Fully developed patterns were investigated. Ideally, sample patterns have developed from a real process. Before this recognizer can be put into application, it needs to be trained and tested. Since this study used the supervised testing approach, each pattern presentation was tagged with its respective label.
As revealed in chapter 3, the change patterns the participants made during the sessions of reading course and it can be classified into four types: the gradual increase pattern, the erratic increase pattern, the plateau increase pattern, and the mixed increase pattern (see figures 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 for examples of gradual increase, plateau, fluctuation and substantial increase patterns).
Concerning the content of communicative activities, the highest percentage belongs to the opinion “the content of using mind-mapping activities is related to the lesson”, accounting for 90% of the responses. On the contrary, the opinion “the content of using mind-mapping activities is not related to the lesson” is not chosen by the informants. However, 10% of the participants assume that “the content is not necessarily related” because it can be a motivation for students in learning. So motivation is necessary using in learning.
Table 1.5: The Content of using mind-mapping Activities
The Content of using mind-mapping Activities N=20 %
Related to the lesson 38 90
Not related to the lesson 0 0
Not necessarily related 2 10
The results suggested that the students who got a higher score did not have any problems in using mind-mapping technique in reading comprehension and group A understood (quite well) the concept writing mind maps. Moreover, all of the students had a chance to practice finding main ideas from the text but at different levels. Finally, the students who received a higher score and students who received the same score were not affected by physical and mental factor.
We use chart to display long data row, interpolate between data point, extrapolate beyond known data values, compare different graphs, find and compare trends (changes over time). So this study shows four type of chart. The scores of the experimental group indicate improvement over the period of the study as indicated in graph form in Figure 1.1.
Figures 1.1 A sample of gradual increase pattern – participant A3
The chart showed that the result of participant A-3 had increased gradually from 5 point to 9 point. According to the score of chart, there was some improvement, as the difference between the highest score and the lowest score, narrowed from 5 to 9 point. These scores also show that the lowest score in the first test was 5 point. The difference between the highest and lowest scores diminished, as
did the distribution around the mean. This indicates a significant drop in the difference between the highest and lowest scores, suggesting an improvement in the weaker scoring students. It is apparent, then that, according to the chart scores, the experimental group improved and benefited by the work done during the experimental period. It described the result which student had learnt well in the treatment because of showing mind-mapping strategy. It means that mind-mapping appeared made students follow it to discover main ideas of lessons more meaningful.
Figures 1.2 A sample of fluctuate increase pattern – participant B12
The chart described that the result of participant B12 had fluctuated. It exchanged rates due to the session. It exchanged four times from 6 to 7. The point didn’t have hoped result.
Figures1.3. A sample of substantial increase pattern – participant A39 .
The chart showed that the session of participant A 39 had substantial patter.
The point had gradually increasing from 6 to 8.These scores also show that the lowest score in the first test was 6 point but the last test had increasing.
Figures 1.4 A sample of plateau pattern – participant A1
The chart described the result of participant A1 had plateau from 6 point to 8 point. There were three last tests which had the same point called plateau.
Although it was clear that most participants made a speed improvement during the course, it is interesting to look at how their progress was achieved.
Looking at the progress charts by the participants, we found that they had different change patterns. Some progressed steadily while some others progressed with many fluctuations. Others increase during the course or kept their speed at the same level.
In order to decide which change pattern a certain participant had, we set up a few criteria to classify their graphs.
In two groups, the participants who had the last session higher than the first session and more than four points called “increase up ward” and appeared improvement chart: for example the participant A3 in experimental group is presented in figure 1.3. But in control group there is no participants who had over 4 point.
A description of the patterns’ features was also given in chapter 3. Firstly, the two participants whose average score on the last three texts were higher than that on the first three texts were considered as the ones who had an improvement pattern. The result is presented in table 1.6.
Table 1.6. Numbers of participants for different change patterns
increase Plateau increase
Gradual increase
Substantial
increase Fluctuate Experimental
Group 12 12 6 10
gradual decrease
of group B 15
Control group 9 4 4 8
These results suggested that the treatment groups could maintain or increase their comprehension while improving their reading skill and their gains were significantly greater than group B. On the other hand, the result of tests described by the charts which showed in the table (see Table 1.6), although the groups’
average final point in the course were still the fastest of the six categories, their average reading comprehension on other types of texts were substantially faster than their first reading rates, especially for the treatment groups.
This was because the participants made substantial increases on reading other types of texts but small increases in group B. These results showed a trend that the participants’ reading comprehension were generally slower than their reading used mind-mapping.
Researchers have shown that normal teaching reading was not having more gained in comprehension than the teachers who were taught by mind-mapping. It is clear from Figure 1.5 that mind-mapping is used by most teachers (90%) who guided students how to learn well. So the result had high. As mentioned above, because of its obvious advantages in directing students’ attention to the lesson, this activity is ranked in the first place. Secondly, checking comprehension’s activities such as games are the favorite activities of some teachers (85%). These results coincide with the findings of question to check their understanding that mind- mapping are teachers’ most favorite activities in teaching reading. Although it does
not have advantages like two above activities in motivating students, exploiting a model is a very common activity at pre-reading stage, which accounts for 80% of the teachers’ opinions. It can be seen as a basic activity to help students find out such necessary elements for the next stage as the form of the reading, ideas, vocabulary or structures, etc. Therefore, learners will find it easier to carry out the reading task themselves after having essential information at this stage. Two other types of activities which are highly appreciated are answering questions and chatting with 75% and 70% respectively. In these activities, teachers often pose questions related to the topic of the lesson and ask students to answer or have a chat with them about it. These are good and direct ways to lead students into the new lesson naturally and simply without time-consuming preparation in advance.
The thesis had studied on four patterns: increased plateau, gradual increase, and substantial increase and fluctuate. Infarct the result of group A had more comfortable than that in group B. (see table 1.6). The students who had plateau increase were 12 participants in group A while group B had only 9 participants, the gradual increase of group A had more successful than that in group B with 12 and 4 participants. The students who had 6 participants of substantial increase in group A but group B had only 4 participants. It means that there was result in group A twice as high as group B. Finally, the participants who arranged in fluctuation pattern had 10 participants in group A and 8 participants in group B.
When teachers used mind-mapping to check EFL Students’ Reading comprehension, there were the good result in group A. Because of practicing hard- working of the participant in group A and connected mind-mapping method makes them more perfectly. However; checking result of participants depended on some tests after using mind-mapping. Some tests have checked correctly which make higher result in this study.
Overall, these results suggest a positive spin-off for reading skill training and comprehension because groups A was able to read the transfer texts faster than group B , yet , The result in group A still achieved comprehension who were
students in the same language program, and achieved greater comprehension than group B. The table (1.6) had listed all participants who had the best result in group A make more comfortable in checking participants’ reading comprehension. And with this method makes students learn well, hard-working and teachers can follow mind-mapping teaching reading comprehension
On the other hand, motivation plays an important role in teaching reading comprehension because it takes students from the slow thinking to discover more ideas in lessons. Motivation often takes place every time of lessons. Students followed it to gain result in studying such as the following table 1.7 was presented:
Table 1.7. The result of questionnaires in motivation of two groups
Control group
like 14 11
Normal ideas 16 13
dislike 10 16
Experimental group
like 29 19
Normal ideas 6 7
dislike 5 14
The table showed result of the two group motivation. Group A had 14 participants who like normal strategy, 16 participants who had no ideas like or dislike and 10 participants who dislike using this method to learn reading comprehension. All participants had changed the ideas to use mind-mapping were taught by teachers to check their understanding the level of texts. The result had also changed highly. The participants who like this method counted on 29 participants and the participants who normal ideas means both like or dislike counted on 6 participants and the participants who dislike using mind-mapping in reading counted on 5 participants. Comparison to group A, Group B hadn’t result better than the result in group A with 11 participants like, 13 participants’ normal ideas and 16 participants dislike. And after treatment there were 19 participants who like learn reading comprehension and there were 7 participants had normal ideas,
and there were 14 participants dislike. Although two groups had result at last better than at the beginning but the result in group A had number of participants who like using teaching mind-mapping strategy in reading comprehension and it make them have more motivated and interested in learning reading. The fact result of them made teachers like preparing mind-mapping to teach more correctly.
From counted on the participants who had from 9 point to 10 point called the participant “like” and from 6 to 7 point called no ideas about like or dislike and the participant who had 5 point. So the percentage of improved result of motivation was presented by table 1.8.
Table 1.8. Percentage of improved items in the motivation tests Percentage of improved items in
the motivation test Control groups
experimental groups
100% 19 29
From 50% to 99% 7 6
From 25% to 49% 14 5
The questionnaire was conducted to gain the information about teaching reading comprehension using mind mapping technique in various aspects. There were 16 questions asking about the satisfaction of reading ability after reading, the enthusiasm for group work activities, the problems that the students had from constructing mind maps, the mind mapping teaching process. There were opened ended questions inquiring about the skills the students thought they had developed and the problems they had while constructing mind maps.
To inquire whether the students found mind-mapping technique helpful, the questionnaire was launched after the completion of the experimental. The result is shown in Table 1.9.
Table1.9. The learners’ satisfaction on reading comprehension after using mind-mapping technique
Questions
Strongly agree percentage
Agree Percentage
disagree Percentage
Strongly disagree Percentage The satisfaction of reading text
by using mind-mapping 13.3 72.4 14.3 0
Enthusiasm for group work
activities. 41 45.7 11.4 1.9
The importance of mind- mapping technique in
increasing reading comprehension
34.3 57.1 8.6 0
The problem that the students
had from doing mind-mapping 8.6 40 42.9 8.6
The mind mapping teaching process was clear and helpful
for mind-mapping reading comprehension process
34.4 60 3.6 0
The application of mind
mapping for other subjects 26.7 54.3 18.1 1
As revealed in Table 1.8 the majority (72.4%) of the students were satisfied with their reading ability, while 60% of them agreed that the mind-mapping teaching process was clear and helped them to construct a mind map. Also, slightly more than groups, almost half (45.7%) agreed that they were enthusiastic to work in groups, and 42.9% had no problems in doing mind-mapping.
Despite the fact that the teaching process was considered helpful, it can be further improved. Time and the amount of practice, for instance, can be spent more effectively. During doing mind-mapping stage, the teacher took more time to teach both main ideas and provide them with activate the schema. As for extracting main ideas and summarize the text of lesson 3, the teacher can encourage the students by providing them with shorter reading passages to practice. Working groups is
another area that needs to be considered. Some students could not help their peers to construct mind maps.
3.6. Discussion
From the collected data, the discussion will be presented based on the research questions. Therefore, what common activities are really utilized in teaching reading at upper-secondary schools, and how these activities are useful to students will be clarified in the following part.
First and foremost, many different activities are often utilized in teaching reading at all stages and are highly appreciated by students.
Before treatment begins I have a general test of English proficiency for students of two classes which made them have similarity point. This is a modal which the teacher can follow it to compare how students’ result from the beginning to the end. When the participants had a general test, teacher handed in and corrected the result of them. The students who were same grade will be taken part in my experiment, and the other will be refused to ensure English proficiency of the two groups is similar grade and age.
To continue the treatment there were two groups: group A which called experimental group and group B which called control group. They were together studied by some lessons in grade 12. Mind-mapping were used in group A. It means each text, when the teacher had vocabulary, teacher were drawn a mind- mapping on the board and the participants followed it to think more ideas in the text. But group B didn’t use mind-mapping strategies; they used normally method such as listening, discussing, writing a summary instead of mind-mapping. The result of treatment had effected highly because when I have finished teaching mind-mapping part in the text, I had a comprehension questions for group A. They had to follow questions to answer on a piece of paper. There were six times of testing comprehension questions in group A and group B.
In the first time, the tests were counted by the last session score minus the first session score of two groups. It means I counted Mean and SD of two groups. In group A, when the last session score minus the first session score, the result was (2.1 Mean and SD 0.7). But in group B, (Mean had -0.1 and SD – 0.6).
As indicated in Table 1.1, the majority of the teachers employ mind-mapping activities at three stages of reading teaching, especially at while-reading stages. On the contrary, only a small number of the students claim that activities are rarely used in reading classes.
In terms of the content of mind-mapping activities, 90% of the participants state that the content of the activities are related to the lesson; while the rest (10%) believe that the content is not necessarily related because in their opinions, these activities can be used to motivate students (Table 3.5). However, the activities whose content is not necessarily related to the lesson should only be used in mind- mapping stage to create a good atmosphere for the class. On the other hand, the activities with related content to the lesson should be encouraged because, to some extent, they help students directly and easily access to the knowledge required in the lessons. By taking part in these activities, students also have chances to reinforce what they acquire from the lessons. In other words, the activities which focus on the content of the lesson are better for teachers in achieving the objectives of the lesson and for students in acquiring provided knowledge.
In addition, it is worth considering the sources of activities. It is revealed from the findings that beside some activities provided in the textbook, many of the activities used in reading classes are used mind-mapping by teachers from different sources. As shown in table 1.3, the average score of the last two sessions minus the average score of the first two sessions: group A with Mean- 1.5 and SD was – 0.1 but group B had worse than that with Mean had only 0.3 and SD with -0.01. Group A had result better and higher than group B because of using mind-mapping in reading comprehension and it developed the students’ skill and their knowledge effectively in the text course. And some teachers who attended mind-mapping’s
strategy agreed that they combine different sources when using mind-mapping tasks in the textbook and the majority of the teachers (70%) say that they should design the activities more themselves. Whatever sources they resort to, the purpose of teaching reading comprehension by mind-mapping is to make the tasks more suitable with students’ levels.
Like this skill, the best result of participants by counting the average score of the last three sessions minus the average score of the first sessions: In group A there was 1.7 at Mean and SD with -0.3 but group hadn’t higher result. There was only 1.0 with Mean and SD – 0.1. Comparison with the normal method which the teachers often teach to students had not best result (Table 1.4) due to mind-mapping was used correctly after teaching vocabulary. With this way, mind-mapping was taught for students who don’t know how to get ideas in the text easily. Although the students read the text many times but they didn’t understand the main ideas quickly and effectively so mind-mapping method helped them follow it to make out more ideas and developed their knowledge’s skill completely. And depend on mind- mapping method, students can link and matched the information from the beginning to the end of lesson in reading skill. Moreover, mind-mapping is a method which can use key words and main ideas not writing into sentences especially it helped students write the title of lesson immediately.
In the first place, the results showed that group A gained reading scores increases in the reading comprehension course. Reading speed improvement was measured using the average method, which was used by mind-mapping. The average score of the last three sessions, the last two sessions and the last session score often higher than the average score of the first three, two and last sessions. It was presented by (table 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4). And it was found that the three scoring methods agreed with each other on the ranking of the group averages.
The participants’ reading points were further scrutinized by looking at the fastest and slowest scores they had during the average reading course. A new method, called the six text extreme scoring method was introduced to measure the