摘 要

思维导图是一种可视的图形化工具，它可以帮助学生建立单词之间的概念联系，从而提高学生的学习能力。当前国内高中词汇教学存在着诸多问题，具体体现在许多学生词汇学习方法死板，词汇拼写正确率低下，以及缺乏在适当语境中灵活运用词汇的能力等。因此，在词汇教学中引入思维导图的理念和方法势在必行。

本文首先基于东尼·博赞的理论对思维导图作了简要阐述，接着在鄂州高中两个平行班的一百二十二名高二学生进行的案例中，通过采访、测试等方法比较思维导图法和传统教学法的区别，其目的是探究思维导图是否有利于高中英语词汇教学。数据分析表明：应用思维导图后，实验组在后测试卷中的各项成绩都优于控制组。相比传统教学法，思维导图教学法不仅能更有效地扩大学生词汇量和提升词汇记忆准确度，还能激发学生的学习兴趣。

关键词：思维导图；词汇教学；教学策略

Abstract

Mind Map is a visual and graphical tool which can help learners establish the conceptual relations between words so as to advance their learning capacity. Currently there exists numerous problems in domestic middle school vocabulary teaching that many students memorize vocabulary only by rote and it is universal that some of them find English vocabulary hard to bear in mind, spell correctly, and apply in appropriate contexts. Therefore, it is a necessity to apply mind maps in senior vocabulary teaching practice.

Based on Tony Buzan’s related theories, this paper initially makes a short introduction to mind mapping. Then a case study, which compares the differences between mind mapping method and traditional teaching method, was conducted among 122 students in Grade 2 from two parallel classes in Ezhou senior high school by applying methods such as tests and interviews. The objective of this case study is to probe into whether mind mapping is advantageous to senior vocabulary teaching in middle school. Through analysis of the data, it is observed after applying the mind maps, the experimental class outperformed the control class in each item of the post-test. Compared with traditional teaching method, mind mapping method can not only expand students' vocabulary reserve and improve the accuracy of vocabulary memory more efficiently, but also arouse their desire for learning.

Key Words: Mind map; English vocabulary Teaching; Teaching strategies

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Literature Review 1

2.1 Previous Studies of Mind Maps Abroad 1

2.2 Previous Studies of Mind Maps at Home 2

3 Case Study 3

3.1 Hypotheses 3

3.2 Subjects 4

3.3 Instruments 4

3.3.1 Tests 4

3.3.2 Interviews 5

3.4 Instructional Procedures in the EC and CC 5

3.4.1 Instructional Procedures in the EC 6

3.4.2 Instructional Procedures in the CC. 8

3.4.3 A Sample Lesson in the CC. 8

3.5 Data Collection 11

4 Results and Analysis 12

4.1 Results of the tests 12

4.1.1 Results of Pre-Tests 12

4.1.2 Results of Post-Tests 13

4.2 Results of Interviews 15

5 Conclusions 17

References 18

Acknowledgements 19

Mind Map in Senior High School English Vocabulary Teaching

1 Introduction

The Ministry of Education set new requirements for English vocabulary goals in the Standards for General High School English Curriculum in 2017. According to its setting of the nine-level goal, seniors in Grade three should grasp about 4,500 words, and 400-500 phrases and idioms. These requirements pose significant challenges for students and teachers.

Up to now, the research on mind mapping and foreign language teaching in China has covered various aspects in English education. There are substantial studies that have proved that the implementation of mind mapping in second language acquisition can promote students’ thinking ability effectively. This paper mainly concentrates on how to boost the efficiency of students’ vocabulary memory by applying the mind map to the teaching of English vocabulary, which aims to establish the conceptual connections between words so as to promote students’ vocabulary memorization, creative thinking and vocabulary teaching.

Basically this paper consists of five parts concretely shown as followed. The first part is an introduction, which mainly introduces study background, the purpose and significance of this topic, and thesis framework. The second part is literature review, including previous studies of mind mapping at home and abroad. The third part is case study, with a detailed illustration of tests, interviews after the test in order to testify the hypotheses put forward in this chapter. The fourth part focuses on results and analysis, which discusses the results based on the data. The last part is conclusion, mainly summarizing the whole study and get some implication for further study.

2 Literature Review

2.1 Previous Studies of Mind Maps Abroad

Tony Buzan（1998）first proposed the definition of Mind Map and he pointed out that mind mapping is the concrete manifestation of people's natural thinking. When people take notes, using mind maps can advance their perception effects and optimize the memory capacity. This allows people to enjoy the process of thinking. Besides, Tony Buzan (2013) has revealed in his book that the relations between right and left brains makes mind mapping an efficient instrument because it functions in harmony with all cognitive functions to boost memory, creativity, and thinking. Schmitt, N (2004) pointed out that mind maps can benefit vocabulary learning for the memory, feeling and information in human brain can be manifested by branches of thoughts, further showing the radioactive structure. Conole, G. (2010) Professor of the university of Leeds, has made further research. The results show that teaching goals can be achieved more efficiently through mind mapping for it combines digital intelligence and language intelligence well. Hadi Salehi (2017) discovered the practicability of mind maps as a tool when particular courses such as mathematics are taught by the instructor. It can be indicated from his conclusion that learners can clarify their thoughts more concisely by utilizing mind maps. Rooda LA (2018) believed that mind mapping is a reflection of people's cognitive functions that people can store and extract relevant information through mind mapping). Alma, P. N. (2016) pointed out that students can memorize and process vocabulary or grammatical structures through mind mapping more effectively.

What can be inferred from above is that overseas researchers have been convinced that teaching methods and strategies which applies mind maps is advantageous to actual studying effects. As for the research conclusions, mind mapping can assist students in summarizing the learning content and knowledge system and expand the scope of teaching by stimulating students' enthusiasm. This shows that mind maps in teaching practice can achieve significant effects.

2.2 Previous Studies of Mind Maps at Home

Domestically, Feng Jun (2014) combines mind mapping with the teaching of English vocabulary. His paper discusses the relationship between mind mapping and English vocabulary teaching, and probes into reasonable vocabulary teaching methods. It is pointed out that mind map can help organize vocabulary more effectively and achieve the effect of efficient memory. Hu Qiaoshi (2015) proposed that mind mapping is actually a thinking tool that can clearly and intuitively present known vocabulary that mind mapping can help students build a complete vocabulary system. Ma Xiaonan (2017) combined mind mapping with teaching designs to discover its practicability as a thinking tool. His conclusion reveals that mind maps are advantageous to teaching practice in English courses and can help educators to design classes more reasonably. Hu Xueling (2018) conducted a research on the basic situation of English vocabulary learning in the second year of senior high school, and applied the mind map model to English review courses. Experiments show that the process of students' designing and making mind maps is actually to complete the retelling of words in the brain. Through mind maps, students can fully utilize the unification of their right and left brains to efficiently sort and classify English words, thus enhancing the effect of vocabulary memory.

It can be seen that researchers in China have begun to further discover the influence of mind mapping in domestic senior vocabulary teaching. To begin with, mind mapping applied in vocabulary teaching practice may improve the accuracy and efficiency of learners when memorizing vocabulary. Secondly, in most studies mind mapping is used as an auxiliary tool to help students better understand and master vocabulary concepts and structures.

3 Case Study

3.1 Hypotheses

According to previous research domestically and overseas jointly, it can be concluded that learners are able to structure a cognitive system bridging the gulf between past and new vocabulary through mind mapping. In this study, the author compares the mind map-aided senior vocabulary teaching with traditional English vocabulary teaching to test the following three hypotheses.

1. Students’ vocabulary reserve can be expanded by mind mapping applied in vocabulary teaching.
2. Mind maps in English vocabulary teaching can boost the accuracy and lasting time of students’ memorization when learning new vocabulary.
3. Mind maps can boost students’ interest in learning English.

3.2 Subjects

The study is conducted with the experimental method and students of two parallel classes in Grade 2 from Ezhou senior high school are selected by the author. Class 8 comprises 62 students as the experimental class (EC), while class 7 is the control class (CC), consisting 60 students. The study was performed during two weeks.

Here are main reasons for choosing these two classes. First, both the experimental class and the control class share the same teacher and textbooks and their course schedules are at the similar pace. In the next place, the two classes are similar in terms of sex ratio and test scores up to now so that this research can be carried out in a more scientific way.

3.3 Instruments

3.3.1 Tests

In this part, two different tests are set to compare the EC and the CC. the pre-test and the post-test share the same question types.

The tests are equally difficult and are designed to measure the breadth, depth and accuracy of students' memory of new vocabulary. The following are the types of questions and the reasons for setting them: