Using semantic mapping as a strategy to facilitate reading comprehension

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42f, 00917 MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

USING SEMANTIC MAPPING AS A STRATEGY TO FACILITATE READING COMPREHENSION

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that this thesis entitled “Using semantic mapping as a strategy to facilitate reading comprehension” is my own work

Except where reference is made in the text of the thesis, this thesis does not contain material published elsewhere or extracted in whole or in part from a thesis by which I have qualified for or been awarded another degree or diploma

No other person’s work has been used without due acknowledgement in the text

of the thesis

This thesis has not been submitted for any degree in any other tertiary institution

Ho Chi Minh City, 2012

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Without the support, assistance, and encouragement, given to me by the following people, this thesis would not have been completed Therefore, I would like to express my special thanks to them

First of all, I am especially grateful to my supervisor, Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Thanh Tung, a Vice-Dean of the Department of English at Ho Chi Minh City University of Education I always have in mind his continuing support, encouragement, intellectual advice, and generosity

My special thanks also go to my students of Class GDTH-K37 at Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, who participated in my research, especially twelve students of both Class HOA-K37 and Class TIN-K37, who took part in my pilot-test, and my colleagues, who enthusiastically shared many of their thoughts and comments throughout the completion of this thesis

I sincerely appreciate the thoughtful concern and continuing support from my classmates of MA in TESOL 3 at Ho Chi Minh City Open University

Last but not least, I would like to thank my family and friends for their love and great support

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ABSTRACT

In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for a workforce with English proficiency in Vietnam However, many students still have to struggle with learning reading in English due to the lack of strategy training Thus, this research attempts to investigate the extent to which the semantic mapping strategy can be applied in reading instructions to boost students’ reading comprehension

The experimental research was carried out during the second semester study Sixty-eight non-English major freshmen studying Primary Education at Ho Chi Minh City University of Education were divided into two groups: control and experiment The data to find the answers to the research questions were collected from two sources: two tests, namely a pre-test and a post-test, to measure the change in students’ reading ability before and after the treatment, and a questionnaire to examine their attitudes towards the use of semantic mapping in learning reading comprehension in a reading classroom

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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2.2.2 Concepf mappIng - - -‹- - c1 133111 111513 15255111 errke 8 2.3 The use of the semantic mapping strategy in reading comprehension 10 2.3.1 BrainsfOrmIng «c1 nu ng ng 10 2.3.2 Increasing knowledge via the construction of a semantic map 13 0.3.3: T01 SHN HIẾTIEBHON sacs cos ccacisvesccovernsee raorncemnensnetsennesrnccnerannreress 16 2.3.4 Active learning through interaction and communication 19 2.3.5 Meaningful learming 0 cece ceeeeeseeeeseeceneeeeeeeceeaeeseeeeeneeeeeeenaeeees 21 2.3.6.The semantic mapping process used in teaching reading comprehension

88 ĐPt TDIEEESE XE (BH sessusessaosuoonkiieBiiskbBdiksbg) begg0Ie085I-012194000140000605/242 23 2.4 The application of the semantic mapping strategy for the teaching of reading

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2.4.1 Pre-reading activities 0.0.0 ccsseeesessessseeseteeeeeetscseceseestesestseneesenenees 24 2.4.1.1 Iiroducing The EOBÍO cáccc-ceiiiiiaeneeeieoiairsaesesssskaliiaS2E636) mơ 2.4.1.2 Brainstorming -e-ci0161626641462010132/0400648238, 25 2.4.1.3 Organizing ideas or cOnC€pfS .- <-<<<eeee- 26 2 37 MHIIO-rending RGHVIHES seeseeesaeosoasssdbiseneseikekieaeeeeseoangfujg2/)5104/90% 26 2.4.3 Post-reading activities: .-csssssesscsssasssonsenensntansnsansansiensnavesseans 28 2.5 Empirical research on the effectiveness of semantic mapping in reading

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4.1.1.2 The experimental ørOup : -=++e++trtretettetet 49 4.1.1.3 A comparison of the control and experimental groups 51 A.1.1.4 SUMMALY .c:scsccscoscerosnsansosneanissereeseneaqareeoneerssssosvessssaasaaess 53 4.1.2 Post-test resuÏ(s «5S ng 1 nh 54 4.1.2.1 The control group .sssssossssrsesseseeessenssenrssersseesseenesesenesens 54 4.1.2.2 The experimentaÌ group . - -=essssse+ 56 4.1.2.3 A comparison of control and experimenftal øroups 58 4.1.2.4 Summary .- - 55+ 9h 0101110 60 4.1.3 QuestiOnnAIT€ - 5 + +33 nh 0 tr 60

4.1.3.1 Students’ self-evaluation on reading comprehension and

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4.2.2.2.1 Students’ self-evaluation of their reading comprehension arid readinig SKINS c ccssscsaceccseeosesseerantnnvscenmeerensenseness 68 4.2.2.2.2 Students’ feelings towards the use of semantic mapping

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.2.1 A word map for “OlympICS” -+-sseseeerererereree 8 Figure 2.2.2.1 A sample of a pfODOSIfÏON - -++++c+seeererererereree 9 Figure 2.2.2.2 A concept map for “Landmark” . -=e+e++++++ » Figure 2.4.2.1 A word map for “Muslim Carpets” -+-+: 14 Figure 2.4.2.2 A student”s concept map for “PlantS” -+++-++x+x++ 15 Figure 2.4.3 Reading and summarizing processes, strategies linked by concept

PHIDDS -.900nnesennscrscsoicnvencusisnnenscsssusarannceresnsuereneysseereanenetcsseqsnerenereaars 17 Figure 2.3.5 The use of semantic mapping in reading comprehension 24

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Table 3.2 Table 3.3 Table 3.4.1 Table 3.4.2 Table 3.5 Table 4.1.1.1.1 Table 4.1.1.1.2 Table 4.1.1.2.1 Table 4.1.1.2.2 Table 4.1.1.3.1 Table 4.1.1.3.2 Table 4.1.2.1.1 Table 4.1.2.1.2 Table 4.1.2.2.1 Table 4.1.2.2.2 Table 4.1.2.3.1 Table 4.1.2.3.2 Table 4.1.3 Table 4.1.3.1 Table 4.1.3.2 LIST OF TABLES Numbers of students attending module 2 in the English program 33 Participants” characteristiCS - -+-es+ 34 A set of selected rending †eXÍS .ceeeseeeiesreeeeeee 36 TOEFL sources for the selected reading passages in the tests 37 Schedule for the main stages of the research 41 Descriptive statistics of the pre-test scores for the control group 47 Frequency distribution of the pre-test scores for the control group 48 Descriptive statistics of the pre-test scores for the experimental

Independent samples t-test for the pre-test scOres a3 Descriptive statistics of the post-test scores for the control group 54 Frequency distribution of the post-test scores for the control

Independent samples t-test for the posf-test sCOr€s 39 The result from the Internal consistency Cronbach’s alpha test 61 Students’ self-evaluation on their reading comprehension and

reading Skills .ccsecesesesessveeossesssseescctsceseseseesersnssnasnssessnens 62 Students’ attitudes towards the use of semantic mapping in

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Chart 4.1.1.1.1 Chart 4.1.1.1.2 Chart 4.1.1.2.1 Chart 4.1.1.2.2 Chart 4.1.1.3 Chart 4.1.2.1.1 Chart 4.1.2.1.2 Chart 4.1.2.2.1 Chart 4.1.2.2.2 Chart 4.1.2.3 LIST OF CHARTS

Distribution of the pre-test scores for the control group

80cotdiig to thrếo VAISS, ccs sssesescstecacnescissncarsaconcconaaeeneneeenerserenee 48 Q-Q plot of the pre-test scores for the control group .+ 49 Distribution of the pre-test scores for the experimental group

ACCOPdING tO the VALUES .W.cea.sccersscscewsasveensevernoneneneamrnenerrecwnes 50 Q-Q plot of the pre-test scores for the experimental group 51 Distribution of the pre-test scores for both groups according to

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Distribution of the post-test scores for the control group

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CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the study

Recently, English has been considered as a significant key for any Vietnamese people who want to pursue higher education, expand business or get promotion in their careers Therefore, every year more and more people in this country want to learn English and improve it

To achieve a good command of the language, students need to master four skills, namely reading, listening, speaking, and writing Among them, reading, a receptive skill, is a great source for language learning It involves students in interacting with the visual input of language and responding to texts Thanks to reading, they can get information, improve their language competence, such as vocabulary, structures or idioms, and even learn good models for writing In fact, reading plays an important role in enriching their general knowledge, assisting them with their studies as well as contributing to their professional

success in the future

Learning reading is a crucial part of learning English Nevertheless, nowadays Vietnamese students still encounter some obstacles to become successful readers “There remain a large number of students in Vietnam, who have to spend time struggling with the old problem of how to read effectively though they have a mastery of English vocabulary” (Le & Ly, 2011, p 1) Moreover, they “are not very confident in and sometimes get confused with their reading comprehension of English materials” although they spend much time improving their reading ability (Cuu, 2012, p 2) The current problem may be caused by certain factors but it is most likely that the lack of strategy training is a major cause

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difficulties, especially in grammar and vocabulary, when reading a text In addition, 68.8% of them believed in translating more than using strategies for reading comprehension The findings showed that the students were not active and successful readers More importantly, despite understanding and accepting the importance of practicing reading strategies, teachers had difficulties carrying out the pre-reading phase Additionally, translation was the only method used to explain new words and teach reading comprehension What is worse, the students’ reading comprehension had not been well-built and their reading skills had not been well-trained, either

As said by Nguyen (2009), there remain a number of teachers who maintain the traditional teaching method that relies almost entirely on strict teacher-centered methods, rote learning and translation They still take control of the class and emphasize decoding skills (i.e deciphering the meaning of individual lexical items in terms of a list of English words with the translation of each word into Vietnamese to achieve comprehension) In fact, they start a reading class by listing new words and their meanings on the board Then they provide time for students to read silently They also go around the class and explain some more words in Vietnamese if their students need help After that, they ask them to answer the questions that follow for the reading text and the class comes to an end This scenario clearly shows that the teachers “spend the time on reading to practice one skill, silent reading, and on what is believed to be comprehension questions” and that their practices on reading instruction are “far from teaching reading strategies” (Cuu, 2012, p 3) Students are neither taught nor provided with opportunities to practice reading strategies As a consequence, they are not aware of the utility value of applying the strategies Therefore, they are not encouraged to read They have little interest and enjoyment when learning English reading (Le & Ly, 2011) Hence students seem to be passive and unskilled readers and their reading learning cannot be

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To meet these challenges, students need to learn the knowledge about reading strategies that can help them know how to read effectively and reflect on reading as well More importantly, as far as reading strategies are concerned, experienced teachers and researchers suggest that students comprehend better when they reorganize information from the text by themselves in such a way that the information is categorically structured in a visual form It is felt that the activity of reorganizing can motivate students and involve them in the thinking- reading-writing process in which their prior knowledge is activated to link with and build on the new knowledge They can use their background knowledge to analyze and evaluate the text information through discussions in pairs or groups As a result, they can understand and remember the information without memorizing Semantic mapping is one of the teaching strategies for doing this

As such, semantic mapping activities focus on the aims to remind students of linguistic knowledge they learned and other types of background knowledge they experienced With repeated experiences of relevance in the classroom, students increase their interest, and their reasons for reading increasingly become enjoyment rather than external pressure It can be said that using the strategy in classroom encourages the powerful motivations for reading so that students can consistently read for their own interest and then be quite competent and are highly achieving readers

For the reasons above, the researcher of this study made a decision to attempt an investigation into semantic mapping

1.2 Statement of purpose

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1.3 Research questions

To achieve the research aim above, the two following research questions related to students’ ability on reading comprehension and attitude have been designed:

1 To what extent does semantic mapping affect students’ reading comprehension?

2 What are the students’ attitudes towards the use of semantic mapping in learning reading comprehension in a reading classroom?

1.4 Significance of the study

The study is to examine whether semantic mapping can facilitate reading comprehension If the research is successful, it will give both teachers and students great insights into how they can work out well in their reading teaching and learning processes with the aid of semantic mapping This strategy will not only help teachers enhance their teaching methodology but also improve students’ understanding in their reading of a text so that they can increase their ability in reading comprehension and equip themselves with another reading skill

1.5 Overview of thesis chapters

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findings in the light of the data already analyzed and interpreted earlier in the same chapter Chapter 5 gives main conclusions by explicitly answering the research questions, evaluates the whole process of doing research, suggests some recommendations for English language practitioners, and proposes some topics

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CHAPTER 2

SEMANTIC MAPPING: A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK The previous chapter presented the view of current reading teaching and learning as a mere process of decoding As a consequence, students still have difficulties in comprehension This chapter sets out the theoretical background of semantic mapping as a way to help them focus their attention on background knowledge in the reading process so that they can work out the meaning of a text Thus, this chapter includes five parts of definition, types, use, empirical research on the effectiveness in improving reading comprehension from some previous related studies, and implication for teaching reading comprehension

2.1 Definitions of semantic mapping

As introduced in Chapter 1, this study investigates the impacts of semantic mapping on reading comprehension Hence, the most important consideration is to understand what semantic mapping is

In their research, Johnson, Pittelman and Heimlich (1986, p 779)

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2.2 Typology of semantic mapping

According to Buis (2004, p 20), as a graphic organizer, semantic mapping can take a number of different forms, depending on the key words and genre of the read-aloud/picture study In this paper, the researcher examines two types, namely word mapping and concept mapping, with regard to the function of each format for learning and sharing knowledge in a constructive and systematic manner

2.2.1 Word mapping

As a type of semantic mapping, word mapping is “a visual display through which the understanding of key words is clarified by graphically mapping them” (Masters, Mori, & Mori, 1993, p 118) The key word denotes the topic in an oval or a box as a general node that is the main focus of the map It is a starting point for constructing a map It is placed in the center and surrounded by other related words in a hierarchical image according to different categories These categories are subordinate ideas, with clarifying tertiary and detailed fourth-level subdivisions that are linked back to the original idea They express characteristics or attributes to support the topic by means of words

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4

Figure 2.2.1 A word map for “Olympics”

(Johnson, Pittelman & Heimlich, 1986, p 778)

2.2.2 Concept mapping

Concept mapping is another type of semantic mapping It is also a graphic tool for organizing and representing ideas or concepts visually However, this type “involves assigning a hierarchical relationship of information, beginning with broad categories and branching into related concepts with each then branching into lower levels” (Novak, 1990, p 337) Concept maps are comprised of nodes containing concepts connected by directed arrows or arcs encoding brief relationships between pairs of concepts The most general or important information is placed at the top of the map Below are detailed words or concepts connected to each other by links based on a hierarchical structure

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concept/idea = word(s) grow concept/idea x = word(s) Figure 2.2.2.1 A sample of a proposition (Daley, 2010, p 33)

In the figure above, there are two nodes, trees and Jeaves, and a link

labelled by the verb grow connecting them together to create a proposition The two nodes have a lexical semantic relation between the part and the whole, i.e leave is part of tree In other words, the proposition consisting of two words is organized hierarchically, from general to specific

As such, a concept map includes a series of propositions Figure 2.2.2.2 illustrates the above characteristics of a concept map This concept map is a representation of knowledge about Jandmark with the focus question What have you learned about landmarks? as a topic In the map, the most general concept landmark is at the top, fifteen key concepts are hierarchically structured, and cross-links link the concepts to form 26 propositions

{ What have we learned about landmarks? } propostions > 26 ¢ross-links = $ levels = 10 ‘Tatal Score= 41 can be TT >, cK na at ý Sat Tee can be found in can be found in are known for 2 ‘| Ne + Pr } T is to 1

( Everglades } erglades | | Grand (the White House } ( The LS (st a otha) (2) heh = * nat a crosslink

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These researchers stated that the mapping procedure as reading activities appears to be commonly used by a number of researchers They noted that brainstorming may be initiated by teachers who introduce students a keyword from a text or a picture about the text and ask them to think it aloud For example, setting up the map for stores activates students’ retrieval of their knowledge about people, kinds, problems, expenses of owning and prices pertaining to the story’s theme and expansion of knowledge through learning and discussing new words clientele, proprietor, nominal, exorbitant, negotiable, overhead, maintenance, and personnel (ibid., p 7)

This example indicates that Heimlich and Pittleman led their students to the building up of the background knowledge so that they could deepen their knowledge or have much more experience about the topic and then increase their reading comprehension by engaging themselves in the text and linking the new information in the lesson material with what they already stored

The example also shows that the students became better predictors They could anticipate some of the major points which the writer of the reading had used By having students predict aloud, teachers have the opportunity to help them speculate and form questions about the text and be able to understand, assimilate and evaluate the information in the material they read Thus, the activity not only guides them to the topic of the reading text by giving them a plan for reading as well as some purpose for doing each task but also facilitates their understanding of new ideas encountered in the text by making them more confident of their ability to connect their prior knowledge of the topic to the new content Thus, they read more effectively

As such, “the mind, stimulated by key words or phrases in the text or by the context, activates a knowledge schema” (Cook, 1989, p 69) that helps students make sense of new experience by bringing their prior knowledge into a new learning setting and making connections with new information Typically in brainstorming, ideas from one student will trigger those from other students "in a

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chain reaction thought process" (Heimlich & Pittelman, 1986, p 34) As William (1994) asserted, semantic mapping as a direct teaching strategy provides opportunities for schema development and enhancement as well as prediction, hypothesizing and verification of content

Through brainstorming and discussion, semantic mapping gives teachers insight into the schema of each of their students, thus revealing interests, level of

readiness, gaps, misconceptions, and errors (Pearson & Johnson, 1978)

Moreover, the potential of semantic mapping is as a tool to serve “as a reading strategy to assess whether students are ready for the reading or not” (ibid p

782)

From that point of view, in his study, Zaid (1995) addressed the use of this strategy in the pre-reading phase in terms of introduction and brainstorming when starting a new unit or lesson and it is an even better way to get students involved right from the start

Though it is considered to be “easy to capture” (Avery, Baker & Gross, 1996, p 279), semantic mapping can become overwhelming if teachers do not

control the construction In fact, when students are asked to think of words

related to the key word or topic, “they often generate too many new words or less frequent words” (Stoller & Grade, 1993, p 34), which could induce learning overload, especially for the students at lower language levels Therefore, in order to use semantic mapping effectively, a good map should “consist of four or five secondary-leveled categories” (Hanf, 1991, p 270) Moreover, teachers should prepare some questions to help students focus on what is needed (William, 1987, p 89)

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2.3.2 Increasing knowledge via the construction of a semantic map

Previous studies on semantic mapping have found that a typical characteristic of semantic mapping lies in its effectiveness in organizing and representing relationships between words or concepts in “an integrated, hierarchical manner” (Chularut & DeBacker, 2004, p 249) Novak and Gowin (1984) noted that the act of mapping is a creative activity, in which students must exert an effort to clarify meanings by identifying important concepts, relationships, and structure within a specified domain of knowledge In reality, since its introduction in the late 1970s, semantic mapping has received a great deal of attention thanks to its original creativeness of associative links among words that support recall performance and knowledge organization (Duke & Pearson, 2002, p 8) Briefly, it is an ideal tool for organizing information in a logical and systematic manner However, the most important thing is how to train students to build a meaningful semantic map so that the training can enhance their understanding and improve their learning achievement

In his study, in an effort to help focus on the details in the reading texts and on the structure of a text, Zaid (1995) conducted the semantic mapping activities for his students After introducing the topic by using a noun phrase “Muslim carpets”, he wrote it on the board and asked his students to tell what they knew about it Next, he listed their suggestions on the board Based on these suggestions, he asked them to group their ideas As a result, the suggestion of “red and blue are used” was conceptualized into “color” and “popular” through discussions “Large” and “small” generated the category “sizes” and “flowers” and “no animals” in “geometric patterns” (p 5) Immediately, the researcher realized that this activity helped his students focus on the details in the reading texts when he found that the value of using it became apparent, since the map supplied them with a graphic conceptualization of their randomly given ideas which delved into the topic about to read The result of categorization based on student-suggested ideas is illustrated in Figure 2.4.2 on the next page

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¡ kargein | j All colors Red ard

| Mosques i T except blux | atel hoeew | phe? green popular i = N ` ` Ne, f N Z N i \ Ỷ Ệ | Sizes | | Colors | 4 i ‘ i z ` A i tite € MUSLIM CARPETS 3 on } \ then / `» « Flowers

Figure 2.4.2.1 A word map for “Muslim Carpets” (Zaid, 1995)

The activity above shows that semantic mapping helps students learn to organize details in the conceptualization of a paragraph and an essay of a short structure Moreover, the map colored by the different chalk allowed them to see the relationship among the sources — prior knowledge, categorization, and the reading — as well as understand the structuring of the information of the reading As a result, they manifested considerable improvement in reading comprehension

Hunter, Monroe-Ossi and Fountain (2008) used a concept map to document the hierarchical relationships among concepts described by preschool children at the ages of three and four The study was built on the work by Novak and Gowin (1984) who believed that through concept mapping children were able to make visible their thinking about the relationships among the concepts being studied

With this thought in mind, the three researchers set a goal to examine the utility of concept mapping through hands-on instructional experiences by raising the focus question “What do you know about plant?” To help young children correctly identify concepts and their hierarchical relationships, they provided environmental experiences with plants For example, they conducted demonstrations showing that plant needed water, sunlight, air, and soil

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Moreover, they helped students enhance vocabulary development and language expansion by reading aloud selected children’s books to them Next, they constructed initial concept maps with the children and posted in the classrooms The big ideas and essential questions (The world is made of living and non- living things; What do living things need from the environment to survive? and What are the characteristics of living things?) were also made to serve the lesson discussion After that, the final concept map was developed by using word/picture cards to help children develop conceptual thinking

The activity above shows that as teachers, the researchers used concept mapping to help students observe, compare and classify pictures so that they could connect thoughts from one unit to another, as well as show everything they learned As a result, they could identify concepts and articulate the hierarchical relationships among the concepts related to plants and their role in the environment They were able to construct a concept map that included second or third level concepts (see Figure 2.4.2.3 below) Specifically, they put the concept “plant” higher on the page than the concept “/eaves” and “roots”, and they could make propositions, e.g Plants (first level) have roots (second level) that hold up the stems (third level)

Figure 2.4.2.2 A student’s concept map for “Plants” (Hunter, Monroe-Ossi & Fountain, 2008)

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In sum, both the studies confirmed how semantic mapping can positively affect student learning The depth they delved into raises the awareness of the different relationships and effects in terms of understanding, prediction and recognition A word map makes the understanding of words deeper and enlarges the lexical knowledge in terms of different categories surrounding to contribute the meaning to the most general word placed in the center Meanwhile, a concept map helps to realize hierarchical relationships between concepts in the form of propositions Each of them has their own distinctive features that form different kinds of visual representation depending on the type of information presented and the purpose of presenting it

2.3.3 Text summarization

According to Duke and Pearsons (2002, p 216), teaching students to summarize what they have read is another way to improve their overall comprehension Hidi and Anderson (1986) pointed out that successful summarizers must be sensitive to the important information, and they must be able to connect new information to prior knowledge and make the connections explicit

Thanks to the utility of semantic mapping in displaying ideas or concepts and making the relationship between them explicit, semantic mapping process and summarizing process both share an emphasis on evaluating the relevance of information and making connections among different pieces of information The structure of a semantic map itself is hierarchical Therefore, it can offer students a clear and organized picture of learning concepts and a chance to think As Neufeld (2005, p 307) stated, the real power of semantic maps is realized when students learn to construct visual summaries that accurately represent the actual texts they are reading

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process, and summarizing strategies, to increase students’ comprehension about a text These relationships are depicted in Figure 2.4.3 below

Reading Process | Reading Strategy

@ Read a piece of information, | beforeteading ® Define the task

@ Find or construct a scheme to link the ị @ Examine the text structure

new information to existing while reading @ Monitor understanding

knowledge,

® Contitme to amplify and refine the | ater reading @ Organize understanding

model of the meaning of the text

Concept Mapping

® Select important information

@ Connect ideas

Summarizing Process " Summarizing Strategy

@ = Evaluate text : organize @ = Select material to include @ Identify important ideas structure @® = Trarsform structure

@ Paraphrase ideas @ Substitute global term @ Condense ideas condense & â Eliminate extra words đ = Polish new text polish @ = Link ideas clearly

Figure 2.4.3 Reading and summarizing processes, strategies linked by concept maps (Osman-Jouchoux, 1997, p 110)

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Meanwhile, in the summarizing process, students must evaluate text,

identify important ideas, paraphrasing ideas, condensing ideas and polishing new text The process decomposes into three main stages which are organization, structure, and condensation and polish

Each process introduces the concepts of strategy that help develop a step- by-step procedure to develop Semantic mapping as a planning tool can prove its benefit of selecting important information and connecting ideas through both the processes According to Osman-Jouchoux (1997), if students are taught to combine the semantic mapping and the strategies in all the three stages of the reading and summarizing processes, when they develop a plan for reading, they can promote reading comprehension

As such, through the reading and summarizing processes, students can practice and improve a lot of reading skills (for example, activating their prior knowledge, examining the text structure, note-taking for seeking key words, critically thinking for identifying the relationships between ideas or concepts, monitoring understanding and organizing understanding) and summarizing skills (like selecting material to include, transforming structure, substituting global term, eliminating extra words, and linking ideas clearly)

When students review and alter their concept map, they gain a deeper understanding of the material by synthesizing the concepts Thanks to the ability of visualization of the relationships among concepts, they can understand and integrate related concepts of a specific topic The process also helps them recognize the important ideas in a text, its relationships and structure and create its summary (Gould, Alfaro, Barnes, Finn, Grischowsky and Salaun, 1987; Neufeld, 2005; Novak & Cafias, 2006) They can also identify the main idea and supporting ones and clarify the less relevant or irrelevant concepts that will be removed or deleted from the map

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in concept maps They stated that “the process of knowledge construction and knowledge representation is greatly facilitated when additions, deletions and modifications can be made easily and quickly”

Several studies have demonstrated that the instruction combining semantic mapping with summarizing for learning reading can enhance the finding of important ideas and the structure of the knowledge contained in the

text and, as a result, foster comprehension (Chang, Sung & Chen, 2002; Osman-

Jouchoux, 1997)

2.3.4 Active learning through interaction and communication

Semantic mapping supports involvement, positive interaction and communication that have an impact on students’ learning and achievement

Semantic mapping is an interactive process that allows students to involve themselves in the process (Wallen & Jack, 1991) Thanks to its activities designed by their teacher, students have opportunities to involve themselves in the work, such as focusing on the topic and on what comes to mind, retrieving a range of words related to the topic, and interacting with the reading text to collect key words Their brainstorming allows the map to take its first shape, and their output during and after the assignment determines the final shape the map will have (Zaid, 1995) Thus, it can be said that semantic mapping puts some responsibilities on students so that they can become independent learners and active participants who are involved throughout the development of the map and contribute their own knowledge to a given topic The interaction cannot be passive if learning is to occur

Moreover, semantic mapping supports interaction among students because during constructing the map, they work with each other in the sequence of learning tasks to share knowledge As claimed by Luu and Le (2011), during the discussion on choosing appropriate concepts and the identification of the relationships between them in a topic, they engage themselves in the process of

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communicating, exchanging thinking, checking comprehension, negotiating and clarifying meaning, and reasoning publicly in a social setting, particularly in English classroom The process helps them develop reflection and revision skills in terms of the development of their conceptual understanding and meaningful learning

Thus, semantic mapping can promote students’ group work and collaboration with their classmates There is interpersonal negotiation through their suggestions and categorization This is important as through group work and negotiation, they can continue to deepen their understanding of new words (Hunt & Beglar, 2005; Nation & Newton, 1997) In this manner, when they discuss to reach agreement, the semantic mapping strategy not only creates fun and provides an interactive classroom atmosphere but also helps them see their own progress Furthermore, working in pairs or groups makes them less anxious, embarrassed and insecure; they become highly motivated (Beitz, 1998, as cited in Luu & Le, 2011) Therefore, they will gradually build up their self-confidence, be more willing to continue to work hard and hence promote greater achievement in their study (Dérnyei & Csizér, 1998; Forsyth & McMillan, 1991)

In addition, concerning the roles of teachers and students during mapping, interactions in a language class occur between a teacher and students as well as among students by asking and answering questions, prompting for explanation and justification, requesting classification and embellishment, encouraging connections among elements, and so forth Teachers pre-assess students’ readiness to do an assignment, push them toward production of language and post-evaluate how well they have done The more collaborative activities are promoted, the more the process of knowledge construction is enhanced, and the greater involvement in learning the students have

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concepts and sharing knowledge to facilitate comprehension so that they can become active readers and gain better comprehension

2.3.5 Meaningful learning

Semantic mapping is as a tool to increase meaningful learning because it stressed the importance of prior knowledge in learning new concepts “The most important single factor influencing learning is what the learner already knows.” Therefore, one should “ascertain this and teach accordingly” (Ausubel, 1968, as cited in Novak & Gowin, 1984, p 40) Novak and Gowin (1984) concluded that meaningful learning involved the assimilation of new concepts and propositions into existing cognitive structure In this way of learning, the information may be understood very well by students themselves In contrast to rote learning, they can remember and receive meaning for new knowledge by integrating a new concept with what they already know

As far as construction is concerned, a semantic map is started from a given word or concept as the topic for the map From that topic, students generate related ideas or concepts It is clear that the process provides students with an opportunity to retrieve relevant information from their long-term memory (Johnson, Pittleman & Heimlich, 1986, pp 778-780) It allows them to actually use their prior knowledge to make predictions about the passage content, set a purpose for reading (Carrell, 1984, as cited in De Debat, 2006, p 10)

Moreover, incorporating semantic mapping into a reading activity helps students not only to “actively relate what they are reading to their prior knowledge in general and to what they previously have read with understanding in the passage itself” but also to “actively organize the knowledge about which they are reading by identifying key concepts and exploring concept relationships to enhance comprehension” (Vitale & Romance, 2007, pp 88-89)

In addition, semantic mapping works as a scaffolding content instruction (Kennedy, 2006; Novak & Cajias, 2006) As far as construction is concerned, the

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process of semantic map construction requires students to do learning tasks in a sequence as follows: (1) receiving a topic, understanding and thinking of it, (2) retrieving and listing relevant words or concepts, (3) identifying general and specific concepts and determining the linking between them according to the semantic relations on meaning, (4) presenting or putting them into the map, and (5) examining the arrangement or structure of the map (Pinto & Zeitz, 1997; Zaid, 2005) As such, the procedure is proceeded step-by-step as scaffolding

Furthermore, semantic mapping can lead students to meaningful discussions to reach agreement for defining concepts and connecting them The discussions are as a key that keeps them engage in class activities so that they can gain much progress in their learning and enhance their awareness (Moreira &

Moreira, 2011; Safdar, Hussain, Shah, & Rifat, 2012; Zaid, 1995)

During mapping and discussion, students may recognize a new component of a concept and/or a new relationship between concepts in meaningful context, which can lead to deeper understanding of the material under study (Pinto & Zeitz, 1997)

Thus, semantic maps are a way to help students see how individual ideas form a larger whole and develop logical thinking and study skills, which can then be used for other meaningful learning activities through a visual, structured representation of concepts and the relationships among them Thanks to connections in a semantic map, students can have a chance to rethink and change misconceptions and incongruities (Novak & Cajfias, 2006) In other words, semantic mapping is an activity that helps students develop, organize, summarize, analyze, and evaluate many different ideas

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2.3.6 The semantic mapping process used in_ teaching reading comprehension as an interactive approach

The semantic mapping process integrates both the top-down and bottom-

up models (Harmer, 2001; Huang, 2005; Kintsch & Van Dijk, 1978, as cited in

Liu, Chen, & Chang, 2010, p 437) When adopting semantic mapping in the reading process, the strategy can help students to activate and build their background knowledge about a given topic so that they can use it for understanding the text After understanding the topic, they are asked to build a semantic map in which ideas or concepts related to the topic are represented in a logical and meaningful manner This activity requires students to refer to their background knowledge They must think and brainstorm in order to recall personal experiences and knowledge associated with the topic As a result, whatever goes on in their mind helps them build background knowledge so that they can actively develop a new schema by linking the knowledge to new knowledge from the text so as to construct the meaning (Ruddell & Boyle, 1989, as cited in Liu, Chen, & Chang, 2010, p 437) Based on Anderson’s (1983) schema theory, the process of utilizing a prior schema, in which prior knowledge is necessary for connecting old to new knowledge, results from the positive effect of a top-down reading model

In the meanwhile, according to Liu, Chen and Chang (2010, p 437), when students used semantic mapping to summarize reading texts to construct a semantic map, they need to confirm the concept of a topic, working from its characters to words, to sentences, and paragraphs, and to arrange the concepts around a main concept Then they must link the relationships of some concepts as well as label the links on the map, and finally, comprehend the whole passage The construction process is a bottom-up approach

+

Thus, students can use semantic maps to start their reading by using a top-down approach for activating their prior knowledge that facilitates the understanding of the text Later on, they switch to a bottom-up approach to check

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all details and then gain the understanding of the reading texts This implies that the two approaches support each other

In summary, the following map illustrates the main issues that semantic mapping has an impact on in reading comprehension + An interactive approach + Active learning through interaction and communication | | : : Representing Text Pennie & organizing summarization ideas/concepts READING COMPREHENSION SEMANTIC MAPPING 2 Meaningful learning

Figure 2.3.5 The use of semantic mapping in reading comprehension

2.4 The application of the semantic mapping strategy at the three stages of teaching reading comprehension

As presented in the previous sections, semantic mapping, as an effective teaching tool, has its benefits It can be incorporated into a lesson of reading and applied in all the three teaching stages of activities The next important work for research is the development of a theoretical model of reading teaching and learning with semantic mapping

2.4.1 Pre-reading activities

According to Zaid (1995) and Langford, Rizzo and Roth (2003), semantic mapping as a pre-reading strategy aims to activate students’ prior knowledge, to organize ideas and to make connections that exist among the concepts and terms to be studied In this application, the teacher can use semantic mapping to design tasks to help them brainstorm and retrieve their prior knowledge related to a given topic by setting a situation and motivating them

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This is achieved by having them think of and discuss everything they know about the topic These tasks can help them learn about a subject before reading as well as set a purpose for reading

2.4.1.1 Introducing the topic

According to Zaid (1995, p 8), from the outset the teacher announces the topic of the text by writing it in a large oval on the board Alternatively, as Hunter, Monroe-Ossl and Fountain (2008) have done, he/she can display pictures, cards, or even real things relating to the topic to stimulate their thought and get the brainstorming procedure going

2.4.1.2 Brainstorming

As Johnson, Pittleman and Heimlich (1986, p 780) articulated,

brainstorming is “the job of student” After the teacher provides the key word or

concept, students are asked to think of the related words, ideas, characteristics,

attributes, and specific examples that come to their mind and share them in groups Zaid (1995, p 8) suggested that he/she then immediately records and lists all their suggestions to the side of the board It is crucial that all suggestions are accepted as long as they relate to the topic However, to do this effectively, the teacher can help students involve themselves actively and motivate them effectively by designing a list of useful and specific questions so that they can focus their attention on those items and avoid an overwhelming cognitive load or less relevant or irrelevant ideas (Watson & Gable, 2009, p 8)

Moreover, to promote students’ effective reading comprehension, the combination of semantic mapping approach and prediction confirmation theory is applied in this stage (Yu, 2005, pp 64-65) The teacher can let them look through the questions following the text to find some useful information and then to predict what they are going to read about the topic In addition, he/she or students may develop questions, through directed writing or interactive discussion, such as, “What do I already know and what do I need to know before reading?” or

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In the during-reading stage of the reading process, the teacher’ jobs are to guide and monitor the interaction between the reader and the text One important skill he/she can have an impact on at this stage is note-taking, which allows them to compile new vocabulary and important information and details, and to summarize information and record their reactions and opinions (Pardede, 2011) In doing so, as they read, he/she asks them to underline key words, identify main points, and discover the relationships between the words or ideas He/she also reminds them to write down what words or ideas that they need clarifying

Lastly, the teacher directs students to integrate the ideas The class as a whole decides the complete map on the board They can do it in discussion As Langford, Rizzo and Roth (2003) point out the class discussion in the mapping instruction fosters the classroom community, where students are authentically engaged in the meaningful discussion that makes connections from prior knowledge to new knowledge and lead to comprehension The teacher engages students in group discussion and in building a draft map by drawing a line between related concepts and adding to or eliminating from the pre-assignment map New information is thereby integrated with prior knowledge

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2.4.3 Post-reading activities

The post-reading stage offers the chance to evaluate students’ adequacy of interpretation, while bearing in mind that accuracy is relative and that "readership" must be respected as long as the writer's intentions are addressed

(De Debat, 2006, p 11) The teacher can ask them about the writer’s intentions or

draw their attention to other texts or information sources that have the same theme As found by many researchers, summarizing can enhance finding main ideas and improve reading comprehension (Osman-Jouchoux, 1997) Thus, in this stage, to evaluate students’ comprehension, teachers can ask them to use semantic maps to give a summary of the text and main ideas in speaking or writing

2.5 Empirical research on the effectiveness of semantic mapping in reading comprehension

Research on semantic mapping has shown that there still appears to be strong support for the effectiveness of semantic mapping in reading comprehension Researchers suggest that it is an extremely effective teaching strategy for reading comprehension due to the benefits it brings to students in terms of their performance and learning attitude

In her study on teaching reading comprehension through semantic mapping, Yu (2005) highlighted that by combining a semantic mapping approach and prediction confirmation theory in the pre-reading and while-reading activities, a teacher could promote students’ reading comprehension The processes were activated and his Chinese students acted as an active reader in the reading process, so their reading comprehension abilities were enhanced

Similarly, Salameh (2006) investigated the effect of using the semantic mapping strategy on reading comprehension for the eighth grade students in AI- Ramleh Elementary School for girls in Zarga District, in Jordan The findings indicated that the students in the semantic mapping group performed better than

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those in the group taught a traditional way The researcher also observed how enthusiastic students were with this way of teaching reading They were very active to the extent that they started giving their suggestions to develop story maps Specifically, in light of the findings, the researcher recommended that students should be encouraged to follow the semantic mapping strategy while reading and to engage in the activities that allowed them to transfer reading lessons into three different types of maps which were word maps, concept maps and story maps

Moreover, the findings from the research into the effectiveness of semantic mapping on reading comprehension by Tateum (2007) show various advances in the performance of the Thai students in two groups with different lesson plans One group as the control group was taught using a listening activity as the pre-reading activity and the other as the experimental one learnt with the lesson plan of semantic mapping The results indicate that the semantic mapping activity was effective in facilitating successful reading comprehension of the experimental group It performed significantly better as compared to the other group

What is more, the effectiveness of semantic mapping on reading comprehension was also examined in the research by Supramaniam (2011) for lower secondary students in Malaysia The results of this study showed there was a strong connection between semantic mapping and reading comprehension since all respondents showed a greater improvement and gained better awareness in the post-test than the pre-test Moreover, the findings indicate that this strategy is very useful to help the students actively take part in the teaching and learning process, so they learned better and enhanced their comprehension skills

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facilitating reading process and recall, and increasing support and understanding among the students

As summarized above, these studies allow us to sketch some patterns of

use that appear to enhance the effectiveness of semantic mapping in learning reading comprehension Semantic mapping helps students stimulate creativity, activate prior knowledge, assess their readiness for the task, facilitate comprehension thanks to its ability of visualizing the main ideas presented in a text, and show how the ideas relate to one another It also encourages their interaction and communication with each other, arouses their interest to stay on task, brings meaningful learning, and promotes the quality of their language production

However, the findings from these studies (except Le’s study) were mostly on students’ ability on reading comprehension in terms of comparing the results from pre-tests and post-tests, not much on their attitudes towards the way of learning and teaching Meanwhile, in her study, Le found the remarked improvement in the Vietnamese students’ attitudes, but the improvement of their ability on reading comprehension was not found

Moreover, there have been relatively a few studies which evaluate the usefulness and effectiveness of semantic mapping in the Vietnamese context, particularly at HCMC University of Education Therefore, the researcher of this current study want to investigate the effectiveness of this strategy on both sides, students’ reading comprehension and their attitudes towards the use of this strategy in learning reading comprehension in a reading classroom

2.6 Summary

So far, Chapter 2 has covered those aspects of semantic mapping that are needed to carry out this study The investigation into the literature came up with the definition of semantic mapping, introduced two types of semantic mapping that were to be used in this study including the distinctions of their constructions