The Effect of Concept Mapping on Iranian EFL Learners’ Lexical Collocation Learning Across Gender

The present study attempted to investigate the impact of concept mapping strategy which is based on the theory of meaningful learning on retention of collocations. Moreover, the difference between the male and female learners exposed to the experimental condition was also examined. For this purpose, 90 EFL learners studying general English course at Urmia University were selected out of 115 learners according to their level of proficiency (PET test). Participants were assigned into two classes (class 1 (control group) = 48, class 2 (experimental group) = 42). Both groups received pre-test and post-test; however, they did get different instructions. Concept-mapping teaching strategy was used with experimental group participants while conventional instruction was employed in the control group. The results of this study support the fact that the use of concept mapping as a component of the instructional lesson can be an efficient model for fostering the collocation learning performance of learners with intermediate level of proficiency. However, there was not any statistically significant effect for gender.