República Bolivariana de Venezuela.

Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Educación Superior.

Universidad de Los Andes.

Facultad de Humanidades.

Escuela de Idiomas Modernos.

Cátedra: Lectura y escritura II del Inglés.

Reading and writing strategies in EFL

teaching and learning.

Nombre: Albert Ríos.

C.I:18.795.790.

Carrera: Idiomas Modernos.

Mérida, febrero de 2013

 Abstract.

There are a set of Common mistakes Modern Languages students make in foreign
language writing, those flaws are: spelling, syntactic order, and translation, among
others related to native language patterns and fossilized errors which do not allow
them to produce texts in correct structure and meaning. The purpose of this paper
is to identify the problems EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students are faced
with and suggest some solutions for the difficulties students need to surpass. One
research question will be explored in this paper: What are the common errors
advanced education students make in EFL writing? The instrument of this
investigation would be: analysis of education curriculums in elementary and
university education in Liceo Libertador and Universidad de Los Andes, both
located in Mérida. Venezuela. This study has shown the limitations students have
on composing text for academic purposes at upperlevel education.

Introduction

According to Johanne Miles (2002), “(…) language proficiency and competence

underlies the ability to write”. She states how writing skills in any foreign language
highly depend on student’s competence, Native language patterns may interfere in
the development of writing skills, this research would support the importance of
reading as foundation to improve foreign language writing and how does target
language exposure play the role of catalyst between foreign language patterns
acquisition and mother tongue linguistic system. This research will show the main
characteristics of student’s foreign language performance in writing.

Statement of the Problem.

Based on this research the most recurrent inconvenient Modern Languages

students have is lack of reading reference. in Venezuela, High school system for
foreign language studying is focus on teaching basic structures, leaving aside
reading strategies students must acquire in order to improve their writing skills,
according to Krashen (1982), “Reading provides writers with knowledge of the
language of writing, the grammar, vocabulary, and discourse style writers use”, the
absence of reading as a teaching tool to enhance writing skills in pre superior
education programs is a major problem for the development of foreign language
writing proficiency, when these students are exposed to a higher writing standard
at universities, they deal with non preparation to produce academic writing or any
foreign language text with the required capability.

Background.

The voids in elementary education for EFL are described by Scott (1996) “If one of
the goals of FL (Foreign Language) instruction is to prepare students to write in
upperlevel courses, teachers must reexamine their approaches to teaching FL
writing at the beginning stages of language study”. This research would be applied
to identify flaws on elementary educational curriculums, supported by previous
research documents on the field, (Krashen, 1992; Miles, 2002; Anderson, 2003).

Literature review.

Writing is a vital ability EFL students must master if they want to achieve
competence in the target language. Nevertheless, writing can not be seen as a
separated process from reading, due to the fact reading produces a better writing
and development in writing skills, according to Anderson (2003), “With
strengthened reading skills, learners of English tend to make greater progress in
other areas of language learning”. Other important aspect students may not be
aware of when they produce a foreign language text is context, in order to
accomplish reliable written results they must have orientation on the topic they
approach, some reference on the field they write about, (Smith, 1988), “To learn to
write for newspapers, you must read newspapers; textbooks about them will not
suffice. For magazines, browse through magazines rather than through
correspondence courses on magazine writing ...To write poetry, read it ...."

Methodology.

This work will base on qualitative paradigm by the use of projective investigation.
This research states the possibility of analyzing a problem which it is considered a
barrier for learners writing performance in EFL. To accomplish this, I suggest the
use of a case study one student studying fifth grade in High School in Liceo
Libertador, in Mérida State, Venezuela and the other one who is enrolled in
Reading and Writing I, at Modern Languages degree in ULA, this case study
includes documental analysis of high school English curriculum of fifth grade, to
contrast them with those of Universidad de Los Andes Reading and Writing I
Curriculum.

Time table

Prepare proposal by January 9th

Complete literature review by January 25th
Complete fieldwork by January 30th
Complete analysis by February 5th
presentation February 18th
Complete final report February 21st
 References.

Anderson, N.J. (2002). The role of metacognition in second/foreign language

teaching and learning.

Cumming, Alister. (2001). Learning to Write in a Second Language: Two Decades

of Research.

Krashen, Stephen & Lee Sy-Ying, (2002). Competence in Foreign Language

Writing: Progress and Lacunae.

Scott. V. (1996). Rethinking Foreign Language Writing.

Smith, V. (1994). Thinking in a Foreign Language: an investigation into essay

writing and translation.

Online Reference.

Miles, Johanne. (2002). Second Language Writing and Research: The Writing
Process and Error Analysis in Student Texts. on the World Wide Web:
http://www.cc.kyoto-su.ac.jp/information/tesl-ej/ej22/a1.html