Abstract
This exploratory small-scale study investigates EFL learners' ability to read in a foreign ianguage, particularly their main idea identification and text summarization skills as products of their reading comprehension processes. Four pre-intermediate students, classified as good and poor language learners, participated in the study. Learners were asked to read a text; select its main idea(s) based on a list of options provided and then, write a summary of the main points addressed in the text. Results suggest that poor and good language learners did differ in what they consider important in a text and that level of proficiency appears to influence learners' ability to select and summarize important information. DOI: 10.28998/0103-6858.2007v1n39p199-222
Highlights
Over the last few years,a discussion on the ability of reading and its importance to the mastering of the language as well as to the possibility of having access to the right information has been raised
According to Gagné, Yekovich and Yekovich(1993),reading plays an essential role in our society, since being functionally literate does not guarantee a social survival anymore.In other words, being able just to sign one's own name,read traffic signs or buses' labels does not make a person a skilled reader, nor gives him/her the necessary conditions to deal with reading skills needed in day-to-day life
From a cognitive/psychological perspective, a skilled reader has been conceived as being capable of recognizing printed signsand creating a mental representation ofthese signsin his/her mind.After selecting the most appropriate mental representation to fit a certain context, the reader still needs to be able to integrate, summarize and/
Summary
Over the last few years,a discussion on the ability of reading and its importance to the mastering of the language as well as to the possibility of having access to the right information has been raised. From a cognitive/psychological perspective, a skilled reader has been conceived as being capable of recognizing printed signs (letters or words)and creating a mental representation ofthese signsin his/her mind.After selecting the most appropriate mental representation to fit a certain context (i.e. lexical access and parsing), the reader still needs to be able to integrate, summarize and/. Elaborate on pieces of information in order to get a picture ofwhatis being read.,during or after the process ofreading,a skilled reader issupposed to check if comprehension really took place (comprehension monitoring)(GAGNÉ,YEKOVICH &YEKOVICH,1993; JUST & CARPENTER. Chis paper builds upon research investigating the relationship between readers' capacity to identify mam ideas and usingthem as product ofreading comprehension by means of text summarization. INÜIV1DUAJ.DIFFERGNCES IN PMIN IDEA IDENTlFlWnON ANOTEXT SUMMARlZATlOiN IN EFL READING COiVlPREHO>lSK)N:AN EXPLORATORYSHIDY
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