The Effect of Using the Summary Strategy on Improving Birzeit University EFL Students’ Reading Comprehension

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of using the summary strategy in developing reading and comprehension skills among students of English Language Communication  course (ENGC141) at Birzeit University. The study tools included a program that contained a summary strategy and a literacy test to measure the comprehension skills before and after the program, which lasted eight weeks. The quasi-experimental approach was used in this study. The study sample consisted of one experimental group that had 27 students and a control group of 32 students.  The pre-test was applied to the two study groups before the teaching of the program, which is based on the summary strategy, followed immediately by the post-test to measure the impact of the program in developing the understanding skills among the experimental group.  Both groups were taught by the same researcher to control the study variables. SPSS and t-test were used to analyze the quantitative results and to calculate the effect of the program. The results of the study showed statistically significant differences between the pre and post application, in favor of the experimental group.