Relationships between Three Summary Question Types, Reading Comprehension, and Writing Expression for Japanese High School Students

Abstract

This study explores the relationships between reading a passage and writing a summary. Summary writing has two processes: (1) reading comprehension of texts and (2) writing a summary following the instructions in the question. There are three types of summary questions for Japanese learners: (1) reading an English passage and writing a summary in Japanese (EJ type), (2) reading a Japanese passage and writing a summary in English (JE type), and (3) reading an English passage and writing a summary in English (EE type). This study investigates how these summary question types affect Japanese learners in writing a summary. 51 Japanese high school students participated. First, they all took a common reading comprehension test and were then randomly divided into three groups of 17 students each (Group A, B, and C). Group A, B, C took EJ, JE, and EE type summary questions, respectively. The scoring rate of the common reading comprehension test was 89.69%, indicating all the participants’ reading comprehension was generally good. However, the results of summary questions were different. The scoring rate was 46.47%, 40.00%, and 20.00% for EJ, JE, and EE, respectively. These results revealed there was still a significant gap between reading comprehension and writing a summary.