How do Concept-Maps Function for Reading Comprehension Improvement of Iranian Advanced EFL Learners of Both Genders?

This study was an attempt to examine the effect of concept mapping on reading comprehension of Iranian EFL learners. Pretest-posttest design was employed to scrutinize the possible improvement of the study’s participants who were male and female learners whose ages ranged from 19 to 40 and had taken general English courses at Islamic Azad University of Kharg. Two groups (one experimental and one control group) were exposed to the same reading comprehension test as the pre-and post-test, however, only the experimental group received the special treatment of concept mapping techniques for different texts during the treatment. After the application of the study’s treatment, data analysis procedure initiated which indicated that experimental group who received explicit concept mapping instruction had a better performance than the control group on the final reading comprehension test. In addition, the findings shows that students who used this strategy during the seven-week treatment had better results on comprehension reading test and could understand the reading passages better. The findings imply that concept maps can positively affect the reading comprehension ability of Iranian advanced EFL learners. It was also revealed that female learners were superior at employing concept-maps in comparison with their male peers.