Students' Learning Processes and Outcomes through Text Summary as a Reading Strategy

This study examined college students’ learning processes and outcomes by collecting their feedback on the process of creating text summaries. The data were collected by conducting surveys, in which all questions were open-ended. The students’ written products and graphic organizers were also collected. The data were analyzed through content analysis (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). The results show that the students considered summary as a potential vehicle for multiple purposes: including understanding a whole text, self-testing their understanding of a text, practicing content organization, improving their writing skills, and identifying the most important information. The students used several strategies for an effective summary, among them, the use of graphic organizers was the most popular method. They revealed that the skills of reading and writing are interrelated, meaning that their thinking processes unified their reading and writing processes. The students had difficulty in delivering appropriate grammar and vocabulary, and their written information was acted as multiple functions, such as guidance of future teaching, suggestions for improvement in reading and writing, and self-testing on their own language abilities. The students conveyed their positive experiences about text summary such as, building confidence in writing, feeling a sense of accomplishment, and helping their long-term memory.