Improving reading comprehension skills on a short fictional text using mind maps in a tenth grade foreign language class

Abstract

Many foreign language students face challenges in the classroom when dealing with reading comprehension activities. Therefore, this study aims at helping tenth-grade students in a public school located in Santander to improve their reading comprehension skills on a short fictional text by using mind maps as a learning strategy and also to help students become independent and self-directed learners. A pre-test and a post-test, as well as field notes, were used to analyze students' usage of mind maps to demonstrate comprehension of a short fictional text. The results of this study showed that students benefited from the teacher's modeling of the mind maps in order to understand a short text because students were able to add more details to their mind maps after the intervention. Furthermore, the evidence indicated that mind maps benefited a student with learning impairment to improve his vocabulary and reading comprehension skills of a short reading text.