The Use of Mind Mapping Strategy in Teaching Reading Comprehension

Abstract

Reading is a skill that requires the interaction between the reader and the text in which the former integrates previous knowledge with a number of skills and strategies to interpret the meaning of the written passage. Hence, reading strategies are very essential to ensure learners‟ reading comprehension. Accordingly, the present study seeks to investigate the use of Mind Mapping as a strategy to improve learners‟ reading comprehension in an Algerian context. This research also aims to confirm or reject the following assumptions: secondary school teachers use Mind Mapping strategy in teaching reading, secondary school teachers follow the rules of Mind Mapping strategy, Mind Mapping plays an important role in teaching reading, fourth, and secondary school teachers hold a positive attitude towards the use of Mind Mapping as a reading comprehension strategy. To verify the validity of the aforementioned assumptions, a teacher interview and a classroom observation were used as data collection tools. The interview was conducted with four third year secondary school teachers at Khanchoul Ali and Kerdoud Mohammedin El-Milia, Jijel, and the classroom observation was conducted in the same secondary schools during six sessions on third year secondary school learners of two streams: the letters and foreign languages stream and the letters and philosophy stream. The findings showed that the first three assumptions were disconfirmed while the fourth one was confirmed. Therefore, it is highly desirable to take into consideration the pedagogical recommendations provided at the end of this research.