Abstract:

The ability to write effectively is becoming progressively important and instruction in writing is assuming an increasing role in both second and foreign language education. Students' writing abilities have been put into test through various writing tasks. Independent tasks of writing or writing-only tasks have been utilized by colleges and universities in order to test students' ability to write; however, they have been criticized for their lack of authenticity and validity and integrated tasks of writing have been proposed as an alternative. In this regard, the current study attempted to examine the impacts of reading-to-write and writing-only tasks on the writing ability of Iranian EFL learners. At the outset of the study, 68 adult female intermediate-level learners studying English as a Foreign Language were selected and divided into two groups: experimental and control. At first they were given a writing pretest. Subsequently, the experimental group was provided with 15 sessions of treatment employing reading-to-write tasks, while the control group was given writing-only tasks. It is worth adding that a writing posttest was administered after the instructional sessions. The statistical analysis of the collected data revealed a statistically significant difference between the writing ability of the students who performed reading-to-write tasks and those who employed writing-only tasks. To be precise, reading-to-write tasks were found to be more effective than writing-only tasks. The data collected via the reading-to-write questionnaire was likewise analyzed with the results showing a unanimous preference for reading to write tasks.

Keywords:

Reading-to-write tasks, writing ability, writing-only tasks.