An Empirical Study Of Reading-to-write Teaching Based On The Mind Mapping In Senior High School

This study is designed to verify the effectiveness of mind mapping in the reading-to-write teaching on senior high school students’ writing quality in the aspects of content, organization and language. The research questions to be settled are listed as follows:1) What effects does mind mapping have on the senior high school students’ writing quality in terms of content?2) What effects does mind mapping have on the senior high school students’ writing quality in terms of organization?3) What effects does mind mapping have on the senior high school students’ writing quality in terms of language?The subjects in this study are 67 senior three students from two parallel classes and 3 English teachers in a senior high school in Changzhou City. The instruments consist of two writing tests and an interview. Two writing tests are composed of pre-test and post-test, designed to study the effectiveness of mind mapping in the reading-to-write teaching, while the interview is addressed to learn about difficulties encountered in the reading-to-write teaching, as well as English teachers’ attitude towards mind mapping in the reading-to-write teaching. Before the experiment, all the subjects took part in the pre-test, and the result demonstrated that there was no significant difference between two classes in English writing competence. In the experimental part, students in the experimental class were required to use mind mapping in the reading-to-write teaching, while students in the control class still received traditional reading-to-write course. After the two-month experiment, all the subjects took part in the post-test. All the data were collected from content, organization and language by the same English teacher. Data analysis consists of Independent Sample T-test and Paired Sample T-test. Independent Sample T-test is used to check students’ writing scores in two classes in the pre-test and post-test, while Paired Sample T-test is used to investigate the difference between the statistical data of pre-test and post-test in the experimental class and control class.Detailed analysis of statistical data has yielded the findings as follows:Firstly, mind mapping can enhance senior high school students’ writing quality in terms of content. According to the statistical data of students’ writing content, there is significant difference between the pre-test and post-test of CC, indicating that reading-to-write can improve students’ content scores. Besides, compared with the content scores of CC in the post-test, it is surprising to find that there still exists significant difference between content scores of EC and CC, revealing that it is necessary to employ the mind mapping in the reading-to-write teaching.Secondly, mind mapping plays a vital role in improving students’ writing quality in terms of organization. The statistical data of students’ organization scores show that there is no significant difference between the pre-test and post-test of CC, revealing that reading-to-write has no remarkable effect on improving students’ writing organization. Besides, among writing content, organization and language of EC, students’ organization scores improved the most by 3.086 of the three, and there shows a significant improvement of writing organization compared with the organization scores of CC. The plausible reason for the improvement is that mind mapping is beneficial for students to recognize the structure of the reading material.Thirdly, mind mapping has no significant influence on students’ writing quality in terms of language. The statistical data demonstrate that students’ writing quality in terms of language witnesses no obvious improvement under the guidance of mind mapping in the reading-to-write teaching. The plausible reason may be that mind mapping is primarily created as a tool for cultivating learners’ divergent thinking competence, which is irrelevant to writing language.Based on the findings in the study, some implications have been made for language learners and researchers. Firstly, students are encouraged to use mind mapping in the reading-to-write course to get rid of the limitations of reading-to-write mode. Secondly, students’ attention should be centered on the content, organization and language during reading-to-write teaching for the purpose of analyzing the reading material thoroughly and enhancing students’ writing quality. Thirdly, teachers should attach great importance to students’ information feedback.This study has two major limitations. Firstly, the sample size of the study is not large enough, including limited writing genre and number of subjects. Secondly, the experimental time is limited to two months, which may influence the validity of the research to some degree.