Teaching academic writing skill through integrated reading and
writing
Nhóm Anh- Trường THPT Chuyên Hoàng Văn Thụ , Hòa Bình
PART 1. INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
It is evident that in the trend of globalization, the mastery of English becomes the
top priority of every education system including Vietnam. Learners of this second
language are supposed to display the command of English in communication, especially
in productive skills such is speaking and writing. Therefore, the past few years have
witnessed significant transitions from textbooks focused on receptive skills and grammarbased assessments to skill-based textbooks and assessments of different skills in exams. A
telling example is the addition of writing skill to the General Graduation Examination.
Writing is an expressive but no less sophisticated process and one that has a tremendous
impact on how we are perceived by others in a range of formal subject matters. That is
why both the teaching and learning of writing are considered a time- consuming and
laborious task. Therefore, the importance of teaching writing is normally treated with
neglect and delivered in a very superficial mode. This familiar approach to writing fails
to develop students‟ language command to the full. This is especially the case for the
majority of English majored students who almost accumulate colossal aspects of
language but often have difficulty expressing them in an academically standard writing
style. Therefore, it is necessary for teachers and learners to pay worthy attention to this
skill in teaching and learning English.

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2. Problem identification
Writing, to some extent, has become the last skill and the most difficult one to
learn for anyone who learns a language for communication with its unique
consequences. Moreover, the majority of students dislike essay writing which is a
specific part of writing composition, compared to speaking task. In fact, writing is
considered to be the most difficult one among the four skills particularly for non-native

1. The relationship between reading and writing
There are some quotations which describe the close relationship between reading
and writing. Two of them are: Reading and writing are forms of life, not just reflections
of it (Kern, 2000), and Reading and writing, as recursive acts of communication, lend
themselves particularly well to analysis and reflection about the process of producing
and interpreting meaning through language (Kern, 2000).
According to Kern, reading and writing ought to be viewed as intertwined,
integrated process from both theoretical and pedagogical perspectives. Reading and
writing can act as meaning design. In literacy, the relationship of reading and writing is
not linear, but overlapping. Kern describes the relationship of reading, writing, and
talking in a figure as follows (Kern, 2000).

There are intersections between reading and writing, reading and talking,
writing and talking, and among the three of them; that is, in the middle of the where
the three circles meet. However, what will be covered in this paper is reading and
writing. As described in the picture above, there is an intersection, which describes the
overlapping part of reading and writing.
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This is how reading and writing overlaps in details that are more specific. Reading
and writing overlap when students write formal essays about what they have read (Kern,
2000).They also overlap when students use writing to: concretely represent thoughts as
interpretations of texts they have read, write their own version of a topic or a theme
before reading the target text, write reflections on their own reading processes, read to
improve their writing, and actively and critically read their own and their peers‟ writing
in the editing process.
However, we believe that reading and writing can be integrated in „harmonious
arrangement‟, in such a way that reading, prior to writing, will help and enhance
students‟ academic essays. his study is thus a proposal of a teaching model using

contextual information to allow readers to make intended inferences. Readers, in turn,
must reconstruct a context of interpretation based both on the cues provided in the text,
and also their own experience and knowledge. Riley (1985), in Kern (2000, p.109)
states: “We all may read the same text, but no two people ever „read‟ the same discourse
because they never bring exactly the same knowledge, expectations, and contexts to bear
on the text”. Reading does not require us to submit to the writer‟s discourse world, as we
would do in an interpersonal communicative encounter. Readers can negotiate meaning
on his/her own terms.
3. Why reading should be taught prior to writing
According to Babatua (2008), every writer reads his own stuff, and puts his stuff
to use in his own way. There are two ways to become a better writer in general: write a
lot, and read a lot. There are no other steps. Beyond reading for pleasure, a good writer
also reads with an eye for the writing. What we learn as readers, we use as writers. So, it
can be said that over time, our writing becomes in some ways a compilation of all the
things we‟ve learned as readers, blended together in our own unique recipe.
This strengthened by Simon, et al. (2009) who mention that it is intuitively
obvious, that one cannot learn to write until one has learnt to read. Kress (in Grainger,
2004) also claims that reading and writing are always socially embedded activities
involving relationships, shared assumptions, and conventions as well as individual,
personal acts involving imagination, creativity, and emotions.
Hedge (2014) also claims that it will be beneficial for students to be exposed to
models of different text types, so that they can develop awareness of what makes a
good writing. “Reading”, edge explains, “is necessary and valuable.” owever, this is not
enough. To be a good writer, a student needs to write a lot, too.
Inferring the thoughts above, it can be said that to write, we need to read. What we
read may be unlimited. We may read and write about relationships, assumptions,
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conventions, as well as acts. We should read everything, and it is up to us as readers, to


From the statements above, I can conclude that writing can be powerful, and
writing can be associated with control of information, as well as people, as Hedge states
in his book, Writing.
5. Reading to Learn: One Solution for Integrated reading and writing
May of us may wonder what is meant by Reading to Learn (R2L). Here is the
history of R2L. Originally, Reading to Learn was designed to help children of remote
communities in Central Australia. David Rose worked with the people there for many
years. The community leaders and the teaching assistants there addressed concern that
the Aboriginal children could finish primary school without or with just a little literacy of
English. There was even no standard of complete the further educational levels (Rose &
Martin, 2012). Teachers reported that a minority of learners are consistently able to
actively engage in classroom activities, to respond successfully to teacher‟s questions,
and succeed in assessment tasks (Rose, 2005).
The success of this model had attracted national attention and led to many
requests. David was asked to work with school programs across the country and many
Australian school students have benefited from this professional learning program. This
program was later known as R2L (Reading to Learn). Working with many teachers and
teacher educators, David could later on develop this R2L. This methodology was later on
shaped to be broad and flexible to work in any pedagogical situation.
Rose designed Reading to Learn strategies, which are to be applied at any point in
the reading development of sequence, as repair or part of ordinary teaching practice
(Rose, 2005). This can be adjusted to any level of education, including secondary or
tertiary level. Celce-Murcia defines teaching strategy as strategies under the learner‟s
conscious control, they are operations which the learner chooses to use to direct or check
his/her own comprehension (Celce-Murcia, 2001).
The cycle of R2L
The figure below describes the cycle of Reading to Learn (Rose, 2005) with the six
stages.


The teacher guides the class to write a new text, with all learners taking turns to write on
the board. With story texts, joint reconstruction uses the same literate language patterns as
the original passage, with new content – events, characters, settings and so on.

Stage 5. Individual Reconstruction
Learners use the text patterns or notes they have practised with the class to write a text of
their own.
Stage 6. Independent Writing
This stage involves using the same text patterns again, but with individual stories, using
and expanding ideas discussed with the class. As with all other stages of the curriculum
cycle, some students will be able to do this activity more independently, enabling the
teacher to provide support for weaker writers in the class.
PART 3. APPLICATION
The six stages of R2L Cycle are applicable in real life Academic Writing Class.
The following are the descriptions of this design works along with the activities for the
given class.
*) In the first stage, teachers can ask students to read a passage with argumentative
mode as a model. In the following stage, detailed reading, students should start thinking
of rewriting a similar text.
*) Next, preparing before writing, students are given the general framework of genre and
field within which to rewrite the text. The teacher then prepares students to imagine new

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texts, by drawing attention to notes, suggesting alternative wordings, and
further discussing the field.
*) In stage 4, the teacher guides the class to write a new text, with all learners taking turns
to scribe/write on the class board. With story texts, joint reconstruction uses the same
literate language patterns as the original passage, with new content – events, characters,

education has developed, too. In their minds, college education is a necessary stage for
a person to experience. Maybe they will not have a good job after they graduate, or they
will not use what they have learned during college time, they should still have the
experience of university life. During college time, the students can learn how to get on
well with others, how to plan their time, how to study by themselves and how to live by
themselves more than the knowledge in books. The former is more helpful not only to
their future career but to their future life.
At last, I would like to say that whatever reason one has to attend college or
university, he should make good use of the time he spends at college. Since he has got the
opportunity to study at college, he had better try your best to realize his dream.
Topic 2. Some people believe families have the most powerful influence on a child's
development, others think other influences such as TV, friends, music have bigger effects.
Discuss this opinion in an essay of about 300 words.
Children's development depends on a variety of factors. Some people believe
that parental teaching plays the most crucial role while others claim that friends and
means of media have equal significance in children's growth. My essay will shed light
on both sides of the issue.
On one hand, it is argued that with unconditional love of parents, children feel
encouraged and reach greater success in life. Mozart's father is a telling example of a
person who gave up his own career to teach children at home and helped his son obtain
outstanding musical success. In addition, if children were born in a family whose
parents are great instances, say, professors or famous actors, they will be motivated to
continue tradition and even glorify it. Scientifically speaking, studies have shown that
talent runs in family where parents have good genes. From appearance, personality to
flair, children can inherit from both their fathers and mothers.
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Nevertheless, it would be equally important to address the role of other factors in
children's comprehensive development. No sooner are children taught by enthusiastic

net on computers, they are about to discover the endless source of novels and stories.
In other words, computers flatten people's lives to an astonishing extent.
Nevertheless, along with their great gains are pains. Spending hours in front of
computer screen, people are likely to suffer a series of threatening diseases like
migraine, insomnia, obesity and poor eyesight. Surveys have shown that the number of
people experiencing overweight increases ceaselessly these years as a result of
computer syndrome. In addition, it is argued that as a consequence of depending
on computers for various tasks, people grow passive in thinking and dependent instead of
nurturing their critical ability. For children who are addicts to computers' games, their
study and future are definitely put in danger. Such unremitting flows of uncontrollable
and unfiltered information on the Internet drive people crazy and mislead them. Also,
since the dawn of computers, people rarely spare time together and bury themselves in
the virtual world, which possibly puts their socializing world at risk. Furthermore,
despite the belief that computers can replace teachers in classrooms, it is undeniable that
were it for the role of mentors, students would hardly feel inspired to learn and foster
numerous important living skills from team-work, communication and self-study.
Computers are of certain use, but hardly become substitutes for our brains after all.
In conclusion, computers bring double-edged benefits. The most important is that we
learn to master computers instead of letting them dominate our lives overwhelmingly.

Besides sample essays, other authentic texts aiming to enrich students language
inputs are recommended as well. Talking about reading materials, all reading texts can
always be adjusted. Academic reading texts can be used for intermediate or advanced
level. According to Sengupta (2002), academic reading is purposeful and critical reading
of a range of lengthy academic texts for completing the study of specific major subject
areas. Academic reading requires both extensive and intensive reading, careful
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synthesizing of materials from a number of sources, and consciously finding

thods in different classes.

his is to enrich teachers‟ experiences in teaching
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exploring new teaching methods. Besides that, this is also important to give varieties
during the teaching learning process so that students‟ boredom can be avoided.

We suggest that writing teachers start adopting this strategy, that is, Reading to
Learn. Reading and writing can be integrated as complementary and successive skills
to each other. Teachers can create a syllabus involving reading and writing at the same
semester.
The results of this proposed model will hopefully give significant contributions
to the teaching of writing at upper secondary school level, and help writing teachers
deal with some common problems arising during their course of teaching argumentative
writing.
2. Limitations of the study
In the scope of this study, only a small aspect of teaching writing labeled as
Teaching writing through integrated reading and writing is proposed. Due to time
constraint, the issue being discussed cannot be addressed thoroughly and drawbacks
are unavoidable.
References
Brown, D. (2001). Teaching by principles. New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Inc.
Babauta, L. (2008). How to use reading to become a better writer. Retrieved on
November 21, 2014 from />Celce-Murcia, M. (2001). Teaching English as a second or foreign language. Canada:
Gilks, Marg. 2002. Fundamentals of Fiction, Part II: “Read, Read, Read!”. Retrieved on
April 5, 2015, from www.writing-world.com
Hedge, T. (2014). Writing. Second Ed. London: Oxford University Press.
Kern, R. (2000). Literacy and language teaching. London: Oxford University Press.