The Influence Of English Classroom Teaching Based On Concept Maps On The Students’ Divergent Thinking

Compulsory English course plays an indispensible role in cultivating students’ basic language and thinking skills(English Curriculum Standards,2011). Divergent thinking ability is among one of the most important thinking skills. In this present research, Concept Map, a visual tool to characterize the knowledge and thought processes, is used to assist Junior High School English teaching to promote the development of divergent thinking ability. Afterwards, we validate its effectiveness by adopting it in Junior High School English teaching. In this pretest phase, different research methods such as classroom observations, questionnaires and literature research are used to have a preliminary analysis of junior three students’ learning situation in one of the high schools in Nanjing. Then CM is applied to two Junior Three classes:Class One (The experimental class) and Class Three (The reference class). After a whole term’s test, these students’ divergent thinking ability is tested again and questionnaires and interviews are conducted.The following are the results of this research:Firstly, CM has a positive influence on developing students’divergent thinking ability. The experimental class and reference class differ significantly from each other in the following four indicators:thinking fluency, fluency, flexibility, originality and total score. Compared to Class Three, students in Class One develop faster in fluency, flexibility and originality.Secondly, the intuition, various patterns and composition of CM can stimulate students’ English learning interest.as well as promote logicality and divergence of theirs.Thirdly, CM can help the students improve their English learning.