Individual and collaborative computerized concept mapping as a pre-writing strategy: Effects on EFL students' writing

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of computerized concept mapping on EFL students' opinion, compare and contrast and cause and effect essays in terms of content, organization, language use, vocabulary, and mechanics. The theoretical framework was based on writing-as-process approach in which the pre-writing stage as the focus of the study. Explanatory sequential mixed methods design was used to collect data. Quasi-experimental research data was collected from forty-five students who were assigned to two treatment groups as individual and collaborative computerized concept mapping and control group with no mapping. All participants completed a survey before and after the treatment. All groups were instructed to write an essay before the actual essays and thirty one essays were collected. The experimental groups were trained on how to use the computerized mapping tool. The essays were scored according to Jacobs et al.'s (1981) rubric by two raters and the inter-rater reliability was at least 88%. The quasi-experimental phase was pursued by semi-structured interviews. Twelve students from experimental groups participated in the interviews and these interviews aided to interpret quantitative results. The results suggested that the individual mapping group performed better than the control group in terms of content and organization in all essay tasks while the collaborative mappers outperformed control group only in the second task. The results of semi-structured interviews also revealed that learners had positive experiences using computerized concept mapping as a pre-writing activity in EFL context and their attitudes towards writing were quite positive after computerized mapping.