The Effectiveness of Thinking Maps in Developing Secondary Students' listening Comprehension

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating the impact of implementing Thinking Maps in teaching listening comprehension to secondary students. A group of 50 secondary stage students were selected from one of Cairo language schools. The quasi-experimental design called the non-equivalent group design was employed in the present study where two intact classes were randomly selected to represent both groups. The experimental group received training through the proposed Thinking Maps strategy. The control group received regular listening comprehension instruction. A pre/post listening comprehension test was given to the two groups before and after the treatment. The results of the t-tests proved to be statistically consistent with the hypotheses. The results revealed that the experimental group outperformed the control group in the listening comprehension skills. Implementing Thinking Maps changed the classroom from a place where listening comprehension was taught to one where opportunities to think broadly and flexibly away from the constraints of their minds were provided. This proved that Thinking Maps not only developed participants' listening comprehension skill, but also raised their visual awareness