<![CDATA[Vocabulary knowledge plays a crucial role in English language proficiency; however, limited vocabulary remains a major challenge among Indonesian EFL learners, particularly in suburban junior secondary schools where students have limited exposure to authentic English use. This study investigated the effect of the Word Mapping strategy on vocabulary development among eighth-grade EFL students in a suburban Indonesian context. A quantitative pre-experimental design using a one-group pretest–posttest approach was employed. The participants were 31 eighth-grade students at SMPN 3 Gunungsari, West Lombok, Indonesia, selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected using researcher-developed vocabulary achievement tests administered before and after the intervention. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and paired-samples t-test with SPSS version 25. The findings revealed that students’ mean vocabulary scores increased from 55.35 (SD = 5.85) in the pretest to 76.39 (SD = 5.87) in the posttest, representing a gain of 21.04 points. The paired-samples t-test indicated a statistically significant difference between pretest and posttest scores (p < .001). These findings suggest that Word Mapping supports vocabulary development by enabling learners to organize lexical knowledge through semantic relationships and visual representations. Although the absence of a control group limits causal interpretation, the study provides preliminary evidence that Word Mapping is a promising strategy for vocabulary instruction in suburban EFL classrooms.]]>
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