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explained before, states that what is understood during reading is linked in some conceptual way with what existed in the mind of the learner beforehand.
Based on the definitions above, it can be concluded that the Semantic Mapping Strategy is a strategy for structuring main ideas of a topic visually in the
form of circles, rectangles, or squares containing key words or phrases that are connected by lines based on students‟ prior knowledge to help them understand
the relationship between the words and to build concepts about broad topic.
b. Types of Semantic Mapping
According to Frederick 1957 in Sinatra et al. 1986, there are four types of Semantic Mapping formats as elaborated below.
1 Narrative Sequential Organization Map Episodic Web
In this type of Semantic Map, students are shown how to isolate key episodes in a story or a short fictional work, are directed to show the most important
facts in each episode, and are asked to arrange in sequence the events occurring in the episode. To symbolize the sequential organization, each
episode can be marked by arrows. 2
Thematic or Descriptive Map In this type of Semantic Map, the students are asked to display elements and
details about persons, places, or things around the central topic. The topic is placed in the center and associated relationships are portrayed as stems of the
main concept.
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3 Comparative and Contrastive Map
In this type of Semantic Map, the students are directed to display a certain topic which wants to be compared and contrasted. The topic is placed in the
center. An arrow is drawn on the left side of the topic representing the sameness and the other arrow is drawn on the right side of the topic showing
the differences. 4
Classification Map This type of Semantic Map shows the relationships among concepts by
displaying how class, examples, and properties or attributes are related. The major concept is usually placed on the top of the figure. Then, the examples or
attributes are webbed directly to the major concept.
c. Application of
the Semantic
Mapping Strategy
in Reading
Comprehension
It has been mentioned previously that reading activity can be divided into three phases; those are pre-reading, while-reading, and post-reading activity. The
Semantic Mapping Strategy can be applied in all of the phases. In pre-reading activity, Semantic M
apping can be used as a tool to activate students‟ schemata of a given topic. It is equivalent to one of reading strategies, predicting. In while-
reading activity, students make another Semantic Map based on the given text. In this phase, the students associate the words they find in the text with their prior
knowledge. In post-reading activity, students can compare the pre-reading map and the new one which is based on the given text.
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Those three stages can be broken down into five phases in the following procedure:
1 Introducing the Topic
In this phase, the teacher introduces the topic to the students through drawing a large oval on the whiteboard and writing the topic inside of it. The teacher
can also draw a picture related to the topic to stimulate students‟ thoughts Heimlich and Pittleman in Zaid, 1995.
2 Brainstorming
The teacher asks the students to use their prior knowledge and experiences to think of ideas related to the topic and write them around the topic oval. This
phase makes the teacher sees the schemata of the students, their interests, level of readiness, gaps, misconceptions, and errors Pearson and Johnson in Zaid,
1995. The use of markers with different colors is recommended because they promote students‟ conceptualization and structuring of the topic and they help
them to recognize the different sources of information Olson Gee in Zaid, 1995
3 Categorization
In this phase, the teacher encourages the students to see the relationship among their ideas and label the ideas belonging to the same categories with
the appropriate category title, for example red, green, purple are under the category of colors. If the students find it difficult to categorize their ideas, the
teacher may help them by using WH-questions Who, What, When, Where, How. During this phase, the teacher can introduce vocabulary words which
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the students may find in the text later. When the pre-reading map on the board has been drawn, the teacher asks the students to make their own copies. In this
phase, the students not only learn about categorization and exemplification, but also learn about comparing and contrasting, cause and effect, inference
making, and forming judgments. 4
Personalizing the Map After the students make their own copy, the teacher gives them a text to read.
When they are reading, they may add or eliminate the words or ideas from their pre-reading map based on the text given.
5 Post-assignment Synthesis
In this phase, the activities can be discussion about the final semantic map that each student has drawn. The teacher may add follow-up activities such as
asking the students to retell the text using their own maps or providing semantic map exercises.
Johnson et al. 1986 give examples of Semantic Map both in pre-reading activity and post-reading activity as follows.
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Figure 1. An Example of Pre-reading Semantic Map
Figure 2. An Example of Post-reading Semantic Map B. Reviews of Related Studies
Kamal Muhtar conducted research in Grade VIII of SMPN 1 Sine in 2010. His research findings showed that the Semantic Mapping Strategy can improve
students‟ reading comprehension. Besides, the students became more active in learning reading. An experimental research written by Elamathi A P showed that
the Semantic Mapping Technique is a powerful tool for students to improve their comprehension. Moreover, teaching using the Semantic Mapping Technique
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helped English teacher a lot in conducting the reading comprehension lesson. Another experimental research written by Institute of Interdiciplinary Business
Research in 2012 which was conducted with Jordanian University students showed that the Semantic Mapping Strategy group performed better than the
control group in the pre-test comprehension test and in the post test. Based on the three studies, it can be concluded that the Semantic Mapping
Strategy has been proven as a useful and effective technique to enhance students‟
reading comprehension.
C. Conceptual Framework
It has been discussed in Chapter I that Grade VIII C students of SMP N 3 Pakem had problems in reading comprehension caused by some factors such as
the lack of their vocabulary mastery, the lack of their comprehension of the content of the text, the use of an inappropriate strategy in reading, the lack of their
enthusiasm of the lesson, and the lack of their participation during the lesson. The s
tudents‟ reading comprehension could be improved by the Semantic Mapping Strategy which was implemented during the teaching and learning process of
reading. The use of the Semantic Mapping Strategy could help the students comprehend texts through visualizing the terms in the text and their relationship in
the form of a map. Semantic Mapping was used in the pre-reading phase to activate the
students‟ schemata of the topic before they read by brainstorming and constructing pre-reading map, the while-reading phase in which they read the text
and modify their own map with new information found in the text, and the post- reading phase in which they had discussions and told the content of the text.
