Abstract

Acquiring writing ability which has several benefits is very important for
students. Peterson and Mar (2008) Believe that the benefits of writing ability
are psychological well-being, physical health, cognitive ability, and task
performance. The ability of writing is influenced by the ability of reading.
Reading is a key to student gains linguistics competence, vocabulary,
speaking, and writing (Brown 2001, p. 301). Bezerman (1980) supports that
the connection between what person reads and what that person then writes
seem as to be truistic. So, this study is aimed to find out the correlation
between students reading ability and their writing ability. Reading and
writing test was administered to 30 students in one vocational school in Bandung. The data
were analyzed by using statistical correlation. The result on this study showed that there is high
correlation between students reading ability and their writing ability.
Keywords: Reading ability, writing ability, reading and writing

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Background of the research
Acquiring writing ability which has several benefits is very important
for students. Peterson and Mar (2008) Believe that the benefits of writing
ability are psychological well-being, physical health, cognitive ability, and
task performance. In line with that, Emenogu (2009) also agrees that writing
allow students to connect the dots in their knowledge, is central to selfexpression and civic participation and is essential to educational and career
success. It can be understood, because it helps people change information
from their experience that guide their perception, action, thought and
emotion in the present (Peterson and Mar, 2008).
Meanwhile, the ability of writing is influenced by the ability of reading.
Reading is a key to student gains linguistics competence, vocabulary,
speaking, and writing (Brown 2001, p. 301). Bezerman (1980) supports that
the connection between what person reads and what that person then writes
seem as to be truistic. The statement believes that there are several benefits
when people acquiring reading one of the benefits is acquiring writing ability.
As a result, the relation between reading ability and writing ability is
worthy to be researched in order to give more understanding in this field.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to find out the correlation between
students reading ability and their writing ability. In order to discover the
objectives, the study formulates a question as follows:
Is there any correlation between students reading ability and their
writing ability?

Scope of the Study

This study is focused on investigating the correlation between
students reading ability and their writing ability.
Significance of the Study
Since the importance of understanding the relation between reading
and writing ability is very important for both of teacher and student, this
study is expected to deliver more information about the correlation between
students reading ability and their writing ability. The result of this study are
expected to give positive effect for both of teacher and student to integrate
the reading and writing ability in their teaching and learning process.
Definition of Terms
There are some terms in this study that need to be clarified to avoid
misinterpretation and unnecessary misunderstanding of the terms used in
this paper. Some terms are clarified as follows:
Reading

: It is the process of constructing meaning from

written texts (Anderson, et al. 1984, p. 17)

Writing

: it is the process of changing information from

their experience that guide their perception,
action, thought and emotion into the written
form (Peterson and Mar, 2008).

Correlational Analyses : According to the Hatch and Farhady (1982, p.

192), correlational analyses is the way to
determine the degree of relationship between
pairs of two or more variables.

CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL FOUNDATION
Reading
Reading skills are the cognitive processes that a reader uses in making
sense of a text (Mickulecky, 2008). The importance of reading for human life
contrive the reading ability become an important skill that have to be
acquired by people. Reading is the most critical (skill) for future success in
school as well as throughout life (Healy, 2002). The statement was supported
by Ping (n.d.) because reading helps students build their language
competence. The ability to read in a foreign or second language is one of the
essential skills required of people living in multilingual and international
settings (Haider & Achter, 2012).
Moreover, there are so many benefits if someone acquire reading
ability. There are some benefits that was conducted by Brown (2001, p. 301)
related to reading skill. He says that reading is a key for student to gain in
literacy, linguistic competence, vocabulary, spelling and writing. In the other
hand, Harmer (2007a, p. 283) also says that the reading is aimed to develop
students world recognition and for their improvement as reader overall.
Those benefit can help people in to gain success in their life. Day and
Bamford (1998, as cited in Mikulecky 2008) add the benefits of reading. They
have documented the benefits of reading, such as development of a positive
attitude toward reading in a second or foreign language; motivation to read

more; increased reading fluency; gains in vocabulary and grammar

knowledge; and improvement in writing in the second or foreign language.
Writing
Harmer (2001, p. 79) states that writing is a form of communication to
deliver thought or to express feeling through written form. In line with
Harmers statement, writing can be classified as an activity that can usefully
be involved to the others skills activity; listening speaking and reading
(Nation 2009, p.113). Same with reading, writing has many side benefits
such as individuality, self-expression, independent thinking, confidence
building, listening skills, reading skills, and speaking skills (zinkonsky, 2000).
As a conclusion, there are several benefits of reading ability. One of the
benefits is gaining writing ability. In the other hand, Writing and reading rely
on specific set of cognitive skills such as attention, memory, symbolic
thinking, and self-regulation (Mid-continent Research and Education). There
are some research that focus on the relation between reading and writing
skills. Those researches will be discussed in the next explanation.
Related Research
The similar study about relation between reading and writing ability
was conducted by Bazerman (1980). He analyzed the study by using case
study. The result of his study explained that the connection between what
people read and what people then writes seems so obvious as to be truistic.
Another study about relationship between reading and writing ability
was conducted by Koons (2008). He used correlation computation in
analyzing the data. The result was found that there is correlation between
reading and writing ability.
Those study become a trigger for the researcher to conduct the study
about the correlation between students reading ability and their writing
ability at one of vocational school in Bandung.

CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
This research was conducted based on quantitative method. This
research used correlation study. The design was selected because it is
commonly used in educational research. Hatch and Farhady (1982) state that
correlation study is the way to determine the degree of relationship between
pairs of two or more variables. Kranzler and Moursund (1999, p. 53) also
believe that correlation study can measure the relationship between two
variables.
Data Collection
Sample
The population in this research was one of vocational school in
Bandung. The total population of first grade students in that school

were 108 students which were divided into five classes. The sample
used only one class which consisted of 30 students. The students were
given two kind of tests; reading and writing test. Both of the test were
developed based on descriptive text.
Research Instrument
In this study, the instruments used to collect data were two kind
of tests; reading test and writing test.
The reading subtest consisted of 20 multiple-choice questions
related to descriptive reading text. The scores was depended on their
correct answer. It means that there were one point for one correct
answer and zero point for incorrect answer. So the highest possible
score were 20 and the lowest possible score was zero for this subtest.
In the other hand, the writing subtest was conducted by asking each
student to write a descriptive text. The theme of the test was Your
English Teacher. To get students writing scores, a scoring rubric was
developed based on the scoring guides proposed by Heaton (1995, p.
146). The adapted scoring rubric consisted of five important aspects
which are content, organization, vocabulary, language use, and
mechanics.
The scoring rubric that was adapted from Heaton (1995, p. 146)
existed in table 1 below.
Table 1
Writing Scoring Rubric
Focus
content

Level
Knowledgeablesubstantive - etc

ran

Sco

Comme

ge
1-3

re

nts

organizati

Fluent

expression- 1-2

on

ideas clearly stated -

vocabular

etc
Sophisticated

effective word/ idiom

Language

choice and usage - etc

Effective
complex 1-2

use
mechanic

constructions- etc
Demonstrates mastery 1

range- 1-2

of convention - etc
Overall comments :
Action Suggested :
Teachers signature

Procedure
The procedures of this study start from designing the reading
and writing tests. Then, the tests were administered to 30 students on
first year at one vocational school in Bandung. The tests were held only
in one day 29th November 2014. After finish collecting the data, the
researcher analyzes the data by using statistical correlation study to
find out the result.
Data Analysis
After the data were collected, the raw scores were analyzed by using
correlation study. Here, the reading subtest scores and writing subtest scores
were correlated by using Pearson Product Moment Formula (Hatch & Farhady,
1982: 198) and (Kranzler & Moursund, 1999: 56), as follows:

N Y 2

N X 2

N ( XY )( X ) ( Y )
xy=

Notes:
r xy = the coefficient of correlation between two variables of the test
X = the score of reading subtest
Y = the score of writing subtest
N = the number of the students
XY = the total scores of cross product XY
X = the sum of reading subtest score
Y = the sum of writing subtest score
X 2 = the square of reading subtest score
Y 2 = the square of writing subtest score

After that, the value of r-counted were compared with r-table which is
the level of significance .05 (2-tailed) and the degree of freedom (df) n-2
(28). After the result was founded, the researcher used the coefficient of
correlation classification scheme by Arikunto (2002:245) as follows in the
table 2.
Table2
Coefficient of Correlation Classification Scheme
Range
.00- .20

Explanation
Very low correlation

.21- .40

Low correlation

.41- .60

Moderate correlation

.61- .80

High correlation

.81- .80

Very high correlation

The study starts with the null hypothesis, there is no correlation

between students reading ability and their writing ability

H0 : rho =
Notes:
H0

: there is no correlation between students reading ability and

their writing ability

rho

: the coefficient of correlation between two variables of the test

In the other hand, there is a significant correlation between students

reading ability and writing ability if the value of r-calculated was higher than
r-table.

Ha : rho
Notes:
H0

: there is a significant correlation between students reading

ability and writing ability

rho : the coefficient of correlation between two variables of the test

Last, the analysis of correlation study was conducted to find out the
coefficient of correlation between two variables of the test whether there is a
significant correlation or not. If the r-table score is higher than r-counted,
means that there is correlation between students reading score and their
writing score. The researcher compared the value of r counted with the value
of r table on the level of significance .05 (2-tailed) and the degree of
freedom (df) n-2 (28) (Hatch & Farhady, 1982: 277).

CHAPTER IV
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
As we know that the purpose of this study is to find out the correlation
between students reading ability and their writing ability. So this chapter will
discussed the research finding in this study.

Refers to the result of the test that was analyzed by correlation study,
it was found that the lowest score for reading subtest was 9 and the highest
score was 20. Besides, it was also found that the mean was 13.7 and
standard deviation was

3.02

. In the other hand, it was found that the

lowest score for writing subtest was 4 and the highest score was 9. It was
also found that the mean was 6.67 and standard deviation was

1.25 .

From the data analysis which used Pearson Product Moment formula, it
was found that the value of r between reading ability and writing ability was (
.69). In the other hand, the researcher picked r table on the level of
significance .05 (2-tailed) and the degree of freedom (df) n-2 (28), so the r
table was ( .36). Based on that explanation, it can be said that r counted ( .
69) was higher than r- table ( .36). It can be concluded that there was a
correlation between students reading ability and their writing ability.
Moreover, the correlation between students reading scores and their
writing scores could be classified as high if we look into the correlation
coefficient classification scheme that is conducted by Arikunto (2002:245).
Here, the explanation about the result study showed that there was
high correlation between students reading ability and their writing ability. It
was proved by the r counted ( .69) which was higher than the r table ( .36).
Based on that result, it can be said that the reading ability probably has
connection with writing ability. Brown (2001, p. 301) believe that writing
ability is one of the benefits of reading ability. Bazerman (1980) also agrees
that there is a connection between reading and writing ability.

CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The result of this study lead to the conclusion that there is positive
correlation between students reading ability and their writing ability. It
means that acquiring reading ability can give positive effect on students
writing ability. Moreover, based on correlation coefficient classification
scheme that is conducted by Arikunto (2002:245), the result of this study
showed that there was high correlation between students reading ability and
their writing ability. Here, the statement means that reading ability has a
significant contribution in writing ability development.
After drawing this conclusion, it will be better for the teacher to
integrate both of the skills in teaching and learning process. Moreover,
researching other level of students in the same area is needed. The purpose
of studying other level or in this area is to give more information for educator
to pick up some advantages from the researches. In the other hand, try to
correlate other skills also important to give some ideas in arranging a good
teaching and learning activities for educators.

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