The Application Of Concept Maps In Teaching Of EFL Writing At Senior Middle School

The teaching of writing has always been very important in the reform of middle-school English teaching. At present, the research and development of teaching software based on network information media has a great impact on the students' studies. Therefore, it's urgent that we do research into pluralistic teaching approaches aided by computer and information technology, while making the best of the strengths in traditional writing teaching.In the light of Ausubel's theory, Novak put forward Concept Map, which is a cognitive tool for representing, checking, rectifying and perfecting knowledge, helping revealing the construction of meanings through categorizing various concepts and their relations, similar to how our brains classify and store knowledge. Then it turned clear that Concept Map had great potential in facilitating teaching and learning, due to which it has become one of the hot issues and attracted much attention in the Western countries, though it hasn't received due concern in our countries. Through this project of Concept Map Research, the author, employing Concept Map teaching software-Inspiration 7.6 aimed at middle school students, attempt to reach some conclusions of my own.This project, targeting the third-year students in senior middle school, employs comparison experiment of an experiment class and a control class, has lasted more than six months. In accordance with the requirements of basic education and quality-oriented education, especially that of the implementation of new course reform, the author intends to find an effective and workable approach for writing teaching, through the construction of theoretical and practical framework supported by Concept map.After one semester's teaching and condensed questionnaire, the author has found the feasibility and validity of English writing teaching supported by Concept Map. At the very beginning, most students had never heard about Conception Map, but soon after they accepted Conception Map and were willing to employ Concept Map in their writing process. Step by step, the students found that Concept Map helped them a lot in working out and writing their compositions for they were more clear-minded and creative and their interest in composition had been stimulated, hence their writing ability had been greatly improved. Moreover, Concept Map is an evaluating tool for the teachers to find out the students' inner cognitive structure and evaluate their study process and result as well, so the teachers can help the students according to their thinking process, in accordance with the quality-oriented education's priority on evaluating process. Besides, Concept Map learning approach can develop one's ability in teaching his own and fully exert one's initiation spirit.On the basis of expounding and proving, observing and studying, drawing lessons from others and my own research, this project is an attempt to employ Concept Map as a tool helping cultivate and improve students' writing ability, so that we can make full use of modern teaching technology to enrich writing teaching modes and improve English teaching as a whole. The conclusion on Concept Map Aided Writing Teaching the author has drawn from this project may serve as a foundation for further research.