Chapter One Introduction
1.1Background Information of the Thesis
The five elements of knowledge which include pronunciation, vocabulary,grammar, function and topic need to be mastered by students according to the NewStandard of English. We all know that the basis of learning English is vocabulary. Infact, vocabulary teaching is ignored by teachers in most senior high schools. There isone reason to explain this problem: teachers ignore the importance of vocabularyteaching and they usually focus on the grammar and language points in the texts whichare more difficulty for the students to understand, as a result, students need to learnEnglish vocabulary after class. In my study of this thesis, I realize that students usuallyencounter greater difficulty in English study when students try to remember newEnglish vocabulary. They always think the most difficult part of English study isvocabulary. Most of them want their English teachers to explain more about how toremember the words rather that just point out the grammar and language points.Because of the difficulty in remembering English vocabulary, students need more helpto master new vocabulary from English teachers. For them, the new words are totallystrange to master and what’s more, they also need to spend time on other curriculum.Students cry for a practical and effective learning method to get out of this difficultsituation.Numerous new findings prove that Mind Maps have positive effects in variousfields. The application of Mind Map in English vocabulary study is no exception and itcan help students to learn English vocabulary more efficient. Mind Map can help themto form a radiant network to present their creative thinking which is a clear way tomemorize everything. It will benefit students in learning forever if they can master thismethod.” The most helpful school should be a place where students can think actively.”(Zhang, 2011) As a result, teachers should realize the importance ofdeveloping students’ creative thinking.
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1.2 Significance of the study
The English learning method plays an important part in the process of Englishstudy. Just like the old saying: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach aman to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”(Wang, 2011)The efficient learning methods will not only increase students’ learning efficiencybut also increase their interest in study. The practical learning method will also help toshape the character of students. Teachers who put the Mind Map learning strategy intouse find it can enrich students’ vocabulary and it is good to students’ intellectualdevelopment. Mind Map is a useful graphical technology which can be used as a tool topresent some process of human radiant thinking. All the branches make up a connected knot structure (Zhang, 2011).By thedecoration of color, paintings, or symbols, Mind Map presents an efficient andinteresting image to the readers. The image can help to improve readers’ memory,creativity and ability to recall information. There are not enough studies on theapplication of Mind Map to English study up to now and the application of Mind Mapto new English vocabulary memorization is even less. My aim of this thesis is to callmore English learners to use Mind Map and arouse their English learning interest. Thisthesis is also aimed to raise teachers’ awareness of the importance of the application ofMind Map to new English vocabulary study.
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Chapter Two Literature Review and Theoretical Framework
2.1 Mind Map
Tony Buzan, a world famous English educator and scholar, came up with theconcept of Mind Map in the year 1974 by publishing the book of Use Your Head. Fromthis year, the concept of Mind Map and radiant thinking start to develop. If people cancombine the Mind Map with colorful images and lines, the Mind Map will becomemore effective because the charm of the mind can arouse our interest. The application ofMind Map can also be beneficial to motivate our creativity and imagination. Mind Mapcan reflect our radiant thinking by the visualized sequence of thinking and levels ofconcepts and it can present our ways of thinking by using colorful words and lines andit can form an impressive picture in people’s mind which is not easy to forget. Coloralso plays an important part in the process of forming a Mind Map. There is a radiantnatural structure after the central image or word is set（Tony, 2006).By the process ofchanging messy words into colorful pictures, Mind Maps leave people an impressivememory.Mind Map is a kind of expression of our radiant thinking, and radiant thinking isthe innermost representation of Mind Map as the new concept of development ofthinking (Tony, 2000).From a central point of theme, the Mind Map shows readers aradiant picture. Other information spreads from the central point in the form of endlessbranch chains. Therefore, the picture is easy to remember and the information is easy tomaster and read. What we all know is that radiant thinking is a kind of natural thinkingpattern, which is suitable for people to think and memorize. Mind Map is one useful andeffective graphical thinking tool by combining the traditional language intelligence,digital intelligence and the creative intelligence (Tony, 2009).When the concept of MindMap is initiated by Tony Buzan, Mind Map begin to attract the attention ofworld-famous educators and scholars.
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2.2 The Previous Studies of Mind Map
Tony Buzan, a world famous English educator and scholar, is the first one to putforward the concept of Mind Map. In the beginning, Tony Buzan just design Mind Mapsfor people who have learning disabilities and the results were unexpected becausestudents got high marks by using Mind Map(Zhang,2011).In fact, Mind Map is a goodtool which can make our thinking and learning easily. Then Mind Map was used inother field of the world.The Mind Map has become an obligatory course in middle schools in some countries, such as America and Singapore. Some teachers use this new tool in teaching.Tony Buzan attended the 30thanniversary of Mind Map in Singapore in 2007 andresearches on the application of Mind Map win support in Singapore and each schoolget the software of Mind Map from the government.From 2001 to 2010, there were altogether 23 theses on Mind Map application toteaching and learning in ten years. What’s more, it is increasing all the time. Thenumber of theses has the tendency of going up from the year of 2001 when there was noany thesis about Mind Map. In terms of the subjects on education, the most commonsubjects include educational technology, chemistry and mathematics. Twelve theseswere about teaching and learning, five about mathematics and four for chemistry. Forother subjects, the application is not centralized. Those researches of Mind Map inteaching have proved the effectiveness of Mind Map in teaching all kinds of subjectsand it includes English teaching.
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Chapter Three Methodolody ....14
3.1 Research Questions.......14
3.2 Subjects.....14
3.3 Instruments .....15
3.4Teaching Experiment Procedure........19
3.5Data Collection and Analysis.......27
Chapter Four Analysis and Discussion.........28
4.1 Survey Results........28
4.1.2Post-experimental Survey .........31
4.2Tests Results .....35
4.3The Interview Results....38
4.4Discussion ..........41
Chapter Five Conclusion....42
5.1My Major Findings........42
5.2Implications......45
5.3Limatations ......45
Chapter Four Analysis and Discussions
4.1 Survey Results
There are all together 49 pre-experimental surveys in the experimental class 8 andall were handed in at the end. In fact there were 58 students in the experimental class 8,however because of their absence of class, 9 students of them did not do the survey andthe answers of the 49 surveys are recorded as follows:Question 1Do you have any idea about the concept of Mind Map?A.Not heard B.Just heard but didn’t used C. Very familiarFrom analyzing the answers to the question one, no one is familiar with the MindMap. Just one student named John chose number B of this question and the rest studentshas never learned the concept of Mind Map. The good point about the answer is thatMind Map is total new for students to be experimented in senior high school. This resultis good news for the later experiment to carry out because the interrupting elementsdecline. For the question 3,30 of the students choose number A as their answer which is the6.1 percentage of the experimented students.3 students choose number C which meansthey have no idea of the vocabulary structure before remembering them. On the contrary,they just memorize English vocabulary in a compulsory way and put words in the mindcasually and this kind of memorization cannot be helpful for the long time study. Therest 16 students choose to observe and think about the English vocabulary structurebefore remembering them occasionally.
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Conclusion
There are 58 students in the experimental class 8 and the experiment costs me twoand a half months. By analyzing the statistics of the surveys, the interview and results of13 tests, I made the conclusion and list my major findings in the following 3 aspects. Mind Map is useful for students in senior high school to retrieve morevocabulary and intake it instead of just inputting it. The application of Mind Map toEnglish vocabulary memorization is useful for students to retrieve English vocabularyinstead of just inputting English vocabulary. In my experiment, Mind Map is applied inthe first class to learn and recite new English vocabulary and review learned Englishvocabulary in the last class of the lesson. The process of drawing a Mind Map is also aprocess of brainstorming since we need to think quickly and actively to find out theconnection among different English vocabulary and make our own connection betweenthe new knowledge and the knowledge stored in our mind already. Students’ senses canalso be motivated in the process of drawing a Mind Map because they should use color,pictures or circles to express their thinking which will evoke our learning process.Ausubel (1968) came up with the Assimilation Theory of Cognition and he put forwardhis idea that meaningful study is more efficient and helpful. He put emphasis on theactive learning in high school where students can learn systematic and meaningfulknowledge. In my experiment, I lead students to make connection of the acceptivelearning and the meaningful learning. As for the acceptive learning, I explain somevocabulary and show some pictures to them and draw the Mind Map with students byhand or by computer in class. And after this, I let students draw their own Mind Mapunder my guidance.
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References (omitted)