Investigating poor summary writing skills among second year students of Sefwi Bekwai senior high school

Abstract

Fundamentally, summary writing entails the shortening of a text based on the main and secondary ideas in the text and subsequent restatement by the reader. It has been regarded as an all-involving task that involves the interplay of two abilities, namely, the ability to comprehend the main ideas and schematic organization of a text and the ability to compose a concise and coherent re-wording of the author's ideas. The overwhelming importance of summary writing has made it a key component in the Core English paper in the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations. Despite the importance of this skill, textbooks generally provide a cursory treatment of this concept. Summarization undeniably is a difficult skill for many Senior High School students. Summary writing has over the years proven to be a major cause of failure in core English Language paper at the West African Senior School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE). Therefore, there was the need to identify the forms of challenges that students in the study area encounter when undertaking a summary task. It is for this important reason that this study sought to unravel the challenges confronting final year students of Sefwi Bekwai Senior High School in the Bibiani Anhwiaso-Bekwai Municipality of Ghana in executing summary tasks.The qualitative research design was used for the study. Random sampling technique was used to select 50 final year students in Sefwi Bekwai SHS and total sampling method to recruit all five teachers in the department of English. Two sets of questionnaires were used to elicit responses from the teachers and the students. All recruited students were given a passage in English and were thereafter tasked to summarize the passage based on some pre -determined questions. The scripts were marked by experts. The marked scripts of the students were analyzed to identify and extract the challenges the students faced. Data collected were analyzed using SPSS version 24.The challenges faced by students in summary writing are due to lack of effective instruction on the processes of producing a summary, lack of comprehension skills and vocabulary among students and poor reading habits among students.