How do Concept-Maps Function for Reading Comprehension Improvement of Iranian Advanced EFL Learners of Both Genders?

Mohammad Saber Khaghaninejad,Mansour Arefinejad

doi:10.5539/elt.v8n7p174

Abstract

This study was an attempt to examine the effect of concept mapping on reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. Pretest-posttest design was employed to scrutinize the possible improvement of the study’s participants who were male and female learners whose ages ranged from 19 to 40 and had taken general English courses at Islamic Azad University of Kharg. Two groups (one experimental and one control group) were exposed to the same reading comprehension test as the pre-and post-test, however, only the experimental group received the special treatment of concept mapping techniques for different texts during the treatment. After the application of the study’s treatment, data analysis procedure initiated which indicated that experimental group who received explicit concept mapping instruction had a better performance than the control group on the final reading comprehension test. In addition, the findings shows that students who used this strategy during the seven-week treatment had better results on comprehension reading test and could understand the reading passages better. The findings imply that concept maps can positively affect the reading comprehension ability of Iranian advanced EFL learners. It was also revealed that female learners were superior at employing concept-maps in comparison with their male peers.

Highlights

The importance of reading becomes yet more recognizable when it comes to reading in a second or foreign language and for academic purposes or in an academic context (Day & Bamford, 2002; Eskey, 2005; Grabe, 2004)
Two groups were exposed to the same reading comprehension test as the pre-and post-test, only the experimental group received the special treatment of concept mapping techniques for different texts during the treatment
After the application of the study’s treatment, data analysis procedure initiated which indicated that experimental group who received explicit concept mapping instruction had a better performance than the control group on the final reading comprehension test

Summary

Introduction

The importance of reading becomes yet more recognizable when it comes to reading in a second or foreign language and for academic purposes or in an academic context (Day & Bamford, 2002; Eskey, 2005; Grabe, 2004). In spite of the importance and complexity of reading, it is sometimes erroneously viewed just as a passive process of reconstructing the author’s intended meaning that is transmitted through language (Nunan, 2000). Rejecting such a perspective toward reading as a single skill that relies on a unitary cognitive process, current views of reading development hold it as a progressive attached sequence of variables that moves from the visual symbol recognition to the text comprehension (e.g., Khodadady & Khaghaninejad, 2012; Kremer, 2005). What can be extracted from the Ausible’s (1968) meaningful learning is the type of organized learning in which the existing knowledge should be joined to the upcoming knowledge; Concept maps embody meaningful learning in the best way possible in that they organize the new knowledge in the systematized way ready to enter the working memory (Miller, 2006). Burdumy (2006) and Zmach et al (2007) tried to explore and introduce the most promising reading comprehension strategies and explicated the positive influence and undeniable role of graphic representations in EFL/ESL learning process

Results

Discussion

Conclusion