Task-Based Writing to Improve Young Teenage Learners’ Reading Skills

Abstract

Following the shift from traditional teacher-fronted towards learner-centered approaches to language teaching, theidea that languages are acquired through authentic acts of communication is now widely accepted as a central tenetof language teaching methodology. As a strong version of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), Task-BasedLearning (TBL) lays great emphasis on language use and entails using the English language in order to acquire it. Ofthe four language skills, it is possibly writing that has had the least attention paid to its role in fostering languageacquisition, though some kind of reciprocal interrelationship has been acknowledged between reading and writing.Reporting on a quasi-experimental study, this paper presents an investigation into the impact of task-based writing onyoung teenage EFL learners' reading skills. It suggests that task-based writing helps such learners makeimprovements in their skills of reading for gist, specific information, and detailed comprehension to a significantlymeasurable extent.