Summary Discussion and
Writing
The reading of original and unabridged articles in newspapers and
magazines is advantageous as it both gives the precious opportunity to learn new and handy
vocabulary, and stimulates a lot of discussion if students are persistently challenged to
speak on a topic. The ultimate aim of such work can be a well-developed summary that helps
effectively deal with new information and supplies numerous themes for oral tasks that are
necessary for producing fluent speakers.
The right choice of articles is important for the students’ ability
to cope with them, and it’s evident that the most acceptable will be the most newsworthy
stories. These will probably be features about pop and rock bands, performers popular
among the students, local news, and anything that will be interesting to the learners. A
good thing to start with may be to ask students to choose an article to work on
themselves, as it is painful to study a subject that is completely new.
Some words and abbreviations which are crucial for understanding the
text need to be written on one half of the blackboard and translated or defined
beforehand, leaving detailed translation for home. While scanning the story in order to
grasp its general idea, the students are asked to underline or highlight new words, and
also make a mark in the margin each time they come across the name of a person,
organization, or country – it will later help to find these details for the discussion
following. When they are through with this reading exercise, the first speaking task will
be to elicit all background information about the source with the focus on validity.
Here we can turn their attention to what is known about the source
(newspaper/magazine): a) whether the students know anything about it, or might have
heard about it, or read it sometimes, even the grade of the newsprint may be of some use;
b) the issue: recent or outdated, if so why it’s still important; c) the
author: whether he/she is an editor/columnist, etc., works for some other paper, their
nationality/sex and possible prejudices connected with it, and even describing the
author’s appearance can be suggested here as a rather fun activity.
It should be noted that the article is to be regarded as a support for
the speaking task. That means that the students, while being questioned, should be
encouraged to answer while looking up at the teacher rather than reading out of the text.
The result of the discussion will be the very first sentence of the
summary, e.g. An article “Freedom of Faith for All” by Lawrence Uzzell, a freelance
writer (specializing in religious freedom in the former Soviet Union), appeared in “The
Moscow Times” on June 5, 2003.
The reason for the article is another step: it’s important to pay
attention to what triggered the writing. This can be done while answering questions like What
has happened? Who participated? When and Where?
The results or consequences of the occasion also can be discussed and noted. Thus we
formulate another line of the summary, giving information about the event that caused the
feature.
The next part in this routine is to make a summary of every paragraph
in a few words and verify the students can discern between fact, opinion, or the
author’s attitude towards the event described. The writer’s view is usually shown in
the choice of stylistically coloured words, especially attributes, and is clearly
understood from the context. It is not that easy to separate plain facts from opinions,
but such analysis is usually not relevant. The home assignment, correspondingly, will be
to summarize each paragraph of the article in the same way. Besides, the students may be
given the task to write down questions to the sentences with new words, so that the answer
should be the word itself. This helps students concentrate on the context of the word.
The words that have been written on the board are for the students to
remember, and any game for learning new vocabulary is welcome at this stage. In Memorizing
Words (P. Ur & A. Wright) the class is asked to pick one of
the new words and to suggest an English word they know which it reminds them of in some
way. This ‘reminding word’ should be written on the other side of the board. Having
written the ‘reminding word’, the new word is erased. Do this with each of the new
words until they have all been replaced by ‘reminding words’. Now ask the students
what each ‘reminding word’ was linked to. Write in the new words again and erase the
‘reminding words’. This effective and relaxing activity rounds off the first stage of
working on the summary.
Another game of the same type, “Brainstorm round a word”, can be
used at the beginning of the next lesson. Give a student a word that has recently been
learnt, and ask him/her to suggest all the words associated with it. Write each suggestion
on the board with a line joining to the original word, in a circle, so that you should get
a ‘sunray’ effect, and elicit the original word from the class. Such exercise is
indispensable for the task of teaching students how to explain the meaning of new words;
it creates further evocative paths, and also reviews and enriches students’ vocabulary.
The main body of the summary consists of the key points the students
have identified while summarizing each paragraph of the article. Any discrepancies in
their statements serve as a basis for discussion and reasoning. While doing that, the
students speak about the people, places, and countries mentioned in the story. For
example, those who have been to the cities/countries can tell something interesting about
them or share their experiences. As for organizations, their aims can be noted, as well as
their roles and influence. Each time the previously marked names arise for discussion, the
students tell what general statements these particular examples support. The context in
which they are used or information about them in other parts of the article can also help
develop the students, or probe the author’s opinion of the person/organization/event in
question.
If we divide the story into much larger parts, it may become evident
that some parts of the text are irrelevant. So, in the end, while going through the
summary again, it’s advisable to see if there are any statements which go together, or
if there are some ways of combining the points into one statement, or the order of
statements should be changed.
As a result of this task the students should first visualize and
understand the most precise layout of the summary and, second, be able to agree upon the
message. The aims of the article can be to inform the reader; to influence his opinion; to
convince or persuade him of something; to provide a lingering influence on his mind and
feelings; or to entertain. If the students have encountered such kind of writing for the
first time, it may be useful to remind them of any special vocabulary: features are
special stories or articles; editorials are articles expressing opinion; the
detailed examination of an idea or event is analysis; while the feature story of
the day or the most newsworthy is the lead story, etc. Whether the author has
achieved his aim should be discussed, and some points in what students agree or disagree
with regarding the message of the feature.
It may be very useful to make the students learn the summary they’ve
done because in this way words and phrases are remembered in the most desirable way, in
their context, and within collocation and prepositional patterns. Here also arises the
matter of fluency. A native Englishman speakes quickly, pronouncing 220 words per minute
on the average, compared with the 180 words of a Russian. So it requires special training
for a Russian-speaker to learn to discern such fast speech, and to achieve almost the same
speed while speaking. The demands on the fluency of the students depend on the level of
the class, but what should be borne in mind is that a radio announcer would present their
summary (10–12 long sentences, ~ 220 words) in a minute, not more, and this could be
taken as a desirable standard.
The new words that have been learnt may then be arranged in a small
crossword using definitions from an English-English dictionary, copied and given to the
students to work with on their own, while the rest of the group is engaged in some other
activity. Any word games including “jumbled words”, “matching the adjectives”, and
the like, serve the same purpose: to make the students revise something related to the
topic. The stress on learning new words should be placed according to the aim of studies,
as newspaper style differs greatly from what is used in everyday life.
In short, summary making takes five steps:
1. Vocabulary Study
2. Source Identifying
3. Event Defining
4. Paragraph Summarizing
5. Message Discussion
By Olga Mishchenko,
Moscow,
School No. 1304
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