Catálogo de Investigaciones 2015-2016

CATÁLOGO DE INVESTIGACIONES | AÑO ACADÉMICO 2015-2016 119 The Effect of Graphic Organizers in the Reading Comprehension of Puerto Rican English Language Learners from an Intermediate School in Puerto Rico For many years reading has been a subject of great interest and study among researchers and educators. Researchers have focused on how the reading process develops for English language learners (Venezky, 1984). Some researchers like Berrantes (2015) and Hawk (1986) have identified and applied different techniques for teaching reading comprehension to English language learners such as graphic organizers. Grabe (2009) mentions that the use of different types of visual representations develop student awareness of text structure, thus helping reading comprehension. The current research had two main purposes: to identify the effect of graphic organizers in the reading comprehension of Puerto Rican English language learners in the eighth grade, and to find out differences, if any, between students in the Experimental Group who used graphic organizers to develop reading comprehension skills and students in the Control Group who did not use graphic organizers. The research was a quasi- experimental design. Sample utilized was thirty-three (33) students from the eighth grade level from an intermediate public school of the Ponce School District, which were divided into two groups: Experimental Group and Control Group. A reading comprehension pre-post-test, designed by the investigator and validated by a panel of experts, was used to collect data. It measured reading comprehension skills. The Experimental Group received treatment with the use of graphic organizers to develop reading comprehension skills while the Control Group received no treatment. The findings of this research demonstrated that the use of graphic organizers did not have an effect on the reading comprehension of the participants in the Experimental Group, and made no significant difference between the Experimental and Control Group scores. A longer time period treatment is recommended for further research. beckylee ramos lorenzo maestría en educación con especialidad en enseñanza del inglés como segundo idioma mentor: dra. irma n. rodríguez vega english as a second language graphic organizers reading comprehension intermediate school in puerto rico