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Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 116 (2014) 497 – 501

5th World Conference on Educational Sciences - WCES 2013

Development of English Reading Comprehension by

Using Concept Maps


a* b
Phatchara Phantharakphong , Suteera Pothitha

a
Faculty of Education, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, 40002, Thailand
b
Faculty of Education, Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen, 40002, Thailand

Abstract

Reading is the single most important fundamental skill a person can acquire. However, in Thailand, English language
learning, especially in reading skill, seems to be the big problem to students because most of them find English reading difficult
and lack of motivation in doing so. As a result, the purpose of this study were to study the development of English reading
comprehension by using concept maps, and to study the students’ attitudes towards learning English reading comprehension by
using concept maps. This study conducted through the use of scores from concept map retelling based on the redeveloped rubrics
and comprehension test. The interview was also conducted. The results showed that the percentage of retelling and
comprehension test were 81.25 percent and 86.50 percent respectively. Student stated that concept maps helped them understand
English reading better. This could be concluded that the use of concept maps could enhance the students’ English reading
comprehension.

© 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer
Selection and/or reviewunder
peer-review underresponsibility
the responsibility of Prof.
of Academic Dr.Education
World Servet Bayram
and Research Center.
Keywords: Language learning, teaching methods, secondary level, reading difficulty

1. Introduction

Today English is important in ESL/EFL countries because it is a world language. People around the world use
English language to communicate to each other. All four fundamental skills are used: listening, speaking, reading,
and writing. All are important, including reading skill. Reading is important for a variety of reasons. For example, it
is a vital skill in finding a good job, enriches thoughts, widens visions, and enhances knowledge. However, one of
the fundamental problems many English language teachers face with is enhancing ESL/EFL learners’ reading ability
and maintain their interest in reading. Most ESL/EFL learners have certain difficulties while reading English
because they are not aware of the effective ways of reading and understanding a text, which might cause resistance

* Corresponding Author: Phantharakphong, Phatchara. Tel.: +66-897-126-577

E-mail address: [email protected]

1877-0428 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Academic World Education and Research Center.
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.01.247
498 Phatchara Phantharakphong and Suteera Pothitha / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 116 (2014) 497 – 501

and affect their attitudes towards reading in English (Mede, 2010). In Thailand, one of EFL countries, English
language learning, especially reading skill, seems to be the big problem to the students. The main reason is most of
them find English difficult and lack of motivation in doing so. These problems cause Thai students have negative
attitudes towards learning English and believe that learning English is very difficult for them. Sloat, et al. (2007)
stated that failure to learn reading during primary level might cause a student to be lacking in the ability to read well.
Actually, the students were required to practice grasping the text information so that they would improve their skills
of reading for meaning. Thus, teachers need to get students to practice reading for meaning.
Reading comprehension refers to the ability to understand information presented in written form. While this
process usually entails understanding textbook assignment, reading comprehension skills also may affect one’s
interpretation of direction on examination, homework and completion of job applications or questionnaires. Many
students still have problems with their reading comprehension because they are unable to accurately understand
written materials. That is, they cannot interpret what they read and make the connection between what they read and
what they have already known.
According to the research, concept mapping appears to be an effective way to teach and learn about new
information and overarch concepts. The arguments for concept mapping include the importance of connecting new
information to prior knowledge and experience (Novak & Gowin, 1984; Cromley & Azevedo, 2007; Jonassen, et al.,
1999; O’Donnell, et al., 2002), the efficacy of building visual-verbal representations of knowledge (Novak &
Gowin, 1984; Jonassen, et al., 1999; Plotnik, 1997) and that these representations are more effective for knowledge
retention than using traditional text (McCagg & Dansereau, 1991; Jonassen, et al., 1999). Plotnik (1997) described
purposes of concept mapping and stated that the main advantages of concept mapping are the use of visual symbols
because they are easily recognized, easy to scan for a specific word or general idea and it also allows for more
holistic understanding of a concept. Therefore, to solve the students’ problems, concept maps were used as a study
technique to promote their reading comprehension and help them understand reading as a process (Anderson, 1978).
The purposes of the present study were to study the development of English reading comprehension by using
concept maps, and to study the students’ attitudes towards learning English reading comprehension by using concept
maps.

2. Method

The population of this study was 18 students in 10th grade of Demonstration school of Khon kaen University
(Suksasart) in the second semester, academic year 2010. Fifteen samples were drawn by simple random sampling
method. This study was conducted through the use of percentage of scores from concept map explaining and
retelling based on the assessment rubric adapted from the Regent of the University of Minnesota and Barbara
Martinson (2004) and reading comprehension tests. Moreover, the individual interview was administered with 3 of
the following themes:
1) Does your English reading comprehension skill improve? If yes, how? If no, give reasons;
2) Do you think the concept map help you understand English reading better? Why or why not?; and
3) Are there any questions or suggestions?
The obtained data from the tests was analyzed by average scores and percentage. The interview results were
analyzed by content analysis.

3. Findings

3.1 Results of concept map retelling and reading comprehension tests

Distribution of students’ statistical values of retelling tests is given in Table 1. It has been found out that the
percentage of the scores in retelling tests was higher from article no.1 (70.26%) to article no.6 (90.00%) continually.
With the total percentage of retelling tests, it was 81.25 percent which was in the high level.
 Phatchara Phantharakphong and Suteera Pothitha / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 116 (2014) 497 – 501 499

Table 1. Distribution of students’ statistical values of retelling tests

Articles Percentage of Level

Retelling Tests
No.1 70.26 Moderate
No.2 73.00 Moderate
No.3 79.00 Moderate
No.4 87.00 High
No.5 87.00 High
No.6 90.00 High
Total 81.04 High

When considering comprehension tests, the distribution of students’ statistical values is given in Table 2. It was
showed that the percentage of comprehension tests from article no.1 (82.00%) to article no.6 (91.00%) was higher
gradually, and it was all in high level. The total percentage of comprehension tests was 86.50 percent considered as
in high level as well.
Table 2. Distribution of students’ statistical values of comprehension tests

Articles Percentage of Level

Comprehension Tests
No.1 82.00 High
No.2 84.00 High
No.3 85.00 High
No.4 88.00 High
No.5 89.00 High
No.6 91.00 High
Total 86.50 High

3.2 Results from the Interviews

With three interviewed questions, it has been found that most students agreed that after learning English reading
by using concept maps, their English comprehension skill improve. They gave reasons that due to using concept
maps in reading, they could get main ideas and relations of the sentences, paragraphs and different parts of the text.
They also use previous knowledge while reading the texts. Besides, they suggested that with 6 lesson plans, it was
too short. They wanted to learn more. They felt that they could do it better if they had a chance to learn and practice
more. In addition, beside concept maps, they wanted to read various texts and learn other strategies or techniques
that could help them better in reading.

4. Discussion and Conclusion

English Reading Comprehension of students:

The result of students showed that, with the retelling and comprehension tests, at last the students were in high
level in both tests (90% and 91% respectively). In other words, concept maps could improve English reading
comprehension of students which was related to the study of Flood and Lapp (1988) stating that students’ practice in
constructing their own maps from different texts could help enhance their ‘metacognitive skills’ leading to
successful reading. Also, the students’ abilities in constructing a variety of concept maps could help visualize the
ideas of other texts in network (Sinatra, et al., 1984). With the study of effective strategies of teaching reading,
500 Phatchara Phantharakphong and Suteera Pothitha / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 116 (2014) 497 – 501

Askov (1991) pointed out that an effective teacher should help students be efficient at self-learning. Therefore,
students needed study skills which they could apply while reading inside and outside of class. He also explained that
the ‘mapping’ technique is a study skill that helped students see relationships between the message since they
required learners to think through while constructing the maps. In addition, the study of Thai students learning
English reading through the use of concept maps of Kaewkongmuang (2001) and Pongkaew (2002) showed that the
concept map training or the semantic mapping technique could improve their students’ reading comprehension
because they could understand the text more easily through the concept map.
Considering the relationship between retelling and reading comprehension, the study of Stoicovy (2004) stated
that oral retelling of reading or listening text was produced based on the students’ increased comprehension and
recall of discourse. When students reconstruct text, they were learning language complexity by accepting ideas of
the text which allowed students to pick up a sense of story structure leading to students’ schema activating. As a
result, it allowed comprehending, learning, and remembering the ideas in the stories and texts (Gambrell, et al.,
1991; Lipson & Wixson, 1997; Brown & Cambourne, 1987; Morrow, 1985; Anderson, 2000).
With the data from the interview, it was found that students entirely answered the interviewed questions that
their reading comprehension was better since they had learned concept map constructing. They felt that they could
find the relationships among words, sentences, and paragraphs leading them understand the texts, especially main
ideas of texts. Besides, they wanted to learn and practice reading with concept map more. They thought that the
duration of each class was not enough. Sometimes they wanted more time to think, practice, and understand the
texts in case they were quite difficult or not related to what they had known or experienced. Moreover, after they
were familiar with using concept map in reading, they would like to learn other reading techniques to enhance their
reading comprehension.
Suggestions for learning experience management in reading comprehension were that the teacher should have
the orientation about the concept map before learning with the way to construct concept maps with clear teaching
methods. At first, to make the students familiar with concept map, the teacher should make students work as a group
or in pair, and then individual. Moreover, the teacher should provide students a little bit more difficult texts in each
class, so the texts would challenge them to use their abilities to think and practice with the support from the teacher.
In conclusion, there have been relationship between reading comprehension and concept maps and they could be
able to apply in learning management to enhance students’ English reading integrally and creatively.

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