A study on the effects of reading on writing performance among Faculty of Civil Engineering students

Abstract

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of reading on writing performance among Faculty of Civil Engineering students. A total of twenty students from the Faculty of Civil Engineering had been identified and selected for the purpose of this research. This group of students is taking an English language course that is UHB 2422 Advanced English for Academic Communication. There were two writing sessions. The first session required the students to write an essay according to the topic given without reading the materials on related topic. Then, they were required to answer the questionnaire regarding their personal views on writing without reading text. On the other hand, in the second session of writing, the students were given a text to read and later produced a mind map based on their understanding of the text. The text then was taken and they were asked to write an essay on the given topic. They were required to answer the questionnaire regarding their personal views on writing with reading text. Observation was also made during both writing sessions. The results showed that reading has positive effects on the students???? writing. The findings of this study were discussed and recommendations for future research were also suggested.