adjetives

3. Enhancing Collaborative and Meaningful Language
Learning Through Concept Mapping
Rita de Cássia Veiga Marriott1 and Patrícia Lupion Torres2
1

University of Birmingham, UK, Department of Hispanic Studies & Centre for Modern
Languages, [e-mail]
2
Universidade Católica do Paraná, Brazil, Department of Education, [e-mail]

Abstract. This chapter aims to investigate new ways of foreign-language teaching/learning via a study of how concept mapping can help develop a student’s reading, writing and oral skills as part of a blended methodology for language teaching known as LAPLI
(Laboratorio de Aprendizagem de LInguas: The Language Learning Lab). LAPLI is a student-centred and collaborative methodology which encourages students to challenge their limitations and expand their current knowledge whilst developing their linguistic and interpersonal skills. We explore the theories that underpin LAPLI and detail the 12 activities comprising its programme with specify reference to the use of “concept mapping”.
An innovative table enabling a formative and summative assessment of the concept maps is formulated. Also presented are some of the qualitative and quantitative results achieved when this methodology was first implemented with a group of pre-service students studying for a degree in English and Portuguese languages at the Catholic University of Parana
(PUCPR) in Brazil. The contribution of concept mapping and LAPLI to an under standing of language learning along with a consideration of the difficulties encountered in its implementation with student groups is discussed and suggestions made for future research. 3.1 Introduction: The Use of Concept Mapping in Lapli
Concept mapping is widely known as a tool to facilitate meaningful learning. For
Novak (2003), if this technique is to favour meaningful learning, it needs to fulfil three conditions (1) the subject matter to be learnt must be presented clearly, and the

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