Abstract

• The main objective of this research was to develop the reading exercises focusing on text structure and to investigate the impact of these exercises on learners’ reading and writing skills. As foreign language learners, students in Myanmar learn mainly two English language skills: reading and writing. Reading is the major activity for them to obtain an unlimited amount of knowledge. Thus, teachers should find out and teach exercises that can enhance both students’ reading and writing skills. The text structure exercise is one of the ways to improve these skills. To investigate the effects of text structure exercises, a sample of (314) Grade Nine students from four Basic Education High Schools was used. A quasiexperimental research design was applied. Five text structure exercises: Description, Collection, Compare and Contrast, Cause and Effect and Problem and Solution were taught in the pilot group, first. After necessary changes had been made, they were used in the experimental groups. To see whether the groups which received the extended reading exercises and those which did not were the same at the beginning of the study, a pretest was administered. After 5 months' treatment, the sample students were administered a series of posttests to see whether the exercises were really effective in their reading and writing skills. According to the findings, it was found that the performance of students who received the extended reading exercises was better than that of students who did not, in all the selected sample schools. Thus, it was concluded that the text structure exercises contributed to the improvement of students’ reading and writing skills.