An Action Research On The Application Of Mind MAP To English Vocabulary Teaching In Junior High School

Vocabulary is one of the key elements in a language.However,it has been a difficult point for both teachers and students in remote rural junior high schools,where many students have a poor foundation of English and a very small amount of vocabulary.After several years of study,students are still poor at reading and writing the words,hence gradually losing confidence and interest in English learning.Mind map,which is made up of words,lines,colors,images,and numbers that can be combined in different ways to make a diagrammatic representation,might be an effective tool that can be used in English vocabulary teaching and learning.Thus,this study tries to use mind map to improve her students' vocabulary learning behaviour and performance.This study is an action research involving 31 Grade Eight students taught by the author.By analyzing the pretest and conducting a preliminary investigation,the research questions are proposed as follows:(1)Can the application of mind map to English vocabulary teaching improve rural junior high school students' English vocabulary learning behavior?(2)Can the application of mind map to English vocabulary teaching improve rural junior high school students' English vocabulary performance?Two rounds of actions were conducted in this study.In the first round,the word classification mind map and the word spelling mind map were introduced to students to aid their English vocabulary learning.At the end of the first round action,an evaluation was made to find out the effects and problems of English vocabulary mind map teaching.Based on the evaluation of the first round action research,the author made some adjustment to improve her teaching.The first adjustment was to divide students into eight groups so that they could share the ideas and learn from one another.The second one was to teach students to draw a new kind of mind map,that is,free association mind map.After finishing two rounds of actions,a post questionnaire,an interview and a post test were conducted promptly.The results were analyzed and summarized as follows.Firstly,Mind Map can improve rural junior high school students' English vocabulary learning behavior,which is embodied in three aspects: 1)Mind Map can arouse students' English vocabulary learning interest;2)Mind Map can improve students' English vocabulary learning habits and methods;3)Mind Map can enhance students' autonomous learning ability.Secondly,mind Map can improve students' English vocabulary performance.Based on these findings,some implications and suggestions were offered for the further research.