A Study Of The Mind Map Vocabulary Teaching On English Vocabulary Learning Of Primary School Students

Vocabulary learning is the basis of English learning and the mastery of vocabulary is of great importance to English language learners for vocabulary knowledge is one of the four main parts of communicative proficiency and it promotes language use.Primary school English vocabulary learning is the initial stage of one's English learning while many students have difficulty in learning and memorizing new words.In fact,the lack of vocabulary influences students' English learning in a negative way.Mind map,as a visual tool of divergent thinking,has been applied to English vocabulary learning as an effective method in English language teaching.Mind map vocabulary teaching can establish the conceptual connections between words so as to facilitate students' vocabulary memorization,creative thinking and vocabulary learning.Nowadays,the applications and studies of mind map in English vocabulary teaching are also becoming more and more popular in China.Xi'an High-tech International school has applied mind map vocabulary teaching for eight years and the students and the teachers in this school are familiar with the mind map vocabulary teaching.The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of mind map vocabulary teaching on primary school students' vocabulary learning from two aspects: productive vocabulary and receptive vocabulary learning.In this study,the participants are one hundred and fifteen primary school students from two classes of grade five in Xi'an High-tech International School.Through the analysis of the two case lessons used mind map vocabulary teaching,pre-test and posttest of the students' vocabulary learning of the new words as well as the interview with the teachers in Xi'an High-tech International School,the author found that in mind map vocabulary teaching,the words are presented in a clear and visual way and the relationship between different words is shown in the vocabulary mind map which can help students understand the meaning of the new words and memorize the new word by constructing a word network in their brain.So mind map vocabulary teaching contributes to primary school students' learning of receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary and can stimulate students' interest as well as help them overcome the difficulties of vocabulary mastery.