Based on the results obtained from the subjects’ responses to the questionnaires, several conclusions can be drawn. First, in order to investigate whether the subjects held apparently different attitudes toward the four factors (Confidence, Anxiety, Usefulness, and Preference), a Chi-square test was computed. The results in Table 5.17 indicate that the experimental group and the control group showed no obvious differences in their attitudes with regard to these four factors, because the p values in
the pretest and posttest did not reach the acceptable significance level of .05. The reasons why there were no obvious differences regarding these four factors might be that the changes of the attitude toward one factor were not significant enough, even if there were some minor changes. Another possible factor is that the time of the treatment was not long enough to change the subjects’ attitudes in a significant way.
Although the comparison of the attitude changes toward the above-mentioned four factors showed no statistical significance, it is necessary to further explore the subjects’ attitudes toward each individual question in the questionnaires. Based on the data shown in Table 5.18, the experimental group and the control group showed no significant differences in the pretest questionnaire but in the posttest questionnaire, the experimental group and the control group did show statistical significance in some of the questions (Q2, Q5, Q10, Q11, Q12, and Q18).
By comparing the percentages obtained from the Frequency Table, several conclusions can be made. First, as shown in Table 5.19, most of the subjects in both groups agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “I will make the best use of every opportunity to learn to write English summaries.” This supports the necessity of summary writing instruction mentioned in the literature review in Section 2.3.
Secondly, the findings in Table 5.20 show that a great majority of the experimental group subjects would like to spend their free time practicing summary
writing outside the classroom, while most of the control subjects responded with “no comment” to the statement “I would like to spend my free time practicing summary writing outside the classroom.” In other words, after the treatment, the experimental group subjects show willingness to practice summary writing even in their free time.
Thirdly, as shown in Table 5.21, a sizable percentage of the control group subjects again responded with “no comment” to the statement “I will delete the repeated or unimportant sentences of the passage first, when I write an English summary.” In contrast, more than three quarters of the experimental group subjects preferred or strongly preferred to apply the rules of deletion when they were told to write English summaries after they received the instruction of summary writing techniques.
Moreover, Table 5.22 indicates that nearly half of the control group subjects responded with “no comment” to the statement “If I have a choice, I would prefer not to write an English summary.” However, nearly half of the experimental group subjects disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement. Namely, after the treatment, the experimental subjects tended to welcome the chances of writing an English summary.
In addition, as revealed in Table 5.23, nearly half of the control group subjects responded with “no comment” regarding the statement “Learning how to write an
English summary is helpful to my learning of English.” Conversely, a majority of the experimental group subjects agreed or strongly agreed with the statement. Specifically, after receiving the instruction of English summative techniques, most of the experimental subjects felt the techniques helpful to their learning of English.
Last but not least, the results in Table 5.24 show that a great majority of the subjects in both groups agreed or strongly agreed that they would look through the text carefully from the very beginning before starting to write an English summary.
In other words, they believe through careful reading of the text they can find important clues to help them in writing summaries.
5.3 Summary
In this chapter, the results of this research have been presented in order to investigate the effects of English summary writing instruction on the reading and writing abilities of senior high school students here in Taiwan. The relationships between the students’ Chinese and English summary abilities were described and it was found that students’ ability in writing Chinese summaries might have little to do with their English summary writing ability.
Besides, the subjects’ scores of the pretest/ posttest GEPT reading comprehension tasks, GEPT writing tasks, and summary writing tasks were compared
and analyzed to investigate the impact of summary writing instruction. We come to a tentative conclusion that after receiving the instruction of summary writing techniques, the experimental group subjects seemed to have made progress in their GEPT reading comprehension task, GEPT writing task and summary writing task. Moreover, the performances of the experimental group were better than those of the control group in the above-mentioned three tasks.
In addition, the students’ JCEE composition scores were also examined in order to see whether the instruction on English summary writing had exerted some impact. Although the evidence is far from conclusive, it is believed that the teaching of summary writing techniques can better improve the students’ performances on JCEE composition task if the treatment time is extended.
Lastly, the results of the subjects’ responses toward the pretest/posttest questionnaire have also been examined so as to explore whether there are positive changes of attitudes toward the descriptions specified in the questionnaire. The general finding is that the experimental group subjects showed more positive changes of attitude toward the teaching and learning of summary writing.