Facilitating Reading Comprehension in EFL Classrooms

There is no shortage of literature on how to make the learning process a more enjoyable and lasting one for learners. As far as learning English as a foreign language is concerned, a century of formal teaching has helped little in the way of facilitating the task of learning the language. One thing we know for sure is that effective learning hinges upon making the learning process as enjoyable and the learning materials as meaningful to the learner as possible. Learning vocabulary, as the building block of language, will accordingly be fruitful only when the task includes the elements of joy and meaningfulness. A very commendable technique used as a pre-reading exercise to introduce new words is semantic mapping. This research-based book accordingly presents the findings of a relevant study to look at the efficacy of using semantic mapping strategy for teaching new vocabulary before reading a passage in EFL contexts. The target audience of the book are EFL teachers, researchers and materials developers.