THE INFLUENCE OF READING ON STUDENTS’ WRITING: A CASE OF SELECTED JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLS IN THE ADENTAN MUNICIPALITY

ABSTRACT The study explored the influence of reading on the writing of students in selected Junior High Schools in the Adentan Municipality. The objectives of the study were to explore how reading influenced the vocabulary span of students, the influence reading had on paragraph development of students, and to identify the difficulties students encountered with writing if they do not read. To achieve this, a convergent parallel design was adopted. This design enabled the researcher to adopt a mixed-method approach using questionnaire and interviews to undertake an in-depth exploration of the study variables. A total sample of eighty-two (82) teachers and twenty (20) students were engaged in the study. The findings revealed that reading influences the vocabulary span of students in the area of word recognition and word usage, punctuation awareness and paragraph development in the writing of students who read. Challenges such as struggle for words, spelling errors, poor sentence structure, inappropriate punctuation use, vocabulary repetition and poor command over language among others were identified as difficulties encountered when one fails to read. To encourage reading among students’ measures such as making reading fun, allocation of enough reading time at home and school, giving awards to students found reading were recognized. The outcome of the study influenced the recommendation that, teachers should develop the interest at the early stages and engage their students in reading activities.