The impact of using an educational Web 2.0 Tool IHMC CmapTools on the achievements of ESP students

Abstract

IHMC CmapTools freeware environment is the result of research conducted by American scientists A. Cañas and J. Novak, empowering users to represent their knowledge using concept maps, to share them with peers and to publish them. The strategy of using concepts mapping in education is usually based on Ausubel, Novak, and Hanessian’s assimilation theory of learning. Within this theoretical framework the learner shifts away from learning in a rote fashion and moves to learning in a more meaningful way. Rather than memorizing information, the learner searches out the relationships among concepts and organizes a structure to the new knowledge that is unique to him or her. Research to date supports the efficacy of CmapTools for concept mapping in different areas of education, including teaching and learning English as a second language for specific purposes. This article reports on the results of a quasi-experimental research aimed at determining the effectiveness of CmapTools on ESP students’ achievements in terms of specialized vocabulary acquisition.