Improving English reading for EFL readers with reviewing kit-build concept map

Abstract

Reading comprehension for English as foreign language (EFL) students is crucial. Available information is mostly written in English, which becomes a problem for students from non-English-speaking countries. Such students should master English first in order to understand the information. This research offers a method to improve English reading with the help of the kit-build concept map as a graphical strategy and an additional function called source connection to facilitate EFL readers in reviewing their concept maps as the representation of their understanding. In this study, an English teacher in an Indonesian university practically used this system in the English class of second-year undergraduate students as EFL readers and tested the effectiveness of it. Results confirm that students who use the kit-build concept map with the source connection function show better performance in English reading compared with those who employ the traditional summarization method.