As paraphrase is an important method of understanding a readable or written text, the main concern of this paper is testing and assessing the use of this method by advanced learners. The paper is following Kissner's (2006:6) definition of paraphrase as restating ideas from a text in a new way: “when students are admonished to put things in their own words, when taking notes, they are actually being told to paraphrase”. To achieve the objectives of this study, twenty advanced learners (Egyptian students at the preliminary year for, Master degree, at Banha University) are asked to paraphrase Obama's Speech at Cairo University (2009). The aim is to develop an idea of candidates' consciousness and control over their learning practice. As Kellog (1995) explains, understanding is translating another conceptual system into a form which can be fitted in one's own broad scheme of things. This process is similar to translating a foreign language into one's own. In fact, paraphrasing an English text is important for translating those texts into Arabic because, as Uemlianin (2000:347) states “translation shares some common features with paraphrase, translation between languages often includes a kind of silent paraphrase”.Therefore, this paper is designed to test students understanding of the English text and to show their ability to give its equivalent English paraphrase, but in the students’own words. In other words, the exercise is an attempt to design assessment and feedback procedures which are important for teaching English as a second language. Paraphrase is a fruitful method in teaching essay courses, which are considered to be the base for other courses in the departments of English. |
