One week after the subjects had learned the super-ordination of action, the researcher began the instruction on the rules of deletion.
At this stage of the experiment, the subjects had already learned how to get the main ideas of a passage, and they had some general ideas about what was important and what was trivial in a passage. To go a step further, they needed to learn to include only the important details but exclude those unimportant one in the passage so that their summaries would be short but precise. However, it took great efforts for them to learn to differentiate what was important from what was not. Therefore, the researcher used the following three passages as examples for the subjects to practice deleting unimportant sentences of a passage.
Among the three passages in the worksheet, the second one, which happens to be the longest one, was selected for illustration purposes to activate discussion and practice among the subjects. They were allowed to discuss with their classmates about
what they thought as the important and unimportant materials of the passage. After they finished their discussion, the researcher explained to her subjects which materials were trivial and how to write a summary excluding those materials. After the researcher’s demonstration, the subjects were asked to practice the application of deletion rules on the other passages. After they deleted the unimportant materials, the
subjects were required to write a short summary based on the shortened passage.
➣ Here is the worksheet that the subjects used to practice deleting the unimportant or
trivial materials:
1. We all have to make many decisions in our lifetime; we have to decide what to eat at every meal, whether to go out with friends or stay at home and do our homework. We have to decide what we want to study at university and whom we want to marry. However, one of the most important decisions we can make is whether we want to live a meaningful life filled with happiness and love, or to lead a meaningless, lonely, and sad life.
2. Learning a new language often means you need to learn something about the culture of the people who speak the language. Different people use words in different ways to mean different things. For example, to say
“maybe” in some cultures might really mean “no,” and to other people it might mean “yes.” Also, there are many slang words that are part of common speech. Slang words are expressions that are new or used in an informal way; for example, “24-7” means 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; or
“cool” means good and popular.
There is also a lot of slang that can be used to describe relationships.
“Pal.” “mate,” and “bud” are all very casual words and are often used to describe people who aren’t close friends—for example, people you might see every weekend at a favorite pub. Men often call groups like this “the boys,” and women might say “the girls” or “the ladies.” A woman getting ready to go shopping for the day with some female friends could say, “I’m going out with the ladies.” If you are going to see a group of friends—
male, female or both—you could say, “I’m going out with the gang tonight.”
3. Corporate image has become very important in recent years. Corporate image is how a company’s office or store looks and feels. The messages a company says on its signs, cards, and advertisements also help create corporate image. Many businesses believe that having the right look for their office or building will increase their company’s business. If a customer walks into a store and feels at home, maybe he will be more willing to buy something. If a company thinks that an office looks old or boring, he might not want to do business with the company. For example, would you like to buy new furniture from a store with ugly furniture in their office or from a business that looks modern and clean?
➣ The following are two sample summaries from the experimental group which
incorporate the notions involving the deletion of unimportant or trivial materials:
✩ Betty:
1. In our lifetime, we have to make many decisions. Some is good, some is bad.
It can change our life with happiness life or sad life.
2. There are many words we say in our life. But some words are have different meanings in other countries.
3. Corporate is very important because it will increase their company’s business. And it can make the store more beautiful and the customer will be more willing to buy things.
✩ Cherry:
1. We have to make decisions all the tim; however, the most significant one is to choose what kind of life we want to lead.
2. A language is often related to its culture background. To know it better, we should understand its people as well.
3. Appropriate corporate image can help increase a company’s business. More and more companies are laying emphasis on it recently.