Setiono Sugiharto , Jakarta - Opinion
Conventional wisdom advises this: "If you want your student writers to be able to write, have them write, and nothing else." Our tendency in teaching writing seems to reflect this wisdom.
The best we can do to assist our students of all levels of language proficiency in developing their writing skills is to give them writing instruction, to encourage them to do more writing practice and then to give feedback.
In addition, as writing entails ability in adeptly using language rules (grammar) and as students often find it hard to write using correct grammatical structures, teachers cannot resist the temptation to explain the rules as painstakingly as possible to their students. In this case, grammar instruction is considered necessary.
Both writing instruction and the mastery of language rules, however, are of little value in helping student writers acquire writing competence. Many published studies demonstrate that the effects of instruction on students' writing are weak, fragile and immediately wear off over time. Other studies show that instruction has no effect at all on writing development.
With research confirming that instruction has little or no effect on accelerating writing competence, it is pretty safe to conclude that writing competence cannot be acquired via either instruction or practice.
It is really unfortunate, however, that most teachers are not well-informed about what research on literacy has told us. Because, in their view, research is often incompatible with what they are experiencing in the classroom, they just ignore it.
While it is true that research often makes statements incompatible with teachers' experience, its importance in helping shape our teaching methodology cannot be overlooked.
We need a philosophical justification of what underlies our methodology. At this time, research helps us discern the extent to which our justification is consistent with the reality we are facing.
In fact, teachers' ignorance of research findings has prevented them from finding good solutions to the problems they are constantly confronting. Writing teachers, for instance, have enthusiastically endeavoured to assist their student writers in bolstering their writing ability via writing instruction and practice, with little success.
Such a persistent problem can be solved, as long as teachers are willing to pay attention to the following suggestions based on current research, and then take the other alternative which offers much better and less tedious effort on the part of both teachers and students.
Writing instruction doesn't give students a feel of what good and acceptable writing looks like. Specifically, it doesn't help students acquire writing style, appropriate diction and correct spelling. Increasing writing frequency either through self-sponsored writing or classroom-instructed writing doesn't result in significantly increased proficiency. It must be emphasized that the ability to write is the result of acquiring written codes, not the cause of it.
Similarly, the mastery of language rules, which is the result of grammar teaching, doesn't necessarily contribute to writing development. It has been evident that students who are exposed to grammar lessons for many years and grapple with understanding and memorizing rules are still unable to display competence in writing.
A general conclusion then is that writing competence cannot be acquired via either writing and grammar instruction. Forcing students to write without sufficient competence is tantamount to forcing an engine to work without gasoline. This, however, doesn't mean writing and grammar instruction are of no use and should be jettisoned from the school curriculum.
Their relative usefulness can best be explained in terms of Stephen Krashen's dichotomy: writing competence and writing performance. The former refers to the possession of technical writing skills (i.e. grammar, vocabulary and spelling), while the latter designates the ability to write using efficient writing strategies (i.e. planning, drafting, revising and editing).
Writing instruction, it should be reiterated here, cannot make students competent in writing, but it does help equip students with efficient writing strategies. As these strategies are teachable, writing instruction is key to raising students' awareness of how to compose efficiently.
By contrast, writing competence can only be acquired via reading. That is, the ability to write in an acceptable manner using correct grammar, vocabulary and spelling is derived from reading, not from writing practice. It is reading, Krashen says, that gives the writer the "feel" for the look and texture of reader-based prose.
One might argue that language components such as grammar and vocabulary are teachable via instruction. However, it could be counter-argued that they are much too complex, not to mention tedious, to be taught. What is more, we need to invest more time and energy in making students understand and acquire them.
It seems then that the best and the only way of accelerating students' writing competence is to get students hooked on books and to make them fly to books, just as an opium smoker flies to his pipe.
Taken from here: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2008/08/23/books-not-instruction-key-creating-writers.html
Linking this article to the education system for which the National (Negeri) elementary, middle schooler and highschooler have been exposed to for 9 years it has shown very minimal success rate due to factors such as a teacher’s own individual competence as well as the conductivity of the class itself, of course this depends on where and which National school you attend. Providing my perspective and experience of having been position in a regular SMAN (National Highschool), I view that the conductivity and the type of student present within the class plays a major factor in the success rate of teaching given by the teacher. As an individual I agree as to how reading affects and aids in the improvement of writing skills and english proficiency however to do so we must first change the culture or the norms of the students within the class to create a conducive and supportive learning ambience of where students actually want to learn english and not find answers on “brainly.com”, however stating this does not mean that it is an easy task to execute as for we must change the indonesian culture of being “procrastinators”. We can only hope for Thanos to provide enlightenment and give us the lesson of being grateful (to still be alive) and giving us the chance to chase a tomorrow. Using Thanos here as an example I push the ideology of being grateful for tomorrow's prospect.
ReplyDelete-Zain
Briefly, based on the article above, concerning conventional teaching in writing practice seems hardly effective in the students' understanding of acquiring proficiency possession in the language they are learning. Apparently, most teachers still instruct their students to do practices in writing by forcing them to merely "download and upload" what they have been taught theoretically in years for granted. For instance, they might give their students the rules of grammar with no example of when to use it precisely.
ReplyDeleteI personally agree with the way this article above argues. It states that by reading, students can learn better than faster as to "upload" their knowledge from any texts or readings that they have read. By the way we read more books, the more we will get the more complex grammar structures and new vocabularies that will be implanted in our brain indirectly. In fact, we are not robots that are just "downloading and uploading." We are programmed to learn something by having an example of it. For example, babies can imitate their parents' language quickly by getting real exposure to communication performed by their parents.
As to summarize my comments, I would say that the teachers should agree with the research, stating that reading is much more powerful in giving the students the mastery of the language, rather than the instruction to just write what the teacher asks as it not only provides the students the feel of the proper writing looks like but also increases the students' literacy skill which is good for their self-improvements in the future by reading more books.
Thank you.
I agree with this article thoroughly. Writing a piece that's considered well written requires the author not only to understand the technical, but also the skills which consist of planning, drafting, and editing that one's received from experience and reading.
ReplyDeleteBack when I was in elementary school, I aspired to be a writer. Not for its fame, but for the pleasure of it. I find writing fun because writing gave me the ability to pour out my imagination with little effort. Fast forward to high school, I tried to write many pieces ranging from short stories to even serialized tales (which I often kept it for myself and seldom shared it to my best friend). But something didn't feel right.
"The plot was nice and all, but the paragraphs seems… how should I put it, Out of place?" a friend of mine commented.
I re-read the piece and found that some of the paragraphs' order was switched. It wasn't as seamless as I thought It would be.
I went back home with my tail between my legs. I didn't expect a critique could be this poignant. Then, out of nowhere, my dad suggested a book for me to read. I wasn't a book person back then so I hesitated. But I was thankful that I read that book(the book was "How to Win Friends and Influence People" by Dale Carnegie. It does sound like a book for reclusive people, but do give it a try, it's intriguing.). From that, I learned that reading is essential for composition making, it provides a sense of what should your piece look like. I tried my best to learn from it, and now, my articles have improved. Even if it's not significant.
In this country's conventional teaching system, students are forced to understand the subject based on what the teacher said and to comprehend it by the way the teacher told.
ReplyDeleteBased on my experience, I can hardly keep up with the English course on my junior and senior high school, because I can't understand what the teacher was trying to deliver to me and the material seemed a bit too complex for me. the only thing that was keeping me away from failing is that I have a lot of experience in English that I acquired from books, movies, and songs. What I'm trying to say is that won't fit into all students, some of them may receive them well enough, but most of the students will find themselves confused and wondering what they are actually doing.
Teachers should understand that students study not only to broaden their knowledge but also to experience many things that they have not experienced before. teachers should let students explore their way of learning and to assist them in the process of learning because that's the point of learning.
As someone who writes a lot of stories in their spare time, this article brings a lot of positive suggestions in my regards to my preference of learning.
ReplyDeleteConsidering that I was a part of an English learning centre for a better part of four years, I can safely say that even though the learning centre might’ve helped in polishing up my English, it didn’t really set the framework that I require to be able to effectively write stories, the way I do in today’s standards.
Sure, it helped in introducing me to words such as accustomed, reiterate, visualizing, and many other textbook induced words. But it sure as hell didn’t help me understand when or how to use words such as ambivalent, admonish, perplexed, and many more. It doesn’t help mentioning the fact that I didn’t fully learn how to make a fully coherent paragraph from said learning centre, whether it be from a story-writing context, or even from an essay-writing context.
Particularly with story writing, I learnt most of my structuring and word usage from reading thousands of stories that were written by other writers. Seeing as my current abilities were able to garner thousands of views from people all over the world, it’s safe to say that it’s not all about the instructions.
I highly agree with the notion of changing the way our education system treats children’s development of their writing skills, because in many cases of when it comes to understanding how to fully learn or do something, it is best if we see the works of others and observe how said work is done and how it is to go on and make one of your own.
This article reflects my experience learning English language. When I went to the United States as an exchange student, my english was really really bad. So, after a while talking and of course a lot of listening to my friends and other people, my skills increased but still showed some blanks. When I noticed, there must be an improvement, I started reading english books. In the beginning, I had to look up many words in order to understand the content, but after a while the blanks in my english skills became less and less. From there on, I even like reading english books more than German books. Especially, grammatical mistakes can be eliminated and vocabulary extended. I also started watching movies in english, which helps to understand all different kinds of accents. If I look at my english skills now, there are still many blanks. For this to improve, I have to continue practicing writing and reading in that language in order to reach my goals. To react on this article a little bit more, I do agree that writing instructions and further grammar techniques are needed to teach another language. Despite that, in my opinion, writing skills can only be advanced if the students practice writing. It is the same when it comes to learning another language. If you don’t practice talking, you’ll never advance your capabilities to the fullest.
ReplyDeleteThis article makes so much sense to me because i was thought from a little that learning isn’t as simple as listening to the teacher and boom suddenly you’re a genius,but through doing it yourself and experiencing many things that you have not experienced before.Not only that it improve their solfskills,it also gets into their subconciusness faster resulting not only in better understanding but also their skills to do something, for example writting.I actually agree with the conventional wisdom advises that literally advises you that if you want to start being able to write,than just write and nothing else.Although its not that simple,i totally get what its trying to say to you.Just like babies on how they try to imitate and learn everything that they can,through imitating their parents in their early age.They learn as they go because humans are equipped with the skills to learn by having an example of it.This also goes the same with reading.If we read more books,then we will get many complex gammar structures and new vocabularies that will me implanted to our brain indirectly.The moment that we create mistakes on our grammar,we will subconciously fix it because we knew that its not correct by reading or writting the correct one in the past.Trial and error is the key to improving your skills and you can’t learn it by not doing anything.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
First of all, in my opinion about this article, I can relate it with formal English course at national Indonesian curriculum chool which more into grammar and writing instruction is not giving any improvement on student’s English writing skill. It’s better didn’t make any improvement, rather than on my school case, teacher often giving wrong concept about English structure to the student that sometimes make our English skill worse. English teachers on my high school didn’t give their maximum effort to teach their student and have never gave the student writing assignment. The teachers only expect for good grade at Ujian Nasional only, not prepare the student to have English writing skill which is important for high school to later survive as a university student. As a result, only a few student that have good English writing skill. And yup, same like already said in this article, that’s because they get used to read book, news, article and novel in English. Beside that they rarely write essay or article in English, but once they told to make English writing, they can easily write it because of the ‘memory investment’ they already have in their brain. To sum up, we need to make ourself read English book or other kind of text that we like if we want improve our English writing skill, just don’t only depend on with our national Indonesian high school English course curriculum.
ReplyDeleteI couldn’t agree more with the idea that reading creates a big effect on a person’s writing skills. This is because I tend to write better when I read a lot. Ideas suddenly start to flow effortlessly and writing just becomes easier in those moments. From my experience, reading gave me a sense of what correct grammar should sound like and drove me to take notes on how a good writer should organize their ideas into a structure so as it does not confuse the readers. Hence, I can create my writing concerning the mental notes I made from reading and improve the quality of my writing.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing about reading is that it gives knowledge. I always felt like I acquire information in everything that I read; whether it is from a fiction novel or even a short magazine article. It has never failed to provide me with beneficial information. Therefore, I highly agree that reading, in general, is very important for all of us.
To be able to write, first you must be able read. That was the first thing my teacher told me back when I was just a tiny little boy. I was a struggling kid that was not able to read nor write. I had my parents so worried that they hired a private tutor for me. Thankfully, that was all in the past now. I can now read and write. In fact I now find great joy in writing and reading, thanks to the numerous collection of books at home.
ReplyDeleteI personally believe that the traditional teachings of English writing with all of its instructions are not totally ineffective. They still have at least little influence in shaping students' writing skills, where they might be able to learn proper rules of writing. Although to be a great writer, one must read from others. We learn a great deal from one another and language, with its combination of words, can only be reflected through writing, which is then understood by reading. Therefore, to be an excellent writer you must read the wonderful works of others.
The amount of teaching and reading should be balanced. In my opinion, at school teachers are supposed to teach the students but also gives out homework such as reading certain chapters of a book. Students that are used to learn grammar and not reading books think that books are more effective than teachers, but it’s not. Contrary to the popular way of teaching in Indonesia, my senior high school English class was a bit different. Instead of teaching, my teacher was just sitting down and turned on the speaker for me and my peers to listen to an audiobook of a novel that’s compulsory for us to bring. A lot of my friends including me enjoyed it very much since we could sleep, but the problem is if the teacher doesn't even teach anything how could our grammar improve just from listening to an audiobook? They didn’t even give out homework such as an essay for us to improve our writing structure, so there’s no point of reading books if we don't have any place to implement it.
ReplyDeleteAs a student from an international school, I would have to agree with the argument raised in the article. It seems that most teachers believe that students could be taught the rules of using a language in order for them to be able to write flawlessly. However, this idea is in itself flawed due to the fact that writing style is developed with using English instead of only comprehending the grammar rules of the language. Apparently, most teachers fail to fathom the importance of understanding the use of language instead of knowing only its laws.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I agree with this article because, as an avid reader, my vocabulary and style had developed from my reading experience. Before being a lover of books, I found that my vocabulary was limited to the colloquial and formal diction, which meant that I lacked expressive vocabulary in my writing. Without reading, there would not be any distinctive traits in the students’ writing style, which would make them uniform and lack an essence of uniqueness since they are all taught the same material. In order to make students’ write uniquely, they must be exposed to different reading materials that would expand their horizons in writing, such as deriving style, vocabulary, and how to use those new words in their own writing.
In conclusion, teachers should understand that reading is an important component of learning how to use a language because it broadens the students’ knowledge of vocabulary and allows them to develop their own style. Writing skills should not be packaged into a uniform content.
The backbone of communication ever since humans moved past the stone age is the written word. Because of this, writing is a skill that is pivotal in this day and age where information and ideas are more available and abundant than ever before. However, in order to achieve a civilization of literate subjects with advanced writing skills, appropriate teaching is required.
ReplyDeleteJust like what was stated in the article, writing cannot be taught through purely writing exercises and instructions. While it is important for students to understand the rules and logistics of an ideal sentence structure, constructing an ideal sentence can only be done with a deep understanding of the English language in a literary context. It is almost impossible for someone to write an amazing story without having read similar stories in the past, just like how artists cannot draw a realistic design of an existing object without reference pictures.
Yeah, I agree with this article. I think reading is essential to develop a healthy brain. Reading makes us learnt so many things. From information based on the book to other information that maybe we don't feel precisely aware. So what is the additional information that we can learn from the books beside the information based on the kind of books we read? We can learn how a writer writes the books. We can learn how grammar works in a different type of genre in a book. Reading improve our language skill, especially if we still trying to improve our English. If we read many books or some trusted articles, our subconscious will try to remember how do we use language in writing correctly. Reading books is beneficial for our brain. Reading not always a studying activity but can also be an entertaining activity. So many storybooks that we can read from a different kind of genre. Unlike watching TV, reading books not just make us feel entertained but also train our imagination.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jovan sign out.
This article reflects on the problem that most of the schools in Indonesia are currently having. The teachers believe that students have to understand, and they believe that student will understand every information that the teacher gives to the students. In writing skill, grammar and sentence structure will have to be taught in order to advanced faster in writing skills. Vocabulary in the other hand, it could be taught by teachers but students will learn faster if they read books. Because there are a lot of words, and the type of words that can be taught are only the basic ones. Sentence structure and grammar will also be learned faster if the students read more article or books. By reading, students will not only understand better, they will also develop their trait in writing skills. It is very good for teachers to teach students about developing their writing skills, but it will be better if reading is more involved in the system to develop student’s writing skill. In conclusion, reading is a good method in order to develop a more advanced writing skill.
ReplyDeleteI thoroughly agree with this article on how reading can influence students' writing competence. When I was in junior high, I used to be a fiction novel enthusiast, ranging from all kinds of genre, whether it is fantasy, science fiction, a slice of life or even coming-of-age. At the age of eleven, it was my first time I started getting into reading children novels, notably Dork Diaries and Geronimo Stilton. Despite these novels used simple vocabularies and sentence structures, I was gradually able to understand longer and complex stories, and eventually got myself into writing comprehensible essays and short stories by using the vocabulary which I previously learned from the books.
ReplyDeleteI am hugely grateful that I have the privilege to access these books and facilities to read and learn about the English language. It has certainly helped me in writing academic essays, articles, and perhaps Instagram captions as well. I hope that people's interest in reading will increase when they know about the wonderful benefits of reading.
Well this article really sum up my experience on writing issues. It was on the 3rd grade of high school when I apply for SAT. I did the math and reading task effortlessly but then the writing section had my flesh creep. I study the writing basic, the punctuation, the types of passage, and many more but I still cant write perfectly. I ended up having 4 points of score out of 8. Because of that I realized my writings are that ugly.
ReplyDeleteAfter time passed by I consult my writing to one of my teacher. And he said that if I want to be a better writer I have to read, like novel and so on. He gave me one of his book called “Jane Eyre” (Actually that’s the first time I finished a book). After I finished the book I understand the new kind of grammar and vocabulary that I can use. As what the article said “…writing competence can only be acquired via reading”, I positively agree on that.
Literation rate in Indonesia is one of the lowest in the world. Through reading, we can discover new informations and words. Literation is not only in reading books but also reading a newspaper or magazine.
ReplyDeleteMany students in Indonesia still lazy to do reading. This can be a factor to the lack of creativity on students. With reading, we can improve our softskills, such as improvise and abundance amount of knowledge.
Literation is very useful and has a lot of advantages in university life. As a university student, we are forced to study outside our comfort zone like in highschool. If we can not keep up with our subject, we could get expelled. One of way to solute this is through learning the materials from books and we can only do that by reading and practicing.
It is also beneficial for our work life. Normally, When we are faced on problems that we have never encountered for, we do not know how to react. This problem could be solved by learning things from other people that have already done it and wrote their experience and solution on books.
In conclusion, even if its seems boring, reading has many straight advantages to our life. Therefore, literation is the best answer to improve our development.
I personally agree with this article. Grammar lessons and instructions on how people should write have little impact on their compositions. Perfect grammar does not mean that people have a magnificent writing skill. Everyone has their own style of writing and by simply instruct others on how to write does not help them to find their way of producing a good essay. Instead, reading is significant for improving writing skill. Other compositions act as an example of how to write and sometimes people receive ideas after reading competent writings.
ReplyDeleteI attended a Cambridge-based school where we were assigned to read one book each year for English class and it was mandatory. We read few excerpts every day and as years passed by, I believe that my writing skill has improved progressively. Through reading, we would learn new vocabularies and the appropriate way to use them in a sentence. Not only that, we would also be accustomed to proper grammar and more importantly, we’d gain additional knowledge gained from reading passages.
I could not agree more with this article about how important and useful reading is. With reading, it opens your mind to new ideas, might as well opportunities, that you can convert to writing. If we look at the literacy culture developed in many conventional schools in Indonesia, that may be a sign of how important reading is and must be taken serious.
ReplyDeleteAs mentioned in the text, basic knowledge about writing and grammar does not always guarantee that you are or will be a good writer. A writer must know how to attract readers by the ideas he/she displays on the writing. But it must not be put to granted, since from learning all those basics we know how to deliver our message to the audience.
Other than that, reading does not only open you to new ideas but it has been scientifically proven it makes oneself feel better and more positive. Reading has some amazing health benefits.
I agree with what this article said. Reading a book makes students indirectly learn about how to write grammatically right. Not just about grammatical structures, students can also learn from its author about how to pour the word artistically. It’s like to kill two birds with one stone. But, the problem is Indonesia ranks second-last in reading interest. Indonesia ranks 60 out of 61 countries in terms of study interest. It indicates that there is something wrong with our reading culture. To cultivate love in reading in students, teachers should agree first that develop their writing skills is by reading, it does not have to be from a book, it can be from articles, newspapers, magazines, etc. Then, tell the students to start with a book that is easy to comprehend. Teach reading strategies is also important for students. Text genres are different in every single book. Kids won’t enjoy reading a book if they don’t know how to read properly. To start reading a book is easy, but to finish it, not every kid can do that. So, teachers should give them the skills to read at the same time that they cultivate an attitude.
ReplyDeleteThis article are really interesting for me. Maybe it is because I could relate some point inside this article with my experience when I was started to learn English and some new things. Based on my personal experience, I was studied in a “standard” private school in junior high school and Bilingual School in senior high school so I could compare the method that used in Indonesia curriculum and “international” curriculum based school. In Indonesia standard curriculum, students must understand the subject based on what the teacher said. On the other hand, the international curriculum offer some more interesting way to study. For example that we should try to learn the subject by ourself not just by what are the teachers are saying but also we must (at least) try to understand that subject by reading. Maybe Indonesia government should try this innovative way or paradigm in learning to increase the quality of Indonesia students
ReplyDeleteIn my experiences, the quote “practices make perfect” really happened to me. My proficiency in English was dull. What I did to improve it was practising repeatedly. I raised my language level by reading. I’m also knowing many vocabularies by reading too. Listening also important to collect vocabularies in our head. To be honest, when I do some comment on the article, I need to read another source about those topics. If I have knowledge then I can write. So basically I agree about the argument above. To have good writing skills you have to keep reading. In order to write correctly (correct grammar), however, relying on reading isn’t enough. For me, grammar is quite complicated. I have studied English grammar for many years. Yet until now sometimes I still confused.
ReplyDeleteIndeed it is tedious when the teacher asked us to read over and over again and then we have to write a review or conclusion. I think the task should be given differently. For example, the article topics shouldn’t always the serious one, it could be the topics about teenager nowadays like social media, relationship, etc.
I think I’d lean more towards the motion that English is understood rather than taught based on example. At the start learning basic English grammar, nouns, verbs sentence structure and what not would probably be the best starting point however as the ability for grammar and sentences starts to become more mastered, I don’t think teaching the same things over and over again would do a student any good. From my personal experience I found that learning English is easier by reading English literature and even from movies and tv even when it means we come into contact with words we might not be that familiar with. Maybe reading something from classic literature such as Sherlock Holmes or Around The World in 80 Days might help a lot. For me, learning English is part learning its rules and part learning its words’ deeper meaning like metaphors and idioms. In the end, I think having a teacher who truly understands this aspect is one of the more important aspects in teaching English. I don’t think these teachers teach English in the sense of this is what you do but help students understand English beyond grammar and its rules.
ReplyDeleteThe main point delivered in the article follows the age-old education maxim that it is best to learn by example. For as long as I remember, I learned most of my technical writing proficiency from the videogames I played on my PlayStation 2 when I was a kid. Whenever I came up with words or sentences I did not understand, I would always ask my mom or dad to translate for me, and this really helped with both my understanding of grammar and vocabulary since English instructions in videogames are often quite complex for a primary school student. The article also mentioned that reading is the best way to improve one’s mastery of formal writing skills like how to structure an essay or how to form a coherent paragraph. Agreeing with the point made in the article, I also learned most of these skills from reading English books my dad used to collect. I read everything he bought, from cooking manuals to flight instruction booklets, and I have to say that it really helped me gain an edge in writing. All in all, my personal experience forces me to agree with the article’s point that writing skills is best gained by learning through example.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it may not be liked by many, reading is one of the most important and beneficial activities. Reading helps the mind stay active and healthy, all while developing knowledge, imagination, personal growth and development, and improving concentration. Readers are given new and different perspectives of life every time they finish a book.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking for personal experience, reading used to be a hobby of mine before academic pressure of achieving good grades got in the way. I read one thick fiction book a day, in which each inspired me to start writing my own stories. This then led me to the progression of a dream career: a best-selling author. But, I grew up and most - if not, all - my interests and passions changed. After living a childhood surrounded by books and personal writing pieces, it is safe to say that it is true when people say that reading improves language skills and vocabulary.
Throughout my 12 years of studying from elementary to high school, I was rather the type of student that rarely read books. I did read several amounts of children books back when I was at the age of 5 to 9, but as I grow older that, it gets more infrequent. If you ask me five books that I’ve read in the past three years, I might not even be able to answer. That’s how rarely I read. Sounds like a horrible student, huh? Yes, perhaps. But most of my schoolmates are also like me. They read books as infrequently as I do. So I guess that’s the problem in our country’s educational system. We were never taught and be accustomed to reading culture. But of course, it’s not just the educational system. It was also my own fault. Of course, I do regret that I didn’t read more in the past. I now have a problem with writing, and sometimes it feels like a burden to my brain. If only I had read more books, I might be able to have better writing competence and write effortlessly now.
ReplyDeleteI really love to read back when I was still little. I usually read one book every day. The books were easier back then, just short stories, novels, and comic books. But as I grew older, I didn’t read books as much as I did before. I read schoolbooks every day, so I have no time reading other books. I also felt that reading just texts, without graphics, is very tiring and boring. I also had difficulties imagining and visualizing what is happening in the book.
ReplyDeleteI want to read a lot more from now on. We can get so much from books. I admired my sister who love to read books. She read either Indonesian or English. I have tried to read some books she has, but I think it is too hard for me to understand. She has recommended me some books that are easy to read, so I think I will start to read more books soon.
Both reading and writing are two of the essential skills that humans have to develop. I think that this article successfully highlights the importance of reading so that almost every one of us agrees with it. By reading, not only we can gain more knowledge or thoughts but also develop our linguistic skills. The activity allows us to stimulate our minds to imagine and analyze the substance of what we are reading. We can acquire those privileges from either light or heavy reading.
ReplyDeleteBack then, when I was not into reading, I pushed myself by reading comics, magazines, and eventually novels. I still remembered when my parents got me a bunch of novels for my 10th birthday present. I was so motivated that I finished those books for less than a month. However, things have changed since I went to high school. I find it difficult to find the motivation and spare some time to drown myself into books other than educational ones. I hope that shortly, I can read more books, thus improving my writing skills.