Teaching English as a Second Language Quarterly (Formerly Journal of Teaching Language Skills)

The Effect of Summary Training on Intermediate EFL Learners’ Reading Comprehension in Individual and Collaborative Conditions

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Department of English Language and Literature, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, Urmia University, Urmia, West Azarbaijan, Iran

Abstract

Inspired by Vygotsky’s Sociocultural Theory (SCT), the current study intended to investigate the effect of summary training (i.e., oral and written) on intermediate EFL learners’ reading comprehension in different conditions (i.e., individual and collaborative). Data collection tools and procedures encompassed PET test, First Certificate in English (FCE) reading pre-test, and post-test. First, to ensure that the instruments, scoring, as well as summary training procedures were reliable, the researchers conducted a pilot test. During the main study, 120 Iranian EFL intermediate male and female learners aged from 16-18 were considered as the main participants. Learners were divided into 6 groups (i.e., three individual and three collaborative conditions). Furthermore, each condition included three groups with oral summary, written summary groups, and no summary group. A post-test followed the treatment that lasted for 6 sessions. A series of ANOVA with follow up pair-wise comparisonsand a series of independent-samples t-tests indicated that: (1) summary training, especially the oral one, was more effective in enhancing the EFL learners’ reading comprehension, and (2) members of the collaborative groups outperformed the members of the individual groups regarding their reading comprehension development. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed concerning enhancing the EFL learners’ reading comprehension.

Keywords

References
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Teaching English as a Second Language Quarterly (Formerly Journal of Teaching Language Skills)
Volume 37, Issue 4
March 2019
Pages 47-70
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History
  • Receive Date: 15 June 2019
  • Revise Date: 10 September 2019
  • Accept Date: 15 September 2019
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