The Influence of Concept Mapping on Reading Comprehension of Iranian English Students Employing Persuasive and Descriptive Texts

Abstract

Abstract-Reading is considered as one of the complex skills in EFL context. Comprehension is the understanding of what is read. To be able to understand written material, learners need to use congenial strategies and have sufficient vocabulary. The present study intended to investigate the influence of concept mapping on reading comprehension of EFL learners employing persuasive and descriptive texts. A language proficiency test was administered to 70 EFL learners, among whom 52 learners were selected as the participants of the study. They were randomly assigned in four groups: two control groups and two experimental groups. Before any instruction the researcher administered a pre-test. Then, learners in two experimental groups received treatment of concept mapping as reading comprehension texts while learners in two control groups received no treatment of concept mapping. The results of pre test and posttest were analyzed by SPSS soft-ware using one way ANOVA statistical procedure. After analyzing the post-test scores, the results indicated that the learners in two experimental groups outperformed the learners in two control groups in reading comprehension. This study also showed that semantic mapping has different effect across types of texts. Learners who received persuasive text performed well than who received descriptive text.

Relationship Between Convergent-Divergent Thinking Characters and Mind Map

“…Later on, the development of Feurstein's assessment model becomes a pretest-learning-transfer-post-test. Ding (in Beydarani, 2015) arranged a standardized assignment that mediates the pretest and the post-test. The standardized assignment is used because it can be developed easily for various material subjects; it is then referred to as the dynamic assignment model.…”

“…The standardized assignment is used because it can be developed easily for various material subjects; it is then referred to as the dynamic assignment model. Xu (in Beydarani, 2015) observes a continuous standardized and non-standardized assignment can anticipate problems in learning that ultimately improve the learning ability of the learners.…”

“…Budoff in Beydarani (2015) propose a potential learning assessment model through test-derivation-test to assess learner's mental ability. Furthermore, Feurstein in Beydarani (2015) develops it by presenting a potential learning assessment tools through pretest-mediation-post-test.…”

“…Furthermore, Feurstein in Beydarani (2015) develops it by presenting a potential learning assessment tools through pretest-mediation-post-test. Later on, the development of Feurstein's assessment model becomes a pretest-learning-transfer-post-test.…”

“…The standardized assignment is used because it can be developed easily for various material subjects; it is then referred to as the dynamic assignment model. Xu (in Beydarani, 2015) assignment can anticipate problems in learning that ultimately improve the learning ability of the learners. Furthermore, Ku, Shih, and Hung (2014) offer a mind map model in three groups: describes accounting classifications, principles of debits and credits, and third, journalizing.…”