Effectiveness of the Use of Graphic Organizers and Summaries: A Case Study of Adult EFL Students in a Reading Comprehension Course

Abstract

This study is aimed at providing an answer to the question of how the use of partially-completed graphic organizers and summaries can help students get the gist of different texts. The review of the literature makes reference to the benefits of using graphic organizers and summaries to understand the gist of texts. The information gathered supports the premise that graphic organizers should be used as a while-reading strategy while summaries should be used as a post-reading strategy. Summaries are helpful for readers to show real comprehension of texts as well as for teachers to evaluate their students’ understanding of the main ideas of different readings. Additionally, the results show that students value the advantages of using both strategies to read texts in English.