Effects of concept maps on reading comprehension of grade-ten students at Tri Duc high school

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY

------------------------------

EFFECTS OF CONCEPT MAPS

ON READING COMPREHENSION

OF GRADE-TEN STUDENTS AT TRI DUC HIGH SCHOOL

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts (TESOL)

Submitted by

LE THUY VY

Supervisor

Dr. NGUYEN THUY NGA

Ho Chi Minh City, September 2016

i

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I certify that this thesis entitled, “Effects of Concept Maps on Reading

Comprehension of Grade-Ten Students at Tri Duc High School” 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 main text

of the thesis.

This thesis has not been submitted for the award of any degree in any other tertiary

institution.

Ho Chi Minh City, 2016

Le Thuy Vy

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My thesis would not be done without any assistance and contributions of many

people. Thus, this is an opportunity for me to express my gratitude to all of them.

First and foremost, I would like to give my deep gratitude to my supervisor –

Dr. Nguyen Thuy Nga, who always helped and spent her limited time reading and

giving advice for my thesis as well as showed me how to do the thesis better.

Secondly, I would like to give my thanks to Ho Chi Minh City Open University

for giving me chance to finish my study to get a Master degree in many different

ways.

Thirdly, to my colleagues in Tri Duc High School, who gave me permission

and chance to complete my thesis within the school year 2015-2016, I appreciated

their contributions and encouragement during the time I did the research.

I am also grateful to some of my friends of TESOL 8. They spared their time to

help me and share their experience in doing the thesis.

Finally, I would like to send my deep love to my family. They always

encouraged me to do well and to keep moving forwards to complete what I had

started. It was they who were with me through difficulties and supported me when I

needed help so that I had enough energy to complete my thesis.

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ABSTRACT

English nowadays is considered as an international language that is widely

used around the world. English language skills have become a topic for studied by

many researchers, including reading comprehension. Besides, concept maps are also

believed to help improve students’ reading comprehension. A study was conducted

with two classes of 10 graders in Tri Duc High School in Ho Chi Minh City to

measure the effects of concept maps on students’ reading comprehension in a private

high school setting. The two classes were named control group and experimental

group. They learnt reading with the same approach – Communicative Language

Teaching- but with one difference that is the intervention, i.e. concept maps in the

experimental group. Before that, the students of the two groups took a pretest on

reading comprehension and an independent t-test was used to analyze the results to

ensure the same level of reading comprehension performance of the two groups. After

inconsecutive 5 periods of reading lessons, they took a reading comprehension

posttest. The students of the experimental group were asked to do a questionnaire to

investigate their attitudes towards the use of concept maps on reading comprehension.

The data were collected, coded by computer software and analyzed. The results

revealed a statistically significant difference in the posttest scores of the two groups

after the treatment. Besides, the students of the experimental group appeared to have

better posttest scores than those of the control group. Most of the students of the

experimental group also showed their agreement in the use of concept maps in reading

lesson. Therefore, concept maps had positive effects on Tri Duc grade-ten students’

reading comprehension and most of them showed positive attitudes towards this new

strategy.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP.................................................................................i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...........................................................................................ii

ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ..............................................................................................iv

LIST OF FIGURES......................................................................................................vii

LIST OF TABLES.......................................................................................................viii

ABBREVIATIONS........................................................................................................x

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................1

1.1 Background to the study .......................................................................................1

1.2 Problem statement.................................................................................................3

1.3 Research aims .......................................................................................................4

1.4 Research questions................................................................................................5

1.5 Research significance ...........................................................................................5

1.6 Overview of thesis chapters..................................................................................5

Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .............................................................................7

2.1 Theoretical Background to the Research..............................................................7

2.1.1 Reading comprehension.................................................................................7

2.1.2 Concept maps...............................................................................................12

2.1.3 Benefits of concept maps to reading comprehension...................................20

2.1.4 Applications of concept maps in reading lessons ........................................22

2.2 Summaries of previous studies on effects of concept maps on reading

comprehension ..........................................................................................................24

2.3 Implications for the present study.......................................................................31

2.4 Chapter summary................................................................................................33

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY .....................................................................................34

3.1 Research setting ..................................................................................................34

3.2 Participants..........................................................................................................35

3.3 Research design ..................................................................................................36

3.4 Material and teaching procedures.......................................................................37

3.4.1 Material ........................................................................................................37

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3.4.2 Teaching procedures ....................................................................................38

3.5 Measurement instruments...................................................................................42

3.5.1 Pretest and posttest.......................................................................................42

3.5.2 Questionnaires..............................................................................................43

3.6 Procedures of data collection..............................................................................48

3.7 Data analysis.......................................................................................................49

3.7.1 Research question 1: To what extent do concept maps have effects on

students’ reading comprehension? ........................................................................49

3.7.2 Research question 2: What are students’ attitudes towards using concept

maps in learning reading? .....................................................................................50

3.8 Chapter summary................................................................................................50

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ...........................................................52

4.1 Information of the participants ...........................................................................52

4.2 Research question 1: To what extent do concept maps have effects on students’

reading comprehension? ...........................................................................................54

4.2.1 Before the treatment.....................................................................................54

4.2.2 After the treatment .......................................................................................56

4.3 Research question 2: What are students’ attitudes towards using concept maps in

learning reading?.......................................................................................................60

4.3.1 Section A: attitudes towards the use of concept maps.................................60

4.3.2 Section B: attitudes towards the effects of concept maps on reading

comprehension ......................................................................................................61

4.3.3 Section C: the future use of concept maps in students’ learning .................65

4.4 Discussion of the findings...................................................................................67

4.4.1 Summary of the findings..............................................................................67

4.4.2 Discussion ....................................................................................................67

4.5 Chapter summary................................................................................................72

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS..................................73

5.1 Conclusion ..........................................................................................................73

5.2 Contributions and limitations..............................................................................74

5.2.1 Contributions................................................................................................74

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5.2.2 Limitations ...................................................................................................75

5.3 Recommendations...............................................................................................76

5.4 Suggestions for further studies ...........................................................................78

5.5 Chapter summary................................................................................................79

REFERENCES .............................................................................................................80

APPENDIX 1 A............................................................................................................89

APPENDIX 1 B............................................................................................................95

APPENDIX 2 A............................................................................................................99

APPENDIX 2 B..........................................................................................................105

APPENDIX 3 A..........................................................................................................110

APPENDIX 3 B..........................................................................................................117

APPENDIX 4 A..........................................................................................................122

APPENDIX 4 B..........................................................................................................128

APPENDIX 5 A..........................................................................................................133

APPENDIX 5 B..........................................................................................................138

APPENDIX 6 .............................................................................................................142

APPENDIX 7 .............................................................................................................146

APPENDIX 8 .............................................................................................................151

APPENDIX 9 .............................................................................................................154

APPENDIX 10 ...........................................................................................................157

APPENDIX 11 ...........................................................................................................158

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2. 1 An example of concept maps (Novak & Cañas, 2008)..............................12

Figure 2. 2 An example of typical mind map (Duffill, 2013) ......................................13

Figure 2. 3 An example of Spider map (Assessment and Instructional Alignment,

2007).............................................................................................................................15

Figure 2. 4 An example of Hierarchical map (Kinchin, 1998)....................................15

Figure 2. 5 An example of Flowchart map (Create a Basic Flowchart, 2016).............16

Figure 2. 6 System map of a health center appointments system (A System map,

2007).............................................................................................................................17

Figure 2. 7 Relationships between concept maps and reading comprehension ...........32

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2. 1 The advantages and disadvantages of four kinds of concept maps.............18

Table 2. 2 Summary of previous studies on reading comprehension and concept maps

......................................................................................................................................30

Table 3. 1 Selected reading texts..................................................................................37

Table 3. 2 Summary of teaching procedures................................................................38

Table 3. 3 Summary of teaching stages........................................................................40

Table 3. 4 Summary of selected reading texts for pre and posttest..............................43

Table 4. 1 Summary of demographic information of the participants .........................53

Table 4. 2 Group Statistics on reading comprehension pretest scores of the control

group and the experimental group................................................................................54

Table 4. 3 Results of Independent sample t-test on reading comprehension pretest

scores of the control group and the experimental group ..............................................55

Table 4. 4 Pair sample statistics on the pretest and posttest scores of the control group

......................................................................................................................................56

Table 4. 5 The pair sample t-test results on the pretest and posttest scores of the

control group.................................................................................................................57

Table 4. 6 Pair sample statistics on the pretest and posttest scores of the experimental

group.............................................................................................................................57

Table 4. 7 The pair sample t-test results on the pretest and posttest scores of the

experimental group .......................................................................................................58

Table 4. 8 Group Statistics on reading comprehension posttest scores of the control

group and the experimental group................................................................................58

Table 4. 9 Results of Independent sample t-test on reading comprehension posttest

scores of the control group and the experimental group ..............................................59

Table 4. 10 Presentation of students’ views on the use of concept maps.....................61

Table 4. 11 Presentation of students’ attitudes toward learning reading with concept

maps..............................................................................................................................62

Table 4. 12 Presentation of students’ attitudes towards using concept maps in pre￾reading stage .................................................................................................................63

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Table 4. 13 Presentation of students’ attitudes towards using concept maps in while￾reading stage .................................................................................................................64

Table 4. 14 Presentation of students’ attitudes toward using concept maps in post￾reading stage .................................................................................................................65

Table 4. 15 Presentation of students’ attitudes towards the future use of concept maps

in their learning.............................................................................................................66

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ABBREVIATIONS

CLT Communicative Language Teaching

EFL English as a Foreign Language

GCSE General Certificate of Secondary Education

L2 Second Language

MOET Ministry of Education and Training

NAEP National Assessment of Educational Progress

PET Preliminary English Test

QRCS Quiz of Reading Comprehension Skill

SD Standard Deviation

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Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter provides the background to the current study. It also raises the

problems of language learning in general and in Vietnamese setting in particular,

which is the reason for this study to be conducted. Thereafter, the research aims,

research questions and the significance of the study for both teachers and students are

going to be presented. An organization of the thesis is placed at the end of this

chapter.

1.1 Background to the study

With the advent of globalization, English is considered as a global language

due to its “simple and wide use” (Nehemia, 2009). It is used to communicate for

purposes of friendship, transaction, trade, etc. and dominates many fields from media

to business. Thus, English, which is widely used all over the world not only by native

speakers but also by others from different continents, is considered as an effective

language aiding meaningful communication (Sharma, 2012). More and more teachers

have been trained to teach English effectively to learners so that they can reach a high

level of language proficiency. Therefore, English and its four basic skills, namely,

reading, speaking, listening and writing, have been topics for studies for decades.

Among the topics that have been studied, effective strategy for learning reading is an

interesting topic for researchers. Reading is also essential for language learning

process because it aids in building background knowledge through the information

intake while reading.

Reading is one of the four skills, which is paid much attention to when it comes

to learning a language in general and learning English in particular. Over many years,

the notion of reading has been changing a lot based on particular views and

approaches. According to Usó-Juan and Martínez-Flor (2006), the view of reading has

changed over the past few decades. First, in the environmentalist approach, readers

just pay attention to the observable facts, i.e. they decode the symbols and translate

them with the strict prevention of errors. Second, in innatist approach, reading is

considered as an active process in which readers derive the meaning of the reading

text by connecting it with their own prior knowledge. Third, the interactionist

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approach allows readers to contrast what they read with their culture, which can be

called interactive process of reading. In this view, “different interpretations should be

accepted and welcomed in the classroom” (Usó-Juan and Martínez-Flor, 2006, p.267).

The last approach that should be highlighted is communicative competence

framework. This approach evolving over the past twenty years views reading as “an

important role in facilitating the acquisition of communicative competence” (Usó￾Juan and Martínez-Flor, 2006, p.267), which consists of discourse, linguistic,

pragmatic and strategic competence. Thus, reading is important for learners to acquire

the language and the needs for effective reading learning strategies should be

considered.

Concept maps have been studied in relation with different purposes of learning

to find out their effects on particular areas of learning. According to Novak and Cañas

(2006), concept maps were dated back to the 1960s when Ausubel came up with an

idea of finding an effective way of presenting ideas in an easy way to learn. Then,

Novak expanded Ausubel’s idea and theory of meaningful learning and he concluded

that "meaningful learning involves the assimilation of new concepts and propositions

into existing cognitive structures" (Novak, 1993). Novak developed concept mapping

in 1972 with central node and linking words to form a proposition in a concept map

(Novak and Cañas, 2006). After that, he and his partners conducted many studies to

get deep understanding of using concept maps in different aspects of learning and

developed concept mapping tool used in teaching. As follows, some other studies have

been conducted to testify the effectiveness of concept maps on improving English

reading comprehension such as Anderson and Huang (1989); Vakilifard & Armand

(2006); Ghanizadeh (2007); Liu and Chen (2008); Oliver (2009); Dias (2010); Liu,

Chen and Chang (2010); Kalhor & Shakibaei (2012); Sahin (2013) and Yousofi and

Seidi (2015). Besides, there are some studies in Vietnam on concept maps on learning

science presented such as Bui (2010); Pham (2012); Nguyen and Doan (2015); on

learning English such as Nguyen (2011) and on reading comprehension such as Le

(2007).

In other words, concept maps have been proved to be useful for learning

reading a foreign language text. Due to the lack of research on the effects of concept

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maps on reading comprehension in Vietnam, especially on high school students’

reading comprehension, there is a need to conduct a study to examine whether the use

of concept maps in teaching and learning reading have positive effect on their reading

comprehension or not.

1.2 Problem statement

So far, reading comprehension has been assessed with a traditional view, so

have the strategies for reading. Reading comprehension was assessed with general

indicator of how well students understand the text (Klingner, Vaughn & Boardman,

2007). Reading comprehension is more than just understanding the text. It should be

understood with the prior knowledge or experience of readers, i.e. readers can connect

the information given in the text with what they have known or experienced in their

real life (Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995). However, according to Klingner et al. (2007),

students are asked to read a text and do some tasks on reading comprehension such as

multiple choice, short answer or cloze text. By doing this, students have no chance to

use their prior knowledge to connect with what they have read. Therefore, reading

should be assessed as an interactive and reflective process (Klingner et al., 2007). In

other words, there must be another way of assessing reading comprehension and some

other strategies to make reading comprehension possible for students.

In Vietnam, English language is a compulsory subject in high schools and is

taken in the National Examination following the regulation which was issued by the

Ministry of Education and Training (MOET) in 2015. However, many Vietnamese

students cannot communicate in English after ten years’ of learning the language

(Nguyen, 2014). The MOET has taken action to upgrade the ability of learners and

teachers of English, though. In the interview, Nguyen also said that in 2014 when

English was an optional subject in the General Certificate of Secondary Education

(GCSE) examination taken by all senior students in high school every year, there were

only 16% of students choosing English to be one of the subjects they had to take in the

exam. In other words, English to Vietnamese students is such a difficult subject that

they are reluctant to choose it. Additionally, Le (2013) also indicated that the widely

accepted method is still traditional one with which students have to learn grammar￾based lessons, not the skills. Ho stated in his research in 2014 that one of the problems

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in reading comprehension was that students lack of vocabulary though teachers often

provide students with a heavy load of vocabulary. Therefore, there must be a need for

appropriate strategy to enhance students’ reading comprehension.

The similar problems happen to the students at Tri Duc High School in which

the study was conducted. It is a private school in Ho Chi Minh City, which has nearly

two hundred tenth graders, most of whom come from provinces. They come to the city

and spend most of their time at school with teachers and other students. In school,

they are taught with the English textbooks required by the MOET and tested by doing

some exams. These exams mainly check students’ knowledge of vocabulary and

grammar, but not the skills. From personal experience of 4-year teaching in Tri Duc

High School, the writer finds out that students are often taught just in order to be well￾prepared for the exams but not teaching strategies for reading comprehension. Most of

the students viewed reading as the most difficult skill to learn among other three

skills. Moreover, talking with other teachers of English in Tri Duc High School, the

writer also finds out that in a reading lesson, the teacher and writer and other teachers

of English in this school show new vocabulary by using pictures or examples for some

words and then ask students to copy down a long list of vocabulary. In while-reading,

teachers ask students to read and translate the text into Vietnamese so that all students

can understand the text. Students are also asked to do tasks provided in textbooks in

groups or pairs. The language used in class is often English first and then translated

into Vietnamese. Most of the teachers also say that most students are reluctant to learn

reading which might be due to the way of teaching. This should be changed so that

students can have reading skills, not just to read textbooks, but to read other kinds of

documents such as newspapers, magazines, signs, etc. which are in their real life.

Therefore, an alternative strategy should be applied in order to motivate students in

learning reading.

1.3 Research aims

The purposes of this study were firstly, to investigate whether concept maps

have positive effects on students’ reading comprehension and secondly, to explore

what students think about the use of concept maps in learning reading.