Summarizing strategy: Potential tool to promote English as a foreign language students' reading comprehension in a vocational school, Vietnam

Abstract

This paper reports a study which examines how students perceived the effects of the implementation of the summarizing strategy on English as a foreign language (EFL) reading comprehension classes. Using a descriptive design, a survey and interviews were undertaken with students who were learning English at a vocational school of law at a province in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. The findings indicated how students recognized the role of the summarizing strategy although there were some problems they had to encounter while reading, namely vocabulary and grammar. The findings of this study give rise to pedagogical implications for teachers with regard to designing timely and effective techniques for optimizing students' text comprehension ability over time.