The Effect of College Students' Self-Generated Computerized Mind Mapping on Their Reading Achievement

INTRODUCTIONReading, as a receptive skill is very important in learning a foreign language. McGinnis and Smith, 1982 (cited in Rizqiya 2013, p. 31) defined reading, as "a purposeful process of identifying, interpreting, and evaluating ideas in terms of the mental content or the total awareness of the reader." Reading consists of two related processes: word recognition and comprehension. "Comprehension is the process of making sense of words, sentences and connected text."(Pang, Muaka, Bernhardt, & Kamill 2003, p.6). These levels can be summarized as "Reading the lines, reading between the lines and reading beyond the lines." (Gray cited in Shermila 1999, p. 27). The successful comprehension of a text is achieved by employing various reading skills, such as making inferences, understanding the organizational pattern of the text, identifying the main idea and sub-ideas, and figuring out the relationship among these ideas and the details given in the text (Donin, Graves, & Goyette 2004).There are certain teaching techniques that help students to construct meaning in a reading text. One of these techniques that helps in acquiring reading skills is mind mapping. The learner transfers the text into a visual map to demonstrate the relationships among the text main ideas and its sub-ideas and to integrate the new information to his/her prior knowledge."Mind Maps" were developed by the British psychologist Tony Buzan in the late 60's as a means of effective note-taking. According to Buzan, "A Mind Map" is an associative network of images and words which harnesses the full range of cortical skills: word, image, number, logic, rhythm, colour and spatial awareness in a single, uniquely powerful technique" (Buzan, 1996, p.81). According to Buzan 2012 (cited in Dominik 2014, p.4), "The mind map is a graphical tool for holistic thinking which supports all of the brain functions - mainly our memory, creativity, learning and all additional thinking." On the other hand, Eppler defined mind mapping operationally. Eppler stated,"A mind map is a multi-colored and image-centered, radial diagram that represents semantic or other connections between portions of learned material hierarchically." (Eppler 2006, p. 203). A mind map starts with a main topic written in the center and branches out to sub-topics (Eppler 2006).Students begin a mind map by writing the main topic in a square in the middle of the paper. Then, nodes are drawn from this square carrying the main idea. From each idea, other nodes are drawn to write the sub-ideas from which examples or details are sent on other nodes. An important step in creating a mind map is to use colors as they help to differentiate the sub topics or sub-ideas. Using images, icons, tags and other visuals as video films in the case of computerized mind-mapping is useful as it helps to associate ideas in a more interesting way (Budd 2004, p.35).Chang, Sung and Chen (2001) and King (2007a, p.87&94), pinpointed the fact that there are two ways to create mind maps. The first one is by hand, in which learners can use large pieces of paper, pens, pencils, markers, and pictures. Sometimes the maps can be created on a chalkboard or a whiteboard. The second one is via mind mapping software which facilitates the manipulation, colorization and restructuring of the mind map and its nodes and branches and make the process of creating mind maps faster and easier." (Dominik, 2014:5). "Additionally, through the use of mind mapping software, it is possible to avoid run off the edge of the paper." (Gomez and King 2014, p.78). In contrast, creating mind maps on paper can consume too much time, material and effort.Mind mapping in learning and teachingMind mapping as used in the skill of reading is based on certain learning theories and approaches. These include, for example, the top-down approach in reading, radiant thinking, graphic organizers, schema theory, the educational significance of visual learning and communication, and constructivism. …