Integrating reading and writing in academic writing class

Abstract

Based on the theories and empirical data of the advantages of orchestrating integrated skills in the classroom and the connections between reading and writing skill, this study aims to find out the effects of integrated reading-writing instruction on students’ writing ability. The moderating effect of cognitive styles was also investigated. The present study adopted a quasi-experimental design with 2 x 2 factorial analyses. The subjects of this study were 87 students at STKIP PGRI Jombang. An experimental group using integrated reading-writing instruction was randomly assigned for comparison with a group using a traditional teaching model. At first, the participants were asked to perform Group Embedded Figure Test (GEFT) to determine their cognitive styles. After that, the participants were asked to write an expository essay as the pre-test to justify that both groups had the same writing ability before the treatment. After seven meetings of treatment, they were asked to write another expository essay as the post-test. Based on ANOVA analyses, it was found that the students taught by using integrated reading-writing instruction did not achieve significantly better writing score than students taught by writing instruction only: neither for the field-independent students nor the field-dependent ones.