Comparing the Effects of Mind-Mapping vs. Concept-Mapping Techniques on Iranian EFL Students’ Reading Motivation, Reading Comprehension, and Willingness to Communicate

Abstract

As there have been few studies on the comparative effects of mind-mapping (MM) and concept-mapping (CM) techniques on learning English language skills and sub-skills, this survey pursued to scrutinize the impacts of these techniques on reading motivation, reading comprehension, and willingness to communicate (WTC) of Iranian EFL students. To fulfill these objectives, 78 intermediate EFL students were selected based on non-random sampling and accidentally assigned to two experimental groups (EGs) and one control group (CG). They were then pre-tested using a reading motivation test, a reading comprehension test, and a WTC test. Next, the intervention was conducted on the three groups. The MM technique was employed to teach 16 English reading texts to one EG and the CM technique was applied to teach the same texts to the other EG. None of these techniques were used to teach the texts to the CG. When the intervention ended, the post-tests of reading comprehension, reading motivation test, and WTC were given to the three groups. The outcomes of the One-Way ANOVA tests and the post-hoc Scheffe tests revealed that there was a substantial difference between the scores of the EGs and the CG on the three post-tests, with the results being in favor of the EGs. In effect, the findings indicated that the MM and CM techniques enhanced reading motivation, reading comprehension, and WTC of the experimental participants equally. Finally, the implications and conclusions of the research were explained.

Keywords

• concept-mapping technique
• mind-mapping technique
• reading comprehension
• reading motivation test
• wtc