The effect of summarization strategies teaching on strategy usage and narrative text summarization success

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of summarization strategies teaching on usage of summarization strategies and narrative text summarization success. The study was carried out in a single-group pre-test-post-test model without a control group. 35 Turkish teacher candidates participated in the study. Data was collected with Strategies for Text Summarization questionnaire, 140 summary texts which were written by teacher candidates and Text Summary Evaluation Rubric to evaluate these summaries. The experimental process of the study lasted five weeks. As a result of the analysis made, an increase in the usage of summarization strategies and a significant difference in favor of post-test in summarization success were observed. Summarization strategies whereby the most positive change is seen are "determining the main idea, starting the first sentence with an introduction sentence that expresses the subject of the main text, summarizing in accordance with subject or event order and time consistency, expressing the main idea of text in the final sentence of summary, and paying attention to the distinction between the author and the summarizer in the style of the summary text". Summarization is an indication of level of reading comprehension. For this reason, teaching of summarization strategies should be included in reading studies at all levels.