Development of English Reading Comprehension by Using Concept Maps

Reading is the single most important fundamental skill a person can acquire. However, in Thailand, English language learning, especially in reading skill, seems to be the big problem to students because most of them find English reading difficult and lack of motivation in doing so. As a result, the purpose of this study were to study the development of English reading comprehension by using concept maps, and to study the students' attitudes towards learning English reading comprehension by using concept maps. This study conducted through the use of scores from concept map retelling based on the redeveloped rubrics and comprehension test. The interview was also conducted. The results showed that the percentage of retelling and comprehension test were 81.25 percent and 86.50 percent respectively. Student stated that concept maps helped them understand English reading better. This could be concluded that the use of concept maps could enhance the students' English reading comprehension. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.