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


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.

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

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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

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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


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

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” (UsóJuan 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

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 grammarbased 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

This research is conducted to attest the effect of concept maps on students’
reading comprehension. Thus, it would be beneficial for teachers and learners of
English. With this research, teachers and students would excitedly experience a new
strategy for teaching and learning reading which can be more interesting and
motivating. It is because using concept maps to understand the text makes students
understand the text better and join the text with enthusiasm, which may lead to their
success in reading.
On the one hand, concept maps can help students become more effective
readers who are are able to read the texts in their field. This helps students, especially
students in Tri Duc High School, be able to read English texts not only in textbooks
but also in other documents for purpose of study or pleasure. Moreover, teachers can
use concept maps in teaching students vocabulary and help them enhance their
collaboration with their peers.
On the other hand, this present study will hopefully inspire teachers to use
concept maps in reading instruction so that their students are highly motivated in
learning reading.
In other words, both teachers and learners could learn from this study and use
concept map in collaboration with other strategies to make reading more successful.
Other succeeding studies should try to connect concept maps and collaborative
learning in improving students’ reading comprehension.
1.6 Overview of thesis chapters
The current study comprises of five parts as follows

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Chapter 1 is the introduction of the study. It presents the background of this study. It
also reveals the problem statement followed by two research aims and two research
questions and the significance of the study.
Chapter 2 is the review of literature in which the theoretical knowledge of the

context of the text. The two components of reading comprehension supplement each
other. That is to say students cannot understand the text if they are not adequately
provided with vocabulary. On the other hand, the fact that students with the ability of
reading words out of context does not mean that they can make sense of those words
in context of a particular text.
Secondly, reading comprehension, according to Anderson, Hiebert, Scott, &
Wilkinson, 1985; Jenkins, Larson and Fleischer, 1983, and O’Shea, Sindelar, &
O’Shea, 1987 is “the process of constructing meaning by coordinating a number of
complex processes that include word reading, word and world knowledge, and
fluency” (as cited in Klingner et al., 2007). Word and world knowledge are the
abilities to connect what is read with what students have in their real life from their
knowledge and experience. Fluency is the ability to read and understand a text in a
limit of time. In other words, reading comprehension also relates to the process of
many different cognitive skills and ability (Oakhill, Cain and Elbro, 2005).
Thirdly, according to McNamara (2007), reading comprehension refers to “the
ability to go beyond the words, to understand the ideas and the relationships between
ideas conveyed in a text”. This definition conveys the same meaning as Gough and
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Tunmer (1986) used to define that reading comprehension is not simply to understand
the text but comprehend the meaning and the relationships which are implied in the
text based on the context.
Moreover, Pardo (2004) defined reading comprehension as the process in
which readers make an attempt to connect what is in the text with prior knowledge,
previous experience and their view related to the text.
To conclude, reading comprehension is a challenging and complex process
including decoding the words and comprehending the meaning, the ideas and
relationships among ideas in the text in relation with prior knowledge, world
knowledge and previous experience of the readers.

days, in order to assess students’ reading comprehension, teachers had better consider
many factors before choosing a test or an assessment measure. They can be the
purpose of the testing, the information needed to test students, the number and the
level of students tested, the length of the test and the form-whether it is tested
individually or in groups (Harris and Graham, 2005). Finding the purpose of reading
comprehension assessment is essential. Levels of students, kinds of tests, etc. are some
elements that assessment should be based on to make sure that students are assessed in
the right way and suitably for their ability. Therefore, teachers should be careful when
choosing the way to assess students’ reading comprehension.
2.1.1.4 Strategies for reading comprehension
Reading comprehension strategies is defined as “a process of reasoning” (Pang,
Muaka, Bernhardt and Kamil, 2003). It is also, as in Graesser’s definition, “a
cognitive and behavioral action that is enacted under particular contextual conditions,
with the goal of improving some aspect of comprehension” (2007). To make it clear,
Graesser gives an example of a student’s need of searching a vocabulary when he
confronts it in the text. With behavioral action, he looks that word up in the dictionary
while the cognitive action lets students read the definition in the dictionary and then
reread the sentence in the text to have understanding of the sentence as a whole.
Furthermore, according to Adler (2004), comprehension strategies are steps that help
readers comprehend the text. He also recommended 7 strategies which happen to have
“a firm scientific basis for improving text comprehension” in his article. With
strategies, students can improve their reading comprehension as Moore (2010)
mentioned that “Low-achieving adolescent readers improve their comprehension
performance when they learn to apply strategies.” Besides, Brown, Pressley, Van
Meter and Schuder (1996) concluded that students with reading strategies outperform

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those without. Thus, it is imperative that students have strategies for reading

the main ideas are in the reading text to put into their own words. This
strategy helps readers identify the central ideas, get rid of irrelevant
information and remember what has been read.

(v)

Visualizing strategy makes use of visual images to illustrate concepts
and relationships among concepts in the text. This assists readers in
focusing text structures and providing tools to examine and show
relationships in a text.

In general, there are many strategies for reading comprehension, some of which have
just been presented above. However, the focus of this current study is on concept
maps, one type of visualizing strategy. Therefore, an overview of the use of concept

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maps strategy in reading comprehension lesson will be discussed in the following
paragraphs.
Concept maps can be used as a strategy in pre, while and post stage of a
reading lesson. Pre-reading stage aims to help students build background knowledge,
present new vocabulary, generate students’ interest of the topic (Meltzer et al., 2001).
The teacher can ask students to build a concept map on what they know about the
topic. Then, ask students to compare their maps with their peers’. This is to help “set
the stage for the new learning and motivate students” (Meltzer et al., 2001). Whilereading stage allows students to integrate what is read in the text with readers’ prior
knowledge (Crilly, 2002). At this stage, students are given a chance to reconfirm what
they have brainstormed about the topic in the pre-reading stage so that they can add
some new information in the text and eliminate what is irrelevant. The post-reading
stage is the stage in which students’ reading comprehension is checked and then they


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

As the figure 2.1 shown, a concept map consists of concepts and propositions.
Two or more concepts which are labeled with symbols and words are linked to form
propositions in order to display meaningful statements about objects or events
happening in the world. There are two important characteristics of concept maps:
hierarchical structure and crosslink. Firstly, the two elements of concept maps are
hierarchically structured, i.e. presenting meaning from general to specific or from the
most to the least important. This kind of structure must base on the context in order to
find out the answers for a particular question called focus question. Another
characteristic of concept maps is the crosslink (Novak & Cañas, 2008). Crosslink is

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used to show the relationship between two concepts, which can help us to see how one
concept is related to another on interpreting concept maps.
Another term has been used when it comes to concept maps is the term concept
mapping. It is used to be defined as a process by which students illustrate their
understanding of a particular area of knowledge in a visual way with shapes and lines
indicating the concepts and the interrelationship among them (Lay-Dopyera &
Bayerbach, 1983). It is also defined as a technique that allows both the person who
creates concept map and those who read the concept map understand the relationships
among the ideas or core concepts presented visually through concept maps
(Scappaticci, 2000). In other words, concept mapping is a technique or process that
students build their concept maps to show their understanding of a particular area.
Following is the comparison between concept maps and another type of map, i.e. mind
maps.
2.1.2.2 Comparison between concept maps and mind maps

is used as memorization technique (2013). Furthermore, according to Eppler (2006)
each type has its own advantages and disadvantages, some of which are presented as
followed. Mind maps help stimulate students’ creativity while concept maps provide
rapid information and the relationships. However, readers can find it difficult to read a
mind map when it becomes more complex with lots of ideas. Mind maps are somehow
difficult and need extensive training. Owing to those reasons, in this study, the writer
use concept maps for teaching in classroom setting to examine their effects on
students’ reading comprehension. Some common kinds of concept maps are presented
in the next section.
2.1.2.3 Kinds of concept maps
As being discussed in some documents such as All and Huycke, 2007; Atkins,
2009; Dillard and Myers, 2014; McSwain, 2007; Sharma, 2012; Shetty, 2014, concept
maps are made up of four main kinds: spider maps, hierarchical maps, flowchart maps
and system maps.
The first kind, spider maps, as shown in figure 2.3 on the next page, consists of
a main idea or core concepts in the centre of the map and other sub-ideas or sub-

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