Connecting Reading and Writing: A Case Study

Connecting reading and writing, proposed by many scholars, is realized in this case study. The 30 participants in this study are the English majors of the third year in one School of Foreign Languages in Beijing. They are encouraged to write journals every week, based on the source text materials in their Intensive Reading class, with the final piece as a reflective journal of their mind work in writing. All their journals written during the first 12 weeks of the whole semester are analyzed qualitatively. Analysis of their source-text-based journals shows that they have unique ways in integrating reading and writing, and the results of the reflective journals indicate that the participants have perceived the obvious merits of writing journals after reading. Journal writing helps them gain a better understanding of the source text, gives them a chance to review the text, cultivates their critical thinking abilities, and guarantees them a special opportunity to communicate with the teacher.