An Experimental Study On The Application Of Mind MAP To English Writing Instruction In Senior High School

Writing,as one of four basic language skills,plays an important role in English language learning.It can reflect language expression proficiency of English learners directly and vividly as a form of language output.Seen from previous literature and classroom observation,present English writing situation of students in senior high schools is not ideal.Students not knowing what to write about a given English writing task in senior high schools and monotony of English writing contents are two obvious problems of students' English writing in senior high school.Besides,the effect of English writing instruction is not properly achieved in senior high school students' English writing classes at present.The above all indicates that it is urgent to improve the proficiency of English writing instruction in senior high schools.Therfore,the study is managed to improve students' English writing ability in senior high schools by applying mind map to it.The research method of the study is experimental method.The researcher manipulates mind map and controls other variables in English writing instruction to explore if students' English writing ability in senior high school is improved with mind map applied.The research is mainly aimed to answer three questions: 1.What is the present situation of English writing instruction in senior high school? 2.Can students' English writing ability in senior high schools be improved with mind map applied to English writing instruction? 3.From what aspects of English writing does mind map improve students' English writing ability in senior high schools?Participants of the research come from students of two ordinary classes in the first grade of Jiuquan Middle School.The two classes are chosen as experimental class and controlled class respectively.In the experimental class,mind map is adopted by the researcher in English writing lessons while in the controlled class traditional teaching method of English writing is used.The study is divided into three stages.At pre-experimental stage,the researcher finds out English writing problems of students in senior high schools by using questionnaires and defines research purposes and hypothesis.The researcher mainly instructs English writing lessons of students in the two classes separately at experimental stage.At post-experimental stage,the researcher uses interviews to further know about students' English writing situation and makes collation and analysis of data got from the study.In addition,English writing pre-test and post-test are tested for participants before and after the experiment to observe students' changes with different writing teaching methods applied in English writing instruction.With the data got from the study analyzed in quantitative and qualitative way,research results of the study are as follows: first,present situation of English writing instruction in senior high school is not satisfactory,and there are still many problems of English writing needed to be solved.Secondly,mind map can be used to improve students' English writing ability.And enrichment of students' English writing contents and improvement of English writing structure can be achieved in their English writings after mind map is used in English writing instruction.In the meanwhile,students' creative thinking and divergent thinking to some extent are promoted with mind map applied to English writing instruction.At last,implications of the study are stated clearly together with limitations of the study.And some suggestions are given to further studies on this research topic at the end.