The Application Of Concept Maps To Teaching English Reading Comprehension In Senior High School

The research deals with some problems that high school English teachers and students have encountered in their EFL reading comprehension teaching and learning.On the basis of the theories of meaningful learning and cognition theories,especially,schemata,an empirical research was carried out at a local average high school in Shanghai.The author chose 4 classes of Senior Two students in her experiments.Two classes were selected as the experimental classes while the other two were the controlled classes.The author introduced concept maps as both teaching and learning strategies in English reading comprehension class in an attempt to supply students with new reading strategies,get them interested in reading and improve students' ability in reading comprehension.The main methods adopted were questionnaire investigation,tests and analyses of experimental data.At the end of the experiment,the data were collected and analyzed.After about half a year's research,some changes have happened to students,especially in their reading interest and ability.Some of them have gradually learnt to read with the help of concept maps,and formed the habit of using their previous general knowledge to help them in the process of reading comprehension.Based on the above findings,the author comes to the conclusion that concept maps are helpful to students in their reading comprehension.