Using Semantic Mapping in Teaching English Reading Skills of Thai EFL Learners

Abstract

This article aims at explaining the meaning and relevant factors including procedure in teaching English skills for the Thai EFL learners through the use of semantic mapping. Reading is essential and undeniably one of the most important skills since it helps develop an all–rounded, in-depth person; however, reading skills may be difficult for those who learn English as a foreign language because they are probably unfamiliar with it. As a result, the learners of English as a foreign language must understand the vocabulary and various sentence patterns of English very well in order to grasp the main point of text being read; therefore, semantic mapping is one teaching method that helps simplify the reading skill. The elements of the semantic mapping should be thought of as geometric shapes and the message of the main idea or details of the story are arrows which represent the directions and connect the maim idea. This is a way to help learners see the relationship of the true message; moreover, it helps the students to organize the details into groups according to the topics. Using semantic mapping, the learner-centered learning process is helpful because it asks the students to participate in building the map of the idea. Consequently, the procedure of semantic mapping is a method which will help learners read English with better understanding and enable them to grasp the main idea of the text by making effective connections of the whole story systematically.