author of the best-selling book, “20 Great Lessons in Life”) in Singapore in February this year, I was reminded of how important it is to start the year right the first week of school.

What a teacher does on the first day determines how the rest of the year is going to proceed — will I have students who are well-focused on goals, or have pure hooligans in class determined to just have a darn good time?!

Good thing I have my back ups –some tips and tricks of the trade, which I’ve learned over the years. Good thing I’m such a consumer of books on good teaching practice, as well as an avid attendee of just about every useful professional development opportunity I could get my hands on, so I have a few tricks up my sleeve ready to serve to the students on our first week.

GOALS and TARGETS

First and foremost, I started with these two questions in all of my classes this year. Yes, all- including my 4^th grade Humanities class. I wrote these on the board, and that’s the first thing students tackle when they come into class:

• What is your learning goal this year?
• What do you expect from this course/class?

I find, that most students come in with NO goals or targets at all, whether they are graduating seniors, or well,  4^th graders. By making them think towards this idea, it lays down the very purpose why they are in school in the first place, and then gets them to think about how they should behave when they are in the classroom.

Those two simple questions set up the stage for the rest of the year. By putting these questions out there on the table, students move towards a more purposeful time in the classroom, minimizing disruptive, unfocused behavior. To a teacher, that environment is like heaven here on earth!

WHO ARE YOU?

In another Character Development seminar I went to (in Singapore again, about a year ago), this time with Dr. Gary Smit,  I came away with this packet full of ideas on how to build character with my students from day one.

In it is a worksheet that starts out asking about information related to different aspects of the students – likes, dislikes, wants, dreams and wishes, etc. It’s quite a comprehensive set of questions, and when you teach teen agers, where  it’s all about me, I and myself (adolescence tends to do that to you), you’ll find students hard at work answering the questions, heads bent over the sheet, eyebrows furrowed, like it’s the most important task there is in the world. And from a teacher’s viewpoint, it should be!

There is nothing compared to a good grasp of what your students are like. If you’re going to be spending a whole 10 months with a bunch of human beings, all different in character, strengths and wants, the “who are you” sheet is the best thing to start with on your first day.

Of course, one doesn’t have to join Dr. Gary Smit’s next seminar in Singapore (although I would recommend it because it was all practical ideas you could use in class the very next day!) You could easily make up your own set of questions, keeping in mind the information you need in order to help you plans lessons.

Student’s interests and their own thoughts as to their strengths and areas to improve on are crucial bits of information. Equally helpful would be to know who they go to the most to get help, and even mundane things like ‘what time they sleep at night’. Nowadays, with Facebook invading just about every bedroom on the planet, you have to know how much time your students spend online, because it impacts their studies, their ability to manage their time and workload, and most especially, how it impacts their health and of course, alertness in class.

Knowing these crucial bits, you are empowered when planning intervention, especially when it gets out of hand, and you feel you need to call in the parents so little Danny goes to bed at 10pm the most every night, instead of 3 in the morning!

IF WE MADE THE RULES

Again, in that earlier mention I did, from Dr. Urban’s seminar on Character Development, I got this worksheet idea that has two questions on it:

If we made the rules….

• Students would NOT be allowed to….
• Students would be encouraged to….

This is the third piece to the puzzle on the first day of my meeting with students this year. And once the whole class has turned in this last piece, I make up a whole “document” of all they wrote in, and have them sign it.

So whenever I encounter undesirable behavior at some point during the course of the year, I could easily point their attention to this document they signed, and remind them that THEY made the rules, and so should abide by them themselves.

SEATS

Finally, I find it a good idea to have a seating plan ready when kids come in on their second or third lesson with me. It’s just a small matter of keeping chatty personalities away from each other for say, 70minutes (‘cause that’s how long my classes are).  This helps lessen disruptions in class, allowing everyone to focus on tasks at hand. Also, it creates a whole new dynamic when you mix kids up.

Then, at the end of the quarter, which is after every 3 months, I rearrange students’ seats again, in order to change the working environment. Works for me, so might be good for you to try, too.

There are other things, other ideas to try to start the year right. Here are just three of my favorites, and so far, the plan seems to be working.

Check out my other blog posts under Character Education.

In my years as a teacher, this is one tidbit of wisdom I always keep with me, to guide me on my daily choices, on what to teach, how to teach, and why I should teach it, in the first place.

A child is like a new blank canvass to an artist… a blank paper to a poet. As such, we adults have the power to influence the young minds of those under our care. And our influence will be carried onwards to the future.

Tough call. Quite a tall order. But if we do not enforce such high expectations upon our selves, how can great things ever be accomplished to ensure a better future for the coming generations?

Many leaders of many nations today, have values that are either misplaced, or nonexistent. That is why so much atrocity exist, so many children and young and old people alike suffer, and injustice and suffering are on the rise.

Where and when did we make mistakes in raising leaders of such makings? Did we fail in kindergarten? Or was it in their teen years when we have failed to teach them right and wrong? Or was it when they were studying in their chosen careers as lawmakers, financial and business professionals, that we forgot to remind them that life is not about amassing all the wealth there is you can lay your hands on, without a backward glance toward others who get hurt along the way to success?

We now live in a time when it is no longer easy for some to tell which is right or wrong. Some kids would say they are only exercising their right to individuality and free speech whenever they are vulgar and rude towards their parents. Some parents, would say they can not help themselves when they abuse their children, because they have been dealt a cruel lot in life, and so it is not their fault when their child goes to school with burn marks on their bodies.

Everyone is to blame – society, schools, governments, and other people. Whatever happened to individual accountability and responsibility? Probably got washed down when we were cleaning up our homes and offices, to make way for the new gadgets and more advanced technology of tomorrow.

Life has now become tied up to our Blackberrys, iPhones, laptops and iPads. Time for our children, the teaching of our youth, has been put on the hands of the internet, the world wide web. We have left them to the mercy of fellow young people who pretend they know better, and so perhaps, there’s the answer right there. We can no longer ask what has become of our young people, when they behave like they don’t have any character or values. After all, where were we, when it was time to teach them how to become good people?

At Dr. Hal Urban’s seminar in Singapore on Feb. 28th to 1st March 2011, I may have found my answer. For the new teacher, I would say Dr. Urban’s ideas about the teaching of character is THE road map to success. If you’re someone who is eager to start a career in teaching, yet have some apprehensions on how to start on your career path in this profession, go to his seminar/workshop or at least, buy his book, Lessons from the Classroom, and you will never go wrong.

It will tell you specific ideas on how to start your classes on the right track from Day 1. He has simple yet timeless ideas to ensure that your lessons are meaningful and purposeful no matter what subject you teach, and more importantly,  you will have enough ammunition up your sleeve to face potential problems from “difficult” parents and students later on in terms of grading and behavior.

For the older teachers, those on the verge of becoming jaded, listening to years and years of toxic talk and conversations from other teachers who have stopped being idealistic and positive about the profession, it is a breath of fresh air. He will remind you what and how noble this profession is – teaching. And he will remind you that you have a touch call, on this job, because how you affect the students who go through your classroom, your classes, you will never know how your influence enriches their lives, or how negatively you could affect them if you do things wrong.

He is a wealth of knowledge, and I believe there is nothing more potent and more lasting and more meaningful, to revive your love for teaching, or to jumpstart your career in teaching, than to sit through his talk, as he gives you anecdotes and real life examples of all the principles he has written in his book/s.

Our world is wanting of “heroes”, of people who actually “practice what they preach”.  They now come in trickles and are far between. Don’t let this one gem of an educator pass you by.

So when Hal Urban is coming to your city, to talk about his hard earned, and well lived principles about life and about teaching, grab a seat and listen well. The lessons you learn will not only help you in your profession, but would have a positive effect on your personal life as well.

A special gratitude goes out to Joanne Wang, for having the foresight and passion to bring educators like Hal Urban to Asia, for it is important for us to know, on this side of the world especially, that there are educators in the West, who still believe in all these books we read about education, and who still actually practice what they preach in seminars, in books they write.

I was given the task of sharing the experiences and knowledge I have accumulated all these years that I have been working and living in Bangkok, and somehow, give the graduates some insight into what opportunities are available out here for them.

After the talk, the first question was on how applicants, once they are decided on getting a job here in Thailand, should prepare when they apply for work. Here are a few pointers I shared with the group:

Resume/CV – many employers I have met, not just in the field of education, but in other fields as well, always have this observation to make: many Filipinos send resumes that are hard for them to read.

Consider the staff of the Human Resources Department for instance of a certain company, who has to go through piles and piles of resumes sent their way, especially if the job you are applying for has been advertised. He/she won’t have time to scrutinize nor read whole resumes, but will only have time to look for the most basic elements. And these are: your educational background, work experience, and most importantly, are you best fitted for the position you are applying for.

If you meet all those mentioned criteria, then most likely, your resume goes into another basket, which later on, probably your direct supervisor/employer will be looking at for interview considerations.

Here is where your special skills, such as languages you speak, special interests you have that might prove useful for your employer can spell the difference between you getting an interview, or you being added on to a wait list.

You have to make your resume/CV well focused and highly relevant to the job you are applying for. Understood, you may be someone who has had years and years of experience, workshops/professional development events attended, and so on and so forth. But you can’t just cram all that information into your resume/CV. Include only the most recent and/or the most relevant to the job. And try to squeeze them all in one or two pages, maximum of three.

Some employers I’ve spoken to still find these information on resumes/CV that come their way: elementary education, complete with the name of the school, school address, awards the person got on his/her graduation in 6th grade. Some still even include their blood type as well as other personal information like names and birthdays of their children!

No, no, this is not an exaggeration.

The information age started decades ago, and we can no longer make the case of “not being very well informed”, or in the Pinoy way of getting out of ‘now knowing’, just say, “I was absent when that was taught in school!”).

It’s funny, all right, but it’s not entirely a laughing manner when knowing how to write a resume well is what makes the difference between getting a job and not getting a job.

Stay tuned dear readers, for additional tidbits of information on how to apply, successfully, for a job in Thailand. My next article will be on making a list of job possibilities, and on getting to know the places you are applying for.

Also, the two other questions from that conference, which I will tackle on in my next few articles, are :

• a. ( from a mother): If I am decided on a career on education for my child, what advice would you give to prepare him/her for it?
• b. (from a young female MBA graduate): for those of us who are not affiliated in the field of education, are there job opportunities available for us in Thailand?

The call nowadays, is not just for the teacher to hold a university degree on education, but to be more versatile, flexible and able to use a cacophony of tools out there to bring the classroom and the real world into one single field. In other words, tools such as the web’s Youtube, for instance, which many of today’s young learners are familiar with, has to become part of one’s teaching, to be seen to be “keeping with the trends”.

In the past, movies like “Stand and Deliver”, which chronicles how a teacher learns to speak the language of the students to reach them, demonstrate how unconventional teaching methods (and the eternal belief in students’ capabilities) are able to produce results that most would think are impossible to accomplish. One such knowledge nowadays, is how to motivate students to actually be interested, participate and be engaged in the topic/concept a teacher wants to teach.

Our High School students today, for one, have so many distractions. With their Blackberrys, their iPhones, etc., many feel the classroom is just one of those things in life one has to endure…until the bell rings and they’re free to access all the social networks they spend most of their waking hours on.

To illustrate my point, here are a few Youtube sites I’ve used with my classes lately. Below the videos, you will find some ideas on how they could be of use in your classroom, from teaching English, to Social Studies, to Science and World Issues

1. Severn Suzuki, a 13-year-old girl from Canada, speaks at the UN Earth Summit in Brazil in 1992. She silenced the world in 5 minutes as she tells leaders to mend their ways to make sure future generations still have a world to live in.

• I recently used this to open up my classes during Earth Week. This can be used to elicit answers to questions like, “After _____ years, what have government and world leaders who have this speech done towards a better earth for future generations?”
• This can also be used in Science class, where studies on the environment are of relevance, for example.
• This can also be used in a Social Studies class, when discussion is focused on responsibility and accountability of world leaders or on the efficacy of organizations such as the UN is being talked about.2. Craig Kielburger was 12 when he started an international human rights  movement  called Free the children, to help children who are exploited in countries like India, Bangladesh and Thailand. Watch him speak at the Ontario Federation of Labor.

• In an Oral Presentation class, great discussions or brainstorming sessions could start off by having students watch this clip. You can then pose the question, “What makes this speech a good one?”
• In a Service Learning class/Ethics/Character Development, you can make a point about what young people can do if they put their heart into it.  Further talk could focus on traits such as being concerned and caring for others; service beyond self.

These are but a couple of the hundreds upon hundreds of videos available out there, which teachers could make good use of. What I find about these clips is that they never fail to catch students’ attention. In the beginning of class, when students are dragging their feet into your classroom, looking like they would rather be somewhere else other than in the school, learning, turn to these clips for some inspiration. After a few minutes of being transported into the world Youtube, most of the time, they will be ready to listen. By then, you would have gotten their full attention.

I think, for many of us who have been teaching for a long time, and who have realized that this job is more than just ‘work’, there comes a point where you start thinking of your students as your own children. As such, you would ask yourself, ‘so how do I prepare them for life? What do I do I do in class, so they will take whatever I teach within the four walls of the classroom, into the real world? How do I equip them so they become successful at what they wanted to be in the future

In one workshop on Character Education I attended in Singapore in March 2010, the presenter talked about the teachers’ influence as ‘having no end’. We impact our students in such a way that it can either scar them for life, or strengthen them for what’s in store in the future.

I’ve seen teachers teach so well in class. Yet, once outside the safe confines of the classroom, , where it really matters most, they talk badly about their students. They ridicule, they criticize, and yet, they have the gall to go back into class, and spew meaningless words and pretend they like their students. Such lies! And such hypocrisy.

I may not be the best teacher a student can have, but I do try my best to make my words, whether inside the class or not, to ring with truth. I will never, for example, ask a student to do something I myself, am not prepared to do, or have not even experienced.

It’s been hard to transition from being, simply, an English teacher to a teacher of Values! I thought, “Wow, I must become perfect!” But as I found out these last couple of years, you don’t have to be perfect. You just have to keep it real.

In my Grade 9 class this last quarter, I had my students working on a goal for their final project. They had to think of a character trait they’d like to acquire or get better at. The next 3 weeks, they have to keep a journal of their progress, and do a power point presentation towards the end of the 3-week period. One student, while working in class on this project, asked me, “So Miss Hedda, what IS your goal?”

I said, “To be better organized.” It wasn’t hard to look the student in the eye and tell him that, because just a few days prior, I worked on all of my students’ final projects’ guidelines, timelines and rubrics. It used to be hard for me to get organized for a whole months’ work of course work, but knowing ahead of time that I will require that much planning and work from my kids, I also pushed myself to do more than what I would require of them. And that paid off in the end.

By trying to live by the same guidelines I ask my own students to abide by, I have enough integrity to push them to challenge themselves and work on becoming people of better character. It’s not about perfection. It’s about doing the little things that really matter, on a daily basis.

For more information on this project I have designed for my Grade 9 Values class, click here. It contains guidelines, rubrics and prompts. And when this project is done, I will throw in some reflection on how the whole project went, especially on how it has benefited the students.

However, apart from the fact that the students in this study needed to learn to write in English as a desired academic skill, it cannot be denied that the main purpose of writing is still first and foremost, for communication. Even when a text has been written for oneself, there is still likelihood for it to be read or communicated to others. Even when the writing is personal and private, it could still be argued that the writer himself or herself serves as a reader, and thus, the writing still holds its communicative value or purpose (Kaplan, 1996).Now comes the basic question, “What then is the most effective way to teach second language students to write in English?” In this study, reading a story served as a stimulus for the writing activities in class. This is based heavily on Krashen’s (1984) idea that exposing children to pleasure reading and shifting focus from form to meaning in extensive reading helps learners acquire writing ability in any language (cited in Scott, 1996).

Another idea that seems to support the notion of using reading to teach writing in the classroom comes from Lightbown and Spada (1999). According to them, research show that learners can learn a great deal of those not taught to them explicitly .They are able to use their own learning strategies to find out the underlying systems that govern the language they are learning. So the more varied and interesting their learning experiences are, the more opportunities they will have to learn more about the language.

What better way to motivate students to read, and thus, learn more, than using literature texts? There is a genuine feel to literature texts that cannot be found in other materials, particularly those which emphasize pedagogy over experience (Duff and Maley, 1990). Also, literature texts offer learners a wide range of styles, registers and text types at different levels of difficulty. They touch on themes that offer opportunities for learners to react based on their own life experiences.

As mentioned in Vacca, Vacca and Gove ( 1991), suggestion to use a literature base in the classroom reappeared in reading instruction journals in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. The rationale for it was, reading should be made an important part of classroom life: “reading literature that makes children wonder, weep, laugh, shiver and gasp.”

“Pieces of literature are used as springboards for writing.” (Vacca,Vacca and Gove, 1991:42). Some of the activities students do in class include writing different endings to stories they read about that are reflected in their own conflicts in life, looking at structures in stories such as the repetitive structure and write stories using the same structure, and encouraging students to gain insights into their own lives using the conflicts between the characters they read about.

Furthermore, “Young children learn writing through exploration. The key to early learning development is not found in a child’s motor development, but in the opportunities he or she has to explore print” (Vacca, Vacca and Gove, 1991:127-128). Reading literature, and then writing about it, offers students situations where they analyze and appreciate aesthetic quality. But of utmost importance is when, students relate literature to their own lives (Oster, 1989), cited from Reid, 1993.

These categories are narration, exposition, persuasion, and description.

A. Traditional Approaches

Narration – The writer relates, or “narrates”, events in sequence. In literature, this means the writer tells a story.

Exposition – The author exposes information or ideas. Its primary purpose is not to tell a story, but rather to explain, e.g., to describe how a computer works.

Persuasion – The author attempts to convince or persuade you of something, to think as she or he does, often trying to change your mind. This is often found in essays and editorials, and requires critical thinking.

Description – This type of writing is generally used as a supporting device for any of the other types of writing. It is most helpful in creating a word picture of something concrete, such as a scene, a person, or a new technology.

Harris (1993), in “Introducing Writing”, has also written about these four types. He categorized them under the traditional approach, otherwise known as classical rhetoric. According to him, many school curriculums have been shaped following these traditional approaches to the teaching of writing. As such, many students are skillful at English composition and at writing historical essays. However, these do not actually have a real place in society. “They still carry the hallmark of an elitist culture”, according to Harris (1993:16). These forms belong to a time when literacy was available only to a select few.

Harris (1993: 18-24) has gone further by classifying writing under two other approaches, namely Purpose, Form and Audience and Readership.

B. Purpose, Form and Audience

Purpose refers to the intentions of the writer and/or the expectations of the reader. Here, purpose will be discussed in two facets: purpose as perceived by the writer and purpose as perceived by the teacher.

1. Purpose

1.a. Purposes of Writing as Perceived by Writer

• Writing is a means of communicating and sharing experiences.
• It is a means of constructing meanings through ways of thinking not usually available through speaking.
• It is a means of discovering and clarifying thoughts.
• It provides a record of ideas, facts and experiences in a form that allows them to be worked on, organized, referred back to and developed subsequently.

1.b. Purposes of Writing as Perceived by the Teacher

Writing as an Imposed Topic

In this model, it is fortunate if the topic chosen by the teacher corresponds to some students’ interest, but often, it is unlikely to appeal to all the class.

Writing as the End-Point of Learning

This model may come in the form of having to write about an activity or a visit and this is often the only kind of writing that students experience.

Writing as Integral to Learning

In this model, learning seems to take on a more valuable part than writing. Writing in this model “may be an aid to a discussion or to a graphic presentation, for instance” (Harris, 1993).

Writing as an Aesthetic Artifact

In this model, playing with words and word patterns such as rhymes and jingles, with forms and structures such as repetitive stories and many types of jokes provides continuity with the world of literature.

2. Form

Harris takes form to mean the type and nature of the text such as posters, brochures, pamphlets, letters, recipes, sets of instructions, lists, labels, stories, reports, poems, essays, play scripts, and so on.

Form, by itself, poses many problems according to Harris. Take the letter, for instance. Usually, it indicates the sender, then the greeting which could be formalized or personalized depending on the use of the addressee’s name. Example, Dear Sir/Madam or Dear [name]. Finally, we finish a letter by the conventional signing off – Yours sincerely, – or one of its many other variations.

3. Audience

The concept of audience was considered an important aspect of the curriculum, according to Harris (1993), during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. A greater diversity of audiences was proposed in order to provide more flexibility and reality to the writing context in the classroom.

a.  Self

Child or adolescent to self

b.   Teacher

Child to trusted adult
Pupil to teacher, general (teacher-learner dialogue)
Pupil to teacher, particular relationship
Pupil to examiner

c.    Wider audience (known)

Expert to known laymen
Child to peer group
Group member to working group (known audience, which may include teacher)

d.    Unknown audience

Writer to his readers (or his public)

e.    Additional categories

Virtual named audience
No discernible audience

According to Harris (1993), there seems to be a problem with this kind of classifying writing compositions. Even when there is an improvement over the traditional approaches, there is still the question of a pseudo-audience when the teacher, seen as the audience, happens to be the assessor of the writing product as well.

4. Readership

Factors that need to be taken into account in terms of readership:

• The formality or informality of the relationship between reader and writer.
• The expertise of the readership – what degree of prior knowledge and understanding can be assumed?
• Cultural assumptions – how far is it likely that the readers will share a common cultural background with each other and with the writer?
• Attitudinal assumptions – are the readers likely to hold attitudes in common with the writer or has the writer to explain and justify his or her attitudes?

Harris (1993) points out that the success of a written piece depends on how well the writer judges or makes assumptions about the readership. According to him, it is more realistic and helpful to make students aware of the above factors rather than postulate pseudo-audiences. It seems rather pointless to gear classroom writing towards genuine audiences other than the teacher.

The students involved in this research are more likely to be engaged in writing activities where they have to narrate or tell a story, describe a picture or a real object being studied, or explain what triggers a volcano to erupt or the life cycle of a frog, for instance. However, they will have very few opportunities where they will have to persuade an audience. Perhaps a teacher would ask them to compose a letter of persuasion, but that is likely the extent of such a writing activity.

The idea of writing for a particular audience itself would, as Harris puts it, seem unrealistic in terms of classroom practice. It is an ideal to be “sought after and utilized to the full” (Harris, 1993:24). It is more helpful to build students’ awareness of the factors mentioned so they take them into account in their writing endeavors.

Harris (1993:81) is also of the same belief as Hedge when he wrote in his book, “Introducing Writing”, that “reading and the consideration of written texts should form an important part of the teaching of writing.” He explains that writing cannot be taken as a different entity from other aspects of language use. He says writing requires attention to reading and to talking, for these are the two means by which writing skill can be learned or acquired.

According to Eisterhood (1990:88) traditionally, the answer to the question of   “what constitutes the relevant language input that would pave the way so second language learners develop hypotheses of writing in English” has been reading.

The reason for this perhaps, is because reading is believed to provide “models from which writing skills can be learned, or at least inferred. Reading in the writing classroom is understood as the appropriate input for acquisition of writing skills” (Eisterhood, 1990).

This link between reading and writing is perhaps akin to Krashen’s (1984, as quoted in Eisterhood, 1990) theory on language acquisition. According to him, reading for interest or pleasure paves the way to developing writing competence. He claims that “the development of writing ability and of second language proficiency occurs in the same way: via comprehensible input with low affective filter”. He goes further by saying, “It is reading that gives the reader the ‘feel’ for the look and texture of reader-based prose” (Krashen, 1984:20).

Stotsky (1983) and Shanahan (1988), did a survey of first language correlational studies, and here are the results they found as mentioned in the book, Reading and Learning to Read, by Vacca, Vacca and Gove (1991:137-138):

• Reading and writing processes are correlated, good readers are good writers and vice versa.

• Students who write well tend to read more books than those who are less capable as writers.

• Wide reading may be as effective in improving writing as actual practice in writing.

These results suggest that the two skills, reading and writing, are interrelated. “Both are language based and experience based, both require active involvement for language learners, and both must be viewed as acts of making meaning for communication.” (Vacca, Vacca and Gove, 1991:138).