The Effects Of Summary-Writing Approach On Senior High School Students’ Reading Comprehension

This study was undertaken to investigate the effects of summary-writing approach on senior high school students’reading comprehension from three perspectives. An experiment was conducted to compare the scores of reading comprehension part of two tests, the reading speed and the scores of different proficiency students before and after the summary-writing approach was used.The research questions to be addressed in this study are as follows:1. What effects does summary-writing approach have on senior high school students’ achievement in reading comprehension on different levels?(1) Can summary-writing approach improve senior high school students’comprehension on the macro level?(2) Can summary-writing approach improve senior high school students’comprehension on the micro level?2. What effects does summary-writing approach have on senior high school students’ reading speed?3. What effects does summary-writing approach have on senior high school students’ achievement in reading comprehension between different proficiency groups?(1) What effect does summary-writing approach have on high-proficiency students’ achievement in reading comprehension?(2) What effect does summary-writing approach have on medium-proficiency students’ achievement in reading comprehension?(3) What effect does summary-writing approach have on low-proficiency students’ achievement in reading comprehension?The subjects in this study were57sophomore students in a middle school in Yangzhou. The instruments were two English tests and two interviews. Before the summary-writing approach was used, there was an English test which served as the Pre-test. In the training period, the students were asked to write a summary of every text after they have learnt it. After the experiment, there was an English final examination which served as the Post-test. At the same time the students were interviewed about their reading speed in the Pre-test and Post-test. All the data in this study, including the scores of the Pre-test and Post-test and the summaries written by the students, were collected by the author. Data analysis included typing the scores of the Pre-test and Post-test in SPSS, calculating the means and comparing the differences in students’scores between the Pre-test and Post-test. All the summaries of the texts in the course book were scored by the author. Then the author offered some suggestions to the students. Paired-samples t-test was employed to compare the achievement in reading comprehension questions on the micro level, the reading comprehension questions on the macro level in the Pre-test and Post-test, and the reading comprehension scores of the high-proficiency students, the medium-proficiency students and the low-proficiency students in the pre-test and the post-test. At the same time the students’responses toward their reading speed in two interviews were recorded and analyzed.The major findings of this study are summarized as follows:Firstly, the summary-writing approach has a significant positive effect on senior high school students’reading comprehension, with a greater effect on the micro level than on the macro level. This finding may be attributed to two factors. One is the comprehensible input—the good and standard texts in the course-book for the summary writing task. The other is students’close attention to the detail information, like who, when, where, how and why.Secondly, the summary-writing approach has a positive effect on senior high school students’reading speed. The reason for their improvement in reading speed may be that students, in order to complete the summary writing task, tend to quickly skim the text and search for the key and important information, which will save them a lot of trouble in reading the whole text.Thirdly, the summary-writing approach has a significant positive effect on medium-proficiency students’and low-proficiency students’achievement in reading comprehension, but does not have a significant positive effect on high-proficiency students’ achievement in reading comprehension. The reason may be that medium-proficiency students and low-proficiency students are average students who will learn quite well and improve significantly if the teacher pays much more attention to them and introduce them to some good and effective learning methods, while the high-proficiency students are excellent students who are at almost the top of their ability and will improve slower and harder than the other two groups of students even if they are introduced to a good and effective learning method. Another reason may be the supposition that compared with the high-proficiency students who fully realize the importance of a large quantity of input, the medium-and low-proficiency students need to be told or taught to be exposed to sufficient input. Therefore, the purposeful "additional" training seemed to have benefited the latter more than the former.This study provides some implications. First, EFL teachers can integrate summary writing with reading, which will make reading more meaningful. Second, since the summary-writing approach has a significant positive effect on the reading comprehension on the micro level, the EFL teachers should use summary-writing approach to help students improve reading comprehension on the micro level. Third, since the summary-writing approach has different effects on students of different proficiency, the teacher should adapt it and find different effective ways for them.This study also has some limitations. First, the sample in this study is not large enough, so the conclusion may not be applicable to all senior high school students in China. Second, this study was limited to the summary writing of the texts from the textbook, which may not be wide enough in terms of topics and genres. Third, the whole experiment was conducted in one semester in this study, which cannot reveal its long-term effects on reading ability.