The use of ICT to teach how to write summaries in English

Abstract

Writing a summary in English is a major challenge for students, especially at the high school level, since they can demonstrate their understanding of a text with it or use it as a basis for producing another type of discursive genre. However, the existing literature reveals that there are not many didactic proposals in this regard, so the present work aimed to evaluate a teaching strategy for writing a summary in English to high school students at an institution located in Central Mexico. This research was guided by the Design-Based Research methodology, and it incorporated a periodic design evaluation and redesign process, using the guidelines established by the Reciprocal Teaching Method and the use of digital resources. The results showed that the use of information and communication technologies and the implementation of writing workshops allowed students to learn to produce a summary in English clearly and concisely, which was evaluated through pre- and post-intervention tests that showed improvement mainly in two areas: communicative purpose and textual macrostructure. It is concluded that, to write a summary, it is necessary to understand the text to be summarized, so this linguistic skill should not be considered an isolated activity, but rather complemented with actions that promote its development.