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Chapter Six

Conclusion and Implications

This chapter presents the major findings of the present study in an attempt to

answer the research questions proposed in Chapter One. Then the pedagogical

implications are presented, including suggestions regarding instruction techniques,

assessment techniques, and possibility of on-line practice of summary writing. Finally,

the limitations of the present study and suggestions for future studies are discussed.

6.1 Major Findings

Based on the data analysis and the results of the statistical analyses, we present

the major findings of the present research as follows. First, the researcher was

interested in looking into whether there is correlation between the subjects’ Chinese

summary writing ability and their English summary writing ability. Specifically, by

raising the first research question, she wanted to find out whether those subjects who

showed better performance in the Chinese summary writing task would do likewise in

the English summary writing task. However, from the correlation analysis presented

in Section 5.1.1, it is clear that the correlation coefficients between Chinese summary

writing and the pretest/posttest summary writing tasks did not show significant

differences. This suggests that those who are more proficient in writing Chinese

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summaries may not be as proficient in writing summaries in English. As this is only a

preliminary analysis, more research needs to be done in this area.

Secondly, the researcher was also interested in investigating whether the

subjects in both the control group and the experimental group who performed better in

the GEPT writing tasks would also do well in the English summary writing task.

From the analysis of the correlation coefficients shown in Section 5.1.2, it is evident

that the subjects in the control group who showed better performances in their pretest

and posttest GEPT writing tasks also performed better in their pretest and posttest

summary writing tasks, and vice versa. In contrast, for the subjects in the

experimental group, the findings indicated that prior to the instruction of the English

summative techniques, the subjects’ GEPT writing scores did not show clear

relevance to their summary writing scores. But things apparently changed after the

treatment: the subjects in the experimental group who got better scores in the GEPT

writing tasks showed better performances in the summary writing tasks.

The third research question concerned whether the experimental group would

perform better in the summary writing task than the control group in the posttest.

Based on the results presented in Section 5.1.2, it is apparent that the experimental

group did surpass the control group in the posttest summary writing task. In actual

fact, the statistical analyses showed that after receiving the instruction on summary

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writing techniques, the experimental group subjects did better than the control group

not only in their reading comprehension abilities but also in their writing abilities, and

more importantly, in their summative abilities as well.

With regard to the fourth research question (“Will subjects in the experimental

group show significant improvement in the posttest than they do in the pretest?”), a

comparison of the mean scores and standard deviation before and after the treatment

did exhibit a significant difference. It was observed that the experimental group

showed noteworthy improvement in the posttest GEPT reading comprehension task.

Besides, they also obtained better scores in the posttest GEPT writing task and the

summary writing task.

The fifth research question aimed to explore the possibility that the subjects in

the experimental group, after receiving instruction on summary writing, would show

marked differences in their writing performance in the JCEE compositions when

compared with those in the control group. Results of statistical analyses showed that

the experimental group did obtain better scores in the JCEE compositions, though the

difference did not achieve the acceptable significance level of 0.05. Besides, based on

the correlation coefficients shown in Section 5.1.3, it is reasonable for us to predict

that with extended length of instruction time on English summary writing skills,

students might have obtained even better scores in the JCEE composition tasks.

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The final research question inquired whether the subjects in the experimental

group would show greater interest in learning skills and techniques regarding

summary writing in the future than the subjects in the control group. In accordance

with the Chi-square test and the percentages gathered from the Frequency Table, the

experimental group demonstrated more positive attitudes toward the summary writing

process. By contrast, a great number of subjects in the control group showed no such

preference. As to the three sets of rules the experimental group had learned in the

process of the study, nothing of statistical significance was found except for the

application of deletion rules. Namely, the subjects in the experimental group tended to

apply the deletion rules more when they were asked to write a summary. In contrast,

the control group subjects showed no preference in applying any set of rules in

writing their summaries.

6.2 Pedagogical Implications

Senior high school students here in Taiwan have much difficulty in writing a

good English composition, let alone writing a summary. Even those who get higher

grades in writing a composition do not necessarily perform well when they are asked

to write an English summary. Summary writing, in fact, poses as a formidable but

challenging task for most of the students; therefore, the instruction on summary

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writing is indeed necessary and essential to their learning journey. The findings of the

present study indicate that the instruction of English summary writing techniques is

not only beneficial to the enhancement of the students’ summative abilities but also

effective in terms of improving their proficiency in reading comprehension tests and

general writing tests. Besides, their attitudes toward this challenging task have been

observed to change more positively after the treatment. As a result, EFL senior high

school students should spend more time and effort when they are offered the

opportunity of learning how to summarize a text in class.

In addition, high school English teachers need to be aware of the difficulties

that their students had encountered in the process of learning English and should be

willing to give them timely assistance. As shown in this study, the students in the

experimental group benefited a lot from the instruction of Rule Governed Approach;

their reading comprehension abilities, along with their scores on the GEPT writing

task and the summary writing task, showed improvement. Besides, after receiving the

instruction of English summative techniques, the experimental group subjects showed

more positive attitudes toward the process of learning summarization. Consequently,

EFL teachers here in Taiwan should seriously consider the possibility of incorporating

the instruction of this approach in the writing class.

Moreover, the writing abilities of senior high school students in Taiwan need to

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be polished to meet the requirements of various test types in the college entrance

exams. The English test of the February 2004 college entrance exam, for example,

required the candidates to produce a 120-to-150-word composition based on a series

of pictures. As the correlation coefficients among the posttest English summary

writing, posttest GEPT writing and the JCEE composition scores showed statistically

significant correlations in the present study, the test type of summary writing can be

highly recommended as a possible means to promote senior high school students’

overall writing proficiency. Therefore, it is worthwhile for both senior high school

students and senior high school English teachers to learn more about English

summary writing.

6.3 Limitations of the Study

There are, without doubt, some inherent limitations in the present study. First of

all, the experiment did not last for a very long period of time; it only took three and

half a month for the researcher to conduct the experiment. Therefore, the subjects’

scores on the JCEE composition and the differences of their responses to the four

factors (Confidence, Anxiety, Usefulness, and Preference) in the posttest

questionnaire did not show marked differences. If the duration of treatment time could

be extended, the results could have been different and more could have been revealed

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with respect to the significance of the treatment.

Second, the number of the subjects was quite limited: there were altogether one

hundred and seventy-one senior students who participated in the study. Their motives

of learning the summative skills were not extremely strong because summary writing

has not yet been included in the existing college entrance exams. Besides, as pointed

out in Section 3.1, the subjects in the study are actually not highly proficient ones and

there is some room for improvement on their English abilities. Therefore, it is not

appropriate to over-generalize, and the results of the study should not be deemed

applicable to all senior high school students here in Taiwan.

Thirdly, in the present study, the responses regarding the subjects’ attitudes

toward English summary writing were assessed by comparing the results gathered

from the five-point Likert rating scale. However, the subjects’ points of view toward

the instruction of summary writing could have been more truthfully revealed if

in-depth interviews with the subjects had been included in the present research.

6.4 Suggestions for Future Studies

Based on the findings of the present study, we offer the following suggestions

on English summary writing instruction for those EFL teachers who are interested in

further pursuit in this field.

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First, the researcher has emphasized the importance of summary writing to EFL

learners as well as EFL teachers in the previous section. In Chapter Two, she also

presented different frameworks for teaching English summary writing, which high

school English teachers here in Taiwan can refer to in their teaching. Although the

researcher adopted only one framework for teaching her subjects how to summarize a

text in class, GIST (Generating Interactions between Schemata and Text), proposed by

Enos (1988) and briefly sketched in Section 2.6, is definitely an alternative framework

worth recommending for future research. In adopting this framework, future

researchers may have to consider another set of assessment tools. Strode (1989) has

recommended an approach for assessing GIST summaries in which the grader gives

proper credits for each word. For Strode, this is the most uncomplicated way of

assessing a summary.

Moreover, as pointed out in the summary of Chapter Two, most of the related

studies we can find about the instruction of summative skills are intended for the

improvement of students’ reading abilities. Therefore, future researchers can follow

up on this trend to explore the possible effect of the instruction of summary writing

techniques on the students’ reading abilities only. Furthermore, we propose that EFL

teachers here in Taiwan try their best to enhance their students’ writing and reading

abilities by providing them effective instruction based on either GIST or Rule

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Governed Approach.

Thirdly, in the present study, the subjects’ English summaries were assessed by

three graders using the same criterion. This was a formidable task, in terms of the

time and effort spent on the grading process. It seems that modern technology could

lend a helping hand with the grading load. On the Internet, it is easy to find some

experimental software such as Summary Street

2

, or on-line exercises provided by

Empire State College

3

, to help students practice how to summarize a text at home. An

added advantage is that the students’ summaries can be scored directly on the website.

After the students get the on-line feedback, they can polish their summaries and print

it out and ask their teachers for further advice. To be brief, EFL students can also

benefit from modern technology in their process of learning how to write a good

English summary and EFL teachers can save some trouble editing the students’ drafts

of summary writing.

___________________________________

2 Summary Street is experimental software that can help students with summaries of a few texts. It also provides feedback about the content and the length of a summary. The website can be retrieved from

http://lsa.colorado.edu/summarystreet/

3 The Empire State College has provided exercises for students to practice distinguishing between

summaries and paraphrases; the website can be retrieved from

參考文獻

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