Abstract:
The aims of this study were to investigate the roles of literary texts in an integrated
development the process of reading and writing skills. Data was gathered by means of pre and post
tests and interviews. The grade seven students of Serako elementary school participated in this
experimental study. Out of all grade seven sections, section B and D were selected by the simple
random sampling techniques and grouped as experimental and controlled consecutively. In the
beginning of the study, the pre-test was administered to measure the reading and writing competence
of the students. Then the experimental and controlled groups were taught both skills through literary
texts and regular materials with the rate of three days per a week and 90 minutes per a day for six
consecutive weeks. After the experimental teaching, a post- test was administered and the result of the
two tests was analyzed by various statistical techniques. The average result of the pre- test, as
computed by ANOVA, it showed that there was no significant difference in reading and writing ability
of the participants’ two groups. However, the post- test result of the ANCOVA computation
demonstrated that, there was statistically significant mean score difference (of about 47%) between the
two groups. The difference caused that the experimental groups taught using literary texts which make
it possible the development of reading and writing skills in an integrated manner. The technique
helped the experimental groups to score a better than the controlled. The interviewed students, who
taught through literary texts, suggested that the lessons were enjoyable. Besides, the teacher stated
that the students enjoyed the teaching learning process, they actively participated and they
demonstrated progress in terms of explaining and writing what they had heard earlier. As a matter of
fact, literary texts have a notable role in the development of students’ integrated Amharic language
reading and writing skills. The findings of the study suggest that such texts should be given emphasis
in the process of teaching these skills in the target language.
