Teaching summarizing skills to efl learners at ho chi minh city university of technology (hutech)

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES _ TEACHING SUMMARIZING SKILLS TO EFL LEARNERS AT HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY (HUTECH) A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF TESOL Submitted by NGUYEN THI HOANG HOANH Supervisor : NGUYEN HOANG TUAN , Ph.D Ho Chi Minh City, August 2007 CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY I certify my authorship of the thesis submitted today entitled: TEACHING SUMMARISING SKILLS TO EFL LEARNERS AT HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY (HUTECH) In terms of the statement of Requirements for Thesis in Master’s Programmes issued by the Higher Degree Committee Ho Chi Minh City, August 2008 Nguyen Thi Hoang Hoanh RETENTION AND USE OF THE THESIS I hereby state that I, Nguyen thi Hoang Hoanh, being the candidate for the degree of Master of TESOL, accept the requirements of the University relating to the retention and use of Master’s Theses deposited in the Library In terms of these conditions, I agree that the original of my thesis deposited in the Library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with the normal conditions established by the Library for the care, loan or reproduction of theses Ho Chi Minh City, August 2008 Nguyen thi Hoang Hoanh ACKNOWLEGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to my thesis supervisor, Mr Nguyen Hoang Tuan for his enthusiastic guidance, valuable comments and support in the preparation until the completion of this thesis Secondly, I would also like to thank all my lecturers at the Department of English Linguistics and Literature, Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities of this Master course Thirdly, I particularly appreciate my colleagues and second-year majors in English at HUTECH for their valuable support and cooperation in helping me to carry out the survey questionnaire Their answers and ideas play an important role in conducting this thesis Finally, my very heartfelt gratitude is sent to my family members for their moral support during the time I have done this study ABSTRACT The ability to write an effective summary is one of the writing skills which university students should possess so that they can summarize lecture notes to facilitate their study or summarize an assigned material to make sure that they understand it Furthermore, while students are writing their theses as the requirement of graduation, they usually have to grasp the main ideas of related theories to present these in the literature review This thesis investigates and conceptualizes the nature of teaching and learning summarizing of second-year students at Ho Chi Minh University of Technology (HUTECH) The purpose of the study is to find out the factors that affect students’ summarizing skills In order to this, class observations were performed and questionnaires for both teachers and students were delivered in order to (1) elicit information about teachers and learners’ ideas about writing summaries (2) explore the problems they have faced and (3) obtain their suggestions on how to improve the learners’ ability of summarizing In addition, there were informal interviews with both teachers and students to get more necessary information for the study The theoretical framework to the study is a review of the literature relevant to this vital writing technique such as definition and purpose of summary, how summarizing different from paraphrasing and retelling, the role of summarizing, and techniques for writing good summaries The research subjects were both English teachers and second-year students who majored in English at HUTECH To ensure the validity of the methodology for obtaining answers to the research question, the procedures for sampling design to collect appropriate data for the study were carried out accurately and objectively so that the sampling strategy would make possible the ability to generalize from the sample to the total population of students of English majors at HUTECH The research was carried out during the fourth semester at HUTECH when second-students were taking the course of Thesis Writing, which provided students with certain background and knowledge to write their thesis as one of the graduation requirements Data obtained from the subjects’ responses were analyzed by the SPSS software The findings revealed some insights into the obstacles that these student subjects faced while writing summaries before they attended the course They also showed that classroom instructions on how to summarize effectively were necessary From the findings’ analyses and discussions, the thesis suggests several recommendations to the improvement of students’ ability to write an effective summary It is hoped that the study will contribute to the development of teaching and learning writing at HUTECH in general and in this sub-skill of writing in particular TABLE OF CONTENTS Certificate of original …………………………………………………………… i Retention and use of the thesis ………………………………………………… ii Acknowledgements ……………………………………………………………… iii Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………iv Table of contents ………………………………………………………………… vi List of tables …………………………………………………………………… ix List of charts ……………………………………………………………… xi Abbreviations …………………………………………………………………… xiii Chapter One: Introduction 1.1 Background to the study …………………………………………………… 1.2 Problem Identification ………………………………………………………… 1.3 Definition of term …………………………………………………………… 1.4 Scope of the study …………………………………………………………… 1.5 Structure of the study ………………………………………………………… Chapter Two: Literature Review Introduction ……………………………………………………………………… 2.1 The Difference between summarizing, paraphrasing, and retelling ………… 2.1.1 Paraphrasing …………………………………………………………8 2.1.2 Retelling …………………………………………………………… 2.1.3 Summarizing ……………………………………………………… 10 2.2 Process and product ………………………………………………………… 11 2.3 Definition and purpose of summary ………………………………………… 13 2.4 Summary in daily life and in academic setting ……………………………… 14 2.5 Types of summaries ………………………………………………………… 15 2.6 Organization of a summary ………………………………………………… 16 2.7 Criteria …………………………………………………………………… 18 2.8 Interrelationship between reading and summarizing………………………… 21 2.8.1 Recognizing main ideas …………………………………………… 21 2.8.2 Identifying organizational patterns ………………………………… 22 2.9 The importance of teaching writing a summary …………………………… 23 Summary ………………………………………………………………………… 26 Chapter Three: Methodology Introduction …………………………………………………………………… 27 3.1 Research question … …………………………………………………… 27 3.2 Subjects ……………………………………………………………………… 27 3.2.1 Student subjects …………………………………………………… 27 3.2.2 Teacher subjects …………………………………………………… 29 3.3 Data collection instruments ………………………………………………… 32 3.3.1 Survey questionnaire for students ………………………………… 33 3.3.2 Survey questionnaire for teachers ………………………………… 34 3.4 Implementation ……………………………………………………………35 Summary…………………………………………………………………….…… 37 Chapter Four: Findings and Discussion Introduction …………………………………………………………………… 38 4.1 Students’ responses ………………………………………………………… 38 4.2 Teachers’ responses ………………………………………………………… 53 4.3 Discussion…………………………………… …………………………… 63 Summary ……………………………………………………………………… 65 Chapter Five: Implications and recommendations Introduction……………………………………………………………………… 66 5.1 Implication ………………………………………………………………… 66 5.2 Recommendations on the teaching and learning summarizing skills…………… 69 Summary… ……………………………………………………………………….75 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………… 76 References ……………………………………………………………………… .78 Appendixes Appendix1: Survey questionnaire for students …………………………… 80 Appendix 2: Survey questionnaire for teachers ………………………… 82 LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Distribution of students’ age and gender …………………… 28 Table 3.2 Distribution of teachers’ age … 29 Table 3.3 Distribution of teachers’ gender …………………………… 30 Table 3.4 Distribution of teachers’ degrees …………………………… 31 Table 4.1 Frequency of English studying of second-year English majors at HUTECH ……………………… 39 Table 4.2 Students’ ideas about the most difficult skill ………………… 40 Table 4.3 Students’ ideas about the most important skill ……………… 41 Table 4.4 Frequency of learning how to write a summary …………… 43 Table 4.5 How did students summarizing ……………………………… 44 Table 4.6 Time spent on practicing writing at home 46 Table 4.7 Time spent on practicing reading in English 47 Table 4.8 Frequency of students’ recognition of the important of summarizing skills before the course …………………………… 48 Table 4.9 Frequency of students’ recognition of the important of summarizing skills after the course ………………………………… 50 Table 4.10 Frequency of students’ self–remark on the degree of difficulty 51 Table 4.11 Frequency of students’ suggestions on how to improve their Summarizing skills ………………………………………………… 52 Table 12 Distribution of teachers’ years of teaching ……………………… 54 THANKS AGAIN QUESTIONNAIRE TO TEACHERS To my dear colleagues, The purpose of this questionnaire is to collect necessary information for a research on the difficulties our students might have with their summary writing and to elicit your opinions on how to improve this kind of writing Your responses will help to determine proper techniques that will help to apply in our university Please read the questions and tick the box of your choice or write down your response where necessary Thank you for your co operations Personal Information Your name: Your age: Gender: [ ] male [ ] female Research questions How long have you been teaching English? For years Your degree: [ ] BA of English [ ] diploma of English [ ] working on my MA degree of TESOL [ ] MA of TESOL [ ] working on my Doctor degree of English [ ] Ph D of English In your opinion, which skill is the most successful for our students to achieve in general? [ ] listening [ ] speaking [ ] reading [ ] writing If possible, please state the reason why it is the most successful Which skill you think is the most difficult for our students to obtain? 92 [ ] listening [ ] speaking [ ] reading [ ] writing If possible, please state the reason why it is the most difficult 10 Which skills are you teaching now? [ ] listening [ ] speaking [ ] reading [ ] writing 11 How often you teach summarizing? [ ] every course [ ] usally never [ ] sometimes [ ] 12 If you are teaching summarizing to students now, how well you think your students it? [ ] very successfully [ ] successfully [ ] fairly successfully [ ] not successfully 13 Do you think summarizing skills are important to our students? [ ] Yes [ ] No 14 If yes, how much important? [ ] very important [ ] important [ ] fairly important 15 If possible, please state the reason: 16 In your opinion, what teachers should to help our students improve their summarizing skills? 17 If possible, please state the reason: 93 … …… THANKS AGAIN 94 REFERENCES Alexander, L G (1965) A First Book in Comprehension, Précis and Composition Longman Group Limited London Alexander, L G (1967) Practice and Progress Longman Group Limited London Alexander, L G (1967) Developing Skills Longman Group Limited London Bhatia, V K (1993) Analysing Genre: Language use in Professional Settings Addison Wesley Longman Blass, L & Durighello, J (1985) From Concept to Composition Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Halls Regents Brown, D.H (1994) Teaching by Principles An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Halls Regents Byrne, D (1988) Teaching Writing Skills Longman Cambourne, B (1988) The Whole Story: Natural Learning and the Acquisition of Literacy in the Classroom New York, NY: Aston-Scholastic Celce-Murcia & Olshtain, E (2000) Discourse and Context in Language Teaching CUP Cleary, L.M & Linn, M.D (1993) Linguistics for Teachers Singapore: McGraw Hill Davies, P (2000) Success in English Teaching OUP Gay, L R., & Airasiam, P (2000) Educational Research: Competencies for Analysis and Application (6th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Harp, B (1991) Assessment and Evaluation in Whole Language Programs Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon Jackson, N R., & Pillow, P L (1992) The Reading-Writing Workshop: Getting Started New York: Scholastic Langan, J (1996) College Writing Skills The McGrawHill Companies, Inc Leki, I (1988) Academic Writing Knoxoill: CUP Leki, I (1992) Understanding ESL Writers – A Guide for Teachers Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook Publishers 95 Marzano, R J et al (2001) A Handbook for Classroom Instruction That Works Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development McCormick, L C (1986) The Art of Teaching Writing Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann Meagher, D (1997) Handbook for Critical Reading Harcourt Brace & Company, USA Nunan, D (1991) Language Teaching Methodology A Textbook for Teachers Prentice Hall International ELT Nunan, D (1999) Second Language Teaching & Learning Heinle & Heinle Publishers Boston, Massachusetts, USA Omaggio, A.C.(1986) Teaching Language in Context Heinle & Heinle Publishers, Inc Raime, A (1983) Techniques in Teaching Writing OUP Reid, J.M (1994) The Process of Paragraph Writing Prentice Halls Regents Rentz, M.D (1992) Authentic Readings for Writers Prentice Halls Regents Rosenberg, V.M (1989) Reading, Writing, and Thinking Critical Connections NY: Random House Shib, M (1986) Context-based approaches to teaching academic writing TESOL Quarterly, 20(4), 617 – 648 Skinner, B (1957) Verbal Behavior New York: Appleton Century Crofts Spradley, J P (1980) Participant Observation New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Trible, C (1996) Writing Oxford: OUP Ur, Penny (1996) A Course in English Teaching CUP 96 APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE TO STUDENTS To my dear students, In order to collect necessary information for a research, I would like you, students at HCMC University of Technology, to help me with this questionnaire Please read the questions and then fill in the box with a cross for each of your choice or write down the required information in the gaps Your responses will help to determine proper techniques for enhancing students’ summarizing skills Thank you very much for your help Research questions: What’s your name? What’s your age? Gender? [ ] male [ ] female Before entering this university and fishing your first year here, did you ? [ ] study English years at high school [ ] study English years at high school [ ] finish level A of English at a foreign language center [ ] finish level B of English at a foreign language center [ ] never study English before If you have been studying English for at least years, please answer this question: Which of the following skills you find the most difficult to obtain? [ ] listening [ ] speaking [ ] reading [ ] writing And which of the following skills you think the most important in your academic setting? [ ] listening [ ] speaking [ ] reading [ ] writing What have you learned before enrolling in this Thesis Writing course? [ ] grammar in general, such as verb tenses, passive voice, conditionals, etc [ ] sentence basic sentence patterns [ ] sentence writing [ ] paragraph writing [ ] summarizing How well did you summarizing before taking this course? [ ] very successfully [ ] successfully [ ] fairly successfully [ ] not successfully 97 How much you practice writing at home? [ ] much (more than hs/w) [ ] rather much (3 – hs/w) [ ] not very much (2 – hs/w) [ ] little (1 – hs/w) [ ] very little (fewer than h/w) [ ] not at all 10 How much you read in English? [ ] much (more than hs/w) [ ] not very much (2 – hs/w) [ ] very little (fewer than h/w) [ ] rather much (3 – hs/w) [ ] little (1 – hs/w) [ ] not at all 11 Before studying in this course, did you think summarizing skills were important? [ ] Yes [ ] No 12 If yes, how much important? [ ] very important [ ] fairly important [ ] important [ ] not very important 13 After the course, you think summarizing skills are important? [ ] Yes [ ] No 14 If yes, how much important? [ ] very important [ ] fairly important [ ] important [ ] not very important 15 How you with summary writing now? [ ] very successfully [ ] successfully [ ] fairly successfully [ ] not successfully 16 What you suggest to improve your summarizing skills? (Please state clearly and if possible, give the reason) Reason: THANKS AGAIN 98 APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE TO TEACHERS To my dear colleagues, The purpose of this questionnaire is to collect necessary information for a research on the difficulties our students might have with their summary writing and to elicit your opinions on how to improve this kind of writing Your responses will help to determine proper techniques that will help to apply in our university Please read the questions and tick the box of your choice or write down your response where necessary Thank you for your co-operations Personal Information Your name: Your age: Gender: [ ] male [ ] female Research questions How long have you been teaching English? For years Your degree: [ ] BA of English [ ] diploma of English [ ] working on my MA degree of TESOL [ ] MA of TESOL [ ] working on my Doctor degree of English [ ] Ph D of English In your opinion, which skill is the most successful for our students to achieve in general? [ ] listening [ ] speaking [ ] reading [ ] writing If possible, please state the reason why it is the most successful Which skill you think is the most difficult for our students to obtain? [ ] listening [ ] speaking [ ] reading [ ] writing If possible, please state the reason why it is the most difficult 99 10 Which skills are you teaching now? [ ] listening [ ] speaking [ ] reading 11 How often you teach summarizing? [ ] every course [ ] usually [ ] sometimes [ ] writing [ ] never 12 If you are teaching summarizing to students now, how well you think your students it? [ ] very successfully [ ] successfully [ ] fairly successfully [ ] not successfully 13 Do you think summarizing skills are important to our students? [ ] Yes [ ] No 14 If yes, how much important? [ ] very important [ ] important [ ] fairly important 15 If possible, please state the reason: 16 In your opinion, what teachers should to help our students improve their summarizing skills? 17 If possible, please state the reason: THANKS AGAIN 100 REFERENCES Alexander, L G (1965) A First Book in Comprehension, Précis and Composition Longman Group Limited London Alexander, L G (1967) Practice and Progress Longman Group Limited London Alexander, L G (1967) Developing Skills Longman Group Limited London Bhatia, V K (1993) Analysing Genre: Language use in Professional Settings Addison Wesley Longman Blass, L & Durighello, J (1985) From Concept to Composition Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Halls Regents Brown, D.H (1994) Teaching by Principles An Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Halls Regents Byrne, D (1988) Teaching Writing Skills Longman Cambourne, B (1988) The Whole Story: Natural Learning and the Acquisition of Literacy in the Classroom New York, NY: Aston-Scholastic Celce-Murcia & Olshtain, E (2000) Discourse and Context in Language Teaching CUP Cleary, L.M & Linn, M.D (1993) Linguistics for Teachers Singapore: McGraw Hill Davies, P (2000) Success in English Teaching OUP Gay, L R., & Airasiam, P (2000) Educational Research: Competencies for Analysis and Application (6th ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Harp, B (1991) Assessment and Evaluation in Whole Language Programs Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon Jackson, N R., & Pillow, P L (1992) The Reading-Writing Workshop: Getting Started New York: Scholastic Langan, J (1996) College Writing Skills The McGrawHill Companies, Inc Leki, I (1988) Academic Writing Knoxoill: CUP Leki, I (1992) Understanding ESL Writers – A Guide for Teachers Portsmouth: Boynton/Cook Publishers 101 Marzano, R J et al (2001) A Handbook for Classroom Instruction That Works Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development McCormick, L C (1986) The Art of Teaching Writing Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann Meagher, D (1997) Handbook for Critical Reading Harcourt Brace & Company, USA Nunan, D (1991) Language Teaching Methodology A Textbook for Teachers Prentice Hall International ELT Nunan, D (1999) Second Language Teaching & Learning Heinle & Heinle Publishers Boston, Massachusetts, USA Omaggio, A.C.(1986) Teaching Language in Context Heinle & Heinle Publishers, Inc Raime, A (1983) Techniques in Teaching Writing OUP Reid, J.M (1994) The Process of Paragraph Writing Prentice Halls Regents Rentz, M.D (1992) Authentic Readings for Writers Prentice Halls Regents Rosenberg, V.M (1989) Reading, Writing, and Thinking Critical Connections NY: Random House Shib, M (1986) Context-based approaches to teaching academic writing TESOL Quarterly, 20(4), 617 – 648 Skinner, B (1957) Verbal Behavior New York: Appleton Century Crofts Spradley, J P (1980) Participant Observation New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Trible, C (1996) Writing Oxford: OUP Ur, Penny (1996) A Course in English Teaching CUP 102 APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE TO STUDENTS To my dear students, In order to collect necessary information for a research, I would like you, students at HCMC University of Technology, to help me with this questionnaire Please read the questions and then fill in the box with a cross for each of your choice or write down the required information in the gaps Your responses will help to determine proper techniques for enhancing students’ summarizing skills Thank you very much for your help Research questions: What’s your name? What’s your age? Gender? [ ] male [ ] female Before entering this university and fishing your first year here, did you ? [ ] study English years at high school [ ] study English years at high school [ ] finish level A of English at a foreign language center [ ] finish level B of English at a foreign language center [ ] never study English before If you have been studying English for at least years, please answer this question: Which of the following skills you find the most difficult to obtain? [ ] listening [ ] speaking [ ] reading [ ] writing And which of the following skills you think the most important in your academic setting? [ ] listening [ ] speaking [ ] reading [ ] writing What have you learned before enrolling in this Thesis Writing course? [ ] grammar in general, such as verb tenses, passive voice, conditionals, etc [ ] sentence basic sentence patterns [ ] sentence writing [ ] paragraph writing [ ] summarizing How well did you summarizing before taking this course? [ ] very successfully [ ] successfully [ ] fairly successfully [ ] not successfully 103 How much you practice writing at home? [ ] much (more than hs/w) [ ] rather much (3 – hs/w) [ ] not very much (2 – hs/w) [ ] little (1 – hs/w) [ ] very little (fewer than h/w) [ ] not at all 10 How much you read in English? [ ] much (more than hs/w) [ ] not very much (2 – hs/w) [ ] very little (fewer than h/w) [ ] rather much (3 – hs/w) [ ] little (1 – hs/w) [ ] not at all 11 Before studying in this course, did you think summarizing skills were important? [ ] Yes [ ] No 12 If yes, how much important? [ ] very important [ ] fairly important [ ] important [ ] not very important 13 After the course, you think summarizing skills are important? [ ] Yes [ ] No 14 If yes, how much important? [ ] very important [ ] fairly important [ ] important [ ] not very important 15 How you with summary writing now? [ ] very successfully [ ] successfully [ ] fairly successfully [ ] not successfully 16 What you suggest to improve your summarizing skills? (Please state clearly and if possible, give the reason) Reason: THANKS AGAIN 104 APPENDIX QUESTIONNAIRE TO TEACHERS To my dear colleagues, The purpose of this questionnaire is to collect necessary information for a research on the difficulties our students might have with their summary writing and to elicit your opinions on how to improve this kind of writing Your responses will help to determine proper techniques that will help to apply in our university Please read the questions and tick the box of your choice or write down your response where necessary Thank you for your co-operations Personal Information Your name: Your age: Gender: [ ] male [ ] female Research questions How long have you been teaching English? For years Your degree: [ ] BA of English [ ] diploma of English [ ] working on my MA degree of TESOL [ ] MA of TESOL [ ] working on my Doctor degree of English [ ] Ph D of English In your opinion, which skill is the most successful for our students to achieve in general? [ ] listening [ ] speaking [ ] reading [ ] writing If possible, please state the reason why it is the most successful Which skill you think is the most difficult for our students to obtain? [ ] listening [ ] speaking [ ] reading [ ] writing If possible, please state the reason why it is the most difficult 105 10 Which skills are you teaching now? [ ] listening [ ] speaking [ ] reading 11 How often you teach summarizing? [ ] every course [ ] usually [ ] sometimes [ ] writing [ ] never 12 If you are teaching summarizing to students now, how well you think your students it? [ ] very successfully [ ] successfully [ ] fairly successfully [ ] not successfully 13 Do you think summarizing skills are important to our students? [ ] Yes [ ] No 14 If yes, how much important? [ ] very important [ ] important [ ] fairly important 15 If possible, please state the reason: 16 In your opinion, what teachers should to help our students improve their summarizing skills? 17 If possible, please state the reason: THANKS AGAIN 106