A Study On The Application Of Mind Mapping To The Teaching Of English Writing In Senior High School

In the regular high school English curriculum standards clearly states the goal of English writing ability should be achieved by regular senior high school students. At the same time writing is the unavoidable part in examinations. However, the efficiency of the cultivation of English writing ability is not satisfying. Therefore, it is urgent to find an effective way to improve senior high school students’ English writing ability, and to improve their attitude toward English writing, and even to stimulate their interest in it. Tony Buzan, the founder of the mind mapping, points out that the mind mapping can play an important role in organizing ideas, collecting material, and even re-organizing them into an article. Mind mapping has been widely applied in many fields. But compared with the studies on mind mapping in other aspects, the studies on mind mapping used in English writing teaching is very limited. Based on the above background, this paper attempts to study the application of the mind mapping to English writing teaching in senior high school. The author intends to find a way to improve the high school students’ writing ability, and to improve their attitude toward English writing, and even to stimulate their interest in English writing. The author wishes to enrich the theoretical system of English teaching in senior high school, and to provide a reference for the study of the combination of the mind mapping and English teaching in senior high school.In this study, students from two natural classes of Grade Two in regular senior high school were selected as the research object. Two classes of English subjects are taught by the same teacher and the writing levels of two classes are similar. There are 58 students in the experimental class, and 56 in the control class. The specific application of mind mapping is applied in the experimental class, while in the control class the traditional teaching mode is used instead. In this study, the questionnaire, testing and interview are made as the research tools, trying to answer the following two questions:1. Whether the application of mind mapping to senior high school English writing teaching is helpful to improve student’ writing ability and in what sense is it helpful ?2. Whether the application of mind mapping to senior high school English writing teaching is helpful to stimulate students’ interest in English writing and in what sense?In order to answer these questions, the author sorted and analyzed the results of tests, interviews and questionnaires. The answer to the first research question is definitely positive. When the mind mapping is properly applied to English writing teaching in senior high school, it can effectively improve the students’ English writing ability. The application of mind mapping enhances students’ consciousness to use transition words, to clarify ideas and to collect writing material. Then it helps students to make an outline and to check the compositions. And the answer to the second research question also gets positive answer. The application of mind mapping simulates students’ interest in English writing. It improves students’ attitude and confidence in writing so that they won’t think that writing is a difficult task. Also it reduces the burden of students’ sense, promotes the student’s study enthusiasm and creates a lively, relaxed classroom environment. In addition mind mapping can train students’ thinking and studying abilities. However mind mapping requires that teachers should agree with the mind mapping and have the ability to operate it and have the capacity of controlling the classroom flexibly. Therefore it also requests teachers to enrich their knowledge and improve their ability of teaching.