CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study
Communication is an important thing in human society. It involves
oral and written activity. Communication in human society is primarily
considered as an oral activity. Meanwhile, written activity is regarded as
merely a means of recording something that has been spoken or that has
been said. Nunan (1991:6) points out that writing can be stated as an
extremely complex cognitive activity that requires the writer to control
several variables at one. It implies that writing includes several elements
such as grammar, vocabulary, sentence structure, cohesion, and so on. In
the teaching learning process, writing is the one of main skills that is
taught as the centre of learning language. Allyn (2001:1) states that writing
helps kids develop critical thinking skills. It helps them understand and
communicate complicated ideas. Writing also leads to guaranteed
improvement in academic achievement. It means that the mastery of
writing is very useful for enhancing students’ achievement.
In the classroom writing activity, one of the goals of learning is to
make the students able to write in a good way. One of the factors that
influences students’ writing ability is reading. Reading is a dynamic, complex cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct
affects writing and writing affects reading. Meanwhile, According to
recommendations from the major English/Language Arts professional
organizations, reading instruction is most effective when intertwined with
writing instruction and vice versa. Research has found that when children
read extensively they become better writers. Reading a variety of genres
helps children learn text structures and language that they can then transfer
to their own writing. In addition, reading provides young people with prior
knowledge that they can use in their stories.
In order to reach a goal of learning objective, the teacher should
make the students interested in reading. Then, reading interest can be said
that as a arising situation as a result of students in themselves a strong
desire to perform reading activities. Furthermore, to make a good writing
and understandable, the writer should have knowledge about what they
want to write. It means that students must know deeply the knowledge of
their idea when they want to write. Kartono (1985: 3) says that if the
students have strong interest in learning a subject, they will of course pay
close to attention to that subject. In addition, Suharyati (2004: 2) states that
interest can influence learning process. When a people are learning
something with their interest feeling, the result is better than people who
are learning without feeling interest. When they want to write in English
language, interested in reading English book will make them have more
For strengthening the arguments that there is a deep relationship
between reading interest and writing ability, the writer present some
researches that have resemble topic of research. Koons (2008: 88) has
done a research about reading and writing connection entitled The Reading
– Writing Connection: an investigation of the relationship between reading
ability and writing ability discourse modes. The research concluded that
there is a strong relationship between reading ability and writing quality. It
can be said that reading ability will affect the students writing ability.
Besides, Culp and Spann (1990: 3) conclude based on their research about
reading and writing correlation that the relationship of writing and reading
does exist. Furthermore, Ito (2011: 27) in her research about reading-
writing correlation of L2 Students in Japanese EFL high school students
concluded that reading skill cause the improvements of writing quality.
From those reasons and research findings, it can be seen clearly that there
is a correlation between reading and writing ability.
Based on the pre observation toward subject of study, it was found, the
most of students have low ability in writing. The indicator can be seen
from the result of students’ score in writing subject. They still lack
competence in organizing language, expanding the idea, arranging good
sentences and use of academic vocabulary. The low ability can be
indentified from the results in doing tasks of writing in the third semester
idea. Presumptive that indication, the writer conducted an interview with
some of students subject their reading interest. As a result, some of the
students are not interested in reading. Some of them admitted that they like
reading novel but in Indonesian language. Only few of them feel interested
in reading English book.
From those arguments and reality fact of students conditions about
their writing ability and reading interest, the writer tend to do the research
related to the correlation between students reading interest of English book
and their writing skill. In addition, there is no research dealing correlation
between reading and writing ability in English Departement of
Muhammadiyah University of Purwokerto especially that took the third
semester students.
B. Reason For Choosing The Topic
There are some reasons why the writer chooses the topic:
1. It was said that learning of writing and reading is influenced by an
interest
2. There was finding that the students’ writing ability correlates with their reading interest. It needed more proof
3. From the pre observation to the subject of research, it was indicated
that the interest in reading was low. Based on the fact, it could be
needed a proved to know the real fact of their ability using scientific
research.
4. The prediction required to be proved
C. Problem of Research
The problem of research is:
―Is there any correlation between students’ reading interest of English
book and writing ability of third semester students of Muhammadiyah
University of Purwokerto academic year 2012/2013?‖ D. Aim of Study
The aim of the research is:
To find out a significant correlation between students reading interest of
English book and writing ability of third semester students of
Muhammadiyah University of Purwokerto academic year 2012/2013.
E. Clarification of Term 1. Writing ability
Writing can be defined by a series of contrast, it is both physical
and a mental act, the purpose is both to express and impress, and it is
both a process and a product, (Nunan, 2003: 88).
2. Reading Interest
"The interest is a preferred taste and interest in a matter or activity,
without being told". Interest is essentially the acceptance of a
Slamento (2003: 180). In addition, students’ reading interest can be
defined as a situation arising as a result of students in themselves a
strong desire to perform reading activities.
F. Contribution of Study 1. Pedagogy
The information of the correlation between students’ reading
interest of English book and writing ability is important as an input for
the teacher of writing to design writing practices better by taking into
account the topic and content of English book they read. It is also
useful for reading teacher when they decide the exercise following the
passage to be read.
2. Curriculum
For the curriculum designer, it is also important to know the
correlation, in order that they can decide what content of material to be
developed and what source of learning that are relevant and used in
both subject.
