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Concept Mapping for L2 Students


The article I read this week ("Drawing on Ideas for Language Learners") talked about the benefits concept mapping can have for L2 students. Through the use of the concept-mapping platform Ideaphora, several distinct uses of concept mapping for L2 students were discussed.

Education researchers have advocated the use of concept mapping for over 40 years as an effective way to foster higher-order thinking skills. Concept maps help to move ELL students from knowledge acquisition to knowledge utilization to creation. Utilizing concept maps, language learners can create a visible structure of their understanding in given domains that can be modified to reflect new understanding.

Some of the major ways concept maps can be used are in pre-reading, pre-writing, vocabulary building, developing critical thinking skills, assessment, and reading comprehension. With the advances in technology, creating these concept maps has become easier for teachers and students to utilize.

Research has shown that students who create concept maps while taking notes have better test recall, can access information more quickly during assessment, and score better on content-based post assessments, than students who do not have concept-mapping experience.  The use of concept mapping connects to Bloom’s highest level of “creating new knowledge” by allowing learners the ability to link new ideas and information to prior experience and existing knowledge.

Personally, I have seen the benefits concept mapping can have for students in a science setting and I will be looking into Ideaphora as a platform to use for my students to create concept maps of the content I teach. I hope you too will consider utilizing concept maps in your classroom as they can be an invaluable tool for your L2 students!

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