An Empirical Study On The Effect Of Mind-map-based Teaching Of English Reading Comprehension In Junior High

In English teaching in Junior High,reading is the main source of language input and thus reading is the basic part in English learning.However,teachers are used to emphasizing the interpretation and practice of language points,which causes students to only understand the literal meaning of reading materials without proceeding onto the interpretive phase and let alone the creative or critical phase of reading.As a result,students are not able to apply what they have learnt to their daily life.It is even harder for students to realize knowledge transfer effectively.The writer tries to explore students' English reading comprehension in Junior High based on the use of Mind Map.The research is based on an empirical study,whose subjects are 90 students(45 students in each class)from two parallel classes in Grade Nine in Changshu Xieqiao Middle School.First,the writer used a questionnaire to survey the students' current English reading situations.Meanwhile,the students were tested about their reading comprehension through the pre-test and the results of the pre-test were analyzed carefully.Afterwards,the experimental class was trained purposefully in Mind-map application in English reading for one term.The writer guided the students in the experimental class how to draw mind-maps and how to combine mind-maps with reading materials.After the experiment,the students in the experimental class were asked to do another questionnaire.The writer aims to discover whether mind-map training can improve the students' reading comprehension and if so,what aspects have been improved.Then,the writer designed a post-test to test the changes in the students' reading comprehension in the two classes.After comparing students' marks,the writer found that there appeared great progress in the marks of the experimental class in the post test.This proved that mind-map training in English reading was very effective and efficient.After the experiment,the writer also did a random interview with the students in the experimental class in order to learn about the subjects' feedback on the training in time.The experiment proves that mind-map training can help students master the structure of reading materials better and improve students' literal comprehension,interpretive comprehension as well as critical comprehension of reading materials.With the help of this effective reading method,the students have showed more interest in English reading and their reading comprehension has been improved.Meanwhile,the students' cooperative learning abilities and independent learning abilities have also been improved through the mind-map training.