The relationship between writing achievement and the use of reading comprehension strategies in the 4th and 5th grades of primary schools

Abstract

Problem Situation: Writing is the written expression of emotions, thoughts, desires and schemes, which requires skill rather than knowledge. However, skillful writing is a multidimensional process, and requires a desire for writing. On the other hand, it is a process which demands hard work, intensive reading, making inferences from the materials read and a long practice. Many students express their thoughts in written form with great difficulty. There are many reasons for this attitude toward writing; and one of them might be insufficient reading comprehension. Reading needs an effective mental process. And an accomplished reader uses some strategies for comprehensive reading, such as relating the text to one's own experience, summarizing the information, concluding and asking questions on the text, and so on. An effective reading process will most probably influence one's writing achievement. Purpose of the Study: Purpose of this study is to find out the relationship between writing achievement and levels of using reading comprehension strategies in the 4th and 5th grades of primary schools. Method of the Study: In the study with the 4th and 5th grade primary school children, a descriptive method was used to determine the extant situation and the relationship between writing achievement and levels of using reading comprehension strategies. Sampling: We studied with student subjects (Female: 649, Male: 667) of the 4th and 5th grades in 15 primary schools in Denizli. Of the 1316 subjects, 49.3 % were females, and 50.7, males. We applied Stratified Sampling Method to determine the sample group. Data Collecting Instrument: In this study, we gave three separate themes to the students to see how they express their thoughts in written form, and used the "Essay Assessment Form (EAF)" and the Scale of Reading Comprehension Strategies (SRCS) for the assessment of these essays. This form included 16 criteria evaluated out of 100 points. Analysis and Interpretation of the Data: Obtained written products have been assessed with the above-mentioned criteria and read by two lecturers, one of them being the researcher. Consistency coefficient of both grades has been calculated as 0.81. We examined the correlation between the points obtained from the Scale of Reading Comprehension Strategies (SRCS) and those obtained from the written products. When we observed the results of simple linear regression analysis, we saw that using reading comprehension strategies was a significant predictive of writing achievement [R=0.796, R2=0.63, F=2279.56, p<.01]. In the light of the results we obtained, 63% of the total variance observed in connection with writing achievement could be explained by the students' levels of using reading comprehension strategies. Also, there was a linear correlation between both variables. © 2009.