The effects of different reading input on the writing of learners of english

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of two different kinds of reading input (reading texts and notes in the form of concept maps) and a note-taking activity on writing performance. The input was presented in three different treatments: (1) I1(texts + notes), (2) I2(notes only), and (3) C(texts only with a note-taking activity). These three treatments were based on the principles that reading texts and concept maps are a useful source of reading to help writing skills because they provide several elements like information, vocabulary, and language use that writing needs. The note-taking activity and provided notes help students remember or recall what they have read for the following writing task. The data for this study consisted of seventy two written texts produced from the three treatments by eight teacher trainees taking part in a full time summer language course. While writing the subjects could use provided notes or their own notes only, according to the treatment. Each subject worked on nine tasks with two different treatments in a series design. The analysis was done to investigate seven features in each written text: (1) total words, (2) the words outside the first 2,000 words of English carried over from the input, (3) the words outside the first 2,000 words of English in the written texts but not presented in the input, (4) the information constituents carried over from the input, (5) the information constituents in the written texts but not included in the input, (6) cohesive devices, and (7) compound/complex sentences. The results showed that the reading texts with accompanying notes generally produced the most output for every feature investigated. The concept map notes only produced the second greater amount of output followed by the reading texts only even though sometimes these last two sources of reading input differed only slightly from each other. The results suggested that different kinds of input had different effects on output. Teachers can use input to serve their purposes in teaching writing.