The Effect of an Extensive Reading Program on the Writing Performance of Saudi EFL University Students

Abstract

This study aims at investigating the effect on an extensive reading program on the writing performance of Saudi EFL university students. The sample of the study consisted of 48 students randomly chosen from King Saud University-College of languages and Translationand assigned to experimental and control groups of 24 students each. Data of the study were collected within two months period via a pre-posttest design for equivalent groups. The control group was taught by the regular teacher with the direct administration of the researchers, however, the experiment group was taught by the researchers. The researchers assessed the effect of the extensive reading program on the writing performance of the Saudi EFL university students. Results showed that the experiment group outperformed the control group on the measure. This indicated that the extensive reading program may have a significant positive effect on learners' writing performance.

The Effect of Talking Story Books on Saudi Young EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension

“…Talking story books can be effective in shadowing speaking skills: EFL learners can bubble chunks of words while listening which improves their speaking ability (Hamada, 2017). Epistemologically, reading has clear impact on the acquisition of other language skills; EFL writing is improved or should be improved through exposing learners to extensive reading (Kirin, 2010;Muslim, 2014;Mermelstein, 2015;Al-Mansour and Al-Shorman, 2014). In the same vein, research studies also reveal that talking books enhance EFL learner's speaking and pronunciation skills at different levels (Saka, 2015;Mart, 2012;Hamada, 2017;Hall, 2016).…”

“…They would also feel much interested not in what is presented, but in how it is presented rivetingly and spellbindingly; "while we recognise the potential benefits of talking books over traditional print-based material, we are aware of the need for multimedia textsfor readers of all ages" (Collins et al, 2002). performance in speaking and listening as is the case in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Japan, Russia (Al-Ma'shy, 2011;Zolfagharkhani & Kowsary, 2013;Stroh, 2012;Seo, 2014;Al-Mansour & Al-Shorman, 2014). Reading comprehension difficulties encountered by EFL Arab learners of different levels are also reported on by several research studies, such as Mourtaga, 2006;O'Sullivan, 2004;Negmeldin and Hala, 2011a;Ahmed and Abouabdelkader, 2016;Bailey and Damerow, 2014.…”

The Effect of Register Instruction on EFL Learners’ Writing Performance

“…The results of both studies pointed towards the efficacy of SFL-based pedagogy in facilitating meta-linguistic awareness which led to "an increased control of organization, audience awareness and textual cohesion." (Schulze, 2015, p. 112) The difficulties posed by writing in an EFL context include interlingual transfer (Gomma, 2010), learners' poor linguistic awareness along with incompetent knowledge of English cohesion rules (Dastjerdi & Samian, 2011), insufficient knowledge of collocational patterns (Araghi, Yousefi, & Salehpour, 2014), deficient micro and macro skills (Birjandi, Alavi, & Salmani Nodushan, 2004), inability to use writing strategies (Beare, 2000), inadequate vocabulary knowledge (Robab'ah, 2003), lack of writing self-efficacy (Bandura, 1994), lack of exposure to language (Adas & Bakir, 2013), paucity of reading (Al-Mansour & Al-Shorman, 2014), lack of grammatical knowledge (Huy, 2015), and overemphasis on accuracy at the sentence level rather than discoursal level (Kubota, 1998).…”

Practitioners’ Perspectives on the Application of Integration Theory in the Saudi EFL Context

“…Al-Jarf (2007) argued that a number of the reading topics were not interesting to the readers. In addition to this, some other relevant studies in this area have been conducted by Fageeh (2003) Almansour and Alshorman's (2014) and Al-AlOrani (2014) on the connection between reading and writing. This research is potentially significant to the context for three reasons: 1) For learners, a focus on the integration between reading and writing offers the advantage of learning more than one skill at the same time as supported by the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) theory.…”

“…The large number of research studies suggest that teaching writing skills through reading is more effective mode of instruction than merely focusing on exclusive teaching writing skills in EFL classes (Alqadi & Alqadi, 2013;Almansour & Alshorman, 2014;Hafiz & Tudor, 1989;Iwahori, 2008;Janopoulos, 2009;Saleem, 2010;Tsang, 1996). Carson & Leki, (1993) suggest that reading serves as a foundation for developing the writing skills.…”