An application of semantic mapping in teaching english vocabulary for students of food processing at nghe an trading and tourism vocational college

AN APPLICATION OF SEMANTIC MAPPING IN TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR STUDENTS OF FOOD PROCESSING AT NGHE AN TRADING AND TOURISM VOCATIONAL COLLEGE MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION Nghệ An

AN APPLICATION OF SEMANTIC MAPPING IN TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR STUDENTS OF FOOD PROCESSING AT NGHE AN

TRADING AND TOURISM VOCATIONAL COLLEGE

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

Nghệ An, năm 2014

AN APPLICATION OF SEMANTIC MAPPING IN TEACHING ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR STUDENTS OF FOOD PROCESSING AT NGHE AN

TRADING AND TOURISM VOCATIONAL COLLEGE

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) Code: 60140111

MASTER’S THESIS IN EDUCATION

SUPERVISOR:: TRAN BA TIEN, Ph.D

I would like to thank Dr Tran Ba Tien, who commented on my work, for his kind help and valuable advice he provides me

I am also grateful to the head of Foreign Language Department at Nghe An Tourism-Trading Vocational College, my colleagues and students of K18B5 and K18B6 who helped me much to finish the methodology of the research

I wish to thank my parents and my loved family who love, care, support and encourage me a lot in the production of this study

Finally, I am too aware that despite all the advice and assistance, I feel that the thesis is far from perfect, it is therefore, my sole responsibilities for any inadequacies that it may be considered to have

iii

skills but also in vocabulary Semantic mapping is considered as a good strategy be applied in teaching of vocabulary Based on literature review, it is found that semantic mapping has had good effects on vocabulary learning; especially it improves the retention and retrieval of word meanings This study was conducted to explore the students’ vocabulary performance under the treatment

of semantic mapping and their reflections on the teacher’s application of this method This experimental study followed a two-group pre-test and post-test design The participants were 87 freshmen of Food processing students at At Nghe

An Trading and Tourism vocational college Three instruments: (1) the tests on vocabulary knowledge, (2) the questionnaire on the students’ perceptions towards semantic mapping, and (3) the interview on the students’ reflections towards semantic mapping were employed to collect both quantitative and qualitative data

ACKNOWLDGEMENTS ii

ABSTRACT iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

LIST OF ABBRIVIATIONS 5

LIST OF TABLES 6

LIST OF FIGURES 7

LIST OF CHARTS 8

Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION 9

1.1 Rationale 9

1.2 Aims of the study 11

1.3 Research questions 12

1.4 Significance of the study 12

1.5 Organization of the study 12

Chapter 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 14

2.1 What is vocabulary? 14

2.2 The importance of vocabulary 15

2.3 Approaches to teaching vocabulary 16

2.3.1 General traditional methods 16

2.3.1.1 The grammar-translation method 16

2.3.1.2 The direct method 16

2.3.1.3 The audio-lingual method 17

2.3.2 Communicative approach to teaching vocabulary 17

2.4 Semantic mapping 21

2.4.1 Definitions of semantic mapping 21

2.4.2 A typology of semantic mapping 23

2.4.2.2 Story mapping 25

2.4.2.3 Concept mapping 27

2.4.3 The use of semantic mapping in empirical research 29

2.4.3.2 Stage to use 32

2.4.3.3 Way to use 33

2.5 The roles of semantic mapping in EFL classrooms 35

2.5.1 Improvement in success and rate of foreign language acquisition 35

2.5.2 Improvement in attitudes towards foreign language acquisition 36

2.6 Implications for English vocabulary teaching practices 37

2.6.1 Stage 1: Introduction 38

2.6.2 Stage 2: Brainstorm 38

2.6.3 Stage 3: Categorization 38

2.6.4 Stage 4: Synthesis 39

2.7 Summary 39

Chapter 3: METHODOLOGY 40

3.1 Study setting 40

3.2 Participants 40

3.2.1 The Control Group 41

3.2.2 The Experimental Group 41

3.2.3 Resemblance 41

3.3 Data types of methods of data collection 42

3.3.1 Experiment 42

3.3.1.1 Pre-test 43

3.3.1.2 Experimental teaching process 43

3.3.1.3 Post-test 45

3.3.2 Interview 45

3.3.3 Questionnaire 46

3.4 Analytical framework 47

3.4.1 Quantitative analysis of pre- and post-tests 47

3.4.2 Qualitative analysis of interview 48

3.4.3 Quantitative analysis of questionnaire 48

Chapter 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 49

4.1 Results from the experiment 49

4.1.1 Pre-test results 49

4.1.1.1 The Control Group 49

4.1.1.2 The Experimental Group 50

4.1.1.3 Pre-test similarities 50

4.1.2 Post-test results 51

4.1.2.1 The Control Group 51

4.1.2.2 The Experimental Group 52

4.1.2.3 Post-test differences 52

4.1.3 A comparison of pre- and post-test results for each group 53

4.1.3.1 Means 53

4.1.3.2 Distribution of score types 54

4.2 Results from interviews and questionnaires 55

4.2.1 About the role of vocabulary and the application of semantic mapping in its teaching 56

4.2.1.1 The students’ preference for the approach to teach vocabulary 56

4.2.1.2 The students’ impression on semantic mapping 57

4.2.1.3 The students’ reflections on the teacher’s application of semantic mapping 58

4.2.1.4 The students’ opinions for the frequency of using semantic mapping 65 4.2.2 Summary 66

4.3 Discussion 66

4.4 Overall summary 67

Chapter 5: CONCLUSION 68

5.1 Conclusions 68

5.2 Recommendations for English language practitioners 70

5.2.1 For teachers 70

5.2.2 For students 71

5.3 Suggestions for further research 71

5.4 Summary 72

REFERENCES 73

APPENDIX A 78

APPENDIX B 82

APPENDIX C 86

APPENDIX D 87

APPENDIX E 88

APPENDIX F 93

LIST OF TABLES

Table 3.1: The Control Group’s background information 41

Table 3.2: The Experimental Group’s background information 41

Table 4.1: Pre-test score analysis for Control Group 49

Table 4.2: Pre-test score analysis for Experimental Group 50

Table 4.3: Post-test score analysis for Control Group 51

Table 4.4: Post-test score analysis for Experimental Group 52

Table 4.5: Approaches to teach vocabulary that the students’ former teachers used 56

Table 4.6: How the students found semantic mapping 57

Table 4.7: Students’ responses to the effect of S.M on creating motivation 58

Table 4.8: Students’ responses to the effect of S.M on stimulating the vocabulary learning process 60

Table 4.9: Students’ responses to the effect of S.M on facilitating the vocabulary learning process 61

Table 4.10: Various strengths realized by the students 62

As can be seen in table 4.11, for the Students’ responses to the effect of S.M on promoting group-work competence 63

Table 4.11: Students’ responses to the effect of S.M on promoting group-work competence 64

Table 4.12: Students’ responses to the constraints of S.M 64

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 2.1: Model of a word mapping (Source: http:// graphic.org) 24

Figure 2.2: Items in bedroom (Gairns and Redman, 1986) 25

Figure 2.3: Basic framework of a story mapping (Source: http:// graphic.org) 26

Figure 2.4: Semantic mapping for ―human life circle’(Gairns and Redman, 1986) 26

Figure 2.5: Detailed example of a story mapping (Source: http:// graphic.org) 27

Figure 2.6: Model of a Double Cell Diagram (Source: http:// graphic.org) 28

Figure 2.7: Model of a Project Concept Mapping (Source: http:// graphic.org)… 28

Figure 2.8: Word Scroll by Beers (2003, p 192) 30

LIST OF CHARTS

Chart 4.1: The change in pre- and post-test means for each group 53

Chart 4.2: Control Group’s score type distribution 54

Chart 4.3: Experimental Group’s score type distribution 55

Chart 4.4: Students’ impression on semantic mapping 57

Chart 4.5: Students’ opinions for the frequency of using semantic mapping 65

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale

Vietnam is entering a unique stage of its development With impressive economic growth over the last ten years, it has been integrating with the region and the world exemplified by its recent accession to WTO, membership of the UN Security Council, and active participation in various major regional and international activities To sustain the growth and enhance its status in international arena in the years to come, more than ever it needs a highly-skilled workforce that can help achieve its stated goals of modernization, industrialization and international integration One of the important skills needed is the mastery of foreign languages, especially English, as claimed by Vietnam’s Prime Minister Dung Tan Nguyen (as cited in Tran, 2008 para 2) that from now on to 2020, it will

be the nuclear point in the foreign language educational policy and in communication

Indeed, during the last ten years English has maintained its dominant role as the first foreign language in Vietnam This phenomenon comes from various demands in both personal and social aspects In the light of the former, English proficiency is seen as a vital requirement for employment or overseas higher education For example, the mastery of basic English is one of the prerequisite demands for applicants for jobs in offices and companies, and certifications such as TOEFL, IELTS or TOEIC are a must for those students who want to study overseas In regard to the latter, English plays an extremely important role in international co-operation For instance, with the recent economic policy promulgated by the government to attract capital investment, it has significantly facilitated economic co-operation ―with an ever greater influx of foreign investment, mostly from capitalist countries‖ (Do, 2006 p 2)

Due to such necessary demands, in the last decade English has developed

―with an unprecedented speed in Vietnam‖ (ibid., p 8) Specifically, hundreds of language centres have been established all over the country, with an overwhelming majority of learners studying English (Ministry of Education and Training, as cited

in Do, 2006, p 2) Though it has not yet fully documented, ―around 90% of foreign language learners have been studying English‖ (ibid., p 8)

Despite the recent English learning boom, ―the basic knowledge about this popular language of a great majority of the learners has not met the demands in reality‖ (Nguyen, 1992, p 21) One of the major reasons for this problem is their shortage of vocabulary stock Truly, in a language, lexical items are the building blocks, since they label objects, actions and ideas, without which people cannot convey the intended meaning Many students’ difficulties, both receptive and productive, result from inadequate vocabulary, and even when they are at a higher level of language, they are still in need of it Hence there is no doubt that lexical knowledge can directly influence the success of language learning in which

―students with affluent vocabulary tend to have advantages in enhancing the four language skills‖ (Nguyen, 2006, p 2)

Although it is of such great importance and in high demand, the interest in vocabulary in the teaching of English as second or foreign language has long been neglected Until the last decade or so, it was a common practice to consider the teaching of vocabulary as an afterthought or an ―appendage‖ to the more important tasks of teaching other levels in the study of language such as grammar and pronunciation This misconception is proven by the fact that the teaching of

vocabulary in many schools and universities in Vietnam is strategically limited A

recent report by the Department of Education and Training of Quang Ninh Province (2008) shows that the teaching of vocabulary in many schools tends to be

―conventionally restricted to translation into the mother tongue or improvised‖ (p 2) Obviously, practices such as listening to teachers, writing down the target language new words and their mother tongue equivalences, and trying to memorize

word lists passively are what students normally involve themselves in These practices surely cause students a feeling of boredom and indigestibleness Likewise,

as asserted by Nguyen (2006, p 4) ―such obsolete and poor presentations have resulted in students’ negative attitude to vocabulary learning; thus most of them rarely remember the meanings of new terms beyond the tests‖ What is worse, as articulated by Hoang and Wright (2005), the recent strategies to instruct vocabulary

in Vietnam ―rarely take place in a communicative environment‖ (p 3)

Although this field has recently begun to take a greater interest in the strategies for vocabulary instruction manifested with the appearance of studies which suggest some interesting and efficient strategies for teaching and retrieving vocabulary, such as the investigation of teaching vocabulary through games (Nguyen & Khuat, 2003; Nguyen, 2006) and the exploration of creative approaches

to build vocabulary (Hoang & Wright, 2005), none have exploited the strategies which can create mental linkages to reinforce the memorization of words yet

Hence the call for employing such strategies to diversify the lexical instruction is necessary, and it is high time the strategies which can synchronize the easy retrieval of words with the creation of a relaxed and communicative learning atmosphere were applied As there has hardly been any investigation into semantic mapping and its effects on the improvement of the memorization of words as well

as the creation of a positive and exciting learning attitude for students until now in Vietnam, such a useful strategy captures the researcher’s curiosity and deserves due research attention

The expectation of effectively employing this strategy for vocabulary instruction, therefore, generated ideas from which this study came into being

1.2 Aims of the study

The study is, thus, conducted in an attempt to investigate the feasibility and educational values of applying semantic mapping as a strategy into the teaching of vocabulary to enhance its effectiveness and, concurrently, students’ positive attitudes towards lexical acquisition

2 What are their reflections on the teacher’s application of this strategy into

their learning of vocabulary?

1.4 Significance of the study

The study pays its contributions to both theoretical and practical aspects Theoretically, by exploring semantic mapping, the study adds to the growing demand of strategies for learning and memorizing words for English language

it is hoped to provide useful information about characteristics and benefits of this interesting but less-exploited strategy in dealing with vocabulary so far

Practically, the study is hopefully to provide helpful knowledge about kinds

of semantic mapping and recommend clear guidelines for teachers to use this strategy to deal with vocabulary in particular and, thus, to facilitate their teaching of English in general For learners, this study hopefully provides useful instructions so that they can use semantic mapping as an effective vocabulary self-learning tip

1.5 Organization of the study

The study consists of 5 chapters Chapter 1 provides an introduction to the topic of the study by stating its context, aim, research questions, significance, and structure Chapter 2 reviews relevant theories of vocabulary and semantic mapping

which are organized along five main categories: definition, typology, use in empirical research, roles in language pedagogy, and implications for language

teaching practices Chapter 3 justifies the design and methods of investigation by taking the four features of setting, participants, data types of methods of data collection, and analytical framework into account Chapter 4 presents the data analysis and interpretation for the three types of data: experiment, journals and

questionnaire It then discusses the findings in the light of the data already presented Chapter 5 draws conclusion by explicitly answering the research questions, gives some recommendations for English language practitioners, and proposes topics for further research

Chapter 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

As presented in the previous chapter, the teaching and learning of vocabulary have not been effective up till now in Vietnam due to the limitative application of strategies Therefore, an exploration of one of them – semantic mapping – is necessary To know how to apply it into practice effectively to solve the problem of vocabulary teaching, a theory of vocabulary and semantic mapping needs to be carefully worked out

Thus this chapter shapes the background that is relevant to the topic under investigation in the present study by firstly exploring the concept of vocabulary, roles of vocabulary and methods to teach vocabulary Secondly, it give definition of semantic mapping, it classifies its types; however, as only three of them will be employed to teach the selected lessons, these three are theoretically examined in detail Thirdly, it reviews some empirical research in which this strategy is used Fourthly, it considers the roles this strategy plays within English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms The chapter ends with some implications for English vocabulary teaching practices

2.1 What is vocabulary?

So far there have been a lot of definitions of vocabulary Vocabulary is defined as words in a specific language or freestanding items of language that have meaning (McCarthy, 1990) Penny Ur (1996) defined vocabulary roughly as ―the words we teach in the foreign language‖ She also suggested that ―a new item of vocabulary may be more than a single word, a compound of two or three words (e.g., post office, mother-in-law), and multi-word idioms (e.g., call it a day)‖

Besides, vocabulary is broadly defined as knowledge of words and word meanings (Lehr et al., 2004) According to Lehr and his colleagues, vocabulary is more complex than this definition suggests First, words come not only in oral forms including those words that can be recognized and used in listening and speaking but also in print forms to be recognized and used in reading and writing

Second, word knowledge also comes in two forms: receptive and productive Receptive vocabulary is words that can be recognized in reading and listening Productive vocabulary refers to words that can be used in speaking and writing (Lehr et al., 2004) Therefore, vocabulary is understood as knowledge of word spelling, pronunciation, collocations (i.e words it co-occurs with), and appropriateness (Nation, 1990) However, Pyles (1970) confirmed that vocabulary

is the focus of language with its sounds and meaning, which interlock to allow us to communicate with one another

As discussed above, vocabulary can be seen in many different ways Vocabulary refers to words or a set of words in a language or knowledge of words regarding its forms, meanings and how to use it accurately in the context In the present study, vocabulary refers to the words, compounds and idioms in a language that can be used to conveyed and received information in oral and written communication

2.2 The importance of vocabulary

Regarding the importance of vocabulary, Krashen (1989) pointed out that ―a large vocabulary is, of course, essential for mastery of a language‖(pp 73, 440-463)

as without vocabulary, nothing can be conveyed (Wilkins, 1972)

Rubin and Thompson (1994) considered the significant role of vocabulary in communication as stating that ―one cannot speak, understand, read or write a foreign language without knowing a lot of words Vocabulary learning is at the heart of mastering a foreign language‖ Nguyen and Khuat (2003) also accepted that vocabulary knowledge plays an important role in learning a foreign language Vocabulary is one element that links the four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing all together Vocabulary is a core component of language proficiency and provides much of the basis for how well learners listen, speak, read, and write (Richards and Renandya, 2002)

In fact, vocabulary is a means to support communication It is a necessary component of language instruction In order to communicate well in a foreign

language, learners should acquire an adequate numbers of words and should know how to use them accurately When emphasizing the importance of vocabulary in communication, Della and Hocking (1992) also claimed that with a little grammar, the learners can have a little smooth communication, but without vocabulary, it is difficult for others to understand the information the learners want

to express For this reason, a lack of good grammatical structures may not interrupt communication However, if we lack vocabulary, there is no successful communication With a good knowledge of vocabulary, learners may feel confident

in communication, and it contributes to the success in communication However, the question to arise is which words are necessary for learners to know and how to remember these words

2.3 Approaches to teaching vocabulary

The two most common ways in which the meaning of view items is conveyed as follows: General traditional methods and communicative method of teaching vocabulary

2.3.1 General traditional methods

The former includes various approach such as: grammar – translation method, direct method, audio- lingual method, suggestopedia method

In the scope of thesis, I only focus on three major traditional methods: the grammar-translation method; the direct method and the audio-lingual method

2.3.1.1 The grammar-translation method

The grammar - translation method is the oldest method of teaching The grammar translation method is a foreign language teaching method derived from the classical (sometimes called traditional) method of teaching Greek and Latin This method has been used from the classical times to translate classical languages, Latin and Greek, it has been called Classical method

2.3.1.2 The direct method

The direct method of teaching foreign languages, sometimes called the natural method, refrains from using the learners' native language and uses only the

target language The direct method was an answer to the dissatisfaction with the older grammar translation method, which teaches students grammar and vocabulary through direct translations and thus focuses on the written language

2.3.1.3 The audio-lingual method

The audio-lingual method was widely used in the United States and other countries in the 1950's and 1960's The Audio-lingual Method was developed in the U.S.A during the Second World War At that time, the U.S government found a great necessity to set up a special language-training program to supply the war with language personnel The audio-lingual method, Army Method, or New Key is a style of teaching used in teaching foreign languages It is based on behaviorist theory, which professes that certain traits of living things, and in this case humans could be trained through a system of reinforcement—correct use of a trait would receive positive feedback while incorrect use of that trait would receive negative feedback

This approach to language learning was similar to another, earlier method called the direct method Like the direct method, the audio-lingual method advised that students be taught a language directly, without using the students' native language to explain new words or grammar in the target language However, unlike the direct method, the audio-lingual method didn’t focus on teaching vocabulary Rather, the teacher drilled students in the use of grammar

In conclusion, when using general traditional methods to teach vocabulary, vocabulary items are imparted mostly by translation: either a list of words with their translation at the beginning of the lesson or the translation of the content having new words or glossaries at the very end This is an erroneous practice as it leads to a state of confusion for the learners

2.3.2 Communicative approach to teaching vocabulary

The communicative approach could be said to be the product of educators and linguists who had grown dissatisfied with the audio-lingual and grammar-translation methods of foreign language instruction They felt that students were not

learning enough realistic, whole language They did not know how to communicate using appropriate social language, gestures, or expressions; in brief, they were at a loss to communicate in the culture of the language studied Interest in and development of communicative-style teaching mushroomed in the 1970s; authentic language use and classroom exchanges where students engaged in real communication with one another became quite popular

In the intervening years, the communicative approach has been adapted to the elementary, middle, secondary, and post-secondary levels And the underlying philosophy has spawned different teaching methods known under a variety of names, including notional-functional, teaching for proficiency, proficiency-based instruction, and communicative language teaching

Communicative Approach is aimed at training students' listening and speaking, so it relatively ignores the training of reading and writing The ability of writing and reading is quite important for an intellectual to enter universities, study abroad, read plenty of original books, hoop up into the international webs looking for information, write papers or dissertations in English, etc All these cannot be acquired merely from "Communicative Approach." Therefore, "extensive reading" can compensate for the fault of "Communicative Approach" and the two can work side by side

There are a lot of techniques to teach vocabulary in language learning in communication method

Real objects or models of real objects are very effective and meaningful in hawing meanings but in handling of real objects, a teacher must be practical and should not be superfluous

Pictures of many types and colors can be used successfully to show the meaning

of words and sentence Handmade pictures can also be used as there is no need to

be very artistic

Drawings can be used to explain the meaning of things, actions, qualities, and relations A line drawing of a head, for example, provides many useful nouns and verbs

Another visual way to teach vocabulary is to find videos that showcase the words used in lesson Videos created for people learning English as a second language are also ideal for teaching younger students words with which they have had little or no exposure You Tube Teachers’ Language Arts section is a good place to look for video content that is safe for classroom viewing

When one member of a pair of opposites is understood, the meaning of the other can be easily comprehended This helps the student to understand the different shades of meanings of a word

A synonym may be used to help the student to understand the different shades of meaning if the synonym is better known than the word being taught Synonyms help to enrich a student's vocabulary bank and provide alternative words instantly

Vocabulary builds upon itself, and association with words that are already familiar to students is one of the most effective means of teaching students unfamiliar words Teachers who help students to associate new words with words they already know well will help students with long-term retention

Students can take turns acting out one of the vocabulary words, while the other students guess the word In order for charades with vocabulary words to work, students need some basis in the vocabulary, so teachers should schedule the game of charades a few days after students first get their vocabulary words Teachers may want to release the word list on Monday, for instance, and make Friday game day

 Word of the Day

Educators who grew up in the 1980s surely remember ―Pee-Wee’s Playhouse‖ and ―Pee-Wee’s Word of the Day.‖ When the word of the day was spoken, everyone in the playhouse, and the kids at home, were supposed to scream Teachers who want to encourage students to use their new vocabulary words (and who can stand a little noise) could benefit from this method Teachers can make each day’s word of the day a different vocabulary word, and let students yell whenever someone says it Then, at the end of the yell, teachers can remind students

of the word’s definition Even teachers will admit vocabulary isn’t the most exciting thing to teach, but adding fun ways to teach vocabulary words can help keep the process fresh and entertaining

Language games are often used to fill a few minutes at the end of the lesson

or to copy some of the faster students while others catch up on an exercise There are many kinds of games such as communication game, code control game and so

on And these games can be played at any level of language specially students at college Games play an important role in teaching and learning English Game is the best way to help students remember rapidly and review vocabulary effectively There are kinds of game for teacher to teach and check vocabulary, as follows: Hang man; Bingo; which one is it; Spelling Bee; Crossword puzzle, etc…

According to Frisby (1957), the most suitable method to teach a foreign language is Communicative Approach The students have the need to communicate outside the classroom, real communication, not prepared exercises or drills In order

to get this aim, the Communicative Approach offer us a great variety of techniques and activities we can use as teachers with our students, using authentic materials, motivating for the pupils, and similar to the real world The Communicative Approach is a valid Method, because there is a lot of different learning needs, different students, different situations and each one can be deal with the most suitable method in each case

Semantic mapping is one of technique of teaching vocabulary in communicative method The teaching and learning of vocabulary have not been effective up till now in Vietnam due to the limitative application of strategies Therefore, an exploration of one of them – semantic mapping – is necessary

2.4 Semantic mapping

To know how to apply it into practice effectively to solve the problem of vocabulary teaching, a theory of semantic mapping needs to be carefully worked out

2.4.1 Definitions of semantic mapping

As cited in Buis (2004, p 18), such researchers as Nagy (1988), Biemiller (2001), and Beck, McKeown and Kucan (2002) caution us that vocabulary instruction must be more substantial for words to really stick In this manner, the creation of associative links among words is quite a potential way to stick them Furthermore, ―associative vocabulary instruction is a more effective approach to promote learning than instruction in which students only hear context mentioning of definitions,‖ as proclaimed by Beck, McKeown and Kucan (2002, as cited in Buis,

2004, p 18) Therefore, since its introduction in the early 1980s, semantic mapping has received a great deal of attention thanks to its original creativeness like that To understand it more clearly, it is essential to know what underlies this notion

The notion of semantic mapping dates back to the dyad Johnson and Pearson (1978) when they firstly proposed a categorical model of information in graphic form as a classroom strategy to build and extend vocabulary knowledge It was then considered a breakthrough in language pedagogy, since at the same time it could analyze and group words into categories in a text, create the links within the lexical network describing them, and establish visual displays to show their relationships

It can be said that this strategy was essentially built up on the ground of

Chomsky’s doctrine of mentalism in 1960s which bestowed an emphasis on human

language learning capacity (as cited in Pateman, 1987, p 120) In that light, learning is considered to be an active mental process, and the utilization from

Chomskyan doctrine in this strategy lies in the creation of links to connect related information, thus activating the mentally acquired process about the language more favorably

Later, the perspective about semantic mapping is further discerned by Johnson, Heimlich and Pittelman (1986), who make an important contribution in putting forward semantic mapping as:… a graphic arrangement of a word or concept in relation to other related words and ideas… The key to success of this arrangement builds upon students’ background knowledge and makes explicit the connections between new vocabulary words and what they already know By building the connections between old words and new words, students begin to understand relationships among the words they encounter pp 778-780

Thus, by putting the emphasis on the connections between old words in students’ background knowledge and new words to make the comprehension of them clear, this triad differentiates their viewpoint about semantic mapping from that of Johnson and Pearson, who point out the connections between new words in a text only

Afterwards, Nagy (1988, p 10) refines these definitions by offering a shorter one according to which semantic mapping is ―a classroom activity reflecting the integration of instructed words with other knowledge‖ This can be considered as a combination of the two perspectives about semantic mapping above, as it shows that the understanding of new words through this activity is connected with other knowledge, including old and new

Obviously, though the ways of expression are various, these perspectives represent the unanimity in confirming the original ability of semantic mapping to create the association in knowledge Semantic mapping, as a strategy, is a creative capitalization of mentalist viewpoint in which ―language is a specific behavior and certain modes of perceptions, categorizing, and language-related mechanisms are biologically determined‖ (Brown, 1980, p 22) Accordingly, it can link and integrate not only words or concepts to the related ones within the scope of a text,

but also new knowledge to prior one Such a viewpoint at once drew a great deal of attention because at the time researchers were placing the stress on the need to use strategies that were fundamentally ―associative‖ in nature

Whilst the researchers mentioned above delve into the mentalist essence of this strategy, Braden (1982, p 10) takes a different view of what constitutes a semantic mapping, limiting it to schema overview With this in mind, he comes up

with a very simple definition in which semantic mapping structurally takes ―the

form of labeled nodes connected to unlabeled lines‖

As such, the notion of semantic mapping can be looked at from two main aspects With regard to a mentalist perspective, it, as a strategy, creates association

in the acquired process of knowledge thanks to the establishment of the links among the related items and even between the new and the old one Consequently, the learning has become an active and connective mental process Viewed from a structural perspective, it is simply considered as an organizer to connect nodes to lines Then the former has revealed the essence of its operation and the latter added

to the description of the form Thus an understanding of semantic mapping needs to include these two aspects

2.4.2 A typology of semantic mapping

According to Buis (2004), semantic mapping ―can take a number of different forms – chart, boxes, outlines, webs, mappings, clusters, networks, graphic organizers – depending on the key words and genre of the text study‖ Also for this researcher, even the types for each form are indefinite because it can be presented in

―a wide variety of formats‖ (ibid., p 20) However, as alerted in the introductory paragraph of this chapter, this study takes into consideration only three types among them, based on the nature of the reading texts selected to teach They are word mapping, story mapping and concept mapping The last one includes the two sub-types of Double Cell Diagram and Project Concept Mapping

2.4.2.1 Word mapping

Word mapping is ―a visual display through which the understanding of key words is clarified by graphically mapping them‖ (Masters, Mori & Mori, 1993, p 118) In this type of mapping, the key word is put in the centre then the branches describing its characteristics or attributes are created and expanded from the centre When one branch stops or an idea does not fit, new branches are created Such a

word mapping model can be seen in Figure 2.1 and Figure 2.2 below:

Figure 2.1: Model of a word mapping (Source: http:// graphic.org)

Semantic mapping is one of word association techniques It is defined as a technique to make arrangement of words into a diagram, which has a key concept at the centre or at the top, and related words and concepts linked to the key concept by means of lines or arrows (Gairns and Redman, 1986)

trout eyes

Fish Parts

smells fishy

king

Problem

s

Figure 2.2: Items in bedroom (Gairns and Redman, 1986)

2.4.2.2 Story mapping

―A story mapping is a visual representation of the logical sequence of events

in a narrative text Places for the setting, characters, climax, and a solution are included on the map‖ (Gay, 1991, p 18) In other words, it is a visual depiction of the settings or the sequence of major events and actions of story characters The basic framework and the detailed example of a story mapping can be respectively seen in Figure 2.3, Figure 2.4 and Figure 2.5 as follows:

Mirror Dressing table

Hair brush, comb

Mattress

Beside table

Alarm clock

Figure 2.3: Basic framework of a story mapping (Source: http:// graphic.org)

Figure 2.4: Semantic mapping for “human life circle’(Gairns and Redman, 1986)

Fall in love

Life Cycle

Figure 2.5: Detailed example of a story mapping (Source: http:// graphic.org)

2.4.2.3 Concept mapping

In general, concept mapping, as stated by Novark (1990, p 937), ―involves assigning a hierarchical relationship of information, beginning with broad categories and branching into related concepts with each then branching into lower levels‖

As mentioned in the introductory paragraph of 2.2 Typology of semantic mapping, a Double Cell Diagram is the first sub-type of concept mapping which can

be ―used for comparing likeness and differences among subjects which can be facts, people, events, or concepts‖ (Gay, 1991, p 18) Normally in this organizer, the similar characteristics are placed between the subjects compared, whereas different features are put around them Figure 2.6 below is a model of the Double Cell Diagram:

Initiating Event Sam needs money to a bicycle

Checks his piggy bank and no money

Asks parents and

no money

Asks siter And no money

Decides to find a way

To earn money

Builds a latte stand

Sells lattes after school and on weekends

Decides to put money

in bank

Saves money for six months

Shops for bike

Saves enough money to buy bike

Final Outcome Sam buys bicycle

Figure 2.6: Model of a Double Cell Diagram (Source: http:// graphic.org)

Meanwhile, Project Concept Mapping, the other type of concept mapping, is

―a visual organization in which the key concept is modified with information predetermined to provide a clearer understanding about it‖ (Gay, 1991) Also, the key concept is put in the centre of the map and supplementary information, often raised in the form of instructive questions relating to the key concept, is around it The answers which can be expressed in words, phrases, or even sentences are branched from the corresponding questions Figure 2.7 depicting this type of mapping can be seen as follows:

boy

plays soccer

Nguyen

Favorite food is Pizza

Figure 2.7: Model of a Project Concept Mapping (Source: http:// graphic.org)

2.4.3 The use of semantic mapping in empirical research

In a narrower sphere of application, semantic mapping, as a strategy, is recognized to be extremely effective to promote vocabulary teaching and learning

To manifest this fact, it is helpful to mention the aspects relating to its use in empirical research Thus the following sub-sections will present these aspects in this

specific order of presentation: types to use, stage to use and way to use

2.4.3.1 Types to use

It can be said that semantic mapping has shown its great attraction, exemplified by a number of investigations in succession conducted into the deep exploration of the effects of its various types

They put them in the

What do they eat

Where do they live

People never have squirrels for pets

Dogs and big animals

Who are their enemies

Do they like people

Squirrels Squirrels like to eat nuts that

people leave for them

Are they mammals

How do they protect themselves

Squirrels are afraid to be petted by people

No eggs They climb trees fast little claws They have

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For instance, in an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of semantic mapping, Beers (2003, pp 192-194) used a ―Word Scroll‖ map to instruct vocabulary in a way that helped the students most clearly understand the words The instructor began the map by following the order of introducing the target word, asking the students to write it in the centre of the map with a working definition, and gave two words that fit the statement ―what it is‖ and two words for the statement ―what it isn’t‖ on both the sides For example, if the target word was

courageous, ―what it is‖ could be brave and strong and ―what it isn’t‖ could be afraid or scared Then below the scroll map, students came up with two examples

of the word and contrasting examples (Superman and running into a burning

building; Scooby-do and running from danger) After that, they used the target

word in a sentence The example of Word Scroll Map shown by Beers can be seen

in Figure 2.8 below:

Figure 2.8: Word Scroll by Beers (2003, p 192)

Word Scrolls Name: Charles

or very brave

afraid

Soared

after you full off

Not getting on the horse again Scooby - do

The results of this investigation show that the students understood new words more thoroughly and acquired lexical knowledge more largely through this strategy

Afterwards, the research by Salameh (2006) showed that story mapping could improve students’ predictive ability In the procedure of examining this type, the researcher prepared guiding questions to lead students through the mapping such

as ―Where did the story take place?‖, ―When did the story take place?‖, ―Could the setting have been different?‖, or ―Why do you think the author choose this setting?‖ (ibid., p 30) Then cue sentences with crucial words describing the plot of the story were provided The researcher continued by asking the students to discuss in groups

to find an appropriate cue sentence to answer the guiding questions based on the prediction of the meaning of key words After two weeks, she found that her students’ predictive ability of both word meaning and story plot was improved fairly greatly

At the level of a variety in the types of semantic mapping, the most recent research conducted by Hunter, Monroe-Ossi and Fountain (2007) focused on promoting vocabulary development for pre-school children by using concept mapping to document the hierarchical relationships among items described by them The researchers, drawing on Novark and Gowin’s (1984) work, believed that through concept mapping children were able to make visible their association about the relationships among the concepts being studied

With this thought in mind, they set a goal to examine this type as a tool to

teach the concept plant for children from three to four years of age at a learning

centre They identified the key concept in front of the class by raising the focus question ―What do you know about the plants?‖ To help the children be easier to pose words or ideas, they conducted demonstrations showing that plant needed

water, air, soil (nutrients), and sunlight Besides, they asked the children to plant

bean (seeds) in cups so that they would learn about roots, stems, leaves, and

flowers Then the three researchers incorporated with the class to construct the

preliminary concept mapping The big ideas and essential questions (The world is

made up of living and non-living things What do living things need from the environment to survive? What are the characteristics of living things?) were also

made to serve for lesson discussions After that, the final concept mapping was constructed with pictures and word cards of plant and parts of plant provided by the researchers

The final result reveals that the children could correctly identify concepts and their hierarchical relationships through which they developed their vocabulary knowledge In detail, they could make propositions connecting second- and third-level concepts, e.g., a plant (first level) can have a flower (second level) that can provide fruit (third level)

In sum, the research works delved into some depth above raise the awareness that there are various types of semantic mapping and each of them brings different effects in terms of understanding, prediction and recognition of the relationship: Word mapping makes the understanding of words deeper and enlarges the lexical knowledge, story mapping improves the prediction, and concept mapping helps to realize hierarchical relationships of words The use of each type in an appropriate case to best utilize the benefits is, therefore, very important

2.4.3.2 Stage to use

In the investigation of the strategies which can assist reading comprehension,

a number of researchers have used semantic mapping in the pre-reading stage as an activity to facilitate this process

In their research, Johnson, Heimlich and Pittelman (1986, p 782) found out the potential of semantic mapping as a tool to serve ―as a pre-reading strategy to assess whether students are ready for the reading or not‖ Its application in this stage then became an attractive issue

Carrel, Pharis and Liberto (1989, p 651) used it as a pre-reading activity to

―provide the students with a lexical availability on the topic‖ In this activity, they asked their students to brainstorm about the reading topic and the information was

displayed on a graphic map Thanks to their associations, the map turned out to be a thorough summary of the content as well as the concepts and words that they were about to encounter in the reading

Six years later in 1995, in an effort to help students focus on the details in the reading texts, Zaid implemented a pre-reading activity with semantic mapping In this stage, he first wrote the noun phrase ―Muslim carpets‖ which was the topic of the reading text on the board and asked his students to tell what they knew about it Their suggestion of ―red and blue often used‖ was instructed to conceptualize into

―color‖ and ―popular‖ Then, ―large‖ and ―small‖ generated the category ―sizes‖ and ―flowers‖ and ―no animals‖ were categorized as ―geometric patterns‖.(ibid., p 5) Immediately, the researcher found that the value of using it in this stage became apparent, since the map supplied students with a graphic conceptualization of their randomly given ideas which delved into the topic about to read

Likewise, Rosenbaum (2001) employed this stage to apply word mapping Accordingly, after providing the mapping which consisted of key words of the reading text, the researcher asked students, based on their understanding about the associative connections among those words, to pose the definitions, synonyms and antonyms in their own words As a result, its use in this stage ―encouraged students

to utilize the prior vocabulary knowledge to interact with the text‖ (ibid., p 44)

Indeed, the use of this strategy in the pre-reading stage can facilitate the comprehension in many ways It can help to assess students’ readiness to involve themselves in the reading text, prepare them for a lexical knowledge, instruct them

to conceptualize the items representing the topic, or foster their relating prior knowledge to the new one Using it in this pre-reading stage, therefore, keeps on appealing to more research

Recently, the teacher-student interaction in a classroom setting has highly been appreciated In this manner, the teacher plays a role as a guide on the side rather than a sage on the stage, thus promoting students’ independence and creativeness With the purpose to test whether such a kind of interaction accords with this strategy, El-Koumy (1999) conducted research with 187 freshmen at an Egyptian university who were randomly assigned to three semantic mapping

interactive Treatment was administered over five months in one session per week The subjects were pre-tested and post-tested in reading comprehension While the pre-test indicated no significant differences in the groups, post-test results revealed students in the teacher-student interactive semantic mapping group scored significantly higher than the other two groups, which had similar results

As the researcher found, initiated by the teacher, semantic mapping saves students’ time and adds information to what they already know; however, it may inhibit their creativity and fail to create independent readers Mediated by the students, it forces them to think about what they read and helps them recognize what they already know in light of new information as a platform to learn more; yet this way may be time-consuming and hard for students with limited prior knowledge Above all, ―the teacher-student interaction capitalizes on the strengths

of the two ways above and thereby shares the weaknesses of neither‖ (ibid., p 167)

In regard to another aspect relating to the way to use this strategy, though semantic mapping is considered to be ―easy to capture‖ (Avery, Baker & Gross,

1996, p 279), it can become overwhelming if the teacher does not know to control the construction The reality shows that when students are asked to think of words related to the key word or topic, ―they often generate too many new words‖ (Stoller

& Grade, 1993, p 34), which could induce overload, especially for students at lower language levels As a result, these researchers warned that ―the use of semantic mapping should not be overly detailed and multileveled‖ (ibid., p 34) In

the best way, ―a semantic mapping should consist of four or five secondary-leveled categories‖ (Hanf, 1991, p 270)

In addition, as for the placement of categories in a map, when their clusters are formed, the teacher should ―record them in nodes connected by spoke-like straight lines leading from the central node‖ (Antonacci, 1991, p 174), and the nodes at the secondary level should have a different shape from that at the primary level to help ―reinforce the verbal/graphemic‖ association for students (Englert

&Mariage, 1991, p 137) Moreover, the use of different colored chalks or markers

at each step of the construction of semantic mapping is also encouraged, as it tends

to ―promote student conceptualization and structuring of the topic and helps them recognize the different sources of information‖ (Olson & Gee, 1991, p 298)

In a word, the process of utilization of semantic mapping requires the deftness and flexibility of the teacher This strategy should take place in the teacher-student interaction, avoid over-detail and multi-level, and diversify the shapes of nodes as well as the colours depicting categories Only when the teacher deals with these requirements in an appropriate manner are its effects best exploited

2.5 The roles of semantic mapping in EFL classrooms

Apparently, it can be said that semantic mapping has set its role as an extremely effective strategy because the benefits it brings about are seen in both students’ performance and learning attitude

2.5.1 Improvement in success and rate of foreign language acquisition

Remarkable progress of the students exposed to the use of this strategy is manifested through more positive results from a number of research works

For instance, in the research by Margosein, Pascarella and Pflaum (1982) the students experienced semantic mapping obtained better results on the final test than those being instructed with contextual clues

Similarly, the outcomes from the research directed at testing the aids of concept mapping to reading comprehension by Joseph (2002) show an advance in the performance of two groups A and B through a cross comparison after two