The Application Of Mind Mapping To English Writing Instruction In Senior High School

This thesis reports on a study of applying mind mapping to senior high English writing instruction in order to find out whether mind mapping can enhance students’interest in English writing and their writing competence. If yes, what factors contribute to it.The study lasts for one academic year. The subjects involve 89 Senior Two students from two parallel classes of a key school in Tianjin. In the first term, Class Four Senior Two is the experimental class, while Class Five Senior Two is the control class. In order to test whether the results of the study will be different on different subjects, the experimental class swaps its role with the control class in the second class.Study instruments used include questionnaires, tests and interviews. During the study, the author compares the results of the questionnaires to gain basic information before the study and the changes after the study. The author also compares the results of the pre-test, the mid-test and the post-test to analyze the effect. Besides, the author interviews the subjects to see the progress of the experiment and effects and make necessary changes.The results are as follows. First of all, both the questionnaire and the interview show that the experimental class shows more interest and confidence in English writing, and gain more from the writing instruction. These students think highly of the new teaching method. Second, according to the test scores, the experimental class does slightly better than the control class. However, as the significance figure shows the difference is not obvious. Therefore mind mapping’s effect on tests is not as remarkable as that on writing exercises. In terms of daily writing exercises, the experimental class performs better than the control class and makes bigger progressIn a word, the effect of mind mapping on arousing students’ interest in writing is obvious while the effect on enhancing English writing competence remains to be seen.