Espirales. Revista multidisciplinaria de investigación científica, Vol. 6, No. 41
April – June - 2022. e-ISSN 2550-6862. pp 14-46
DOI https://doi.org/10.31876/er.v6i41.814
Reading comprehension through the use of graphic
organizers
La comprension lectora a traves del uso de organizadores graficos
Johnny Campoverde López*
Jacqueline López López*
Received: September 09, 2021
Approved: December 20, 2021
* Magister, Universidad de Guayaquil, Facultad de
Filosofía, Letras y Ciencias de la Educación,
Guayaquil, Ecuador,
johnny.campoverdel@ug.edu.ec
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0108-4755
* Magister, Universidad de Guayaquil, Facultad de
Filosofía, Letras y Ciencias de la Educación,
Guayaquil, Ecuador, jacqueline.lopezl@ug.edu.ec,
https://orcid.org/00000-0003-2113-2451
Abstract
The main purpose of this study was to demonstrate the
effectiveness of the application of graphic organizers to improve
reading comprehension in students of English as a second
language. The study covered a population of 25 university
students of Language and Literature career who had deficiencies
to understand details in narrative texts. Quantitative instruments
were applied to sustenance the investigation. The instruments
involved are pre-test and post-test, rubric, survey, and a checklist
to estimate students’ advancement and progress. The application
of the checklist helped students to use the required elements in
their tasks. The results showed that students improved their
reading comprehension because while pre-test revealed a mean
of 5.2/10, the post-test showed 9.5/10 which means 54% of
improvement. Students had the opportunity to express their
satisfaction of using this innovation because they suggested to
apply the same strategy in other subjects. This work involves
teachers and students since it can generate positive contributions
of using graphic organizers to improve reading comprehension.
Keyword:
reading comprehension, graphic organizers, EFL, higher
education
Cite this:
Campoverde, J., Campoverde, J.
(2022). Reading comprehension
through the use of graphic
organizers. Espirales. Revista
Multidisciplinaria de investigación
científica, 6(41), 14-46
Johnny Campoverde López, Jacqueline López López
Espirales. Revista multidisciplinaria de investigación científica, Vol. 6, No. 41
April – June - 2022. e-ISSN 2550-6862. pp 14-46
15
Introduction
For English Language Learners (ELL), reading comprehension, an outcome that results
from a mix of skills and abilities, is perceived as critical for knowledge acquisition and
information exchange (Liu, Chen, & Chang, 2010; Chiu, Huang, & Chang, 2000).
Reading and getting complete comprehension of the whole information in the texts
becomes very hard for students who are learning another language. Glenberg (2011)
said that “reading comprehension, much like comprehension of situations and
comprehension of oral language, is embodied” (p.5) which means that comprehension
includes taking action about the physical world, objectives, and cultural background.
Nowadays reading has become into the most important and vital element of every
educational curriculum to be taught in the learning process of a native or foreign
language. It is a component that needs to be developed in accordance to the level of
students. Reading helps students to gain knowledge, to improve their academic
performance, and empowers them to become successful in this knowledge society
(Bano, Jabeen, & Quitoshi, 2018). On the other hand, reading states a significant role
in the language competence of the students. It is also a skill that must be trained and
practiced indoors and outdoors.
The most difficult aspect to overcome for the students is the cognitive process because
while the learner is reading he/she will be considering: the pronunciation, the meaning
of the words, and the relation of new words with the context they are reading which
becomes more difficult if they still need to translate into their mother tongue. It
Resumen
El propósito principal de este estudio fue demostrar la eficacia en
la aplicación de organizadores gráficos para mejorar la
comprensión lectora en estudiantes de inglés como segunda
lengua. El estudio cubrió una población de 25 estudiantes de la
carrera de Lengua y Literatura en la Universidad de Guayaquil
quienes tienen deficiencia para entender detalles en textos
narrativos. Como soporte del estudio fueron aplicados
instrumentos cuantitativos. Los instrumentos incluían pre y post
evaluación, rúbrica, encuesta y lista de verificación para calcular el
avance y progreso. La aplicación de la lista de verificación ayudó
para que los estudiantes utilicen los elementos requeridos en sus
actividades. Los resultados muestran que los estudiantes lograron
mejorar su comprensión lectora mientras la pre-evaluación reveló
una media de 5,2/10 la pos-evaluación mostró 9,5/10 lo que
significa un incremento del 54%. Los estudiantes tuvieron la
oportunidad de expresar su punto de vista acerca de esta
innovación quienes sugirieron la aplicación de esta misma
innovación en otras asignaturas. Este estudio involucra profesores
y estudiantes ya que brinda contribuciones positivas del uso de
organizadores gráficos para mejorar la comprensión lectora.
Palabra clave:
comprensión lectora, organizadores gráficos, EFL,
educación superior
Reading comprehension through the use of graphic organizers
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depends on the students’ level to avoid translations If their level is higher, they do not
need to translate because they can think in English.
It is necessary to consider that Ecuador shows a small indicator because (43%) of readers
of the whole inhabitants, this indicates that each Ecuadorian reads fifty percent of a
whole book every year (Centro Regional para el Fomento del Libro en América Latina y
el Caribe [CERLALC], 2016). On the other hand, statistics from a local institution
(Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas y Censos [INEC], 2012) shows that 27% of
Ecuadorians did not develop reading habits. Accordance with the index some systems
were performed by the Ministry of Education (Ministerio de Educación, 2016) which
were built for learners to produce more and read better in their L1.
Local authorities stated in the national curriculum guidance that Ecuadorian students
must finish high school as independent users of the language which means to reach B1
level (Ministerio de Educación, 2014). As the document stated: Level B1 is
accomplished when the language learners are capable to understand the main points
of readings written in clear, familiar and standard language.
B1 users are capable to comprehend and recognize longer, more complex expository,
practical, chronical, and transactional scripts with an acceptable level of
undersatanding. They are also able to use adecuate interpretation strategies to deal
with different categories of texts (Ministerio de Educación, 2012). Additionally, at this
level, learners are able to (1) communicate while traveling in countries that use the target
language, (2) write simple, coherent essays about familiar topics, personal interest,
experiences, events, and desires, and (3) justify their opinions (i.e.by giving simple, brief
reasons) and explain their future plans.
Currently adolescent learners are still constructing and growing up cognitively,
linguistically, psychologically, emotionally, and cooperatively (Tomlinson, 2013).
However, how well learners develop their reading skills depends on different factors like
their learning environment if they studied in private or public institutions, if they practice
reading outside classes, if reading is a habit for them, factors that will be a positive or
negative influence during the development of the reading comprehension process.
Catts and Kamhi (2017) stated that “the reader brings a set of cognitive-linguistic
abilities, motivations, interests, and background knowledge to the task of reading”
(p.73).
Results of English diagnostic tests which include the four abilities is part of the academic
process for students who enter to a public university in the city of Guayaquil. They show
that most of high school students who came from public institutions do not reach the
proposed goal by the Ecuadorian educative system because they can read and get a
general comprehension of texts but do not understand all the details or minimum
information of each single idea.
Johnny Campoverde López, Jacqueline López López
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On the other hand when students have to decode the new vocabulary which is strange
and difficult to relate with the content specifically when they have to work with a lot of
unknown information so that the comprehension of detailed content while reading
becomes very hard consequently it will make them to get confused Woolley, Anderson,
and Pearson declared that “Reading is a collaborative solving procedure of creating gist
from written scripts” (as cited in Ontario Ministry of Education, 2004), p. 61).
The deficiency of comprehension when students read has been investigated in schools
and basic elementary levels as it is explained in this research: the majority of students
were not able to recognize main and secondary ideas, characters, settings, moral, facts
or opinions in stories, cause and effect, or compare and contrast ideas in a text.
Moreover, students memorized possible answers for the tests. A study conducted by
the British Council in Ecuador (2015) reported that students with basic reading skill
claimed that they did not read in English frequently enough (45%), others said they had
not been studying English very long (28%), and almost a quarter of Ecuadorian English
learners explained different reasons related to the education system constraints.
Consequently, the main objective of this research work was to analyze the difficulty to
develop reading comprehension properly and at the same time the presentation of an
appropriate alternative to improve understanding in reading. It is necessary to consider
that reading comprehension policies can be divided accordance with several categories
or titles, which can be applied during the entire reading process. Among the categories
the most important are the following: POSSE (Predict-Organize-Search-Summarize-
Evaluate); PQRS (Preview-Question-Read-Summarize); Summarize; and, Questions,
including others (Asikcan & Pilten, 2018).
The development of reading comprehension requires the application of the
appropriate strategy in accordance with the level of the students. The most common
strategies are: Monitoring comprehension, which includes observing students’
production, metacognition, the learner understands the content, graphic and semantic
Organizers which includes division and organization of the information, Answering
Questions in this stage the learner can respond different question about the content,
Generating Questions in this part the learner creates questions, Recognizing story
structure the learner is able to structure different parts of the reading, and Summarizing
this involves to extract and reduce the most relevant information of the content.
It is necessary to consider that students need to practice more reading, not only
academic topics they can practice through comics or topics they enjoy reading. If
students read daily, they will develop the ability to read and understand most of the
content they are reading. In this way, children learn to read by reading (Atwell as cited
in Tomlinson, 2013). Practice is the key to improve the skill.
Teachers use instructional tools to help students remember the knowledge. One of the
most common instructional tools is graphic organizer (Ozman, 2011). Ozman (2011)
examined the graphic organizer that students filled out while reading. The author found
Reading comprehension through the use of graphic organizers
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that graphic organizers was especially beneficial for them. It helped them see the parts
compared to a whole and how the ideas relate to one another.
Graphic organizers are popularly used to measure student understanding and
comprehension. One study stated “real examples are described to explain how to use
graphic organizers to help ELLs comprehend book content by classifying facts, analyzing
problems, summarizing main points, and criticizing or evaluating the decisions made by
authors” (Pang, 2013, p. 54). As the study stated, graphic organizers are used in a variety
of ways that are all based around comprehension. Teachers use graphic organizers for
analyzing, summarizing, and evaluating. It is a helpful strategy to develop reading
comprehension in students because it is based on putting words or pictorial
representations together about what they are reading.
validates the use of computer-assisted concept mapping via the Cmap Tools software
to teach ELL reading comprehension in intermediate pre-university students. Soleimani
and Nabizadeh have found that computerized concept mapping serves as an effective
alternative to conventional ELL summarizing strategies. Both learner-constructed and
fill-in-the-map computerized concept maps were found to be useful for enhancing ELL
students’ reading comprehension skills.
The benefits of software-based concept mapping approaches have been explored by
Eppler (2006). Specifically, Eppler examined the complementary use of software-based
concept maps, e.g., those created through Inspiration software. He reported that it
enhanced students’ motivation, understanding, attention, and recall while they were
learning ELL reading comprehension.
Khodadady and Ghanizadeh (2011) reported the positive influence of concept map
construction on EFL learners' critical thinking ability, as well as their attitudes toward
EFL reading comprehension. The study revealed that when using the concept mapping
technique during reading and post-reading phases, EFL students came to learn the
interrelationships of ideas within the passage by identifying the main points and using
circles or boxes to connect key words, thereby forming the word connections and
promoting learning.
Recently, research has found that concept mapping is one of strategies which can
enhance learners’ reading comprehension (Chang, Sung, & Chen, 2002). Concept
mapping is a graphic organizational strategy which can help individual and groups
explain and explore their knowledge of a topic (Kinchin, 2000). It is for this reason that
concept mapping appears to be an effective way to teach and learn to improve reading
comprehension.
The study analyzed the innovation of applying graphic organizers to improve reading
comprehension skills. The variables of the study are the following: the application of
graphic organizers through the CMap tools as independent variable and reading
comprehension improvement as the dependent variable. The following theoretical
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Espirales. Revista multidisciplinaria de investigación científica, Vol. 6, No. 41
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support was divided into three sections (reading, narrative texts, and graphic
organizers), where concepts and definitions were summarized in order to describe the
variables of this innovation.
Reading is considered as one of the receptive skills for learning a new language, its
comprehension process involves mental and emotional aspects, among cognitive and
metacognitive procedures like: attention, reading discernment, memorization, and
phonological recognition (Pečjaka & Pircb, 2018). Attention proposed that the visual
system exploits the dichotomy of a fast-magnocellular channel and a slower
parvocellular channel for the purpose of selective attention (Vidyasagar, 2013). The
human visual system has predominantly two types of retinal neurons that form two
different pathways, the parvocellular, or ventral, pathway (for form discrimination), and
the magnocellular, or dorsal pathway (for location and motion processing).
Along with perception and motivational factors, meta (cognitive) abilities are those,
which define individual differences in students’ reading abilities. They influence the
processes of reading automation and reading comprehension (Borella, Carretti, &
Pelegrina, 2010; Gerst, Cirino, Fletcher, & Yoshida, 2015).
According to Asgari and Rafiee, (2018), memorization involves attention. It is the starting
point of the memory process. Meta cognitive strategies help students to combine the
fresh information with the old information and restore it in the memory. What is stored
in long-term memory is never lost. Therefore, the students can increase their
memorization.
For Gamboa-Gonzalez, comprehension is carried out when the reader makes a
connection with the previous knowledge and the text, but for Candlin and Hall (2011)
reading is drawing the meaning from printed page with an appropriate interpretation.
In both cases it is based on the texts, however the first is considered as a process and
the second is considered as an ability.
Simply stated, vocabulary is knowledge of words and their meanings (Lehr, Osborn, &
Hiebert, 2005). In reading, knowing a word involves being able to decode written text
and comprehend its meaning. Researchers and practitioners alike attest to the critical
role of vocabulary in reading comprehension for both native speakers and second
language learners (Blachowicz, Fisher, Ogle, & Watts-Taffe, 2006; Coady & Huckin
1997; National Institute of Child Health, Human Development (US), National Reading
Excellence Initiative, National Institute for Literacy (US), & United States Department of
Health, 2000). Without sufficient vocabulary, it is impossible to successfully read for
meaning because there is not enough comprehension.
Considering that the early scholarly course for children contains all the components of
the language like phonemes, morphemes, syntax, grammar, and semantics, including
others which are involved during the development of their skills. Additionally, it is
necessary to consider that the procedure of reading acquisition has to be explained and
Reading comprehension through the use of graphic organizers
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developed through patterns because it becomes the easiest way for young learners to
learn. Obviously that the cycle of this process begins at children’s home and follows up
during the scholarly period because children imitate their parents at home and at school
they complement and relate with scientific knowledge the previous information.
Moreover, children become into active readers if parents, relatives, babysitters, and
teachers frequently read audibly and clearly to them (Tomlinson, 2013). If children are
surrounded with readers it will become into a habit for them to read. The foundational
reading skills are: Comprehension, Fluency, Phonics, Phonemic and Phonological which
are integrated in the development of reading comprehension for learners (Hoffmann,
2010).
Reading comprehension is the most complex aspect of reading because our brains have
to process information, It does not only involve all the other four aspects of reading; it
also requires the reader to draw upon general thinking skills, it also works with our
imagination. When a reader is actively engaged with a text, starts asking and answering
questions about the story and summarizing because he/she has understood very well
the information. Like vocabulary, reading comprehension skills develop and improve
over time through instruction and practice, so that If the reader keeps reading it will
become faster and easier.
Adams (1994) explained that reading requires developing a system that involves two
aspects: knowledge and activities, these two aspects would be useless without using
language comprehension. It is necessary to consider previous knowledge to understand
better which will allow a better development of activities. Therefore, Candlin and Hall
(2011) proposed five aspects that are involved in developing a reading activity:
Table 1.
Reading Activities
Activities Description
Purpose for reading
A reader has several possible purposes for
reading, and each purpose has different
combinations of skills and strategies.
Fluent reading
abilities
In reading, it is necessary to employ many skills,
processes, and knowledge bases that act in combination
to reach reading comprehension.
Cognitive process
Reading involves a cognitive process that operates under
intense constraints to develop an understanding of the
reading material
Interpretation
Reading also involves the ability to interpret meaning
from different texts.
Social context
In reading, activities are developed in a social context
that will be interpreted and used in different ways.
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According to Fadwa (2010), an English language learner needs to understand the text
because the key of this activity is without doubts to understand the central idea of the
topic; that implies messages, thoughts and structures. One factor to be successful in
this learning area is to have a large vocabulary that can make a positive contribution to
reading comprehension. Vocabulary allows English language learners to understand a
text in better way no matter genres, topics, or schoolbook.
Additionally, there are some features for developing comprehension skills in English
students. According to the Barret taxonomy, literal recognition involves understanding
of “information that is explicitly stated in the text. Such questions ensure that the views
and information overtly expressed in the text are understood. In some texts the content
is implicit and it becomes easier for the reader to make relation and tie the content.
However, there are other texts which have different ideas that are not easy to relate so
that comprehension becomes complex for the reader.
For example, recognition or recall of main ideas, details, sequence, cause-effect
relationships, character traits” (Fadwa, 2010, p. 18). Every time that students can
recognize words and make relation with previous information, they are connecting the
content of the reading which facilitates their comprehension. To sum up, connection,
relation and contrast of information will be helpful for a better comprehension when the
students are reading.
Reading is more than just recognizing words. According to Veit and Gould (2004),
inferences in reading involves “the ability to interpret texts by drawing inferences-
recognizing a writer’s intentions, perceiving what is implied but not stated, making
connections between the ideas you read and other ideas that you bring from outside
the text, and drawing conclusions” (p. 77).
For Fadwa (2010), inference makes use of linguistic knowledge, logic, previous
knowledge, and new knowledge in order to associate situations to infer different types
of ideas and predict results in a reading situation. Additionally, evaluation makes
“judgements about whether something is real or imaginary, whether it is appropriate,
worthwhile, desirable or acceptable. Evaluation involves values and therefore there is
usually no answer to questions involving evaluation” (Fadwa, 2010, p. 18).
Considering that Summarizing is one of the reading strategies that let students to
comprehend the content of the text more profoundly, which at the same time operates
functions as a sign of understanding (Pečjaka & Pircb, 2018). Learners need to
understand what they have read to be able to summarize and reduce content using their
own words. At the same time Summarizing supports learners to describe the meaning
of information and to keep the knowledge in long-term memory.
On the other hand, Summarizing allows students to distinguish their substantial
thoughts from others and communicate the knowledge using their own words (Bıyıklı &
Doğan, 2015). It is also necessary to consider some important aspects like: sequence
Reading comprehension through the use of graphic organizers
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of events, principal characters, and setting which must be taken into account when you
put together what is more relevant in narrative texts (Freedman, 2012). If students follow
the order of these aspects, they will organize the content of the reading easily and
faster.
It is necessary to consider that Summarizing also involves the recognition of main ideas,
removing irrelevant information, and renovating ideas from original texts (Ozdemir,
2018), so that learners can apply their own vocabulary to create the paragraph. As
Sefer, Ören, Benzer, and Konuk (2016) stated: it would be ideal that before requesting
students to write a summary, it becomes essential to teach students how to do it by
explaining them the steps to use, teachers need to explain step by step how to structure
a summary. If students identify information, they need to follow a sequence to organize
the content to be understood for everybody.
This process includes look back over the content of the reading meticulously:
highlighting essential words in each paragraph, recognizing the story components like
characters, and setting, realizing principal ideas and specific information, as well as the
most relevant actions. It also includes verifying grammar and punctuation, and using
sequencing words, among others (Ozdemir, 2018). Sometimes it is necessary to ask
other people to read what you have summarized to confirm if it is clear enough.
One of the main characteristics of Narrative texts is to communicate what the readers
understand and perceive in front of different situations. This episode or chain of events
is diffused from the narrator’s point of view considering aspects like: the location, time,
and people to provide information about a text (Ozdemir, 2018). Accordance with The
Program of International Student Assessment (PISA, 2015) which established narrative
texts as the kind of text where the content of a determined situation refers to properties
of items in time, so that the text must be based in different situations and circumstances
considering the period of time.
Furthermore, when students structure a summary of a narrative text, it must be
organized with the following parts as: introduction, development, and conclusion
paragraph. To create the introduction the characters, setting, and main ideas are
considered and integrated. The most relevant actions, problem, and solution are added
in the development. Finally, the outcome, consequence, reaction from the principal
character, and resolution of the characters of the story are incorporated in the
conclusion. To sum up, students can include the theme, message, or lesson showed in
the story (Chen & Su, 2012). It is essential to follow up the steps to structure a summary
of a narrative text because students can organize better the information they must use.
Learners must consider that using Narrative texts involves answering chain questions
about time, experiences, cycle of events, and why the characters work in certain starring
roles in the story. If all these questions are considered in the narrative text it would be
easy and comprehensible for the reader which will be principal objective. (HMH, 2017).
The main elements to be considered in the narrative texts are:
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✓ Introduction
✓ Development.
✓ Conclusion paragraph.
Organizers of ideas have been applied in other learning areas such as literature, history,
social studies where students separate the information in different features and in small
parts which benefit the learners to explain the whole contents. Compounding the
problem, students in content area classes, such as science and social studies, are often
expected to gain much of their content knowledge from their textbooks, where the
content, vocabulary, and text structure is often complex and unfamiliar (Duke, 2000;
Stein & Trabasso, 1981).
The classification of information by ideas help students to analyze sentence by sentence,
idea by idea which make them capable to answer questions, give opinions, contrast
information in different tasks about the same reading. Consequently, the essential
reading skills are used to reinforce reading understanding of texts by applying reading
strategies (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt [HMH], 2017). The application of different
reading strategies will help for a better understanding of the content of the reading.
There is evidence that a specific type of GOs, concept maps, is a useful strategy for
English as a Second Language (ESL) students (Block, 1986), few studies investigated the
effectiveness of GOs on L2 reading comprehension. To be more precise, Tang (1992),
who examined the relation of graphic representation of text structure to comprehension
with ESL students, indicated great gains in the amount of information recalled. The
segregation of the ideas should be done by selecting clue words, prompts, short
sentences. They are used to build up organizers of ideas which could be read in order
to explain the complete information after reading the whole text. Thus, students get a
high level of comprehension of the whole text.
A study (El-Koumy, 1999) focused on the different effects of three semantic mapping
strategies involved in the development of the reading process: (teacher-initiated,
student mediated, teacher-student interactive mapping) for a better reading
understanding of ESL where students have the opportunity to reveal that in the teacher-
student interactive mapping group reached substantial better results than the other two
groups, which demonstrated that students can develop their skills better when they
have more opportunities to practice and interact.
Graphic organizers have been linked to the development of higher thinking skills for
reading comprehension (Gil-García & Villegas, 2003). In a pre-reading activity, graphic
organizers "...help prepare students for reading" (French & Landretti, as cited in Ben-
David, 2002). Gil-García and Villegas (2003) cited benefits of this strategy in helping
students to link and organize their background knowledge to new knowledge, think
divergently, recall, transfer, and apply what they have learned.
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Similarily, Cassidy and Hossler (as cited in Bowman, Carpenter, & Paone, 1998) affirmed
that students can organize and recall information better from a reading. Since the
students were able to use the graphic organizers to picture the information and
remember relationships, they improved their comprehension (Stenson, 2006).
Additionally, Chularut and DeBacker (2004) demonstrated facilitative effects of the use
of GOs on ESL students’ text learning, self-efficacy and self-monitoring.
Research suggests that teachers should pay attention to two important issues involving
graphic organizers. These are when to use a graphic organizer and who constructs it.
Graphic organizers can be used before, during, and after instruction (Strangman, Hall,
& Meyer, 2003). Graphic organizers can be constructed by the teacher, the learners, or
by teachers and learners. The point of implementation and generating types may
produce different learning outcomes.
“GOs are used in order to assess the degree of students’ understanding and enhance
recall, retention and summarization of main ideas, which can often function as a plan
leading to writing tasks,” (Manoli & Papadopoulou, 2012, p. 353). Graphic organizers
are considered as a visual tool that facilitates different types of learners such as English
Language Learners to understand concepts better during their learning process.
Alvermann and Boothby (1986, as cited in Ben-David, 2002, p. 13) suggested that "...the
effects upon comprehension are increased when graphic organizers are partially
constructed by students as a during-reading or post-reading activity". Another study
found that the use of graphic organizers helped students’ revival of knowledge while
rereading a text (Griffin, Malone, & Kameenui, 2010). Moreover, students can show
personal understanding and response on graphic organizers (Buehl, reported in
Echevarría, Vogt, & Short, (2008).
When teachers are correctly trained in using graphic organizers, the graphic organizers
can be very beneficial in helping students keep track of information (Ropič, & Aberšek,
2012). In order that graphic organizers be effective, the teacher needs to be properly
familiar with them, and able to teach the students how to use them. Teachers need to
explain step by step how to create graphic organizers, show different examples, make
students practice and finally ask them to work alone.
Informational texts have a different structure than narrative texts, and graphic organizers
have helped students realize this structure (Ermis, 2008). In the study by Ermis (2008),
graphic organizers were found to show relationships in ideas and helped students pick
main ideas out of a text. Suzuki, Sato, and Awazu (2008) exploring the advantage of the
spatial graphic representation of an English sentence over a linear sentential
representation supported that the spatial graphic display enhanced ESL readers’
comprehension of sentences more than the sentential display did.
There are two types of graphic organizers, concept maps and Cmap tool that are used
primarily in comparison. They are found in all levels of education because of their
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flexibility of subject focus, but primarily used in elementary classrooms. Graphic
organizers can be used in many ways but have found to be more effective when used
in certain ways (Manoli & Papadopoulou, 2012, p. 353). In this study graphic organizers
were used to enhance the students’ ability to recall and to assess their understandings
of the readings.
Concept maps are a form of graphic organizer that includes enclosed concepts (usually
in a circle or square) with lines connecting linked concepts. Generally, the connecting
lines are labeled to demonstrate the relationship since different viewers of the graphic
organizer could see different relationships between the concepts (Manoli &
Papadopoulou, 2012). They organized the most general concepts on top with the most
specific on the bottom (Morphew, 2002).
Concept maps also help to combine what the student already knows with new
information in an organized path. Concept maps can also be tools in assessment to
show what the students have learned, or as instruments to see their process of thinking
(Chicioreanu & Litoiu, 2012). Concept Maps are necessary tools to develop student’s
comprehension because they have to separate, organize and summarize content of
what they have already read.
The Institute for Human and Machine Cognition (IHMC) defined CMap Tool as a free
software that was developed at the IHMC in the United States (Cañas, Hill, Garff, Suri,
Lott, Eskridge, 2004). Facilitating "the collaborative construction, sharing and
publishing of knowledge models represented as concept maps." (p. 125) and
empowering learners to create propositions connected by specific linking words to
portray of textual relationships more effectively.
This software makes it easy for users to construct and modify concept maps during the
mapping process, while allowing them to collaborate online via the internet. Users can
also publish their maps in the virtual space so that anyone connected to the web can
access them. Dias (2011) said that it allows for "both synchronous and asynchronous
collaboration during the construction of concept maps" (p. 896) in a world wide web
environment that can make collaboration faster and offer the possibility of sharing
knowledge among other users all over the world.
As stated by Novak and Cañas (2006), this computer software can provide extensive
support "for the collaborative construction of concept maps by groups, whether they
are at the same location or in distant locations", and this can facilitate learning and
retention of information. Furthermore, the possibility of using media resources like
pictures, videos, external links, among others; made this software more interesting for
students of different educational levels.
To help students improve their reading comprehension, separate information, reduce
content and organize ideas, graphic organizers seem to be a helpful and feasible
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strategy to develop students understanding while they are reading a test. Thus, the
following research questions were established during this research:
• To what extent will graphic organizers improve summaries?
• To what extent will graphic organizers improve reading comprehension?
• What are students' perspectives towards the innovation?
The application of this innovation took 24 teaching hours in three weeks. This study
addressed first semester students from a public university in the city of Guayaquil. For
this innovation readings from different books were selected. Besides, a variety of
pictures were used to re-create the stories through graphic organizers in the CMAP
application. The students followed a lesson plan based on backward design which was
elaborated for the application of this innovation in order to follow the steps for reading.
During the first week of the process, a purpose for reading was that students got
familiarized to the different kinds of narrative texts and elements (characters, context,
problem, ending and conclusion). These elements helped students to create the graphic
organizers based on the summaries from readings. Students were divided in groups, so
that cognitive process is applied because each group had a specific type of reading so
they could practice identifying the reading elements and started working on their
summary.
In the second week, students brought their summaries to start with the checking process
based on the identification of the elements in the reading, then each group provided a
feedback to the other groups telling them if their summaries were comprehensible, this
process was conducted through several classes during the week in order to improve
students’ reading comprehension and summaries.
The teacher completed the checklist to determine if the students reached the goals of
the reading elements, and if the summary was appropriate and according to the
reading. The summaries had to include: a character description, a timeline story, the
problem and the solution were clearly identified by the students during the process.
Since the first day of class up to the end they were working with different stories. The
last one was used to create an innovative story with the help of Cmap tool as a prove
of innovation. It included the reading elements and a graphic organizer. A rubric based
on the reading components, grammar mistakes and creativity were applied by the
teacher to evaluate the final project.
There are various advantages to using the Cmap tools software to empower students.
In addition to facilitating the process of collaboration while students were involved in
the task of concept mapping their texts, it also guaranteed access of different internet
users to the maps that can be virtually published, and online debates can be held at any
time to be involved in different social contexts. Maps can also be modified, and
subordinate concepts and examples can be added based on ideas shared online. (Dias,
2011)
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Materials and methods
According to Edwards-Groves and Kemmis (2016), action research is when teachers
engage in research to take a specific action of improvement and share the findings. This
study was based in order to enhance the reading comprehension skill using graphic
organizers applying Cmap tool. Therefore, action research was applied, quantitative
research is explanatory and deductive with numerical data being collected to test a
theory (Sim &Wright,2000). The instruments involved were pre – test, post – test, rubric,
checklist, pre – survey and post – survey, all these tools provided quantitative data.
The data was collected from a total of twenty-five students. They are studying the first
semester in the face-to-face modality, whose ages are between 17 and 20 years old,
which more than 50% are men, their socio - economic environment is medium low, some
of them live in Guayaquil and few of them live outside the city, they have basic digital
skills in the use of the computer and web 2.0 tools application.
Their English level was B1 according to the CEFR, their English level was taken from
internal information based on the placement test done by the students before they
registered in the semester. They were students from a public university in Guayaquil,
located in Guayas state, with the diagnostic test they reached B1 level. These students
attended the first English module, out of seven modules in the English Department in
order to achieve their B2 level. Sessions were from Monday to Thursday from 13:00 to
15:00.
To address the first question: To what extent will summaries improve graphic
organizers? A rubric and a checklist were developed to analyze the results from the
performance task in order to compare the achievements from the students with the use
of graphic organizers and with its implementation. By using the rubric and the checklist,
numerical data was obtained to evaluate the results from the performance task.
The rubric was applied to the students by the teacher in two opportunities during the
three sessions. The main points from the rubric were an appropriate title and labels,
lines, boxes, and texts are neat and legible, the information applied is correct, the
spelling, grammar, and punctuation of the text, information in a manner that is easy to
follow, understanding of the topic, the relationships between the information are correct
and clear, the concepts are shown properly. it was adapted from Williams and
Wooldridge (2018). (Appendix A).
The checklist was used by the teacher during the three sessions in order to control the
advance from students and reviewed a general idea about the reading comprehension,
the criteria applied was: make and support inferences, define and identify the theme,
written summary, analyze, identify story elements, identify point of view and compare
and contrast themes (Appendix B).
To answer the second research interrogation: to what extent will graphic organizers
improve reading comprehension? A pre – test was shown before the innovation in the
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first day of class, the test was an adaptation of a reading comprehension section taken
form the British Council website, the test was divided into three parts: First, they had to
match characters with places, second, they had to choose correct the answer from
questions based on the reading and the third part was to develop a graphic organizer
(Appendix C).
In the last day of class, a post – test was given to the students to check the improvement
of reading comprehension skills. The post – test was designed based on a reading taken
from the British Council, the post – test also included a match exercise and a section
where they had to choose the correct answer, in the final part they had to create a
graphic organizer (Appendix D). Both tests provided quantitative data to the study.
The surveys answered the third question: What are students' perspectives towards the
innovation? The post – survey which was designed by the researcher with six statements
was filled out by students at the end of the final session to assess students’ perspectives,
feeling, thoughts about the innovation. Students responded to six statements which are
about the experience of learning through Cmap tool, the convenience of applying
Cmap tool, the feeling of improvement in the reading skill, the expectations about the
innovation and the use of graphic organizers for reading their answers were based on a
Likert scale of 1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neither agree nor disagree, 4 =
agree, 4 strongly agree (Appendix E).
In order to determine the reliability of the survey, data was entered in the statistics
software was used in this case the statistics package for the social studies (SPSS) to
prove reliability which is 0.823 for the post survey. A demographic pre – survey was
conducted to describe the participants in terms of their background, gender and access
to internet among others (Appendix F).
As this study was conducted in a public university setting in a Centre downtown of
Guayaquil, the class was assigned to the researcher with an authorization from the main
authorities in the faculty, ethical issues arose between some moral and social values.
First, the guarantee of a responsible conduct during this research with honesty,
confidentiality, and respect for intellectual property. Furthermore, during the different
phases of the study; namely: methodology, data collection, and analysis were
addressed with objectivity to avoid bias from the teacher’s perspective towards
students.
Lastly, all the information obtained from this study was used by respecting institutional
guidelines and laws, which are specific for this kind of study. The participants of this
research were named by codes; their participation and resources were acknowledged;
and the students obtained their participation credit into the research.
All the Data acquired from the following research interrogations were examined in
accordance with the innovation proposal applied to the students:
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RQ#1: To what extent will graphic organizers improve summaries? During the second
and third sessions of implementing the innovation students were asked to create
summaries for making their graphic organizers based on a checklist and rubric to
evaluate how they applied summary strategies based on narrative texts, the collected
data was analyzed in SPSS to obtain frequencies of each component of the instruments
during the implementation.
RQ#2: To what extent will graphic organizers improve reading comprehension? The pre
– test was used before the innovation proposal and the post – test was applied after the
innovation scheme, both were conducted and their results were considered as an
evidence of students’ understanding about reading comprehension including reading
components, summarize and narrative. A software called SPSS (Statistical Package for
the Social Sciences) was employed to get the denote, mode, average and standard
variation as descriptive statistics. The outcome size was used to calculate the impact of
the innovation.
RQ#3: What are students' perspectives towards the innovation? At the end of the
innovation during the last session a post – survey was applied to measure the
acceptance from the 25 students to use Cmap tool for a better comprehension of the
narrative texts during the class to obtain better results.
Different variables and criterion were generated to upload the information from the
surveys in The SPSS software, which results are shown by graphical results for a simple
and better comprehension.
Results
The principal objective of this study was to determine the benefits of using graphic
organizers to increase reading comprehension. The quantitative mechanisms delivered
information to answer the next research questions.
To address the first research question of this study: To what extent will graphic
organizers improve summaries? During the first and the last weeks of the innovation a
checklist was applied in which the teacher marked in “yes” or “no” for the different
summaries’ components about the narrative texts. In the figure 1, the results are shown
based on a total of 5 groups which are composed by five students per group.
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Figure 1.
Checklist for Reading Review
It is important to know that before structuring their summaries student’s completed
graphic organizers, next the results in the figure 1 of the content and use of the graphic
organizers. The figure 1 shows that further than twenty students contained almost all
the necessary components that were stated in the previous checklist in their summaries.
A total of twenty students possibly will achieve the first element related to make and
support inferences, this means the students had the knowledge to define and identify
the theme, most of the students wrote their summaries without difficulty, they were able
to analyze, compare and contrast story elements based on a clear identified point of
view. More than 80% could compare and contrast themes to reach the goal.
A rubric was applied to evaluate the performance task. This rubric was designed to
evaluate how much the students have developed each criterion. It was given at the
beginning and at the end of the innovation. Based on the data shown in table 2 a clearly
improvement is shown, 100% of groups included in the graphic organizer an
appropriate title and labels, 100% demonstrated an understanding of the topic, its
relationships and related concepts and 80% of the students used the correct information
in the graphic organizer.
Table 2
. Comparison before and after innovation
RUBRIC IN TERMS OF GROUPS
COMPARISON BEFORE AND AFTER INNOVATION
CRITERIA
pre
post
The graphic organizer has an appropriate title and
labels.
2.8
5.0
The graphic organizer’s lines, boxes, and text are neat
and legible.
2.2
3.8
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The information in the graphic organizer is correct.
2.6
4.8
The spelling, grammar, and punctuation of the text on
the graphic organizer are correct.
2.4
4.2
The graphic organizer presents the information in a
manner that is easy to follow.
1.8
4.6
The relationships presented in the graphic organizer are
correct and clear.
1.8
4.0
The form in which the graphic organizer portrays the
information is appropriate to the relationships being
represented.
3.6
4.8
The graphic organizer demonstrates an understanding
of the topic, its relationships & related concepts.
2.2
5.0
The graphic organizer fulfills all the requirements of the
assignment.
2.4
4.8
Overall, the graphic organizer represents the student’s
full potential.
2.4
4.4
This table demonstrates that most of the groups got a suitable comprehension 80%
presented the information in a manner that was easy to follow and 80% of the
information in the graphic organizer was correct. However, 40% of the groups found
problems related to format based on how to choose the graphic organizer’s lines,
boxes, and text in order to make them neat and legible, as a result of their low digital
competence.
To answer the second question: To what extent will graphic organizers improve reading
comprehension? In accordance with the outcomes from the pre – test and post – test
they presented a significant difference in students’ comprehension about the content
they have already read. The outcomes of both tests are submitted in figure 2.
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Figure 2.
Comparison of the pretest vs posttest
Figure 2 shows the minimum as well as the maximum results, which means that the
standard deviation was acquired from the pre – test and post – test. It illustrates that
the mean of the post – test is higher than the pre – test and the standard deviation is
lower in the post – test which is appropriate for the research. Another useful part of the
graphic is to see that the minimum of the grades increased from the pre – test (2.5/10)
to the post – test (5/10).
With a p value = 0.000, it was concluded that there was statistical evidence that the
results are statistically significant. It means they did not occur by chance, but they were
result of the implementation. Therefore, it was concluded that results from the pre – test
(5.2) verified a positive increase in the post – test (9.5).
Additionally, the outcomes indicated a Cohen’s d (Mean of pre – test, produced by post
– test / combined with the Standard Deviation) = 2.687 which involves a large impact
range. Cohen (2013) stated that 0.20 upwards is a small difference, 0.50 upwards is a
moderate difference and 0.80 upwards is a large difference. In other words, the data
indicates that students’ reading comprehension skill was improved after the application
of the innovation.
Regarding the third question: What are students' perspectives towards the innovation?
A post – survey was conducted to the students at the end of the final session. Results
of the survey evidenced that students strongly agreed about the benefits to apply ICT
to improve reading comprehension by the use of graphic organizers.
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Figure 3.
Survey About Innovation
In this figure the blue highest bars represent most of the twenty-five students involved
in the innovation, they strongly agreed with each of the six components, this results
reveal that students consider that applying ICT is a good strategy for a better reading
comprehension by the use of graphic organizers.
Discussion
An important issue for the implementation was the students’ digital competences for
applying the different technological resources into the classroom, because during the
lesson plan they had to use apps or hardware, which were not taught, it was assumed
that university students were able to follow the teacher’s instructions.
A relevant limitation was the technological equipment available in the university for
every student although they were working in collaboration, they needed a single
computer, smartphone or tablet to work properly. Another difficulty was the
effectiveness of the connection which sometimes worked well and continuously and
sometimes it stopped and interrupted the activity and students have to restart.
Lastly, it was a limitation to observe when students demonstrated lack of interest to
learn the language which becomes into an obstacle during the learning-teaching
process.
Conclusions
Graphic organizers are considered as a widely used technique in classrooms because of
their positive effects on students, no matter their gender, age, level of English. This
research study has led to positive conclusions about the use of graphic organizers with
students. They have shown to be completely effective with English language learners
and reading comprehension.
Based on the action research reported in this paper, it can be stated that the creation
of concept maps with the CMap Tools software can empower EFL students in different
Reading comprehension through the use of graphic organizers
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ways. First, they learn to organize, and structure knowledge acquired from texts in
another semiotic code: the visual one. Second, through the representation of texts
graphically shown on the computer screen and the relationships between concepts
being more evident, students' comprehension and retention of text frameworks were
enhanced. Third, the students also realized they can read well in English, once they
apply appropriate strategies. Furthermore, their self-esteem increased as they feel they
are able to comprehend texts written in English in a more efficient way. The use of
concept maps powered by the CMap Tools software can be a useful and efficient
strategy to achieve this goal in classes.
To sum up this study guided the researcher to provide more feedback to all kind of
learners about the application of the appropriate strategies to summarize with the use
of CMap as graphic organizer. According to the following international institutions such
as: National Reading Panel report, with the purpose of increasing reading, National
Institute of Child Health Human Development (US), who take care of children’s health,
National Reading Excellence Initiative, working on reading improvement, National
Institute for Literacy (US), & United States Department of Health (2000), institution
working to develop literacy in the country, fluency is reading accurately, quickly, and
expressively. These three critical elements work together to produce fluent readers.
Fluent readers recognize and comprehend words simultaneously while making sense of
the text as they read.
..........................................................................................................
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