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Pasuruan. This research find out that semantic mapping technique is successful in improving both the students’ ability in comprehending English text and
thestudents’ involvement in reading activity. The improvement can be seen from the
students’ mean score and individual score precentage from preliminary study to cycle 2. The students’ mean score had improved greatly from 35.00 to 68.33.
While, the students’ individual score extented from 0 to 44.44 equal than 70. The scores obtained by the students in the two cycles were shown by reading
comprehension tests. Last, Raizienie, Saule and Bronishlava Grigaite 2005 wrote on journal of
the humanities and social sciences entiled
“Developing Child’s thinking skill by Semantic Mapping Str
ategies”. In this journal, they explained that semantic
mappingwebbing can be used for promoting teachers and school principals reflective and critical thinking skills. It also examined cognitive outcomes,
stimulated by the teacher use of semantic mapping as a strategy for accelerating two cognitive operations, classification, and seriation in a child’s seventh year.
G. Rationale
1. The Difference between Semantic Mapping and Lecturing to Teach Reading
Students’
skill in reading is influenced by many factors. One of them is a strategy used by the teacher tn teaching learning process. As stated before the
strategy used in this research is semantic mapping. Semantic mapping is a strategy in which information is categorically structured in a graphic or visual form. All
activies in this strategy are students-centered because the semantic map makes use of the students’ prior knowledge and students control the input at each stage on
the map’s building. It also interactive activity, because in drafting the map,
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students work with each other both before and after the targeted language. It ’s
creation entails the total students involvement; the students are active participants throughout the development of the map. Their brainstorming allows the map to
take its first shape; and their output during and following the assingment determines the final shape the map will have.
Conventional teaching strategy, lecturing, on reading skill will contribute significantly to the new terms of knowledge. The activity in lecturing is teacher-
centered. The students have no a chance to be active because in lecturing the teacher becomes the decision maker, the teacher will be engaged in many
planning decisions, such as deciding what the teacher likes to teach and shehe whises to teach. This strategy makes the students become followers during the
teaching and learning process and ussually work individually. As a consequence, it makes the students passive because they just listen to the teacher’s explanation
and to their friends while they are reading. Besides, the students loose the chance in developing their communication, social skill, and build self confidence to argue
their opinion. Based on the above elaboration, the difference between semantic mapping
and lecturing can be seen on the learning activity. When semantic mapping is used as prereading helps to active students’ prior knowledge and determines how much
knowledge building is required before students read the text. Using semantic mapping in whilst-reading helps the students to record the information obtained
from the text. When used as postreading helps the students recall and organize information that they have learned from reading text as they make connection to
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words or concepts related to the topic. Meanwhile, lecturing focus es on theacher’s
explanation and emphasizes learning on students’ listening. Thus, it can be assumed that semantic mapping is more effective than
lecturing to teach reading.
2. The Diffference between Students Having High Intelligence and Students
