reflection--reading and writing connections in second language

Grabe and Kaplan (1996) claimed that “reading and writing are reciprocal activities; the outcome of a reading activity can serve as input for writing, and writing can lead a student to further reading resource.”


I recalled that I took the course “Journalism Reading and Writing” in my university. During the class, what we should do is to complete our own newsletters. First, my instructor guided us to know how to write news. He shared with us some English newspapers, like “Taipei Times”, “China Post”, and “Taiwan News”. Thus, we understand the format, writing styles (genre), structures, word usages, and etc. After few weeks later, we started to work on our newsletters. We played as reports and editors as well. Before we handed in our work, we would review peers’ articles, and revise them. During the class, we shared our newsletters with other groups. We could appreciate others’ works, exchange our ideas, and learn from others.

Thus, I perceive that “reading and writing are acts of composing”(Hirvela, p 9) and “reading as a social process”(Bloom). Through the interaction between students and students, and a teacher and students, we build up the knowledge about how to complete our newsletters. Reading newspapers and other groups’ newsletters are important factors to improve our capacities in writing and editing. Reading and writing can be separated during the process of completing our works. Reading is the nutrient for me to write, and writing will foster me to keep reading and to learn from models.