An Empirical Study On The Application Of Mind Map In English Reading Teaching In Junior High Schools

As an important way of language input,reading plays a significant role in English teaching.National English Curriculum Standards for Nine-Year Compulsory Education(NECS)(2011)also emphasizes the importance of English reading teaching.However,the actual situation of English reading teaching is still not very satisfactory.In reading,students pay more attention to the analysis of words,grammar and long sentences.The original contents of English reading materials are ignored,which requires that English teachers should explore different teaching methods in order to improve students' reading ability.In 1970 s,Buzan,a British psychologist,originated Mind Map that is a tool to organize and represent knowledge.As a kind of tool for teaching and learning,Mind Map can make difficult and complicated reading materials clear and coherent,which prompts students to understand the reading materials more deeply.Based on the previous studies of Mind Map in English teaching,from the current situation,the author makes this study explore the application of Mind Map in English reading teaching in the junior high schools and attempt to answer the following questions: 1)To what extent can the application of Mind Map enhance students' English reading interests and enrich their reading cognitive strategies? 2)To what extent can the application of Mind Map promote students' information retention of the reading materials? 3)To what extent can the application of Mind Map improve students' reading comprehension achievements?Two parallel classes of Grade Nine were selected to be the experiment subjects.Class 3 was the experimental class(EC),and Class 4 was the control class(CC).In EC,Mind Map was used to assist the teaching of English reading.Meanwhile,the traditional English reading teaching method was used in CC.This study continued for three months.From pre-test,post-test,questionnaires,the author collected the data.And in the last of the experiment,the author interviewed six students in EC.The results are following: 1)The application of Mind Map can enhance students' English reading interests and also enrich their reading cognitive strategies significantly;2)The application of Mind Map can promote students' information retention of the reading materials significantly;3)The application of Mind Map can improve students' English reading achievements significantly.