The Impacts of Guided and Unguided Mobile‐Mediated Concept Mapping on EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Learning and Strategy Awareness

ABSTRACT Although several studies have provided positive evidence concerning the impacts of technology‐mediated language learning on learners’ vocabulary acquisition, few studies have investigated concept mapping in this field. This study intended to examine the impacts of guided and unguided mobile‐mediated concept mapping on learners’ vocabulary acquisition outside of English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms. Moreover, the vocabulary acquisition strategies of students were examined. Sixty EFL learners in three intact classes were assigned to guided and unguided mobile‐mediated concept mapping conditions as well as one control group. The participants in the guided mobile‐mediated concept mapping group were provided with fill‐in‐blank concept mapping of words, and they were asked to fill in the nodes through their smartphones. The participants of the unguided mobile‐mediated concept mapping group were asked to draw concept maps of words via their mobile phones without receiving fill‐in‐blank concept mapping. The control group's participants were required to understand and memorize the words given to the experimental conditions conventionally, and they did not receive mobile‐mediated concept maps. Analyses of the learners’ post‐ and also delayed posttests indicated that both guided and unguided mobile‐mediated concept mapping were equally beneficial for increasing EFL learners’ vocabulary learning. Moreover, findings revealed that guided and unguided mobile‐mediated concept mapping promoted learners’ vocabulary learning strategy awareness outside of EFL settings.